Global Investment Firm Modernizes Legacy Systems with Cognivo

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Client Profile

A prominent NYC based global long-short, multi-asset, and multi-currency investment management firm with over $4 billion in Assets Under Management (AUM).

Challenges

The firm faced several challenges with their legacy systems that hindered their operational efficiency:

  1. Risk and Portfolio Data Management: Inability to efficiently manage risk and portfolio data to support modern investment strategies.
  2. Real-Time Reporting: Difficulty in generating real-time, customized risk and performance dashboards for informed decision-making.
  3. System Integration: Complex integration with multiple internal and external systems, leading to data silos and inefficiencies.
  4. Excel Limitations: Reliance on Excel and other outdated tools for data management, causing inefficiencies and scalability issues.
  5. Data Visualization Constraints: Limited capabilities in effectively visualizing risk and performance data for strategic insights.

Root Cause

The primary root cause was the firm’s reliance on outdated legacy systems that were not capable of supporting modern risk and portfolio management requirements, hindering their ability to stay competitive.

Solution

Modernization of Legacy Systems

Cognivo, a specialized data and technology consulting firm, partnered with the investment management firm to modernize their legacy systems.

Cognivo reverse-engineered the existing legacy system and designed a new, custom risk and portfolio management solution. Key aspects of the solution included:

  1. Proof of Concept: Building a proof of concept to port over non-critical functions first, ensuring a smooth transition.
  2. Customized Risk Solution: Developing a highly customized risk solution with advanced features like variance-covariance value-at-risk calculations, in-house stress test scenarios, and backtesting models.
  3. Real-Time Dashboards: Creating near real-time, web-based interactive dashboards for investment and risk management teams.
  4. Excel Replacement: Replacing Excel with more robust and efficient tools for data management.
  5. Power BI Integration: Using Microsoft Power BI for advanced data visualization and interactive dashboards.

Services Involved

Challenges Addressed

Cognivo’s solution addressed the investment management firm’s key challenges:

  1. Risk and Portfolio Management: Implemented a new system to efficiently manage risk and portfolio data.
  2. Real-Time Reporting: Enabled the generation of real-time, customized risk and performance dashboards.
  3. System Integration: Achieved complete integration across various internal and external systems.
  4. MS Excel Dependency: Replaced Excel with automated and integrated data management solutions.
  5. Data Visualization: Enhanced data visualization and reporting with Power BI for better insights.

Results

By partnering with Cognivo, the investment management firm achieved remarkable results:

  1. Automation: Streamlined data extraction, processing, and storage in a centralized data warehouse.
  2. Efficiency: Reduced manual data gathering and reconciliation efforts, improving productivity.
  3. ROI: Saved over $800,000 in ten years by reallocating man-hours to more meaningful tasks.

Conclusion

Cognivo’s expertise in data and technology consulting enabled the global investment firm to successfully modernize its legacy systems, leading to significant improvements in operational efficiency, data accuracy, and return on investment. The new system allowed the firm to better utilize their team of analysts, focus on strategic activities, and achieve greater success in the investment management industry while staying ahead of the competition.