Private Equity (PE) firms’ operational efficiency is critical in determining their success, especially against shifting market conditions. PE firms typically have complex inter-departmental processes managed through Excel spreadsheets, email communications, and other disparate applications. While Excel and Outlook are essential tools, an Enterprise Task Management system is far more effective in organizing tasks, providing a centralized place to see the status of critical path items, and creating an optimal Private Equity foundation for your overall success.  

FinServ has spent 18 years working with our clients to enhance their business processes. In the past few years, we have focused on assisting our Private Equity clients in Private Equity in leveraging task management software to address some critical areas of their operations. From this experience, we have gained great insight into how a PE firm’s internal operations can be classified into six main stages and how task management tools can optimize their operations on a day-to-day basis: 

Through our work with several Private Equity clients, we have found that the success of implementing an Enterprise Task Management system comes down to a few critical success factors. 

• Ease of Use & Implementation – Sophisticated workflow tools can provide great automation to operations. However, these tools are highly complex and take many months to implement. They often require very technical resources to set up and code solutions. Task management tools offer a simple, intuitive setup that results in implementing a solution in days or weeks, allowing users to see results quickly. 
• Super Users Drive Adoption – Business users can quickly learn how to set up their projects in a Task Management tool, becoming early adopters who share their successes with other groups. Users have set up issue-tracking projects that have quickly spread to several other departments when they share their success stories. 
• Cross-Departmental Collaboration – One client was struggling with the coordination of onboarding employees between their HR and IT departments. The HR team leveraged the Task Management tool to share the new hire process with the IT team. The IT team created its project, which tracked each detailed step of setting up a new employee, including communications with external parties. The new process resulted in a streamlined process where every new employee gets what they need to succeed, resulting in a great first impression of a process often filled with issues at many other firms.
• White-Glove Support – Even if a system is simple to implement, it does not mean every user can handle it independently. Our firm focuses on providing users with all the support they require, including helping them to model their project if desired and providing them with helpful best practice approaches to everyday task management items. When a client has a question about how to do something in the system or something is not working the way they expect, we respond immediately, ensuring they maintain their enthusiasm for the system. Eventually, the users become self-sufficient, but early on, we make sure they have a large degree of handle holding and support.  

The Task Management Tool Marketplace and Deciding What Tool is Right for Your Firm

Different types of task management software tools are available in the marketplace. While some are free and relatively simple, others need to be bought and can be deployed firmwide. We have found that the best Task Management tools provide these core capabilities:

Outside of the key benefits from our extensive work in this area, we have found that there are three main benefits of using task management software for a PE firm: 

Greater Transparency:  

Given that PE firms receive information from various sources – third-party vendors, market data providers, disparate internal systems, and ad-hoc data dumps – it is essential to translate all the relevant information into clearly defined workflows in a task management system. The structured workflow enhances operational efficiencies and provides greater transparency, which is especially important when multiple tasks require inter-departmental cooperation, e.g., when a deal closes, in addition to the Deal Execution team, Tax, Legal, Valuation, and Cash Management teams, etc., need to be notified. Different teams can track their combined workflow and easily compare each other’s progress in the task management system.   

Task management systems can also accommodate the underlying dynamics of a workflow by providing capabilities such as approval tasks, dependencies, etc. For example, if the post-deal closing workflow cannot be started until a deal is closed, the workflow can be structured for the post-closing workflow to be triggered only after a deal is closed. Similarly, approval tasks can be created so that unless a task has been approved, the user cannot progress to the following task. Typically, these are ‘soft blocks’ that can be overridden but are crucial in preserving the workflow structure.  

Greater Integration:  

Private Equity firms use multiple tools to track their operations. For example, many PE firms track the Deal from inception to its funding in Salesforce or other CRM systems.  

Most of the clients we have implemented task management systems used to track this info in their email systems which could have been more efficient and decentralized.  After our implementation, the task management tools connect with different software, such as Salesforce, to ensure the Deal information flows automatically into a central place where all deals and statuses are tracked.  When a Deal is funded, it flows into the task management system in a pre-defined workflow and alerts the relevant teams to complete the assigned tasks.  

Where email can come in handy is to notify a person when they have something important to take care of in the task management system. Task management systems provide more intelligent connectivity with email communications. Through their built-in integrations with Outlook, Gmail, etc., emails can provide detailed information from the task management system and link the user directly to the task they must act upon.  

Some PE teams, like Investor Relations, constantly receive emails from investors and prospects. Many task management tools allow emails to be forwarded to a specific project. They can intelligently scrape critical information from the email to automatically create a task for the IR team to act upon. By providing the ability to translate emails directly into tasks, the task management systems significantly reduce the manual effort required to distill the information into actionable items and assign it to individuals as needed. 

Task management tools can also integrate with file-sharing software such as SharePoint Online. Private equity internal operations rely heavily on spreadsheets housed in a central location, e.g., SharePoint. Task management software can integrate with SharePoint, allowing users to attach their files, located in SharePoint, to the workflow as needed. Users can easily be redirected to the SharePoint file through the task management software whenever they need to access the files while completing their tasks. Task management tools can maintain the same privacy rights as SharePoint, thus protecting the security of sensitive documents. 

Greater Reporting:  

Practical task management tools report essential metrics in real-time, allowing users to draw insights about any workflow’s progress. For example, a task management system can produce graphics and visualizations on multiple metrics, such as the number of tasks completed, the number of tasks assigned to a specific user, etc. This allows an executive to quickly see projects or processes in trouble or critical staff members whose workload is too heavy. 

Teams can use these reports to easily track the overall project’s progress and gauge individual members’ performance. For example, through sorting and filtering capabilities, the task management systems allow the users to filter the tasks by an assignee and check if they have completed them on time. Additionally, if a task remains incomplete beyond the due date, it will be highlighted, and the assignee will be notified accordingly. 

