As increased reporting requirements are fueling the need to analyse, condense and present data in a meaningful way, fund managers and asset owners are looking to enhance their processes to achieve consistency, timeliness and accuracy.
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As increased reporting requirements are fueling the need to analyse, condense and present data in a meaningful way, fund managers and asset owners are looking to enhance their processes to achieve consistency, timeliness and accuracy.
“As limited partners (LPs) and regulators demand greater transparency and insight, fund managers are under pressure to adopt reporting technology to satisfy these demands,” explains Moritz Haarmann, Head of Product Development, AssetMetrix. “The trend for digitisation in private capital has been in action for some time, but it has come into the spotlight even more over the course of the past years. Covid has forced private capital investors to adapt and invest in technology in order to maintain or even create operational excellence.”
Michael Hoffmann, Deputy COO and Head of Reporting Services at AssetMetrix explains: “Our clients’ main focus is on selecting and managing profitable investments. With growing portfolios and resulting data complexities, they have little time and expert resources to put in place their own reporting process that delivers the institutional quality that is demanded.”
Apart from human resource constraints, setting up the reporting process itself is challenging. Aspects of data quality, data consistency and time dependency must be taken into account. Data often arrives shortly before one’s own reporting obligations and must then be processed quickly and without errors. Technology solutions are critical, supporting the ability to adapt reports to specific clients’ needs and in order to ensure data quality, automated data-checks are needed.
Nowadays, modern reporting is expected to be delivered both via a quarterly report (comprehensive overview of past quarter and most important developments) as well as via a portal solution. Hoffmann notes: “We advise trusting a specialist who on the one hand understands the content, is able to select and implement appropriate visualisations and at the same time is able to provide the technological platform for seamless reporting.”
“Besides classical Quarterly Reports, we provide raw data streams to clients for further analysis/integration into their own core systems. Customers have the possibility to analyse their data in more detail via web-based reporting & to gain interactive insights with the help of visualisations. It goes without saying that absolute data consistency between the channels must exist for the smooth transition from the report to the portal and vice versa.”
On the technology side, Hoffmann sees the integration of machine learning and artificial intelligence as developments, allowing to deliver an enhanced level of efficiency through automation. “With our proven systems and processes, we enable largely automated report production, the results of which are subjected to a final review by our specialists. AssetMetrix continuously improves its reporting solution to ensure technological advancements and industry standards are implemented.”
Having most recently won the “Best Accounting and Reporting Solution” award for the second consecutive time, at the Private Equity Wire European Awards 2023, AssetMetrix is clearly showing its ability to help clients achieve clarity on their investments and bring efficiency to the middle office.
Michael Hoffmann, Deputy COO and Head of Reporting Services, AssetMetrix – Michael has been leading the reporting team at AssetMetrix since October 2019. In his role, he is responsible for data enrichment, reporting and introducing a modern private capital reporting solution. Previously, Michael worked for 12 years at Societe Generale Securities Services and was most recently responsible for reporting, data management and performance and risk controlling. Michael Hoffmann holds a Master of Science in Applied Computer Science (University of Hagen) and a Diploma in Business Informatics (University of Applied Sciences Hof).
