In an earlier LinkedIn post, we reviewed how to enable BI with Legacy systems using API strategy for Investment firms. This strategy, implemented in phases, requires first developing APIs for existing systems and, in a parallel stream of work, development of BI data model(s) to provide access to data for users to enable portfolio ‘insights’.

Q: How long before we can get to the end state? 

The answer, of course, depends on the current state and how far along the journey the firm is in now before the planned end state. This could be a few months to year(s) depending on how many existing systems need integration for BI enablement.

Q: But we have all the data for analysis already, albeit in different existing systems. We currently ‘bring it all together’ to provide the end user with reports and/or dashboard views. And this data is all in one place but it is point-in-time data and therefore we cannot perform ‘deep’ analysis.

So, can we go from where we are today to a target end state without the ‘Big-bang’ approach? We already have necessary DATA – which is ‘the’ most important part for analysis!

Approach: How about we take in existing data sets from various sources with a ‘Ready-To-Use’ BI solution that takes in existing data sets (and apply some transformations)?

Is this an ‘implementable’ option?

Yes.

We at Vega suggest above approach that also provides a ‘baseline’ investment ‘BI data model’ that can be extended. In addition, the ‘pre-built’ out-of-the-box dashboards can be further customized by users.

Let us look at the key steps of this approach –

1. Identify existing portfolio data sets from various data sources
   – Fund-administrator feeds for EOD holdings(say), Reference data, Risk and Performance analytics, etc. from existing firms systems or third-party providers
2. Automate the load process as and when files are available and/or manually load the same as appropriate
3. Review exceptions on data load (if any) – a crucial step to ensure data integrity is maintained.
4. Review and use the ‘baseline’ investment data model that also allows custom extensions
5. Review and use ‘pre-built’ dashboards that gives a head start for business users to perform ‘Portfolio Insights’ 
6. Provide users access to data sets so they can perform ‘deep’ analysis using their preferred BI tool(s) i.e. create new dashboards

Now that the ‘data is liberated’ to users – firms can focus on the planning and implementation of the roadmap to get to the end state.

Key benefit for the firm in adopting above approach is the ability to use ‘DATA’ as a competitive differentiator to position for the long term. Waiting to get the data to business users till the end may not be an option on the table today.