Moreover, these reports can easily be exported from the system. Flexible reporting options allow users to customize the reports according to their needs. This provides a quick and effective way to fully understand the workflow’s progress and ensure that delays can be identified promptly.  

Conclusion

Private Equity firms have complex internal operations and continue to rely too heavily on spreadsheets, email, and disparate application software to track their internal operations. These methods could be more inefficient and error-prone, and valuable energy and time are often spent searching for the data to verify its accuracy.  

Adopting a task management system can streamline the workflows across multiple teams and provide greater visibility of each team’s performance. Centralizing all tasks in one system makes it easy for line-level staff or senior executives to get the information they require quickly.  Greater transparency ensures that any bottlenecks can be easily identified and addressed, strengthening organizational transparency and efficiency.  

Whether you are implementing Workday for the first time or are an existing Workday user, proper support is needed to ensure your Workday experience is a success. To realize the system’s full potential and adequately support your business users, Workday must be supported by resources capable of taking on many tasks. These tasks can vary from answering how-to questions, troubleshooting issues, administering recurring events, updating calendar/schedule periods, liaising with Workday, and analyzing/deploying Workday release features.

When building your support team or enhancing it, it is essential to look for the following key characteristics. These characteristics are attributes of individuals who know Workday in and out and how the industry operates. These attributes will result in a support team that can efficiently handle any Workday request.

1. Resources with Industry Experience – Support personnel with experience in the industry are more efficient than newer resources without the requisite background. In addition, these resources can understand and diagnose issues quickly and accurately as they have been through similar situations before.
2. Less Specialization – Resources knowledgeable in multiple Workday modules provide more comprehensive solutions to issues. In addition, cross-module expertise enables these resources to know what components are related, how they impact each other, and what is part of any total solution.
3. Documentation Skills – Resources that know how to create well-written documentation provide value beyond configuring Workday. The documentation they produce will be invaluable to retaining institutional and contextual knowledge, mitigate against staff turnover, and provide a knowledge base for others to leverage.

Resources with Industry Experience

It is important not to fixate only on what resources know in Workday. Knowing the ins and outs of the industry is just as valuable. This knowledge is gained only through experience and provides a perspective on how things are supposed to work regardless of the kind of system.

For example, it is quite common for terminating employees at Asset Managers to be subject to a Garden Leave policy where the terminated worker is essentially paid not to work for a set amount of time after their termination. Workday does not come pre-configured with the means to put someone on Garden Leave; it will be up to your firm to configure this. Resources with experience administering and using Garden Leaves will know how to configure it properly. In Workday, the easy part is setting up the Garden Leave itself so that the terminations could go on leave and not terminate until the end of their Leave. However, there are additional considerations to review regarding whether Garden Leave terminations should be included in active headcount, where they should sit in your organization, or whether they should be visible to employees outside of HR. Support resources knowledgeable about Garden Leaves would know how to configure Workday optimally, focusing on the pitfalls to look out for and specific reporting requirements.

This is just one specific example; however, with so many moving pieces for a feature commonly used by Asset Managers, it is critical to vet resources on their knowledge of Workday and how they have applied Workday to meet HR policies at other firms in the same industry.

Less Specialization

Having less specialization in a specific Workday component may seem counterintuitive, but in our experience, it is quite the opposite. Sure, a specialist in a particular Workday module can expertly configure its module. However, this specialization comes at a cost where they cannot configure other modules or realize the more significant impact a request may have on other areas of Workday.

As a result, a specialist may not be able to implement a comprehensive solution. Or, their lack of knowledge of other Workday components would introduce complexities when handoff and coordination are required between multiple resources.

For example, in Workday Financials, you can set up a Punchout where Workday integrates with a vendor allowing you to purchase items (like office supplies or computer hardware) directly from the vendor, and the order information would flow directly into Financials. Setting this up would involve creating a Purchase Order, matching the invoice, capitalizing the asset (if applicable), and setting up a depreciation schedule. Again, a resource that was knowledgeable in multiple Workday components would be able to advise you on what to watch out for and the best path to implement the solution.

Documentation Skills

The most overlooked attribute when evaluating Workday resources is the mindset and ability to document everything and do it well. Documentation is critical as resolving Workday issues is often an involved process involving researching the subject, implementing the solution, and testing multiple scenarios. Furthermore, many types of problems and projects repeat themselves (i.e., an employee thinks their Time Off Balance is incorrect, Performance Cycles happen twice a year, annual Open Enrollment, and new time off plans). Documentation can prevent having to research and resolve the same issues more than once.

Proper and well-written documentation will preserve the work done, allowing you to retain institutional knowledge, lessen the impact of any resource turnover, and enable work to be done more efficiently. The team will spend less time re-examining common issues, attempting to understand past decisions, and more time resolving the actual problem.

Retaining knowledge of your existing setup is particularly relevant across the alternative investment client base, where firms often devise complex allocation rules to determine the true profitability of each business line.   These rules result in a ‘fully-loaded’ P&L by business line and can be used in some cases to determine the compensation of portfolio managers, traders, or other essential employees associated with the business. In some cases, firms will want access to this P&L but not have it truly posted in the general ledger and instead use it for reporting purposes. This necessitates customized reporting that may exclude or include these allocations depending upon the view of the person running the report. When troubleshooting or modifying these reports, it may take a resource that is unfamiliar with the setup much longer and may lead them to recommend modifications that are not appropriate. It may also require lengthy explanations from the business that is not the best use of time and could otherwise be avoided.  

Conclusion

Successfully supporting Workday is not easy, as there are many types of users to deal with and a wide array of issues to resolve. Therefore, selecting the proper staff to support Workday is in your best interest. Your support personnel must be capable of working with multiple Workday components, documenting solutions and decisions well, and having knowledge of the business to create solutions that fit within the industry. By recognizing and evaluating resources against these critical traits, you will be well-positioned to field the right Workday support team for your organization.

