Maximising the Impact of a Product Master: Downstream Use Cases and Integration Strategies

A Product Master is a pivotal asset in the investment management industry, not just for centralising and maintaining product data but also for the value it delivers for various downstream use cases. By effectively leveraging a Product Master, firms can enhance fund reporting, meet regulatory demands with greater ease, conduct in-depth financial and strategic analysis, and improve overall data consumption across the organisation. This article explores these use cases and offers guidance on ensuring successful integration to fully harness the potential of a product master.

Key Downstream Use Cases

Fund Reporting: The Product Master facilitates accurate and timely reporting by providing a centralised source of truth for fund data. This improves the quality and reliability of reports shared with investors, enhancing transparency and trust.

Regulatory Reporting: With regulatory frameworks becoming increasingly stringent, a Product Master can streamline the reporting process by ensuring all regulatory data is accurate and accessible. This not only simplifies compliance but also minimises the risk of penalties for inaccuracies.

Financial and Strategic Analysis: A Product Master enables deeper insights into fund performance, market trends, pricing, and operational efficiencies. Analysts can leverage this consolidated data source to inform strategic decisions, identify investment opportunities, and optimise fund strategies.

General Consumption: Across the organisation, various departments benefit from access to the Product Master. From marketing to sales and client services, having accurate and up-to-date product data supports a range of activities, including client queries, marketing materials, and sales strategies.

Ensuring Effective Integration

To maximise the benefits of a Product Master in these downstream use cases, proper integration with existing systems and workflows is essential. Here are strategies to ensure integration success:

Define Clear Objectives: Start by identifying specific goals for each downstream use case. Understanding what you aim to achieve helps tailor the integration process to meet these objectives effectively.

Ensure Data Quality and Consistency: The value of a Product Master in downstream applications hinges on the accuracy and consistency of the data it contains. Implement robust data governance practices, including regular audits and validations, to maintain high data quality.

Leverage API Integration: Use application programming interfaces (APIs) to seamlessly connect the Product Master with other systems used for reporting, analysis, and data consumption. API integration facilitates real-time data exchange and ensures that downstream applications always have access to the latest information.

Train and Support Users: Ensure that users across different departments understand how to access and utilise the Product Master for their specific needs. Offer training sessions and create support resources to help users navigate the system effectively.

Monitor and Iterate: Post-integration, continuously monitor the performance and impact of the Product Master across downstream use cases. Gather feedback from users and analyse usage data to identify areas for improvement. Iteratively refine the integration and data management practices to enhance value over time.

Fencore's Approach Fencore Case Study About Fencore

Fencore's Approach

Fencore enhances downstream integration and maximises the use of a Product Master in investment management by addressing diverse data sources, such as legacy systems, proprietary databases, and unstructured formats. They emphasise the creation of a "one source of truth" through rigorous data validation, mastering, and governance, ensuring a consistent golden source of data for all departments. This central data repository supports every phase of the investment lifecycle, from strategy and regulatory approval to distribution and operations, improving data quality and reducing manual errors through workflow automation.

Moreover, Fencore synchronises the Product Master with the security master, avoiding data duplication and enhancing data granularity. This integration extends to post-trade processes, interacting with investment and accounting records, risk and performance measurements, and compliance frameworks. By developing a holistic, integrated data operating model, Fencore helps asset managers reduce operational costs, improve data quality, increase transparency, and create a competitive product portfolio in a demanding market.

Fencore Case Study

Rethinking product masters and data consistency throughout the lifecycle of investment vehicles:

The original request seemed simple enough. A fast-growing, international institutional asset manager reached out to share their frustration around product launches past and present and the lack of a centralised master. “Basically”, the recently appointed solution architect said, “We are unable to track, consistently, basic information around our products. We have significantly increased the number of launches, their complexity, composition, and global range. The workflow is manual, error-ridden, and troublesome. Our time to market needs to be improved. Finally, we believe we have a large degree of overlapping offerings, simply due to the lack of transparency.” Well, if you know that the origin of your trials and tribulations is internal, you know where to start: you start with the man – or the woman – in the mirror.

Address data sources

Data is collated from a myriad of sources: legacy data masters and systems, never intended to cater for the demands of modern products, proprietary databases, excel spreadsheets, sharepoint, word documents and unstructured data in formats from bygone times. You need to know where you are to move on.

Acknowledge the necessity of a “one source of truth” and accept that the “one source of truth” will be constantly evolving

A “one source of truth” is more than a question of data collation, validation, mastering, audit trail and data lineage. It is accepting the need of data discipline and data governance, across the organisation, and to implement the appropriate controls and processes. A successful deployment of these actions will establish a consistent golden source of data, which can be used across the organisation: from strategy and product teams, via legal and compliance, to sales and marketing. Post-launch it will provide the foundation for rigorous monitoring, valuations and performance measurement - and serve as the very foundation for future business development and refinement of products.

Time is a dimension

A product master needs to support every phase of the life cycle of the investment vehicle: from product strategy, regulatory approval and launch, via distribution, monitoring and operations, to its final divestment and liquidation. Data requirements will change en route. Workflow controls and automation will need to be implemented to reduce human errors, manual processes, and to improve data quality for the life span of the various products.

Establish data master consistency as your data model develops

The product master needs, of course, to be synchronised with the security master, which will have additional information and attributes for portfolio- and order management. This consistency will avoid data duplication and will add another level of granularity. For post trade processes, the product master will interact with investment- and accounting book of records, risk, performance measurements and -attribution, compliance, and regulatory frameworks, reporting and governance. These masters need to work independently and – at the same time - in conjunction to support the demands of a modern, global, and data-driven asset manager. We expect reduced operational cost, better data quality, increased transparency, more efficient sales enablement and at the end of the journey a truly competitive product portfolio in a an increasingly demanding and competitive market.

Toward a holistic, integrated data operating model

This is a step-by-step process, and in this specific case it is very much a work in progress.

We are already seeing the benefits from component-based consistency as part of the journey toward a holistic, integrated data operating model. Systems change, market requirements evolve, and organisation adapt and develop as part of the journey. It starts and ends with data. Change is the new constant. Data never sleeps.

About Fencore

Conclusion

A Product Master is more than just a repository of product data; it is a strategic tool that, when correctly integrated, can significantly enhance fund reporting, regulatory compliance, strategic decision-making, and general data accessibility. By focusing on data quality, leveraging modern integration technologies, customising data access, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement, investment management firms can unlock the full potential of their Product Master, driving operational excellence and strategic growth.