InvestCloud Closes the Data Map Gap Clients continually tell us that the most powerful element of the InvestCloud platform is how we radically simplify the process of creating custom applets and report views. They say we enable them, for the first time, to turn labor-intensive custom reports that depend on manual Excel spreadsheet updates, into dynamic reporting views that are automatically generated from underlying data and are fully customizable. By automating workflows and integrating a broader set of data, the InvestCloud applets offer clients the ability to save time and reduce errors. More importantly, we allow them to meet evolving transparency demands and reporting expectations from their clients by publishing data more frequently and flexibly. In the process of moving clients to this higher standard of reporting, the most challenging element is often the issue of data integrity. When an asset manager moves to replace or augment their quarterly report packs with daily interactive views, gaps in the source data become readily apparent. For example, performance information or cross-custodial holdings views, which include held-away assets required for a rich report set, cannot simply be aggregated with single-source position and transaction views without reconciling and validating informational coherence across the reporting platform. When helping clients to address these issues, some of the less visible but more important, capabilities of the InvestCloud platform become apparent. Our xRay product suite brings together not only our most comprehensive collection of applets, but also a powerful toolset and range of services for aggregating, integrating and reconciling data. It begins with aggregating client data into our Interactive Data Repository (IDR®), which enforces data profiling, standardization, matching, linking and normalization. The IDR® has been built using the most comprehensive data model in our industry and is holistically integrated with the major market and reference data sources. As such, Cloud Aggregation (cAggregation) with the IDR® lays the foundation for establishing an asset manager’s data integrity. Part of this data aggregation and normalization process entails ranking our clients’ data quality in progressive tiers that support increasingly complex applet functionality. Data inaccuracies are magnified as applets increase in complexity, particularly when it comes to performance calculations. Therefore, InvestCloud adopts a staged integration applet model that enforces progressive data integrity tests with each level of applet adoption, thus elucidating and remedying data gaps. InvestCloud offers significant value-added for asset managers by enhancing their data integrity and quality with a twofold approach. First, cAggregation includes a larger kit of integration tools, available out of the box for upgrading and extending asset managers’ data sets, than our competitors. Second, our validation processes consistently enforce data integrity standards that get stricter with increasing product levels. If a client uses Advent APX, and uses our cReporting solution, the client will have access to our standard APX Adapter via cAggregation. With every data load, we require passing specific validation processes and data tests. For example, a valid record must exist for every position in an account for a given day. If a client would like to calculate performance from APX, we stock an APX Plus Adapter that clients can load for a richer data set, which causes our validation processes data tests increase
accordingly. For example, additional security master record validity tests are enforced to ensure that constituent-level performance can be calculated. Often, it is this ability to validate and extend a firm’s data set that becomes as important in our implementation as the flexibility of our applets to deliver custom views. That we can offer this overlay capability for all major accounting engines explains why so many firms have been quick to adopt the InvestCloud platform. As “integration” and “aggregation” become the watchwords for next-generation client and regulatory reporting, the ability to close the gaps in the data map will become progressively more important. No one has engineered a more comprehensive solution for closing those data gaps than InvestCloud. Our cAggregation and our validation processes services offer the most effective solutions available in the industry today. Furthermore, our clients’ feedback tells us that it is not only changing the way that end-clients consume information about their portfolios but it is also changing the way that asset managers conduct business, including both relationship and portfolio managers. Between explicit cost savings from retiring legacy processing engines and opportunity cost minimization from doing more effective work with our platforms, the InvestCloud platform often pays for itself. If you would like to discover more about how InvestCloud is leading the cloud-based financial application evolution and how our cAggregation and our validation processes services can help your firm close the data map gap, visit us at www.investcloud.com.