FinServ’s long history servicing the world’s top Alternative Asset Managers, combined with our deep Workday expertise, make us a natural option to help you find a world-class Workday support team.

Large healthcare companies can have hundreds of business locations and thousands of departments across these offices, housing thousands more employees. Large occupancy and physician compensation costs must be carefully budgeted and tracked for strategic planning; however, the FP&A data collection process for these line items can be particularly onerous, often using outdated systems and Excel manipulations.

The implementation of business intelligence tools with existing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems makes data collection more efficient and timelier, leading to improved reporting and decision-making.

Implementing Business Intelligence Tools

FinServ’s client, a large and rapidly growing healthcare organization, recently implemented a SAAS Facilities Management software for more efficient space utilization and planning to enable the client to track moves/adds and changes to departmental space at every location. Prior to the implementation, the departmental space usage was tracked in an Excel file, so the data quickly became stale as departments changed locations or moved from one floor in a building to another. Since occupancy costs are budgeted and allocated to each department based on square footage, the stale square footage numbers became meaningless with respect to budgeting and allocating actual occupancy costs to the respective departments.

The project was a significant undertaking. Floor plans for hundreds of locations had to be obtained and converted from PDF to CAD format, and the space on each floor required confirmation from the respective clinical managers in each department. The successful implementation allowed the company to update moves/adds/changes to the real estate portfolio on a timely basis, providing efficient data collection and reporting on departmental occupancy costs in the FP&A process. This allowed management to make more timely decisions on the use of space. The software also enables the organization to manage its vacant space and incorporate that information for the planning and budgeting for new providers.  Combining this information with operational statistics such as patient volumes allows management to forecast profitability by location and make decisions to expand or close locations based on that profitability. The company can now decide on the quality of staff at specific locations using clinical data on patient volumes and satisfaction to make staffing and compensation decisions.

Overhauling the Compensation Process

Our client’s physician compensation process was similarly complicated and outdated. The methodology of compensating physicians is also constantly changing. At one point, physicians were compensated on the P&L they generated, which forced physicians to spend time managing their costs, such as the number of clinical staff they required to support them. Physician compensation, or “Phy Comp” was also tracked and calculated in Excel, which was unsustainable for a rapidly growing company.

The implementation of Business Intelligence tools with the company ERP systems gave the company the transparency to work relative value units (“wRVU”), which are standard units of measurement used to establish values for health care procedures or codable direct patient care experiences. The transparency of this data enabled the company to move to a production-based compensation plan for physicians, which allows physicians to spend less time managing their costs and more time dedicated to patient care.

The company is also moving towards value-based-pay incentives as more data around the patient care experience has become available in the ERP systems. The company has also undertaken a project implementing a compensation system to automate salary and bonus calculations, documenting processes and controls for IPO readiness. All these project improvements will streamline the FP&A processes with respect to Phy Comp.

Forward-thinking healthcare companies are also adopting the Financial Services model of offshoring support functions of their ERP systems to low-cost locations like India. These cost-effective managed services offer excellent support to resolve issues through the client support ticketing process quickly.

Technological improvements to ERP systems result in improved transparency of clinical data from billing systems. This allows for a more granular process in using detailed data for financial analytics and forecasting and can significantly impact financial results when utilized effectively by management.

Conclusion

FinServ Consulting, LLC has technical expertise with respect to systems, data collection, and US GAAP accounting to add value to healthcare companies, including the FP&A and ERP domains. Our team is well-positioned to help ensure the success of your next project. If you would like a full picture of FinServ’s methodologies or capabilities in running a project for your healthcare organization, please contact FinServ Consulting at info@finservconsulting.com or call 646-603-3799.

Managing your IT infrastructure touches every team member and can create significant issues if not handled effectively. From extensive downtime to user frustration having an IT team that does not act as a business partner can hurt your whole fund.
FinServ completed an IT MSP Vendor Selection for one of our Private Equity Fund clients experiencing these exact issues. When the head of the fund could not access his systems during the pandemic, and their service provider had let the problem sit for over 24 hours, the fund decided a change had to be made.
The client was already aware of FinServ’s Vendor Selection methodology, as a few months earlier, we helped them select a new Third-Party Fund Administrator.

FinServ’s Vendor Selection methodology ensures that our clients select the right service provider for their unique requirements. Our comprehensive approach includes three stages of selection.

Phase 1 – Initiate

FinServ works with our client to inventory/collect all essential documentation and support for the new vendor culminating in a detailed set of user requirements. FinServ leverages our functions of an IT MSP to reconcile all possible functions to ensure all possible services are covered. Getting from a long list of vendors to a shortlist based on a detailed Request for Information (“RFI”).

Phase 2 – Assess

At the core of our selection approach, we use a 35-Page RFP including over 320 detailed questions. This level of detail ensures that the vendor provides the services and support in a way that meets each client’s requirements. Every client has their own way of doing business, and this approach ensures that the vendor that best fits that model is selected. The key to this stage is FinServ’s team with unparalleled attention to detail combs through the provider’s documentation and answers. It creates a qualitative and quantitative scoring that investors and auditors call world-class.

Phase 3 – Recommend

In the final stage of our selection process, we use scripted demos, which force each vendor to show, not just tell us, how they address the client’s most complex challenges. It is in this step that the right vendor rises to the top. Most salespeople hate this step because they know that often they want to stretch the truth about their systems. The right vendor can show how it is done to seal the win. In our final step, we conduct comprehensive reference checks that often uncover issues that may not disqualify a vendor but help the client with crucial advice as they move forward with the winner. The final step is a recommendation deck that summarizes all the detailed work, including the cost analysis across the finalist vendors supporting the client’s final selection. Many clients have used this document to show potential investors the quality of diligence in selecting a key service provider.

Beyond the Methodology

The process is key to making the right choice, but more important is ensuring that you focus on the essential areas these service providers offer. Technology is constantly evolving, be sure there is a focus on what is needed today and in the near term to meet your firm goals and requirements.

