Higher operating costs have become a challenge throughout the global asset management and asset servicing industry. Margins are under pressure, with attention being turned to how back-office functions are handled. This case study looks at how UMB Fund Services has used Linedata Optima, an operational control and fund oversight platform, to streamline its fund accounting operations and take efficiency to the next level.
Over an 18-month period, UMB worked in conjunction with Linedata to create a holistic back-office system that addresses its complex fund accounting requirements. Solution highlights include:
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A Rules engine for automating controls throughout the NAV creation process
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Comprehensive Audit trails covering all checks, actions, and resolutions
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Enhanced UX based on dashboards, data visualization, and custom widgets
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Workflows: digital checklists that help users complete tasks and processes quickly and correctly
The Optima rules engine has allowed UMB to shape the system to its specific needs. UMB and Linedata worked together on the design of each rule, identifying the ‘why’ behind the check and the preconditions needed to trigger this. Data points for analysis were also decided upon, with ‘exception output’ drafted to suit UMB’s internal processes and provide the additional information needed to facilitate fast, accurate issue resolution.
Optima has nearly 140 standard rules in its library, helping automate decision-making and free up countless hours of staff time. Using Optima, UMB can effortlessly conduct over one million digitally stamped rules-based checks every working day.
Though Optima began primarily as an efficiency tool, it has morphed into a risk mitigation device. The system works away continually to execute data checks that even a large team of human accountants would quickly and inevitably fail to keep pace with.
UMB personnel can now work more efficiently and effectively by utilizing a rigorous and powerful rules-based system to comprehensively review funds. Optima has enhanced efficiency throughout UMB’s back office.
“As a manager, it’s much easier to see where your people are at in their day based on Optima and which exceptions are still outstanding,” says Mindy Schwartz, Head of Fund Accounting, UMB Fund Services. “If another fund accountant is bogged down with other things, you can redirect resources because you can see someone else has already finished.”
Checks that previously were carried out manually on a monthly basis are now executed automatically multiple times per day. Entire teams are freed up to apply their skills and time to where it is needed most. This is a valuable reallocation of resources for a business competing in such a competitive industry.
“With Optima, you can assign a workflow when there is an exception, which ensures everything has been reviewed properly, maybe twice and in some cases three times,” says Eric Lentz, Manager of Operational Improvement, UMB Fund Services. “It’s a nice completeness check, it allows you to sleep at night.”
Linedata Optima provides a browser-based platform for accessing Linedata fund services solutions and third-party applications. It helps fund administrators and asset managers increase operational efficiency, mitigate risk, and transform and scale their fund administration operations with a digital audit trail of every step. Workflow management digitizes NAV production; the rules engine conducts thousands of automated checks to assure NAV accuracy; and exception management monitors every process automatically, so you only need to intervene if issues arise.