Key Challenges

As the business has grown, so too has the complexity of their reporting obligations.

Producing hundreds of portfolio factsheets each reporting period, each correctly branded, data-validated, and routed through the right approval chain, demanded a solution that could match their pace of growth and deliver with consistency, flexibility and control.

Amber River needed a technology partner who could automate intelligently: ingesting data from multiple sources, applying hub-specific rules, branding dynamically, and managing a multi-tiered approval workflow across their distributed adviser network.

Factbook Expertise

Factbook’s deep understanding of multi-hub reporting environments and experience with complex approval workflows made them the natural partner for Amber River.

Factbook’s professional services teams implemented Factbook Factsheets, a comprehensive solution that manages the entire factsheet production lifecycle, from data ingestion through to final distribution, giving Amber River’s teams full control without the manual overhead.

A Liberating Experience

Factbook delivered turnkey Reporting As A Service, RaaS so as to help liberate Amber River teams from much of the startup and BAU resource overheads. We rolled out tools that bring applicable business rules in a convenient container.

What appears to be a small, even nuanced adjustment provides  an important point for governance and control for all hubs, their portfolios and each individual factsheet generated. This is Factbook’s automation intelligence. It helps introduce and maintain  structured process. One less thing for Amber River’s reporting oversight to worry about. Leveraging the Factbook Rules Engine in this way streamlines management of project-wide variables such as adding a hub, modifying disclaimers – even updating logos can be applied quickly and consistently.

Data, data, data…

Amber River recognised, and were committed to deploying only the best suited data sources for their factsheet reporting. That applied to all data whether relating to pricing and performance, positions or that relating to climate impacts.

Smart Templates

One of the more specialised challenges of delivering to co-marketed requirements is to meet look and feel branding demands without compromising on consistency, automation, flexibility or indeed compliance must-haves such as disclaimers and attribution statements.

Factbook has much experience of this and deployed Smart Templates. These use Factbook Rules Engine and conditional logic to dynamically control what appears on each factsheet while maintaining the group’s core requirement for branding consistency. It also reduces reporting risk profile and helps to reduce the maintenance overhead. The resulting factsheets are presented in Factbook’s Extended Collaborative Approval Tool, xCAT, an online approval workflow portal that gives Amber River complete visibility and granular control throughout the approval process

“Factbook has transformed our factsheet production from a manual, time-consuming process into a streamlined automated workflow. The xCAT tool has been particularly valuable, it gives us complete visibility and control over the approval process across all our hubs. Factbook’s xCAT technology and speed of service turnaround has helped us operate more efficiently and scale with confidence.

 

Without their support, our timelines would be significantly longer. The team has been responsive to our evolving needs, implementing over three sets of improvements since the initial launch as our needs have evolved.”

Sophie Sheridan, Amber River

Transformation. Done.

Amber River’s team now focuses on higher-value client-facing objectives, with factsheet production running as a seamless, automated workflow in the background. Reporting data requires no manual intervention; hundreds of professional, hub-branded factsheets are automatically built each reporting period; consistently delivered on time and on brand.

Approval Workflow

The xCAT approval workflow tool has brought structure, transparency and efficiency to the factsheets approval process. Amber River’s central quality assurance team can review all factsheets in one place. Once approved centrally, factsheets automatically flow to the relevant hubs, where local teams can carry out further review as required through the same intuitive online portal.

“We’re delighted to support Amber River in their mission to make a difference by enriching the lives of their investor clients. As they continue to grow and realise those ambitions, so Factbook will support their need for a world class reporting vendor. We are proud to play our part in helping to meet the challenges of today and to anticipate future ones, and to help Amber River scale and evolve without compromising on the strong branding that they can depend on.

 

Our approach has delivered exactly what was required: streamlined processes that are structured and scalable while taking care of the heavy lifting. Tasks that previously took ten hours can now be completed in one, a transformation that reflects both the power of Factbook’s platform and the quality of the solution we have delivered together. We are proud to be their long-term partner.”

Abbey Shasore, CEO, Factbook

Want the full story? The complete case study covers how the partnership has evolved through several rounds of platform enhancements since launch, and Amber River’s own estimate of the time saved against running this process without Factbook.