Blog

#VANLIFE

#VANLIFE

In this month’s blog, we make a comparison between Reporting as a Service and choosing to live in a van.  What...?!?  It’s actually a lot more clear than you think.Over the last few years, I’ve noticed a growing trend where some, who have had the opportunity to do so,...

read more
Vidal Sassoon’s scissors

Vidal Sassoon’s scissors

Usually, when we’re extolling the virtues of Reporting as a Service we list the tangible benefits it represents.  We talk about automation of process and the efficiency gain it produces - around 500%.  We also talk about cost reduction - around 50% when compared to...

read more
The Next Big Thing

The Next Big Thing

As I write the first sentence of this blog post, I suspect one of main the problems with naming the next big thing is that writing it down means it’s already not.  It’s here, happening now, unavoidably linked to a specific point in time, and will likely cease to be...

read more
No substitutions!

No substitutions!

As I write this, we’ve just passed May 17th and UK restaurants are once again serving diners indoors.  A milestone has been reached and we have another socialising option back on the menu so this weekend I will probably eschew one of the big delivery services, plonk...

read more
The Hero’s Journey

The Hero’s Journey

Despite the image I’ve used to draw your attention, this is not an attempt to make you picture me as a superhero in a cape or a warrior in gladiatorial armour but it’s relevance will become clear as I explore the need for better storytelling in client communications. ...

read more
I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.

I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.

A month ago I wrote about the pressures that were building in our industry.  I talked about the increasing reporting expectations of clients, the pressure to modernise and replace old legacy systems, pressures on costs, and of course the impact of Covid-19. All of...

read more
Under Pressure

Under Pressure

As 2021 kicked off, a lot of conversations seemed to be peppered with hopes that the next twelve months would be better than the last and that the calendar change might signify some kind of return to ‘normal’. It got me thinking. I wondered why - given that time is...

read more
A Year in Review

A Year in Review

Welcome to our final blog of the year. As 2020 draws to a close we thought it would be useful to look back over our year of publications, e-book and blogs and seek to highlight and link the key points made, summarise the messages and draw some conclusions.The year...

read more
Have you driven a classic VW Beetle recently?

Have you driven a classic VW Beetle recently?

The Type 1 - more commonly known as a VW Beetle - made its public debut at the Berlin motor show in 1939. Over its 65-year life span around 21.5 million models rolled off production lines around the world making it the most popular and perhaps most cherished car ever....

read more
TIC TOC TIC TOC TIC TCO…

TIC TOC TIC TOC TIC TCO

Total Cost of Ownership “TCO” – the clock is already running. Acquisition costs are actually incurred from the moment you decide something needs to be done. Like many other costs related to software and hardware purchasing decisions, acquisition costs tend to be...

read more
I feel good

I feel good

“Winning doesn’t matter, it’s the taking part that counts.” A phrase that’s echoed around the world on school sports days and uttered by countless consolatory parents to soothe the heartbreak of competitive defeat. Do we believe it? Really? We’ve been trying to outdo...

read more
Our closest shave yet!

Our closest shave yet!

As we wrote in our Untrue Efficiency paper earlier this year (get it here) increased #efficiency provides more time, and more time gives you more head space to think. That being the case, what do you spend your time thinking about? When we found ourselves with a...

read more
Necessity is the mother of invention

Necessity is the mother of invention

However you want to say it, it appears to be true and evident across many areas of our lives as a result of the global pandemic. Some examples of innovation include, where distilleries switch to manufacture hand sanitiser rather than gin, we see companies and...

read more
Supply Chains, Continuity and Efficiency

Supply Chains, Continuity and Efficiency

Efficiency, or rather “Untrue Efficiency” – we’ve been talking about it a lot. We wrote a paper that introduced it in January (you can read that here) and have been exploring its themes in more detail since. But then, Covid-19 arrived on our shores and for a fleeting...

read more
Want your client reporting to be nimble again?

Want your client reporting to be nimble again?

Many of us have been working from home for a while now and are getting used to operating “business as usual” from home. However, have you tried to change something in your reports? Perhaps responding to a client request or a new standard that’s been agreed internally....

read more
Are you operationally efficient?

Are you operationally efficient?

Is your firm operationally efficient? Well, we think, with a high degree of confidence that it’s definitely not and to understand why, you only need to acknowledge what efficiency, or ‘being efficient’ actually means. Once you’ve done that, you just need to work out...

read more
Client Reporting: give them what they want!

