TSAM – The Summit of Asset Management
Sept 17, 2024
New York
eClerx participated in TSAM New York, a premier event that connects leaders in asset management to discuss critical trends and best practices in the investment industry. Here’s a summary of our key contributions:
- Front, Middle, and Back-Office Operations: Our team shared strategies for optimizing operational workflows across front, middle, and back-office functions, enhancing efficiency and compliance.
- Investment Operations Transformation: eClerx highlighted methods to drive digital transformation in investment operations, helping firms improve data management and reduce costs across the investment lifecycle.
- Data Management and Analytics: We discussed innovative data management and analytics solutions tailored for asset managers, enabling better insights and data-driven decision-making.
- Operational Risk Management: Our experts engaged in conversations on managing and mitigating operational risks, ensuring robust and secure operations amidst market volatility.
- Client and Regulatory Reporting Solutions: eClerx presented solutions for streamlined client and regulatory reporting, helping firms meet compliance requirements and enhance client transparency.
At TSAM New York, eClerx connected with industry leaders, asset owners, and corporate investors, offering actionable insights and solutions for the evolving landscape of asset management.
Website: https://tsam.foxonmedia.com/boston/sponsors/
Venue: Hyatt Regency Boston
How productized managed services are changing financial crime compliance: Shane Thomas, Client Partner & Solutions
Published in: UK FInance | February 20, 2025
In an interview with UK Finance, Shane Thomas, Client Partner & Solutions at eClerx discussed that financial institutions are increasingly turning to ‘Productised Managed Services’ to enhance their Financial Crime Compliance (FCC) efforts. These services combine advanced technology with human expertise, offering a strategic approach to managing compliance costs and operational challenges.
eClerx, with years of experience in engineering solutions for financial crime prevention, exemplifies the effective implementation of ‘Productised Managed Services.’ The company integrates proprietary technology, human insight, and collaborations with FinTech partners to deliver comprehensive compliance solutions.
Boosting digital engagement and revenue for a beauty retailer
Client:
The client is a leading global beauty retailer.
Challenge:
The client faced the challenge of enhancing digital engagement and customer loyalty. Leading the e-commerce efforts in Southeast Asia and Australia-New Zealand (ANZ), the client’s team aimed to boost customer interaction through automated email communications and gamification.
The complexity of integrating multiple platforms like Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Braze added to the challenge.
Solution:
eClerx provided a comprehensive solution to tackle these challenges. We began by working with the client to implement a system that triggered personalized emails based on customer actions, such as abandoned cart items.
Our team brought in expertise to ensure seamless integration of Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Braze, enhancing the client’s digital communication capabilities.
In addition, we developed a brand-aligned gaming experience to engage customers further. This gamification strategy was designed to enhance customer retention and loyalty by providing an immersive and enjoyable shopping experience.
The client implemented these recommendations, integrating the personalized email system and gamification features into their e-commerce platform. This approach allowed them to leverage real-time, personalized communication and create a more engaging online shopping journey.
Impact:
The initiatives resulted in significant improvements:
- Notable increase in customer engagement and loyalty
- Additional million dollars in revenue in the first year
This collaboration demonstrated the power of strategic innovation in the e-commerce industry. The visionary approach and effective execution set new industry benchmarks for digital customer engagement, showcasing the impact of leadership-driven innovation.
Enhancing client onboarding efficiency and customer satisfaction
Client:
The client is a US-based private investment firm.
Challenge:
The Vice President of the client’s Onboarding team was facing significant delays and inefficiencies within the firm’s existing Know Your Customer (KYC) outreach process. The onboarding process was taking 45 days, far longer than the industry standard of 20 days, resulting in frustrated clients and potential revenue delays. The complex and manual onboarding process, which relied heavily on data entry and form filling, was causing customer dissatisfaction, with duplicate records in the system further complicating the process.
The firm’s outdated KYC system also lacked the functionality to schedule periodic reviews based on risk parameters, leading to compliance challenges and slow onboarding for new corporate clients—a key growth area for the firm.
Solution:
eClerx collaborated with the client to conduct a comprehensive analysis of their existing processes, regulatory requirements, and customer mapping challenges. The solution proposed by eClerx included migrating customer data from legacy systems into the Compliance Manager tool, a platform designed to streamline KYC processes and enhance compliance capabilities.
A revamped operational model was implemented, where associates focused on high-priority linked cases, reducing backlogs and speeding up case closures. Weekly governance meetings with business stakeholders were introduced to track progress and ensure that cases nearing deadlines were prioritized.
Additionally, dashboards were developed to provide transparency on the movement of cases across various stages, and standardized outreach templates were created to optimize customer responses and minimize redundant information requests. This consolidation enabled multiple functions to be administered from a single platform, improving risk rating accuracy and automating the scheduling of periodic reviews. Dynamic subscription forms were also introduced to minimize manual dependency and improve the overall onboarding experience.
Impact:
The solution delivered significant efficiencies and exceeded the client’s expectations:
- A 30% reduction in the due diligence cycle timeline.
- 135 cases that had been pending for over 60 days were completed within four weeks.
- The backlog of 600+ pending cases was reduced to 155.
- A 35% reduction in cost per case.
The streamlined onboarding and periodic review processes enabled the client’s teams to focus on growth and strategic initiatives, while also ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements. The Vice President was highly satisfied with the results, leading to his recognition as Innovation Manager and his subsequent promotion to Director of Client Lifecycle.
This collaboration with eClerx not only improved operational efficiency but also enhanced customer satisfaction and positioned the firm for future growth.
Enhancing compliance efficiency and reducing due diligence cycle time
Client:
The client is a large Swiss bank.