FinServ makes it our business to always stay on top of the latest requirements from regulatory agencies like the SEC and the latest technologies that the best providers are using.

Your IT Managed Service Provider (“MSP”) typically handles 2 to 3 of the most critical aspects of your business:

1) Cyber-Security & Risk Management

2) Monitoring & Management of IT Infrastructure

And for funds that have chosen not to keep IT resources in-house.

3) Service Desk / Desktop Support for Users / Company

1) Cyber-Security & Risk Management

With the war in Ukraine and the increased likelihood of focused cyber-attacks, there has never been a more critical time for a financial institution to ensure that they have the best possible risk management and cyber security coverage possible.
The offerings from the best IT MSPs have changed drastically over the past few years as the technology for cyber security and risk management has been forced to evolve as quickly as the sophistication of attacks.

The Not So Obvious Requirements Matter Most
One of the nuanced aspects of these services is less about your direct protection and more about how communications about potential IT security issues are raised. Our clients desire to limit the noise created by non-critical communications, so only the most critical issues are escalated for review. Some vendors have more advanced issue monitoring and alert systems that use rules and triggers to raise only the most important messages to clients, limiting “boy who cried wolf” scenarios.
The best vendors also proactively provide webinars and training for your employees to stay on top of the latest attack approaches. A knowledgeable team is your best defense against constantly evolving and changing cyber threats.

2) Monitoring & Management of IT Infrastructure

Has your network ever gone down, leaving you unable to work? Have any of your remote employees ever lost access to your network? Has a crucial executive of your firm ever been frustrated by not getting the IT support they need?
If the answer to those questions was yes, you probably don’t have the right service provider with the proper setup and response management systems. The best IT MSPs have formulated approaches that ensure redundancy and backup of essential systems, so you never have downtime during regular business hours. Similarly, they have all created world-class service systems that support intelligent routing of critical issues with complete status transparency. Essential issues are solved in minutes, not hours or days. When they take longer, your support staff can see real-time updates on 1) who is working on the issue, 2) when it will be resolved, and 3) all the latest activity and communications to the key executive.

3) Service Desk / Desktop Support for Users / Company

If a key executive’s camera is suddenly not working and they have a full day of Zoom or Teams calls ahead, not having someone come to their desk immediately to fix the issue can be a significant problem.
Alternative asset management firms often choose not to hire a CTO or desktop support staff. With predominantly SaaS-based applications, the need for in-house physical support has been dramatically reduced. Many smaller funds prefer to rely on an outsourced IT support person along with a part-time Virtual CTOs (“vCTOs”) to focus on complex technology strategy. Separately, while remote desktop support can work for many issues, in-person physical support is still something many funds require. While many IT MSP Vendors have moved away from offering this service, it is still an essential requirement for many funds.

If you are one of these funds, FinServ has you covered. We know which IT MSPs truly champion this type of support and which vendors only give it lip service. Additionally, If you are unhappy with any existing onsite IT support you are receiving today, we can help you move to a vendor that will cover all of your needs.

Conclusion

The IT MSP Vendor space is filled with many sub-par providers that cannot cover the mission-critical services that alternative asset managers require. In a world where one mistake could cost your firm its reputation or paralyze your operations, it seems crazy to leave this essential operational risk under-serviced and exposed.
There is no one-size-fits-all vendor. Many of the best IT MSPs have focused their services in certain areas, so choosing the right partner that fits your firm’s unique requirements is essential. FinServ’s knowledge of the marketplace and our rigorous selection methodology ensure you get the provider and services your fund requires.

To learn more about FinServ Consulting’s services: info@finservconsulting.com or (646) 603-3799.

Employee engagement surveys measure employee passion for the job, commitment to the organization, and alignment with firm values. FinServ assisted a leading healthcare services company to select and implement a new employee engagement survey platform. The client owns multiple hospitals, Ambulatory Service Centers (ASCs), and outpatient clinics across the United States. Likewise, participation in the annual engagement survey is an important part of the healthcare site accreditation process. Additionally, the survey results directly lead to tailored action plans for each site location.

Since COVID-19, it has become even more crucial for healthcare organizations to monitor the well-being of their employees. As the pandemic stretched on, the healthcare industry witnessed high burnout rates amongst its employees and the FinServ client wanted to ensure that they were supporting employees through the unprecedented difficulties placed on medical professionals.

Engagement Survey Questions – Examples

The survey questions focused on the employees’ overall satisfaction with the organization. These questions corresponded to the following categories:

• Workplace Satisfaction: The first set of questions targeted an employee’s satisfaction with the organization and their work team e.g., “Are you satisfied with your work team?”
• Growth Opportunities: The second set of questions focused on whether each employee’s work is meaningful to him/her and if they have ample opportunities to learn and grow. For example, one of the questions stated: “Do you find your work meaningful?” 
• Compliance Regulations: The final set of questions surveyed each employee’s familiarity with the compliance regulatory requirements followed by the client e.g., “Do you know the name of the Chief Compliance Officer at the organization?”

These questions were intended to provide valuable feedback to the client, which would be useful in retaining its valuable talent.

Key Success Criteria – New Engagement Management System

Given its complex structure, the client required a survey system that would meet both its core business requirements and regulatory Clinical and Compliance functions.

The client determined three key success criteria for the new EMS:

• User-Friendliness: The new system must be extremely user-friendly and easy to administer. As the client intended to conduct multiple surveys for the different units through a single platform, the new system needed to efficiently administer surveys at different points in time for various organizational units.
• Analytic Capabilities: The system should consider the unique nature of the client’s organizational structure and provide great flexibility in collecting and interpreting the survey results. This not only would provide the client easy access to the historical data but will also customize the analysis based upon each team size, providing an ‘apple to apple’ comparison.
• Reporting Capabilities: The system must possess data analytics capabilities, which could compile historical survey responses within the system’s repository and utilize them over time for accurate comparison. This would provide the client a unique opportunity to compare their employee responses over time and focus on any outliers. 