Client Reporting: give them what they want!

At this year’s digital TSAM London event there were many presentations which provided valuable industry insight from a range of exceptional speakers, but in this blog I wanted to discuss one session in particular which really piqued my interest. The panel included...

read more
Working in the cloud

Working in the cloud

Ten years ago, there was considerable reluctance within the financial services industry to adopt the “cloud” as a technology. However, ten years later the cloud industry has demonstrated to the somewhat sceptical and cautious financial services industry that the cloud...

read more
Client Reporting… from home

Client Reporting… from home

Many people are working from home 5 days a week for the first time as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. There’s been many useful and insightful tips across social media of how people can remain effective whilst working from home. Most have been interesting, some...

read more
What is Untrue Efficiency?

What is Untrue Efficiency?

If the goal of an organisation is to maximise profit it needs to be efficient. Many firms think they already are but in reality, efficiency isn’t a characteristic they possess. Only those who have removed inefficiencies completely can truly claim to be so....

read more
Factsheet challenges

Factsheet challenges

Producing factsheets manually in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint always has its challenges. Typically, these include; Template Management This is very complex to manage and often results in branding, layout and content differences between funds and regions/languages....

read more
New Year, new fund reporting solution!

New Year, new fund reporting solution!

Now we have entered a new decade is it finally time to update your fund reporting solution and leave your legacy system in the past? One of the reasons firms contact us is because they have reached the manageable limit of their report production process but still need...

read more
Oui! Three Kings

Oui! Three Kings

Project Management as a field of study teems with references to risk. The most common categories being Cost - its escalation due to scope creep, Time - because activities might take longer than initially planned for, and Scope - as the project may fail to deliver its...

read more
Cloud-based Client Reporting Service FAQs

Cloud-based Client Reporting Service FAQs

There’s some confusion about how our cloud-based client reporting service works, and how users (reporting teams within investment firms) interact with the system to produce reports so this short blog has been written to address some of the more frequently asked...

read more
Reporting as a Service Explained

Reporting as a Service Explained

A few people I’ve spoken to recently were a little confused about Reporting as a Service. They thought that Reporting as a Service was to outsource the production of your client and fund reports, using a separate and third-party team of people to gather the data,...

read more
Reporting Governance

Reporting Governance

When someone hears the term “reporting governance” they tend to immediately think of the FCA and the various standards and COBS (Conduct of Business Sourcebook) that shape and direct their internal reporting procedures. However, there are other forms of reporting...

read more
A stepping stone to reporting simplicity

A stepping stone to reporting simplicity

Many investment firms’ operations and systems are complex and so is their client reporting. This can be for a number of reasons and is often due to systems that were inherited or have been part of the business for years. Trying to simplify this situation can be...

read more
Client reporting industry trends

Client reporting industry trends

As the provider of Reporting as a Service (RaaS) a cloud-based client and fund reporting solution, we meet and talk to a lot of investment firms about their reporting and broader client communications. Always on the agenda is: what they’re doing now and what they...

read more
Fund Factsheets, hygiene factors and trends

Fund Factsheets, hygiene factors and trends

Fund factsheets; they are everywhere but are they good enough? Firms that manage and promote funds, OEICs, Investment Trusts, ETFs, NURS etc., all need fund factsheets to market, promote and provide basic information to investors and potential investors but are they...

read more
Flexibility vs Maintainability

Flexibility vs Maintainability

All investment firms need a flexible client reporting system, so that they can accommodate the various reporting requirements of all their clients. A hot topic for these firms is flexibility when producing fund factsheets. Ideally, and a growing trend, is that fund...

read more
Economies of scale, don’t scale?

Economies of scale, don’t scale?

A friend recently told me that he thought that often “economies of scale – don’t scale”. Which is an interesting conundrum. He contended that “management overhead” and “additional layers of hierarchy” are introduced into a typical operating model as the organisation...

read more

We’d like to get to know you better.

If you have any questions regarding our Reporting as a Service solution, please let us know by clicking the button below. Is your firm currently facing any particular ‘pain points’ with your existing client and fund reporting system? We would be happy to arrange a call or meeting to discuss them in greater detail and explain how our cloud-based reporting solution may be the answer.