BST Awards 2023: Best buy-side client reporting platform—FactSet 

Overview

In a market where the volume and detail of data requested by clients is steadily growing, FactSet’s reporting solutions provide scalable, efficient ways to deliver timely and consistent data. FactSet supports the production of a range of report types, including client reports, factsheets, regulatory reporting, pitchbooks, due-diligence questionnaires, market commentaries, and internal team reports. FactSet offers self-service and full-service reporting along with an integrated market data and analytics platform.

The solution  

FactSet’s client reporting solutions eliminate the burden of data integration by automating feeds from various sources, such as APIs, cloud platforms, and locked-down performance and attribution data from the firm’s analytics tools. Clients can access configurable dashboards and workflows with exception-based tasks to ensure that the data is accurate, commentary is signed off, and reports are approved and delivered on time. Manual processes are reduced by automating tailored client documents for multi-channel distribution.

Secret sauce 

FactSet sees its dedication to client service as the primary area where it differentiates itself from other similar providers. Its decades of implementation experience and collaborative approaches have helped it create a target operating model designed to fit each client’s unique processes, data, and technology ecosystems.

Recent milestones

• Data preparation application that makes it easier for individuals to absorb and transform data for a variety of reporting purposes with responsive delivery via APIs
• Easing the integration and extraction of data by leveraging cloud connectors (Snowflake, for example) to meet clients where they are consuming and storing data
• Interactive and self-service capabilities through configurable portfolio widgets, which can be deployed on existing websites through modular HTML components to drive usage.

Future objectives 

No two clients are alike, so offering a flexible/scalable solution is paramount to FactSet. Its emphasis on ingestion and delivery of data in the cloud makes it easier to onboard new datasets and distribute information to downstream consumers. Focusing on enhanced user-controlled configurability leads to improved efficiency and greater report automation. Expanding the firm’s managed reporting capabilities will help augment client processes and allow reporting teams to focus on value-add activities.

Why they won

Buy-side firms’ client reporting functions have always been an important part of the business, although in recent years such activities have become even more critical as returns have remained largely modest across most asset classes. Investors have therefore come to expect increased levels of detail and transparency from their asset managers as a means of understanding where exactly their value is coming from and what specifically they are paying for. FactSet addresses those needs by providing managers with a one-stop managed reporting service featuring a range of report types, including client reports, factsheets, regulatory reporting functions, pitchbooks, due-diligence questionnaires, market commentaries, and internal team reports, shouldering the bulk of the grunt work around such activities for their buy-side clients.