Overview

This Factbook client has over $670billion in assets under management, with over 3,000 employees spread across 31 offices around the world. As a leading player on the global stage the reporting requirements of an investing powerhouse of this size are immense.

In one of the largest projects of the year the client opened their doors to FinTech vendors to ascertain if the industry could assist them in dealing with the significant challenges associated with their reporting. The automation of their global client reporting, RFI and DDQ production processes would have to bring together multiple disparate teams in various locations around the world.

Key Challenges

Over recent years the demands on their RFI and Client Reporting operations have increased dramatically. Each deliverable report was unique in its requirements: both in terms of style and content, and the associated data aggregation operations needed to populate individual report exhibits.

They have over 200 client mandated report templates and well over 1000 client report outputs. In addition there is a need for complex, highly variable data mapping at a base level to fully address the custom data aggregation requirements of each report – in many cases uniquely so.

The demands for custom client reports continues to increase month by month and is expected to continue growing. This would no doubt take up an increasing amount of time and resources. All this means that the client has an immediate demand for a reporting platform that could not only improve the throughput of the international and domestic RFI and Client Reporting teams but also to dramatically increase the capacity of these disparate operations.

In Focus

With over a hundred years of operation, the firm has evolved into one of the largest asset management firms in the world, serving individual and institutional investors on six continents.

Today, they are a leading global investment company committed to helping clients reach their financial goals through long-term, actively managed investment strategies.

Over $670 billion in assets invested worldwide in a broad mix of equities, fixed income, alternatives and cash strategies.

A diverse family of specialised investment managers, each with its own independent approach to research and analysis.

The firm has over a century of experience in identifying opportunities and delivering astute investment solutions to clients.

Factbook Selected

Armed with a well-defined vision of what was needed in order to solve the reporting challenges they faced, senior management initiated an open and highly competitive vendor selection process.

Factbook was selected at the end of this demanding process and following presentation of its Proof of Concept. This clearly demonstrated Factbook Studio 10’s capacity and capability to meet or exceed all of the project prerequisites. An important part of this success was the demonstration of functionality that allows non-technical system users to create and maintain the unique data aggregation rules that underpins each of the unique output reports.

Through the use of Factbook’s reporting platform Factbook Studio10™, it was possible to demonstrate the ease and flexibility with which report templates can be created. The resulting templates precisely replicated the vast array of required report output formats. Given the scale and scope of the project, this proved key to Factbook’s success in the vendor selection process.

“Factbook’s Studio10 was the clear choice for us. As soon as we saw their proof-of-concept system we knew we had found the vendor that understood what was important. They showed they could deliver to all our requirements and more. We chose Factbook to overhaul our entire investment reporting process, starting from streamlining data aggregation and utilising their platforms unique flexibility to transform this data into the myriad number of report exhibits we required.

 

 The multiphase implementation Factbook have delivered is clearly designed to provide quick wins at each project waypoint. They were flexible and supported our vision of roll out and by working our phased data delivery plans.

 

 They have delivered everything in scope of the project, and we are already looking to increase the range and number of accounts their technology platform operates with.” Global Head of Client Reporting

So what has changed?

Factbook’s ability to leverage its deep industry experience and superior technology platform has resulted in smoother, less manual processes. The risk of human error in the reporting process has been dramatically reduced as have production times. Data aggregation and transformation has been remarkably simplified.

To these may be attributed improvements in reporting cycle throughput and capacity, which have been improved by an order of magnitude.

“We were delighted to have been selected by such a leading asset manager. Their selection of Factbook for this major undertaking maintains and further supports our position as the leading provider of reporting technology and solutions to the asset management industry.” said Factbook CEO Abbey Shasore.