A global asset management company created a componentized content hub to deliver constantly updated credit reporting to its investment teams.
The US-headquartered company is one of the world’s top ten asset managers with over a trillion dollars of AUM.
It has a global network of more than 1000 professionals working through offices in the USA, Europe and Asia-Pacific, serving a client base divided between institutional clients and retail investors.
The company’s largest investment arm is its Fixed Income division and this was the first area to integrate the Eidosmedia solution.
To carry out the due diligence needed for effective investment decisions, the company’s portfolio managers require timely access to high-quality data and research. Some of this is obtained from outside the organization, but the research created by the company’s own analysts is of critical importance.
The creation and distribution of internal research using standard office applications like MS Word™ and email had become unwieldy and difficult to scale as the volume of market intelligence grew.
Two processes were particularly problematic – search and report generation. Because the necessary information was locked up in PDFs and other non-modular formats it was difficult for investment teams to locate the content they needed in the research base. The formats also made the generation of reports complicated and time consuming. In particular, the creation of reporting in response to specific requests could take as much as several days.
Metadata tagging .., significantly improves the findability of research content
First-step: the in-house framework
To improve the flow of information to their portfolio managers, the company developed an in-house research framework. This was an internal portal providing access to ‘credit reports’ which are information profiles for all of the investment targets of interest to the organization’s portfolio managers.
As well as the latest versions of the text and comments, the portal dashboard would also show previous versions, providing a clear view of how the rating of the target investment is evolving.
When choosing the formats in which to maintain the credit reports, it was clear that the PDF and Office formats previously used would continue to limit their value for both analysts and portfolio managers. What was needed was a reporting format that was flexible enough to be rapidly updated by analysts and granular enough to be easily searchable, while streamlining the delivery of on-demand reporting.
It was therefore decided to integrate Eidosmedia’s modular authoring and delivery platform into the research solution to provide the flexibility and dynamism required in a ‘live’ research platform.
Componentization. Unlike conventional document management systems, Eidosmedia modular reporting operates at a more granular level of content representation.
Each element of the document is a separate component - title, summary, disclaimers, charts, tables etc. Each component can be addressed and managed separately.
This has a number of consequences for the use of the content:
Findability. The application of metadata tagging to components significantly improves the findability of research content. Tagging can be applied both manually and automatically.
Once tagged, relevant components and reports can be rapidly located by research teams through powerful search tools incorporated into the content workspace.
Eidosmedia platforms also support machine learning routines to automatically identify and tag the relevant entities and parameters of each report component as it is created or imported.
In a future phase of the project, tagging may also be applied retrospectively to existing and ‘legacy’ research to significantly enhance the findability and usability of archived research and data sources.
Trackability. All edits and updates to report content are tracked, together with the user responsible, creating a complete ‘audit trail’ for changes to the content. Reports can be ‘rewound’ to a previous version to undo erroneous or unnecessary editing.
Reusability. Once a component such as a business summary or disclaimer has been created, it can be incorporated into multiple reports or profiles, avoiding the need to duplicate the content.
‘Live’ updating. When a component is edited or corrected, it is updated at all the locations it appears in. This avoids the need to ‘align’ the element manually across multiple locations and ensures the accuracy and compliance of all published content.
Excel linking. The solution is tightly integrated with the MS Excel™ application for the creation of charts and data models. Excel objects are inserted into reporting using a simple point and click action, reformatting to fit the local layout.
Once an Excel chart or table has been inserted, it updates automatically if there is a change In the source object or its data.
All workflow processes from input and updating to discovery and report generation ... have been accelerated and enhanced.
‘Work anywhere’ flexibility. The Swing mobile user application works on a range of devices from desktop to tablet. Users are no longer bound to the office and can access the authoring environment and research repositories from any location.
Analysts can search for and access the assets in the content hub to create and release reports complete with charts and tables. Investment teams use the same mobile workspace to interrogate the content hub for relevant research to guide their investment decisions.
Customized report output. When a report is required on an investment target, it is generated using components making up the profile. The current platform is configured to create three report types, a credit report, an ESG report and a CAG report for external customers. Each report can be created in two versions: a ‘full’ report or an abridged version with a reduced selection of elements.
The generation of the report is automatic: the appropriate components are selected from the profile and assembled into a well-formed report format with automatic inclusion of updated charts and data using high-quality layout and pagination templates.
Eidosmedia platforms can also use the same routines to generate reporting in multiple formats, from standard PDFs to web pages and mobile versions.
A ‘live’ research platform
The integration of the Eidosmedia componentized content solution has created a highly flexible research platform with real-time content update and access. All workflow processes from input and updating to discovery and report generation and distribution have been accelerated and enhanced.
Rapid report generation – from days to minutes
One of the most significant outcomes of the new platform is the reduction in the time needed to generate an internal or external report. The process of locating and assembling the relevant data and content has now been reduced from several days to a few minutes, thanks to the automatic selection and formating of the componentized content.
Easy data and analysis insertion
Analysts use a dashboard format to quickly access the profiles to update content and add comments.
Accelerated discovery
The rich metadata tagging of report components allows research teams to query the content base and quickly locate the data and information they need.
Auto-aligned charts and tables
The tight integration with Excel keeps data displays within the reporting aligned with the original files, avoiding the need to update multiple occurrences when the Excel source file changes.
High-quality layout and distribution
Automatic formatting of report content ensures a consistent professional appearance across all formats from PDF to digital. Freed from the need to adjust text and layout, analysts can concentrate fully on their content while delivering clear, well-organized reports that speed up communication and decision-making.
Planned extensions to the platform include the automatic generation of reports based on meeting transcripts or other external data.