These questions were intended to provide valuable feedback to the client, which would be useful in retaining its valuable talent.

FinServ’s Vendor Selection Approach – New Engagement Management System

The FinServ team conducted a methodical vendor selection process using standardized processes and cumulative expert experience to ensure that everything from selecting the vendor to the survey rollout was seamless.

FinServ’s standard vendor selection process is typically divided into three main stages:

• Step 1 – Investigate: The FinServ team documented the current and future business requirements of the client. The project team held generic demos for long list vendors to validate current vendor landscape capabilities. Based on these inputs, a short list of vendors were invited to participate in a Request for Proposal (RFP).
• Step 2 – Assess: FinServ reviewed and scored each vendor’s RFP response using a quantitative score based on weighted question priority, supplemented by an overall qualitative assessment and cost analysis for each participant. The client selected finalist vendors for participation in a formal scripted demo process using the clients most important and/or complex workflows as evaluation criteria.
• Step 3 – Recommend: Detailed reference checks were conducted and FinServ prepared an recommendation presentation for the client executive selection review committees including a “winning” vendor, cost analysis, and proposed service level tier to target.

Under FinServ’s guidance, the client was able to make a thorough and educated decision to find the best long-term partner for their business under a tight timeline to both select, implement, and deploy their engagement survey.

Deploying the Annual Survey Questionnaire

After negotiating the final contract, FinServ worked closely with the client to construct the engagement survey and survey deployment process itself. Survey system administration historically posed a challenge. The client wanted to streamline the process to make it easy for employees to participate, but employee information was spread across three different Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) across its multiple facilities. FinServ spearheaded the client’s data migration onto the survey administrator.

After the data was uploaded into the system, FinServ took painstaking measures to verify the data. This included verifying the number of records, required fields and attributes, date formats, and removing the duplicate values to match the original data. This exercise ensured that the data upload into the new system was carried out smoothly and eliminated any inconsistencies providing the client with a robust data set to rely on for their new survey administrator. Additionally, FinServ’s expertise in data migration and data handling ensured a smooth enrollment of each survey user in the client’s system.

Finally, due to the client’s hierarchical organizational structure, emphasis was placed on creating the managerial hierarchy for different organizational units. The hierarchy was designed to ensure that each manager could view the aggregate response of only their team. FinServ worked closely with the survey vendor to implement stringent anonymity conditions. The client had historically struggled with post-survey analysis and ensuring the complete anonymity of the responses. This resulted in employees being hesitant to record honest responses, making it difficult for the client to implement meaningful reforms. In the new system, hard restrictions on how granular responses could be analyzed were implemented. E.g., managers would be unable to see individual responses for a team comprising of less than five members to ensure confidentiality and response safety. This allowed the client to get the analytical insight and depth they needed without compromising survey integrity and employee confidentiality.

Benchmarking Survey Results

Employee engagement benchmarks are critical to providing context for the employee responses to the survey questions. Using the benchmarks tied to the client’s survey results to a portfolio of other healthcare companies, FinServ’s client was able to add additional context to the survey data collected in order to identifying areas of weakness/strength across the organization to help structure leadership, cultural, and organization incentives.

The Outcome

The client was extremely happy with the smooth rollout of the engagement survey and the high survey participation rate. In addition, the benchmark selected by FinServ for the engagement survey proved to be a successful choice; the client was delighted with the reports created from the responses and found the benchmark a useful criterion to compare the survey responses. The client identified multiple opportunities to act on employees’ feedback and involve employees in co-creating actions to continuously improve their work experience.

In addition to designing and launching the engagement survey, FinServ additionally engaged to help the client design two other surveys in the portal. These included an engagement survey and a compliance survey targeted only at physicians. FinServ supported the creation of those surveys and the overall setup of the portal, which enhanced the efficiency of the client’s survey cycle. This ensured that the client could easily launch any of the surveys electronically, drastically reducing the time and cost associated with administering the surveys on paper. This also ensured that the client would be unlikely to rely on any other third party for designing and launching the surveys from now onwards, which added a long-term value to the client’s business operations.

Conclusion

Overall, employee engagement surveys can help the organizations retain their talents, especially in the wake of ongoing Great Resignation. Given how crucial engagement surveys are, it is critical that they are administered properly. By leveraging its vast expertise, FinServ can help your organization select an optimal engagement management system best suited to your unique needs.

To learn more about FinServ Consulting’s services: info@finservconsulting.com or (646) 603-3799.

There are five critical tasks that Workday companies should undertake around the year-end / new year time frame. Individually, these are simple tasks but can significantly impact your HR operations if not completed in time.

Year-end activities come thick and fast, and it is easy in the last month of the year to forget to undertake some essential tasks. FinServ Consulting has identified five essential tasks that every HR department must complete to guarantee a smooth kick-off to the new year. Lack of action on these tasks could create unnecessary errors or preventable breaks in your operations, causing a lot of unneeded January headaches.

These five areas are:

1. Scheduled Processes – (integration, reports, alerts) and Period Schedules (payroll, time off, time tracking) must be reviewed and set up / extended manually. Scheduled processes can be set up in advance up to five instances in a new year. Period schedules can be set up for up to two years in advance.
2. Delegation Review – A review of delegation assignments ensures that they are correct and that expiration dates are extended. This will avoid the Workday inboxes of executives filling up with tasks that generally would be delegated.
3. Compliance Activities – Review what compliance requirements are pending for the new year, including mandated data purging and verifying employee compliance with company policies.
4. Corporate Document Updates – A review of employee documents like the corporate handbook, benefit plan documents, and company policies will ensure that they are updated and properly linked to in Workday.
5. Time Off Calendar and Balances – Update the upcoming holiday calendar to ensure that employees can successfully request time off. In addition, review time-off balances that are carrying over to ensure accuracy.

