FTF News got time with Stuart Keeler, the managing director for SimCorp Coric, who discussed the evolution of client reporting and the vendor’s win as Best Client Reporting Solution via the FTF News Technology Innovation Awards.
(The client reporting space has come a long way since the days when it was viewed as only a back-office, administrative function, says Stuart Keeler who is managing director of SimCorp’s Coric offering. Over the years, the potential of optimal client reporting has been historically underestimated, Keeler adds. At SimCorp, Keeler oversees the growth of SimCorp’s global client communications and reporting business. He has experience in asset management and IT services and has held many commercial and general management positions at software providers in the U.K. and U.S. His background includes 13 years as managing director at eFront, a software provider to private equity markets in the U.K. He took questions about the evolution of client reporting and about SimCorp Coric’s win as Best Client Reporting Solution via the FTF News Technology Innovation Awards.)
Stuart Keeler, managing director, SimCorp Coric
Q: SimCorp Coric has had a record 30 percent growth in 2017. What factors contributed to this?
A: Several factors have come together to contribute toward this growth.
From an industry perspective, we are seeing a very interesting shift. Firms have underinvested in the technology required to remain competitive for many years. Recent estimates from Morgan Stanley and Oliver Wyman suggest that asset managers must increase technology budgets by as much as $25 billion over the next five years, to close the gap.
This is particularly apparent within the client reporting space, which for too long, has been viewed as a back-office, administrative function and whose potential has been historically underestimated.
Organizations are finally coming around to the realization that client reporting isn’t just a cost center, as it has been previously viewed.
When placed at the center of client operations, it is the foundation from which all client communications are generated. In an increasingly competitive market, it is now being invested in, to improve the service quality and overall experience delivered to clients and is being recognized as a key differentiator.
From a SimCorp Coric perspective, we’ve been able to capture this wave of investment because we are recognized as the market leaders and experts in this space. We have over 20 years of experience developing, implementing and delivering a solution which enables firms to simply, consistently and efficiently manage the client communications and reporting process with their clients.
In an era where asset management firms are focusing on simplification and reducing complexity in their operations, as well as improving the overall experience delivered, the solution enables firms to serve their clients better.
A crucial point to note is that our growth stems from two areas. SimCorp Coric can be deployed as a standalone platform or integrated via SimCorp’s front-to-back solution SimCorp Dimension. In 2017, we saw an almost equal split in growth, between new clients who chose our standalone or integrated offering, so it’s a fascinating time for us.
Q: Of all the achievements for 2017, is there one that stands out compared to the others and why?
A: 2017 was a stellar year for us from a financial point of view, but it also saw us take great strides in innovating our solutions offering for the buy-side community.
We re-invest revenue directly back into the SimCorp Coric platform to ensure the platform continues to be a best-in-class solution for investment firms.
In 2017, this investment enabled us to drive the product forward significantly and transform SimCorp Coric from its traditional sweet-spot as a robust and scalable client reporting toolset to a full-scale client communications and reporting platform.
We have many clients live who are using SimCorp Coric not only to enhance their client reporting, but within the profit-generating areas of the business. They’re using our Sales Enablement module and delivering investor empowerment and self-service reporting via our digital portal.
We expect to see this growth continue in 2018 and beyond.
Q: How has the importance of client reporting to the enterprise, changed over the past decade? What challenges have buy-side firms faced?
A: The client and investment reporting function has changed significantly over the past decade.
We have seen the function move from the provision of information via bulky printed reports to interaction, communication and proactive dialogue. For this reason, investors want much more in-depth and richer information on their portfolios, holdings and investments.
They also want it more frequently, in the format that is most appropriate to them — across traditional and digital channels. Having an efficient and scalable client reporting function in place, including the appropriate technology, can drive all your client communications efforts and touchpoints, to give you a distinct competitive advantage.
There hasn’t previously been one vendor in this space who has genuinely been able to support investment managers in delivering client reporting, sales enablement and digital channels from a single, truly integrated platform. Many technology vendors have various product add-ins or have acquired solutions, which have required interfaces and integrations to be built.
Using a truly integrated client communications and reporting platform such as SimCorp Coric means that all communication and content are created, from one data set and a consistent library of components, processes and workflow. Data is therefore only handled once, and previously disparate processes can be handled and managed in a scalable and repeatable way, meaning you can focus the experience delivered to clients, rather than the administration and production of communications.
This is why we are so excited about the work and developments that we have achieved, with the SimCorp Coric platform.
Q: What aspects of client reporting are the most misunderstood by financial services firms, and how can they approach client reporting differently?
A: For many years, the client reporting function has been viewed as a burden by many firms — either as an imposition from the regulator or to meet a service license agreement.
This has led to significant underinvestment in the area, particularly with the front office and regulatory compliance often dominating budget allocation discussions.
As a result, many firms have been left to take a make-do approach to their client communications and reporting function, deploying legacy technology solutions to underpin operating models. They are also hiring costly additional headcount to solve the problems caused by inefficient processes and workflow. The end result has left many firms struggling to keep pace and costs to spiral, often to the detriment of the client.
We are now seeing investment firms taking a different approach. Many are looking to rationalize, simplify and modernize their client communications and reporting function to put the client at the center of operations.
By doing so, they can transform the function from a back-office administrative function to an enterprise spanning revenue-generating hub that can be used to grow an investment management business.
SimCorp Coric has addressed this opportunity by scaling its reporting and communications tools to include the front and middle offices, designed to provide the buy side with consistent workflows and tools, using one data set for the entire firm.
Q: How will SimCorp Coric facilitate the future of client reporting?
A: We envision that the future of client reporting will see firms move away from the existing model of static, periodic reporting and move toward delivering a richer, more interactive experience that will come with emerging digital business models.
Our product roadmap — driven by our client communications domain experts —will continue this development across our solutions set and ensure we are bringing the most appropriate capabilities to our clients, to ensure not only that they can simply service their clients better, but also add value. We’ve already made these steps with our investment in our new browser-based interface and digital capabilities and will continue to do so across the whole platform.
Q: What emerging technology trends have captured your imagination?
A: It is an exciting time for all participants within the investment management industry. Investment in technology that can enhance client experience is no longer being viewed as a “nice-to-have.” It is now fundamental to remaining competitive.
The gap will widen between those who deliver an innovative service and invest smartly, not just in the latest buzzwords, but in solutions which can add real, tangible value and visible return on investment to their business.
We cast a keen eye on any technology that can help to improve the manager-client relationship. Artificial intelligence [AI] and machine learning, for example, are of course appealing from an operations and efficiency point of view. They can provide substantial benefits from a client communication and reporting perspective in terms of alleviating operational workload associated with the function.
This means more time can be spent by resources on high-value tasks such as understanding the clients’ needs.
But with global assets under management rising, the progression made with data and analytics is an area that we think will really take off. It is going to be about how this functionality can be used to increase the share of wallet, to enable firms to better understand their clients and consequently better tailor their propositions.
However, as we are seeing now with our market growing, firms are recognizing that despite the influx of innovative technologies, they must get the fundamental basics right. Technology can speed up procedures, but they can’t simply fix outdated processes — they must be deployed to add value to the human relationship.
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