A tier-two asset manager has unlocked significant cost savings and efficiency gains after consolidating all their reconciliations for cash and positions onto Duco’s agile data automation platform.
Previously, the firm had outsourced the majority of their reconciliations to a third party who used a legacy on-premise system. However, increasing process and platform issues and limited control led to the exploration of a solution that would enable them to in-house all of their reconciliations.
They chose Duco because the software-as-a-service (SaaS), no-code model empowered their teams to bring recon in-house for total control, flexibility and transparency.
All the development, testing and implementation decisions are owned by the operations team, instead of having to wait for a vendor to hard-code these updates. The client no longer relies on legacy on-premise technology, having decommissioned their internal system for recs as well as ending their reliance on outsourced reconciliation services.
"We were able to reduce that dependency on our team in terms of configuration. It really allowed us to be more nimble and flexible. Right now, we're able to, on the fly, enhance any type of reconciliation that we have because we have a team of experts that understand the platform from A to Z."
IT serves as risk mitigation and not an onboarding dependency, enabling end-users to scale existing reconciliations and build new ones faster.
Duco is now considered one of their biggest internal applications and the client has unlocked cost savings of 35% compared to outsourcing. Enhanced matching rates have freed up capacity in the team for valuable, client-focussed tasks.
"At the end of the day, no one wants to come to work and do the same thing day in and day out and then go home at night and feel like ‘What I did today, I'm not even sure if it's adding value’. I think everyone wants to come in and feel that they're making a difference. The way we're using fintech, especially Duco, allows our people to do the right thing and feel valuable. They're the first ones to experience these issues on a daily basis and now they're part of the solution. They're also going to experience the afterlife of these solutions, so that's really powerful."
The team can now work with much greater agility and speed. For instance, they can see data in real-time, rather than waiting for it to arrive in bulk from the external vendor. This rapidity has enabled them to meet their SLAs with other functions 25% faster. The flexibility of the platform means all internal and external reconciliations in the firm’s asset management arm are now centralised and standardised.
“We can meet our SLAs faster, and the Middle Office team can see what is being assigned to them in real-time. Our accountability is to the Front Office, so the earlier we can start working on material exceptions the better, as it puts us in a better position to tell the Front Office we will be trading with accurate numbers.”
The client has over 100 team members using Duco for a broad variety of use cases, including:
- General accounts
- Custodian recs
- Internal inter-system recs
- Cash accounts recs
- Broker controls
- NAV recs
- Regulatory reporting recs for CFTC and Dodd-Frank
The firm was an early adopter of Duco’s cash solution and we have worked closely together over the years to build out its capabilities to meet the needs of clients struggling with the limitations of legacy solutions on the market.