#1 – Scheduled Processes and Period Schedules

Scheduled processes allow you to automate processes on a schedule (i.e. daily, weekly, monthly), such as an integration with your medical benefits provider or payroll processor. These schedules are typically set up in advance but must be maintained annually. They cannot be scheduled indefinitely and can usually be set for up to five scheduled instances in the following year.

Suppose your payroll file is not sent to your payroll provider because it is no longer automatically scheduled in Workday. In that case, the HR team risks a highly visible and potentially catastrophic mistake.

Period Schedules standardize the sequential periods you use to track absence or payroll. These period schedules also need to be entered and maintained manually and can be entered up to two years in advance.

Not setting your future period schedules can prevent employees from requesting time off or prevent you from processing the next pay run. Like the Scheduled Processes, not maintaining Period Schedules is an easily preventable error.

#2 – Delegation Review

Tasks are often delegated in Workday, usually to assistants of senior executives. Senior executives are generally crucial control points to granting approvals for time off requests from their subordinates or approving high-value expenses and invoices. Executives usually do not have the time or inclination to go into Workday consistently and approve these requests.

Delegating these tasks to assistants allow the tasks to be completed in a timely and consistent manner. These delegations do have expiration dates and need to be reviewed annually. Letting delegation settings expire can result in a senior executive’s Workday inbox being flooded rather than the tasks going to the correct delegated employee for processing. If the executive is not looking at their Workday inbox, critical invoice payments may not be approved, leading to unnecessary late payment penalties. For example, Market Data vendors’ unpaid invoices may lead to unnecessary late fees or, even worse, denial of critical data that the business requires.

As administrative permissions have time limits, it is easy to set them and forget them until something goes horribly wrong.

#3 – Compliance Activities

​Data purging and employee compliance are two of the essential resets needed at year-end / beginning of the year. This means verifying that everyone has signed the required employee and corporate policy documents such as the employee handbook, Covid / return to work attestations, restricted trading policy attestations, and other necessary documents.

As these documents are disseminated throughout the year, it is easy to lose track of whether they have been reviewed and signed off on by all employees.

The time surrounding the new year is a natural time to conduct a holistic overview of the status of the firm’s overall policy attestations. For example, employees may be required to attest to understanding the code of ethics or conflicts of interest policies. Ensuring that these policies are enforced and that enforcement is tangible is key to assuaging any concerns of regulators or potential investors.

This time is also an excellent time to review how well the firm is in compliance with data retention and purging regulations. For example, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) stipulates that personal data is collected for legitimate reasons and is only kept if needed. Because of these regulations, companies will need to place greater scrutiny on terminated employees and their personal data. The HR or compliance departments must be vigilant in reviewing this data and determining if there is a legitimate reason to continue storing it in Workday.

#4 – Corporate Document Updates

Corporate documents such as employee handbooks, benefit plan documents, and policies can get out of date quickly as policies evolve, such as Diversity and Inclusion and Remote Work policies. In addition, the companies’ benefit providers often change, or the company changes the plan offerings themselves. The document file itself can change from content updates to file name changes or file location changes. Once this happens, the reference link in Workday may no longer work and inevitably lead to errors during any attestation process or during an employee onboarding.

Checking that the latest document versions are set up in the system should be part of any end of year to new year process. Multiple or outdated versions of documents can cause problems; ensuring that only one version – the latest – exists is essential.

Performance review templates are another area to double-check along with offer letters and other templates used throughout the year. These templates can change. Since they impact all employees and prospective hires, it is critical to be consistent and accurate in what is shown. If these templates link to external documents or are set to send information to vendors, it is vital to make sure that the links still work.

#5 – Time Off Calendar and Balances

A simple task that can cause many headaches is ensuring that next year’s calendar includes the correct dates for holidays. Different localities and regions may have special holidays, and observed holidays change from year to year. These are not automatically loaded into Workday; they need to be set up every year manually. This is particularly important for companies with international offices where the holiday dates may differ.

The time around year-end is also a good time to get ahead of nuances in the calendar for the upcoming year to give you more time to be prepared to address any employee concerns. For example, most financial services firms follow the stock market’s holiday schedule. At the end of 2021, the stock market is not observing New Year’s Day 2022 as a holiday since it falls on a Saturday. Usually, the holiday would be observed on the preceding Friday. But, because Friday is a key accounting period (year-end / quarter-end / month-end), the stock market will be open. Try explaining that on New Year’s Eve when this calendar quirk dawns on your employees.

Another critical activity for year-end is to check your employee’s time off balances due to carry over. Carry-over balances should be checked for accuracy; this will ensure that your time off eligibility and carry-over rules are correct and that an unexpected employee type / setup is not breaking the time-off rules.  Unused time off that can be paid out will need to be appropriately reviewed and loaded into payroll.

Conclusion

Overall, it is best never to assume that these essential tasks have been completed. Much of what needs to be done annually is common sense, but HR and Operations teams often overlook these additional inputs / actions in the crunch of a busy fourth quarter.

FinServ Consulting has found that many clients outsource support for these activities after they have experienced one of these painful events.

Whether you choose to seek our support or not, we hope these top tips help you avoid any adverse effects on your company’s operations. Getting to grips with these tasks early and on an annual basis will save a lot of time, energy and headaches in the coming year.

To learn more about FinServ Consulting’s services: info@finservconsulting.com or (646) 603-3799.

There are many reasons for an asset management company to undertake an operational assessment. The most common are that firms grow assets under management, change or add the types of assets traded, expand the range of strategies and/or funds it manages and have a more complex investor base with different requirements for shareholders. All these changes mean systems and processes set up at the beginning of the firm’s life cycle may no longer be fit for purpose.

