Cornerstone Investment Partners

Cornerstone Investment Partners Is Latest Investment Management Firm to Switch to Ridgeline

“Everything’s at the tip of your fingers now. It really was ‘out with the old and in with the new.”- Tom Builder, Director of Marketing and Client Service

The Atlanta-based investment management company says Ridgeline's front-to-back platform "solves a lot of issues for us."

Ridgeline Staff Writers

January 30, 2024

INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev., Sept. 14, 2023 -- Ridgeline announced today that Atlanta-based registered investment advisor Cornerstone Investment Partners is the latest customer to transition from legacy technology to Ridgeline's industry cloud platform for investment management.

Before hearing about Ridgeline, "We weren't actively looking to change," says Head Trader Russell Brown. But the firm was experiencing common operational headaches related to their prior systems. Teri Ambrus, Cornerstone's operations manager recalls, "We constantly had issues from working in several systems: data errors, data getting stuck or duplicating itself, limitations with reporting, etc."

Ridgeline presented an opportunity to consolidate operations in one platform and move away from their legacy provider, where "it seemed like we couldn't get off the upgrade cycle," says Tom Builder, director of Marketing and Client Service. Ridgeline, by contrast, offers a cloud-native solution that eliminates painful, costly upgrades and instead pushes updates continuously and seamlessly.

Since going live on Ridgeline, the Cornerstone team has particularly appreciated the visibility gained from the whole firm working off a single system as well as user-friendly features like global search and data configurability. "Everything's at the tip of your fingers now. It really was 'out with the old and in with the new,'" according to Builder. He feels reenergized by the switch, saying, "Ridgeline definitely feels different. The user interface is so night and day. I enjoy logging into it every day — it's like being a kid in a candy store on a daily basis."

"Ridgeline allows us to be quicker; to be sure that we have the right information in all parts of the system; and to eliminate vendor cost, error cost, and time cost." - Russell Brown, Head Trader at Cornerstone Investment Partners

When it came to transitioning to Ridgeline from the systems they've been using for decades, Brown states, "It went amazingly smooth. I was very impressed." The Cornerstone team credits Ridgeline's preparedness for the flawless implementation. Says Builder, "Everybody was very knowledgeable in their roles and areas of expertise and the follow-through gave us a lot of security and comfort. We were all very confident."

Ultimately, the Cornerstone team sees the move to Ridgeline as creating substantial time and cost savings. "Ridgeline allows us to be quicker; to be sure that we have the right information in all parts of the system; and to eliminate vendor cost, error cost, and time cost for all of our employees," says Brown. Ambrus agrees, "What was promised is being delivered."

Ridgeline appreciates the collaborative role Cornerstone has played as an early customer, with Co-CEO Dave Blair saying, "Cornerstone has been an exceptional partner who has provided valuable input towards key Ridgeline features such as broker algos and external execution for SMAs."

For Brown, the feeling is mutual: "It's been an extremely productive partnership. I'm happy Cornerstone is part of it."

About Ridgeline

Ridgeline is the industry cloud platform for investment management. It was founded in 2017 by visionary entrepreneur Dave Duffield (co-founder of both PeopleSoft and Workday) to address the unique technology challenges of an industry in need of new thinking. We are building a modern platform in the public cloud, purpose-built for the investment management industry to empower business like never before. With a growing campus in Reno, and offices in New York, Lake Tahoe, and the Bay Area, Ridgeline is proud to have built a fast-growing, people-first company that has been recognized by Fast Company as a "Best Workplace for Innovators," by LinkedIn as a "Top U.S. Startup," and by The Software Report as a "Top 100 Software Company."