designing and implementing retirement planning reports
The Challenge
A large bank needed a software application for creating and
distributing reports of retirement plan performance. Client managers
run reports monthly to demonstrate how both public and private funds are performing in
any particular retirement plan. The bank was producing these reports
in-house, but wanted to outsource the report creation so they could concentrate
on relationship management, not information technology.
The bank also wanted changes to the format and usability of the output reports.
The Solution
Simplexity worked closely with a risk-management consulting firm to
plan, test and implement the new web-based solution. We implemented a
reporting tool which quickly and reliably generates professional looking, usable
performance reports on-demand. Our solution is built on the Microsoft
.Net platform and uses an XML-based XSL-FO reporting infrastructure.
The system
imports S&P (Standard & Poor’s) fund performance data for
over 20,000 mutual funds each month.
Hosting was outsourced to a high-availability hosting provider, and
the solution was delivered on time and on budget. Client managers can
create reports anytime they need them, and can re-assign reporting responsibility
to one another easily. Plan fund changes are quickly accommodated and
added to reports in near real-time. Reports are generated in the familiar
PDF format and branded with the bank’s look & feel.
Lessons Learned
Only part of
the problem was associated with the outsourcing challenge. Other issues
were discovered in the specification and testing process. One needs to
be very careful to manage scope in a project such as this, as there are
many influencers who can enter and leave the project at will. Even when a client asks
for a report "as-is", plan for time and budget to make the report better.
Don’t
underestimate the challenges in integrating performance data from any
provider, as
they can be significant.
For more information about how Simplexity can help you today, please email or call Eric Hughes at 510/763.4488.
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