FinServ Consulting leverages all its experience and expertise gained in working with similar funds or businesses to help support its clients in this exercise. This has given the company unique insights into how assessments can be conducted and what asset management firms will gain from the process.

Identifying Problem Areas

The first step in the process is to look at and analyze an investment firm’s full operations and processes to identify inefficiencies that are holding back the growth of the firm. This process can also reassure investors that the firm is doing everything it can to use its resources effectively while at the same time having processes and controls in place to ensure that operations from front to back office are running smoothly and are fit for the present as well as the future.

The assessments can highlight a variety of areas where firms may want to make changes. This strategic initiative looks at how technology is being used, whether service providers deliver in the most effective way and if teams are structured for optimal efficiency.  The review can expose bottlenecks, suggest areas where best practice can be implemented and show how to streamline a business. Ultimately, a target operating model is defined and presented with a path to get there.

Although operational assessments are routinely conducted by many firms, lately there has been an increase in requests for these evaluations. This is due to several reasons. For example, because of the pandemic, some technology investment has been delayed however, firms have only grown in complexity. Inefficiencies caused by manual processes may be exacerbated as the fund grows its assets under management (AUM).

Many firms still use Excel or have many operations done manually when there are more eloquent automated solutions available. The frequency of this can be a direct result of the infrastructure set up at the beginning of a firm’s life cycle. As it grows, those processes may no longer be adequate, particularly if it has experienced changes in the types of asset classes traded, the size and volume of trades or other factors. These factors mean existing infrastructure is less optimal. The systems used at the start of a business may not be scalable or the most efficient as it grows.

Identifying Where Efficiencies Can Be Made

Once the parameters of the operational assessment are established, everyone involved in a specific process in a fund are interviewed using a set list of questions. This helps identify ways to streamline work – such as trading workflows.

For instance, portfolio managers do not always have all the information they need at their fingertips. There may be a lot of manual work before a trading decision is made. Interviews with portfolio managers, traders, operations, finance, and anyone from the technology side involved in these processes are interviewed to identify areas where there may be ways to update work streams or plan for future expansion.

A list of predetermined questions also gives the conversations a focus and helps identify areas of inefficiency that can be improved.

The resulting list of projects – ways a firm can change processes, technology and even people to be more efficient – can be daunting. These projects can be small or large, complex or simple, easy to implement or difficult.

While it is always up to the firm to decide which projects it wants to tackle in the short or long term, some like to focus on quick wins that may be relatively inexpensive while others put together a program aimed at gradual transformation of processes and procedures.

FinServ Consulting has developed a project impact/effort matrix that helps identify which actions will have the most impact on the business while also judging the difficulty or complexity in implementing these compared with those that are much easier to do but have less overall effect on the business.

This assessment is a snapshot, giving the firm an overview of inefficiencies and what the impact of fixing them will be. Quick wins could include things like reorganization of the folder directory, discontinuing daily reports or giving Bloomberg access to more people. Key improvements that may take longer to implement might include hiring more people, like a tax director, implementing new systems like a portfolio management system (PMS) or a data warehouse.

The addition of new strategies and funds may also put a strain on existing infrastructure. Likewise, the introduction of managed accounts, funds of one or onshore/offshore structures to accommodate a wider range of investors will necessitate different procedures and processes.

Operational due diligence by investors can also identify red flag areas where improvements need to be made.

A Path Forward: Recommendations

At the end of the operational assessment there are usually five to six strategic areas where change is recommended. These range from relatively inexpensive projects to more long-term changes.

The assessment gives a timeline and costs to help firms make decisions on what to tackle first and what it may want to consider in the longer term. It is the firm’s decision what to do next and how.

By using FinServ for this exercise, unlike other consultants, the job does not end at giving the firm recommendations. FinServ is available to help implement all the suggestions, provide assistance in choosing the right technologies, service providers, processes and procedures to ready the firm for present operations as well as for the future.

While the operational assessment does not look at whether and how a firm might go into another business, like loan servicing, the process does look at operations where targeted improvements will make jobs more efficient and scalable. Some growing firms worry that every time they add a new fund or strategy, they will need to hire more persons, adding to the costs and making it difficult to scale the business. For them, outsourcing options and third parties that can assist them and make more staff unnecessary may be better options than adding to the employee list.

Assessments are also made on third party providers, like fund administrators. By looking closely at what a fund administrator provides, they could request more services and gauge whether the amount of money the administrator is charging is close to the costs for similar businesses. The assessments are holistic, looking at all the processes of the entire firm.

Whether the need for an operational assessment is necessitated by operational due diligence by investors, a more complex investor base, firm growth or just a health check after a few years of operations, the process is geared to help tighten processes and procedures, streamline controls, and get the firm to the desired future state where it is capable of being more efficient and making more informed decisions. A fund’s infrastructure should never dictate what trading strategies are permissible or impede a business decision.

Even firms that believe they are relatively straight forward as they only do a small number of investments or trades may be challenged by the complexity of regulatory filings, the different types of data needed for a variety of purposes and a complex investor base.

Conclusion

FinServ Consulting, with years of experience working with a wide variety of asset managers, brings its knowledge and expertise to the operational assessment process – and does not leave the client with a list of “to-dos”. It helps in the implementation of the suggestions to create a firm fit for purpose now and in the future.

To learn more about FinServ Consulting’s services, please contact us at info@finservconsulting.com or (646) 603-3799. 

FinServ is pleased to announce the opening of a new office in Mumbai, India. Shaurin Jobalia, who has worked with leading hedge funds and alternate asset management firms globally, will lead a growing team in India, which has more than two decades of collective middle- and back-office experience in fund accounting. The Indian team includes professionals who have previously worked at industry-leading firms such as Enfusion, SS&C Technologies, GlobeOp, Morgan Stanley Fund Services, and Bank of America.

