Data Management

The client desired an Enterprise Data Platform that would serve as a Single Source of Truth and drive operational efficiency. Olmstead led the strategy and implementation. We built an Enterprise Data Warehouse using our Snowflake accelerator and developed data ingestion processes from their middle office provider, Salesforce, and FactSet. We constructed flexible Power BI reports that provided easy access, transparency, drill-downs, and drill-throughs. We created a One-Stop Shopping experience for convenient Self-service access to curated data and improved data accessibility, productivity, and intelligence.

The client was seeking to transform their operations through building a digital operating environment.  Olmstead led the successful operational transformation by implementing the Investment Data Hub (IDH). This central data warehouse streamlined processes, reduced costs, and mitigated risks for the Fund Administration function. The IDH replaced manual processes and disparate databases, resulting in a 20% reduction in fund expenses, $12.4 million cost savings, and 30k+ hours of annual capacity. Olmstead's expertise in data architecture, cloud migration, and industry knowledge ensured the implementation of key use cases and user-enabled technologies, yielding significant efficiency gains and business value for the client.

The client required data that was trustworthy, accessible, documented, and supported.  Olmstead customized our Data Governance Framework for the client and established a Data Governance Program.  We coached the client through organizing their data into data domains, assigning ownership, and communicating program details.  Implemented a data catalog, enacted data issue management workflows, and instituted a Data Quality Framework.  Dramatically improved data quality, data accessibility, and laid a critical foundation for Self-service.

The client desired an optimized FactSet process to achieve scalability, agility, and business intelligence goals.  Specifically, the client needed to blend FactSet data with other enterprise data, eliminate report inconsistencies, and speed up the overall reporting processes. Olmstead developed an export process from FactSet to their enterprise data warehouse, created automated data quality rules into the process, and built flexible Power BI reports which enabled portfolio managers to respond to questions instantly.  This resulted in faster report changes, improved scalability, and a decreased total cost of ownership.

The client was unsatisfied with its loose controls around data processing. There was also unclear ownership and confusion around how best to add usable information to data stores. The client requested enhancements to its data governance to address these pain points. The client wanted to avoid a large bureaucracy when implementing the needed controls. Olmstead created organizational structures and light-weight processes to manage ownership and changes to the data in the firm. These processes brought clarity and consistency to data processing and governance.  Recognizing that there is additional governance work ahead, the organization is committed to further enhancements of the processes in the future.

The client sought changes to their Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) to improve project execution and efficiency.  Olmstead oversaw the implementation of an Atlassian JIRA project to track all related epics and stories and implemented a software development process aligned with this JIRA project ensuring proper completion, testing and deployment of code.  In addition, we implemented a separate Kanban board for high level backlog items not ready for development to be used by business analysts to track their activities in the development story creation and refinement. These activities had a significant impact on the project’s efficiency and ability to move forward quickly.

The client desired a central store of trusted IBOR and ABOR data for enhanced data integration and clean data for business applications and processes. Olmstead introduced an enterprise data architecture that connected a central data hub with portfolio analytics, risk management, performance measurement & attribution and finance.  We also added a data governance process that created data ownership and decision rights processes resulting in increased quality and confidence of the data.

The client desired an enterprise-wide data strategy aligned with their business strategy to replace a legacy point-to-point data platform. Olmstead created a Single Source of Truth using Master Data Management (MDM) and a centralized Data Warehouse.  We also introduced Data Governance practices that included robust data quality metrics and policies across all data domains.  Finally, dashboards and reports with dynamic analytics were built.  This resulted in improved data accessibility and trust in data.