How to Create Efficiencies in Fund Reporting
Data Front has recently launched Report Builder— the world’s first and only low code tool for asset managers to build fund reporting websites, factsheets and other reports plus slide decks. Report Builder allows any member of the sales, marketing or data team to ‘drag and drop’ charts, tables, graphs, profiles and so on into a web page or a report. None of these widgets are static – live data flows into the new page or report. This process does not involve any coding, so the user is in total control of updated content.
This article will focus on the efficiency gains realized by utilizing one particular widget within Report Builder - the Fund List component. This component allows any team member to select different attributes and data – for example NAVs, returns, fees, allocations etc. to create a fund list for a webpage. It is a fully customizable web application in terms of data displayed and look and feel.
Importantly it reduces the development time for building a Price and Performance page by months. Best of all it does not require a development team to build and manage the application, so it reduces long term maintenance costs for asset managers.
The typical reporting application requires a team of developers to build and maintain the site. Front end developers will manage the view with typical experience developing in HTML, CSS and JavaScript. This development team will design the look and feel of the application. There will also be a team of back-end developers that build and run the application to perform the server-side functions that operate in the background, behind the view. Finally, a team of database developers will manage the data to create a data model that is used by the application.
The Data Front Report Builder application, including the Fund List component, is designed to eliminate the need for a front-end and back-end team of developers for running your reporting application. It can also reduce or eliminate the need for additional data work for reporting purposes. These cost savings will differ based on the size of your development team and average developer salaries in your region but they can be a meaningful part of your reporting budget.
Data Front’s Fund List component comes prebuilt with all the reporting features required out of the box. Rather than hire a team of developers to build and manage the site, Data Front can provide the data needed for running your fund list page with a simple query that can be written in just a few minutes. After that, your series or share class data will begin flowing to your fund list page. At that point, your web designer simply adds tabs and data columns using the controls in the fund list application with no code required.
How you structure the data you display is entirely up to you. For example, you can create four tabs: one for displaying daily price information; another for showing monthly performance; a third for fund codes; and a fourth for general information such as management info and fees. The choice is yours and the entire process could be completed in just a few hours.
When setting up the Fund List page, you can select from a variety of features such as whether to turn on the watchlist so users of the Price & Performance page can have their favorite funds or ETFs saved for when they revisit the page. Another feature allows you to enable a link so page users can download all data on the page in an .xls or.csv file. Another important feature of the Fund List page allows you to choose any field for how your data is grouped on the page. For example, you can divide the fund list into groups by asset class.
When it comes to designs, there are very few limitations. Firstly, when setting up the Fund List page, you can apply a pre-built theme including fonts, colors and typography (themes are applied to any widget including the fund list page). For more complex theming such as rounded corners on filter items, etc. a little .CSS will come in handy.
The upshot is that what once took months to build now takes only days leading to faster time to build and time to market by up to 90%[1] based on actual client build times experienced by Data Front since using Report Builder application. Moreover, changes to the fund list do not require engaging a development team and costly sprint cycles. Instead, users can interact with the fund list controls to make the desired changes, typically in only minutes.
[1] Based on actual build times by Data Front development team using Report Builder Fund List component vs. historical build times for building Price & Performance Page for existing client reporting sites.
Fund Reporting in Action: The Fund List Widget is a Major Efficiency Tool
Data Front has recently launched Report Builder— the world’s first and only low code tool for asset managers to build fund reporting websites, factsheets and other reports plus slide decks. Report Builder allows any member of the sales, marketing or data team to ‘drag and drop’ charts, tables, graphs, profiles and so on into a web page or a report. None of these widgets are static – live data flows into the new page or report. This process does not involve any coding, so the user is in total control of updated content.
This article will focus on the efficiency gains realized by utilizing one particular widget within Report Builder - the Fund List component. This component allows any team member to select different attributes and data – for example NAVs, returns, fees, allocations etc. to create a fund list for a webpage. It is a fully customizable web application in terms of data displayed and look and feel.
Importantly it reduces the development time for building a Price and Performance page by months. Best of all it does not require a development team to build and manage the application, so it reduces long term maintenance costs for asset managers.
The typical reporting application requires a team of developers to build and maintain the site. Front end developers will manage the view with typical experience developing in HTML, CSS and JavaScript. This development team will design the look and feel of the application. There will also be a team of back-end developers that build and run the application to perform the server-side functions that operate in the background, behind the view. Finally, a team of database developers will manage the data to create a data model that is used by the application.
The Data Front Report Builder application, including the Fund List component, is designed to eliminate the need for a front-end and back-end team of developers for running your reporting application. It can also reduce or eliminate the need for additional data work for reporting purposes. These cost savings will differ based on the size of your development team and average developer salaries in your region but they can be a meaningful part of your reporting budget.
Data Front’s Fund List component comes prebuilt with all the reporting features required out of the box. Rather than hire a team of developers to build and manage the site, Data Front can provide the data needed for running your fund list page with a simple query that can be written in just a few minutes. After that, your series or share class data will begin flowing to your fund list page. At that point, your web designer simply adds tabs and data columns using the controls in the fund list application with no code required.
How you structure the data you display is entirely up to you. For example, you can create four tabs: one for displaying daily price information; another for showing monthly performance; a third for fund codes; and a fourth for general information such as management info and fees. The choice is yours and the entire process could be completed in just a few hours.
When setting up the Fund List page, you can select from a variety of features such as whether to turn on the watchlist so users of the Price & Performance page can have their favorite funds or ETFs saved for when they revisit the page. Another feature allows you to enable a link so page users can download all data on the page in an .xls or.csv file. Another important feature of the Fund List page allows you to choose any field for how your data is grouped on the page. For example, you can divide the fund list into groups by asset class.
When it comes to designs, there are very few limitations. Firstly, when setting up the Fund List page, you can apply a pre-built theme including fonts, colors and typography (themes are applied to any widget including the fund list page). For more complex theming such as rounded corners on filter items, etc. a little .CSS will come in handy.
The upshot is that what once took months to build now takes only days leading to faster time to build and time to market by up to 90%[1] based on actual client build times experienced by Data Front since using Report Builder application. Moreover, changes to the fund list do not require engaging a development team and costly sprint cycles. Instead, users can interact with the fund list controls to make the desired changes, typically in only minutes.
[1] Based on actual build times by Data Front development team using Report Builder Fund List component vs. historical build times for building Price & Performance Page for existing client reporting sites.
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