The office will serve funds in a broad range of areas, including:

• Assisting with daily trade positions and cash reconciliations with custodians, prime brokers, and fund administrators.
• Providing break analysis for any issues
• Assisting with corporate actions and swap financing accruals and setup.
• Providing complete shadow NAV with clients’ third-party administrators, including balance sheet and income statement reconciliations.

FinServ’s Managed Services aims to provide fund managers with customizable and scalable solutions to tailor their firms’ operations.

The opening comes at a time when two key trends are converging. First, alternative asset managers are under increased pressure to reduce costs. Fees fell to new lows in 2020 according to Hedge Fund Research, as investors pulled roughly $46 billion from funds.  Secondly, COVID-19 has disrupted day-to-day operations and provided a new set of challenges for asset managers in keeping their businesses functioning effectively. A silver lining has emerged, however. The global pandemic has accelerated the use and adoption of remote workers among fund managers.  With teams working remotely, managers have leaned on service providers and recognized that they can support operations and technology through outsourcing.

With a team in India, FinServ can meet those requirements and deliver new benefits, such as reduced costs and more flexibility. The FinServ team is unique as they bring systems expertise which allows for detailed analysis and problem solving.  In addition, the team is staffed by experienced resources that have a deep understanding of different asset classes.  If a fund trades equities, credit or privates, the team brings the appropriate knowledge to assist in the processing.  By leveraging the team, funds can efficiently scale their operations by eliminating the need to increase headcount for non-core activities, or job functions.  The new India office will support FinServ’s core consulting business across specialized middle and back office managed services, software customization and implementations, industry systems integrations, and bespoke systems development.

At a time when funds are accustomed to receiving what has historically been a commoditized service, FinServ’s team takes it a step further. The teams are well-versed in each client’s unique needs and deliver on those requirements through both a hands-on and customized approach.

To learn more about FinServ Consulting’s services, please contact us at info@finservconsulting.com or (646) 603-3799.

As the world slowly returns to a “new” normal for operational working practices, many funds are reviewing their existing business continuity plans (BCPs) and analyzing how to make them more robust and relevant given lessons learned from the global pandemic.

While many funds moved their technology to cloud-based solutions long before the pandemic began, others still have onsite servers and physical files that constitute a potentially serious business risk, particularly considering the changes (and disruption) to working practices over the past 18 months.

Many alternative funds, including hedge funds and private equity firms, managed to make a timely switch to remote working however many others continue to struggle to implement systems that satisfy their needs while balancing the mistrust of cloud-based environments by some executive team members. Even those that have already made changes will want to look more closely at exactly what systems they are using and if there are better, more effective, and efficient solutions that can be implemented.

Before making any modifications or implementing new business continuity plans, funds should consider several key aspects ranging from calling trees to automating vendor risk analysis. Potential unknowns could disrupt any workplace and its technological solutions. Plans should be formal, detailed, and comprehensive, and account for a variety of different scenarios.

Having a robust continuity plan is essential, particularly as existing, and new investors will look at this closely before making allocation decisions. They will want to see meticulous plans that give them the confidence they need to put (or keep) money into funds.

Futureproofing

No business can future proof itself entirely or plan for black swan events, but it can think about what a new risk or potential disrupter of the future may be. Another pandemic cannot be ruled out, and serious climate events (wildfires, flash flooding, extreme weather, for example) and other unforeseen risks, including political risk, should be factored in.

For example, how robust are communications if there is no mobile network available? What are the alternatives if mobile phone networks are not working? For those working at home, what systems do they need, including equipment and technology, to ensure they can work remotely no matter what the problem? What happens if Wi-Fi stops working or secure networks can no longer be accessed?

Funds also need to look at their service providers and vendors and ensure their vendors’ BCP’s are at the same standard as well as consider how potential disruption to services or systems, whatever the emergency and for varying lengths of time, could be mitigated.

Throughout the pandemic, FinServ has helped clients assess current vendor agreements. A worrying number did not meet the level of detail or required response times firms should reasonably expect – or thought they had agreed on – from providers.

These are real threats to business continuity and performance. For example, quantitative trading funds need a contingency plan in case their trading platforms go down. Can present vendors guarantee little or no disruption to all or only some trades? How quickly can systems be back online or moved to alternative sites? What are the potential costs to the fund?

Enterprise document management systems such as SharePoint Online are far more effective than using the quite common and outdated construct of Network folders. However, relying heavily on document sharing programs such as SharePoint could also be a problem if there is disruption due to remote work. Are agreements in place specifying how long before systems are back online? Are there other, secondary programs that can be used? Does everyone know what to do if disaster strikes and what the alternatives are?

Even smaller scale problems could be a serious disruption to a business. If a key employee is unable to work, who is capable or next in line to handle their duties? Does the replacement employee have the training, permissions, and access needed to continue the work, and while they are being a substitute, who is going to do their work?

Potential Solutions for Alternative Investment Firms

FinServ Consulting has helped many alternative investment firms build well-thought-out and fully documented business continuity plans. Some of the areas in which continuity plans should address vendor issues are reassessing vendor agreements and identifying and prioritizing vendors in order of the most critical to the least.

FinServ Consulting can also demine the types of guarantees needed to maintain business continuity, ensure vendors provide those guarantees and review contracts on a regular basis to ensure their own business continuity plans are strong enough not to let you down.

Continuity plans are also needed for employees. FinServ can help identify the priority roles and responsibilities within the firm and create a plan of succession if anyone at any level is unable to work, whatever the reason and length of time. It can help ensure all employees will have the permissions and access needed to take on different or more responsibilities if needed.

To bring this all together, FinServ can also design and implement a communications plan that will ensure everyone is informed and briefed sufficiently on what is happening and to whom whatever the type of disruption.

A vendor management system can play an important role in helping an alternative investment firm with creating and managing a business continuity plan more effectively and efficiently.

To learn more about how FinServ Consulting can help your firm develop and implement a business continuity plan, contact us at info@finservconsulting.com or call us at (646) 603-3799.