By Eric Hawkins, Chief Technology Officer
I spend a lot of time talking with customers, specifically CIOs and CTOs at private markets firms. A recurring theme I hear is their frustration with internal systems — information is scattered across the organization, with different departments using their own siloed, point solutions. Legal operations has one system, compliance has another, and investor relations yet another.
A fragmented approach creates a massive problem: data is constantly out of sync. Each system has its own data and view of the firm, creating compounding complexity for CIOs and CTOs. They’re not just responsible for evaluating and approving each point solution, running security and tech diligence on each one, but they’re also somehow keeping all this information synchronized.
It’s simply unsustainable.
The most sophisticated firms are trying to solve this by creating a “single source of truth,” often a CRM, to centralize their data. But that just shifts the problem. Now, technical teams are stuck with the immense task of keeping every other system synchronized with this one trusted source. It’s an endless job of integration and maintenance.
Technical leaders recognize that manual, fragmented processes and siloed data undermine growth, efficiency, and decision-making. But as they look for solution providers that can help with their critical problems, they need an AI platform designed specifically for the private markets.
Firms have seen tremendous success with Ontra’s purpose-built platform because we bring all of their contract data, legal documents, and entity information under one roof. It’s a single pane of glass across all legal contracts and associated data.
Let me explain more about why our approach prepares firms for long-term success, including unleashing AI’s full potential.
Purpose-built vs. generic: why the winner is a platform tailor-made for the private markets
As companies embrace AI, they often look at general-purpose chatbots and search tools. But the reality is, these generic, horizontally applicable solutions put all the work on you. To get real value, you have to do the heavy lifting of customizing them for your specific needs.
Imagine giving your team an AI chatbot and expecting them to become experts. You’re essentially putting the burden on every employee to craft perfect prompts, connect to the right data, create workflows correctly, and get relevant answers every time.
The output is only as good as how your employees are using it.
Many leaders are discovering this is an incredibly high bar. Teaching everyone how to use a generic tool with the nuance and precision needed to get real value is a massive undertaking, requiring a giant implementation and configuration lift.
This is where a purpose-built platform shines. We understand that the workflows, processes, and data in private markets operations are incredibly nuanced and bespoke. No horizontal provider is going to build solutions specifically mapped to that space.
By building a tailor-made platform, we relieve a massive amount of that implementation and configuration lift. It’s pre-configured out of the box to do exactly what firms in this industry need to do.
Consider a concrete example: due diligence questionnaires (DDQs)
A large private equity firm receives a broad questionnaire from every LP, covering topics from governance and security to ESG. You could provide your team with a generic chatbot, upload past questionnaires, and ask it to help fill out new ones. But the results will only be as good as the user’s ability to configure, drive, prompt, and curate the data. This could lead to many mistakes and inefficiencies.
Now, consider a different approach: a solution built specifically for the DDQ process.
This kind of tool deeply understands the nuances of what LPs ask for and where to find the answers within your firm. A turnkey solution would allow you to upload your existing documents and then automatically fill out new DDQs, complete with a built-in approval workflow.
We’ve tailored the solution to this specific business process. This approach does more than offer a marginal efficiency gain — it eliminates the manual work and configuration burden that a generic tool would put on your team.
AI’s full potential unleashed
The value of AI is directly tied to the quality of the data it can access — its context. But in a world where data is distributed everywhere — NDAs and side letters scattered across email, spreadsheets, and local storage — it’s nearly impossible to give an AI the full picture it needs to be effective.
This is where a platform that consolidates and synchronizes data allows AI to be truly effective. When you coherently organize both unstructured and structured data, and layer AI on top, you create a powerful solution. The AI can be far more effective because it has access to the right data rather than scattered or conflicting information.
Let me give you another example. If you upload a legal document to a generic AI model and ask questions about specific terms, you might get only 50% accuracy. Why? The model only sees the text. It lacks a nuanced semantic understanding of concepts like “termination clause” or “recycling provision” within a legal contract.
Now, consider a system that not only stores the document but also enriches it with high-precision metadata — such as extracted terms, covenants, counterparties, and entities. When users annotate documents with additional context (e.g., the counterparty, the deal it was part of), the accuracy of the AI is dramatically enhanced. They’re providing the AI with complete context. This is why a platform that combines structured and unstructured data is essential for answering high-stakes questions and unlocking real insight.
Beyond AI: foundational platform advantages
While AI is undoubtedly a powerful advantage, a platform-based approach offers other less glamorous — but equally crucial — benefits.
Consider user management and authentication. In a world of point solutions, you have to deal with user management, access control, and SSO integration for every single tool. What seems straightforward is actually a lot of toil for these firms. A platform-based approach simplifies this by allowing you to connect once to your SSO provider. You then gain access to all the platform’s capabilities from a single, centrally administered location.
The same logic applies to APIs and integrations. When keeping disparate systems synchronized, your technical team must constantly develop against dozens of different APIs, all of which change over time. It’s an endless pain. In contrast, a platform-based solution requires a single, one-time integration through a single API. This single connection gives you all the benefits the platform provides, reducing the work required to keep it integrated with your firm.
While these examples may seem minor, they actually matter a lot. They represent a significant reduction in operational overhead, allowing firms to move faster and more efficiently.
The power of a purpose-built platform
Firms that embrace this platform-first approach aren’t just adopting a new technology — they’re building a foundation for sustainable, long-term growth. By centralizing data, streamlining workflows, and leveraging purpose-built AI, they can eliminate the operational drag of fragmented systems and manual processes. This allows them to move beyond simply managing complexity and start unlocking true competitive advantage. The future of private markets isn’t in piecemeal solutions; it’s in a unified platform that brings everything together, preparing firms for a future where efficiency, insight, and agility are paramount.
