Duco Head of Professional Services, Americas, Laurie Schuster and her team work with financial institutions across the globe to tackle their operational data challenges. She shared her key lessons on the importance of replacing end-user computing (EUCs) with robust, scalable automation.
Transcript
Laurie Schuster: What I've heard from our clients often since I've been here, these EUCs and spreadsheets were created years ago.
They're handed down like prized jewels, and then there may be a handful of people who understand how to execute these recons based on the original build.
You take away all the Band-Aids, you try to figure out the manual interventions that are in there. It's when, not if, there are challenges with fixing the data feeds or build to even start the investigation, and that's actually where the real risk exposure is.
There's delays in executing your team's BAU daily activities, really resulting in significant business impact.
With my ops risk hat on, you'll all have sat with your friendly first, second, third line of defence risk officers, and potentially did the dance to demonstrate the data flow and lineage or explain in risk governance committees why the breaks have been sitting for 300 plus days, if not more, and try to articulate carefully that the breaks are hopefully substantiated.
Ultimately, the wish lists from you and what I hear from our clients are often stacked with the desperate need to quickly identify and risk rank the breaks in order to have speed and transparency to communicate the action plans and break resolutions.
It can feel like a daily game of tiptoeing around landmines, and truly it's a heavy lift, before the actual work is even started. It's that agility and visibility.
What are the main benefits of automating EUCs?
Laurie Schuster: It's that mission to build quickly with high matching rates so that you have that comfort and you look towards the system to really support your needs.
Putting that management in the hands of your SMEs, to really have ownership and agency around how to resolve. And, speaking of resolve - easily resolving through that strong and transparent exception management.
We talked a little bit about traceability. That is just so critical, when you have to explain it to many layers of management, or in risk committees just to have that easily at your fingertips.
So really getting quickly to understanding those breaks based on your firm's risk tolerance and ability to dig into the details to support those resolution and action plans. Having those audit trails that clearly represent the full history.
What's the key to successful EUC automation?
Laurie Schuster: It's that engagement, it's that coming together to really understand your operating model. What do you do today? What do you want to change for the future?
And so my guys sit side-by-side, working with you to really be able to articulate what that looks like in terms of that overall operating model, but then actually executing it in that customisable way.
And then most importantly, taking you on that journey to that self-sufficiency, right? Really putting the ownership in your hands so that you don't have to sit on some priority list that may be looked at in some years' time.
It's really giving you that ability to get in and design and own your future for your reconciliation ecosystem, and more broadly, your data automation overall.
Want to know more about tackling your EUC challenges, and hear how CIBC Mellon and Blackstone went about it? Watch our virtual event on getting Everything Under Control on-demand here.
