FTF News speaks to key officials at FactSet about the client services honors, the vendor’s acquisitions, and its business philosophy.
(Editor’s note: The following Q&A is with two key officials at FactSet, which won two FTF News Technology Innovation Awards — Best Client Reporting Solution for Vermilion, a FactSet company; and Best Client Services Solution for FactSet’s offerings.
The client reporting honor spotlights how the winning provider has improved the customization, look and feel, and delivery of reports for a variety of clients and/or portfolios. The award also recognizes progress in automating reports, managing source data and monitoring the status of productions.
The client services solution award is given to the company that has demonstrated not only the proper care of clients but provides ongoing customer care.
Vermilion Software became part of FactSet in November 2016 via acquisition and FTF News spoke to Ali Stewart, CFA, vice president, client reporting strategy, FactSet/Vermilion. Based in New York City, Stewart joined FactSet in 2004. She has worked as a portfolio analytics specialist serving institutional managers, wealth managers, and hedge funds as they push to streamline their workflow.
FTF News also contacted Mike Altmaier, senior vice president, global head of client and user support at FactSet.
“I’m responsible for a global team of people who assist our clients with solving their challenges from navigational assistance to professional automation tools. We help our clients unlock the value of FactSet,” Altmaier says. “During my 22 years at FactSet, I’ve taken on a variety of client-facing roles including client consultant, salesperson, consulting and sales manager, director of consulting, and currently head of client and user support.”)
Pictured to the far right – Ali Stewart, CFA, vice president, client reporting strategy, FactSet/Vermilion
Q: Why do you think you won this award? What do you think it distinguishes your product from the rest?
ALI: We continue to move industry thinking forward, championing the need for asset managers to improve their procurement processes and take up more client references to minimize risk. Vermilion has also advocated a closer partnership between client and vendor, working as a team before and during the implementation process in order to meet a critical business need. Key to this approach is the rapid transferral of knowledge to client service teams, enabling them to become self-sufficient in the shortest possible timeframe.
Q: How would you describe FactSet’s business philosophy?
MIKE: From our infancy in 1978, FactSet has always kept the clients’ needs at the center. Our clients tell us that they need more consistency from the front to middle to back office. Over the last 13 years, this has led them to stronger, deeper relationships with fewer partners.
FactSet understands the need to solve more problems for our clients along the portfolio lifecycle and you see recognition of that in our most recent acquisitions (client reporting solution Vermilion Software, OMS [order management system] provider CYMBA Technologies, EMS [execution management system] provider Portware, performance attribution and measurement solution BISAM, and Interactive Data Managed Solutions, now called FactSet Digital Solutions or FDSG).
We have brought together the premier, award-winning workflow tools for buy side trading, performance measurement, client reporting, and digital to combine with our existing core strengths to help our clients address their most significant challenges.
Q: What changes/additions did you make this year and how your clients benefitted from them?
Pictured in the middle holding the award – Mike Altmaier, senior vice president, head of client and user support, FactSet
ALI: Vermilion announced a pioneering deal with Narrative Science, a Chicago-based automated commentary provider. This partnership for the first time enables buy-side firms to fully mechanize the writing of portfolio commentary and embed this capability directly within a client reporting suite.
Vermilion has also launched a completely new version for VRS. As well as the report outputs themselves, with VRS 4.0 the whole system can be configured in multiple languages. Currently the user interface is available in ten major eastern and western languages, substantially extending the geographic reach of the product.
In November 2016, Vermilion was acquired by FactSet Research Systems. Vermilion is an outstanding addition for FactSet as they strive to more holistically address the portfolio life cycle.
Operating alone, Vermilion has developed compelling functionality to meet critical needs of the investment management community. In combination with FactSet’s core strengths in data and analytics, we believe we are in an even better position to meet client needs going forward.
Mike Altmaier, senior vice president, head of client and user support, FactSet, accepting FTF News Best Client Services Award.
Q: How important is client feedback in the product decision-making process at FactSet?
MIKE: At its core, FactSet is client centric and always has been. FactSet partners with clients to help them work intelligently and more efficiently.
As client needs have changed, FactSet has evolved its business to meet those needs, and this shift has helped to fuel growth even in a challenging market.
FactSet prioritizes customer service and the client experience. Clients have wide access to a team of consultants and product specialists. They are able to leverage a wide range of combined industry knowledge and FactSet product experience to maximize the value of FactSet.
Client feedback is regularly incorporated into the product through constant enhancements and technology innovations.
For example, increased understanding of how users interact with our product through both feedback and machine learning led us to develop smart caching. We now have the ability to anticipate user needs based on their actions, and can pre-calculate and deliver their most frequently accessed reports.
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