Gillson Capital Accelerates Scalable Growth with Flexible Portfolio & SMA Management

Gillson Capital is a long/short equity hedge fund known for its dollar‑neutral, beta‑neutral, factor‑constrained investment strategy. As the firm grew, its legacy operating infrastructure could no longer support the complexity of its factor analytics, expanding SMA business, and evolving regulatory requirements. To scale without sacrificing precision, Gillson selected Enfusion by Clearwater as its front‑to‑back investment operations platform.

Headquarters: Chicago, IL

Assets Under Management: $1.1B

Website: https://www.gillsoncapital.com/

Products: Enfusion by Clearwater, Managed Services

The Challenge

Factor‑driven strategy limited by rigid systems

Operating on a legacy OMS/PMS provider, the team struggled to express custom factor tilts, beta‑adjusted exposures, and proprietary formulas. Much of their critical analytics, including beta‑adjusted P&L, momentum measures, and consensus metrics, had to be rebuilt manually in Excel.

SMA workflows that couldn’t scale

Gillson’s end‑of‑day allocation process depended on Excel macros. As the firm grew to 5 prime brokers, 5 fund administrators, 38 sell‑side relationships, this manual setup became fragile and time‑consuming. Some SMA clients required trade files within 45 minutes of market close, a turnaround the legacy process struggled to meet.

A platform inflection point

With growth accelerating, Gillson recognized that its legacy OMS/PMS provider was no longer a viable long‑term solution. The firm began evaluating modern platforms capable of supporting complex factor reporting, scalable SMA operations, and ongoing regulatory change.

Why Enfusion by Clearwater

Gillson selected Enfusion by Clearwater to modernize its operations based on four core strengths:

Flexible, customizable factor reporting

Enfusion’s customizable data fields and formula builder enabled Gillson to operationalize what had previously lived in Excel, – delivering real‑time, system‑wide views of beta‑adjusted P&L, factor exposures, momentum, and measures of consensus.

Scalable SMA management

The platform streamlined SMA onboarding and daily allocations, allowing Gillson to expand SMA coverage without increasing operational complexity or headcount.

Regulatory‑ready workflows

Native T+1 matching, T+0 affirmation, and seamless NYFIX integration ensured Gillson could meet evolving SEC requirements without re‑architecting workflows.

A dedicated long‑term partner

Enfusion’s Managed Services team has become embedded in Gillson’s day‑to‑day operations, supporting evolving workflows while maintaining continuity and institutional knowledge of the firm’s strategy.

The Results

A smoother, faster end‑of‑day process

The daily allocation workflow improved from ~1 hour per day to ~15 minutes, delivering meaningful cumulative time savings and consistent reliability. This efficiency also enabled the firm to meet critical 45‑minute SMA reporting deadlines, – something that was not feasible under the previous system.

“The end‑of‑day workflow went from an hour to 15 minutes. It’s more stable, easier, and lets us meet deadlines we couldn’t have hit before.”

John Boyle, Controller, Gillson Capital Management

SMA growth without friction

Since implementing Enfusion, Gillson has scaled SMA coverage, onboarding new SMA accounts with significantly less manual intervention. What once required custom Excel builds is now handled natively within the platform.

Zero broken trades

Since implementing Enfusion, Gillson has experienced zero settled trades with incorrect details, supported by consistent T+0 affirmation documentation.

“T+1 and T+0 affirmation were seamless. Before Enfusion, we would have needed a new system entirely.”

Real‑time, firm‑wide factor visibility

Portfolio managers and decision‑makers now have immediate access to:

• Factor exposures
• 30‑day momentum (long and short)
• Beta exposure
• Consensus exposure

What once required complex, fragile Excel models is now available live across the firm within the platform.

“The factor and custom reporting have helped us a ton. What used to live in Excel is now a live, firm‑wide view for our team.”

Built for What’s Next

Gillson is now expanding into Enfusion’s APIs and data‑warehouse capabilities, positioning the firm for deeper analytics, automation, and future growth. With Enfusion embedded across investment operations, reporting, and regulatory workflows, Gillson Capital continues to scale with confidence.

“For a firm of our size, this has been a great solution. We couldn’t go back to the old way of doing things.”