BST Awards 2024: Best buy-side client reporting platform—FactSet

Overview

The volume and detail of data demanded by investors from their asset managers has grown steadily over the past two decades, allowing them to generate/receive more immediate and transparent views of their various investments. FactSet’s Reporting Solutions are designed to provide asset managers with scalable, efficient ways to deliver timely and consistent data to their investors and other parties. The firm supports the production of a range of report types, including client reports, factsheets, regulatory reports, pitchbooks, due diligence questionnaires, market commentaries and internal team reports. FactSet offers the buy side self-service and full-service reporting along with an integrated market data and analytics platform.

The solution  

FactSet’s Client Reporting Solutions are designed to eliminate the burden of data integration by automating feeds from various sources, such as APIs, cloud-based platforms, and locked-down performance and attribution data from its various analytics tools. Clients can access configurable dashboards and workflows with exception-based tasks to ensure 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 seeks to differentiate itself from other similar providers through its client service. Its decades of implementation experience and collaborative approaches have helped it create a target operating model designed to fit each client’s specific processes, data and technology ecosystems.

Recent milestones

• Developed a data preparation application designed to make it easier for users to absorb and transform data for a variety of reporting purposes with delivery via APIs
• Eased the integration and extraction of data by leveraging cloud connectors like Snowflake
• Launched interactive and self-service capabilities through configurable portfolio widgets that can be deployed on existing websites through modular HTML components to drive usage

Future objectives

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

Why they won

FactSet maintains its impressive track record in the annual BST Awards by picking up two individual categories this year: best buy-side performance measurement and attribution product and best buy-side client reporting platform. Client reporting has become an increasingly competitive market in recent years as investors have progressively sought greater all-around visibility and transparency into the various services they are paying for. Buy-side firms have in turn looked to the vendor community for more sophisticated client reporting tools, not only to satisfy client demand, but also to manage an ever-widening array of functions. FactSet is perfectly positioned to address those challenges thanks largely but not exclusively to its outstanding suite of client reporting products.