On a sunny morning in Orlando, some 1,300 attendees trekked beneath the soaring atrium of the Gaylord Palms resort, past the live alligator pond, Everglades cypress trees and an old Spanish fort, to the opening festivities of SS&C Deliver 2019.  CEO Bill Stone kicked off the proceedings by acknowledging the importance of clients:  “Without you, we don’t have a company.”  

Ernst & Young’s 2017 Global Hedge Fund and Investor Survey showed that 78 percent of hedge funds currently use or expect to use alternative, or non-traditional data, in their investment process. That number is up from 52 percent the year before. For investment firms grasping for alpha in the midst of margin pressures, alternative data presents a compelling opportunity. But, despite the growing recognition of its potential value, myriad challenges keep some firms from going all-in on alternative data.