Focus

The Business Problem

• Portfolio Managers and other business users still need one central view of data, including accounting data, analysis and research.
• Traditional Data Warehouses are expensive and offer poor information delivery,
• Business Intelligence (BI) tools are not end-user friendly, and are not specific to Investments.
• Data consolidation initiatives driven by:
  (1) Derivatives growth driving more “stove pipe” solutions
  (2) Global Regulatory Environment eschews spreadsheets
  (3) Business Efficiency Mandates require managing more with less

Who is Affected?

• Portfolio Managers, still stuck in the spreadsheet jungle or unable to answer questions about their portfolios in a timely manner.
• Senior Management, trying to understand enterprise exposures and risks.
• Investment Analysts, who need to link research, analytics and holdings history.
• Operations and IT staff, looking to support increasingly sophisticated and time sensitive information aggregation and access demands.

Why Should You Care?

• Derivative securities are now an every day part of traditional portfolios. Yet most portfolio accounting systems do not store the more esoteric securities efficiently, if at all, driving organizations back to “stove pipe” derivatives trading and accounting solutions. However, the portfolio manager needs to have a single view of traditional and derivative securities to get an accurate picture of the portfolio structure and risk profile.
• Corporate standards are important for efficiency, but often limit creativity, reducing performance, and ultimately the retention of talented investment professionals. Data Agent provides a platform for standards while accommodating the individual’s unique perspective and information needs.
• Will you be ready when the SEC knocks on your door demanding records of your investments and their rational? Can you justify why your long and short positions were taken? Data Agent provides full time series storage of your records and analysis.
• From Hedge Fund registration and Sarbanes Oxley to Basel II, the regulatory environment is demanding that firms use rigorous and consistent reporting applications, forever altering the long held acceptance of spreadsheets as the source of data. Data Agent provides consistent, accurate and streamlined access of information, even if end users are still accessing the information in their usual MS Office products: Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.