Simplifying your operating model and improving your client report production process is crucial to providing an outstanding experience to all your clients.
In this blog post, I have identified 5 specific areas that can be simplified;
On-boarding
Many investment firms have multiple systems and processes to support their client reporting and client communications. This is inefficient and complicates the reporting process. Firms need to migrate to a single world-class reporting solution, that caters for all the requirements today and also be flexible enough to address tomorrow’s requirements too. Developments in technology means that migrating to a modern world-class reporting solution may not be as difficult as you first imagine.
The implementation of a traditional client reporting system would be extremely time consuming and costly, but this need not be the case. As you may know, the traditional client reporting model could take anywhere from 6-18 months to be live, but by utilising an “as a service” solution hosted in the cloud, the on-boarding process is now generally completed in a matter of 6-8 weeks, with on-boarding fees that are similarly reduced in scale.
Accessibility
Many firms have found that their systems have been difficult to access and operate, whether from the main office, another building or from home. Being able to easily access your client reporting system should be a high priority for any investment firm. With a cloud-based reporting solution the reporting team access the solution via a standard web browser from anywhere and produce high-quality reports for your clients. Each report should be supported by a full audit trail which highlights all the steps undertaken to complete and distribute the report.
There should be no “manual” activities that occur outside of the on-line production process, as these manual steps can be missed, forgotten and often cause the reports to be delayed or inaccurate. As well as being easily accessible from any location, the reporting solution should be a true end-to-end solution and not require manual hand-offs or manual processes to complete the reports.
Templates
Some firms with older and less flexible client reporting systems spend time every month and quarter updating and maintaining the report templates. This creates delays and complicates the production process, and increases the workload. Modern, flexible, “as a service” reporting solutions do not require this on-going overhead. When the templates are first set up, they are configured to accommodate all known reporting requirements, dynamically flex and display content based on a number of underlying factors including the nature of the client, their investments and other relevant data. Additionally, the reporting elements self-govern to retain the reporting clarity and continue to fit with the other reporting elements on the page.
Complete and Accurate Reports
Out of date data and content creates “stale reports”. Traditionally, late changes to data, commentary or other reporting content caused a significant headache for the reporting teams. They had to work out which clients and funds were impacted, where the report was in the production process, and then once identified re-do all the work already undertaken to take account of the update.
With “Content Aware” reports the reporting system identifies all updates to data, text, commentary, and other content, and automatically identifies and re-renders the impacted reports. Of course, the audit trail is also automatically updated to reflect the changes too. Even if the report has been despatched to the client, the reporting solution highlights the stale report to the reporting team, and allows a re-run with a single click of the mouse. This ensures every report produced is complete and accurate.
Future-proof
Traditionally core systems are updated every few years or so, and smaller enhancements and changes to reports are considered “mini-projects” and delivered when budgets and, often, scarce resources allow. This slow process can lead to manual processes and “cottage industries” springing up to accommodate the changing and evolving client reporting requirements. This brings complexity, a lack of standards and delays to the reporting process.
With our “as a service” reporting solution the core system is updated every 3 months and is automatically available to our clients. This means that the core system remains up to date and includes all the latest features.
Additionally, any specific enhancements or changes required for specific client reports are simply made by us and delivered back to you within 48 hours. The cloud-based model and our domain expertise allows for true future proofing of your client reporting and communications.
I hope you found this blog interesting and that by simplifying your reporting model, you improve your client reporting and enhance the client experience.
Reporting as a Service is a cloud-based system that provides investment firms with a complete end to end client and fund reporting solution, that is flexible, scalable and future-proof. This allows your users to manage and control the entire process and provide reporting of the highest quality to your clients.
To find out more about Reporting as a Service and how it benefits wealth and asset management firms please visit our website at www.opus-nebula.com or click here to request a demo of our solution.