Challenge:
The Managing Director for Client Lifecycle was facing significant delays in completing the Periodic Refresh Book of Work (BoW) for the bank’s Customer Due Diligence (CDD) checks. With a team of 350 employees, the bank struggled to maintain production rates while adhering to tight deadlines set by the compliance department.
The challenges stemmed from the complexity of collecting and verifying customer data, meeting varying KYC regulations across jurisdictions, and managing outdated systems with inconsistent review processes. The growing backlog and the pressure to meet regulatory commitments prompted the Managing Director to seek external support to address these inefficiencies and enhance the bank’s compliance capabilities.
Solution:
eClerx was brought in to implement its Compliance Manager platform, a solution designed to enhance the bank’s compliance processes through automation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. eClerx collaborated with the client to integrate the platform into the bank’s existing infrastructure while ensuring compatibility with the bank’s recent Fenergo implementation.
The solution automated the collection and digitization of customer data from public sources across more than 150 jurisdictions, reducing manual effort. A governance framework was also implemented, including a jurisdiction-based Enterprise Requirement Management Tool to handle the complexity of rule sets.
To further address operational challenges, eClerx extended its knowledge management suite, providing over 300 training videos on sourcing information from various regulatory websites and third-party data sources. This training ensured Carla’s team was equipped to manage the new systems effectively. The solution was tailored to the bank’s needs, with customized dashboards and business metrics to track performance and ensure smooth operations.
Impact:
The implementation of the Compliance Manager platform led to transformative results for the bank:
- A 35% reduction in the cost per case, significantly improving operational efficiency.
- Consistently achieved a 95%+ quality rate at Quality Assurance.
- A 30% reduction in the due diligence cycle timeline, ensuring faster and more accurate customer due diligence checks.
These improvements allowed the client to complete the annual Periodic Refresh BoW on time for the first time, preventing delays from seeping into the following year. This success ensured the bank met its regulatory commitments, mitigated risks, and contributed to the overall stability and reputation of the financial system. The Managing Director was highly satisfied with the outcome, highlighting the program’s positive impact on the bank’s compliance capabilities and operational performance.
Revitalizing telecom support with AI-driven efficiency
Client:
The client is a leading telecommunications company in North America.
Challenge:
The surge in subscribers and a flood of technical support queries overwhelmed the company’s customer support team, leading to increased call handling times, a drop in customer satisfaction scores from 85% to 71%, and unresolved call volumes spiking to 43%. Existing data management systems were insufficient for the rapid analysis required, jeopardizing key performance indicators, team morale, and strategic promotions. The company sought an innovative solution to optimize its customer support operations effectively.
Solution:
At a North American artificial intelligence summit, the head of customer support discovered eClerx’s artificial intelligence-driven customer support enhancements. The partnership initiated a transformative project focusing on implementing a cutting-edge artificial intelligence-driven approach to customer support. This included deploying state-of-the-art chatbots equipped with voice-to-text and natural language processing capabilities designed to intelligently triage customer issues and guide them towards swift resolutions.
The collaboration aimed not just to solve the immediate issues but also to future-proof the customer support department against evolving needs.
Impact:
The implementation of the artificial intelligence system dramatically transformed customer support operations. Key results included:
- Reduction in call handling times, significantly enhancing efficiency and customer experience.
- High predictive accuracy, with the artificial intelligence model predicting customer issues with 92% accuracy, significantly improving the query resolution rate from 60% to over 80%.
- Elevated customer satisfaction, achieving a customer satisfaction score of 85%, surpassing pre-pandemic levels, and restoring confidence in customer support.
- Optimized team bandwidth, allowing the team to handle increased volumes effectively without additional recruitment, thus maintaining cost efficiency.
This pioneering approach not only addressed the pressing challenges but also established new benchmarks for operational excellence in customer support within the telecommunications industry.
Improving media processing efficiency for a leading telecom provider
Client:
The client is a leading telecom provider in the USA.
Challenge:
The client, serving over 20 Fortune 500 companies, struggled with delays in processing media for 3D visualizations, leading to customer dissatisfaction and higher costs. Frequent issues with delivery and rework were a problem.
With over 200 employees and increasing demand, managing resources became crucial. The client needed a way to speed up processing and reduce errors without spending more money.
Solution:
eClerx identified several key areas to address the challenges and improve efficiency. These areas included Resource Scheduling, Load Balancing, and Dummy Renders.
In Resource Scheduling, a manual roster for media server usage was implemented to create visibility on schedules and reduce wait times for creative experts. For Load Balancing, the configuration was adjusted to share workloads between different machines, effectively doubling the processing speed for all tasks. Dummy Renders were introduced, allowing creative experts to check for errors before running full batch processes, which saved time and reduced errors.
Additionally, the team crowd-sourced ideas, such as maintaining a learning log for types of failures and time taken based on file size and complexity, which helped experts plan their schedules more effectively.
Impact:
The initiatives resulted in significant improvements:
- 90% improvement in resource utilization
- 4X reduction in render failures
- $1.2 million in annual savings
The successful implementation of these solutions allowed the client to meet deadlines, improve team morale, and onboard new clients seamlessly. This collaboration demonstrated the effectiveness of structured problem-solving and innovative solutions in enhancing media processing efficiency and client satisfaction.
Reducing loan data errors and improving operational efficiency
Client:
The client is a major UK-based bank.
Challenge:
The client’s loan operations team was overwhelmed by inaccurate loan agreement data in the bank’s mainframe system. These errors, stemming from data inconsistencies caused by team attrition, were affecting the accuracy of loan processing and posing significant financial risk.
The loan agreements, which dictated the terms and conditions of each loan, fed crucial data for all loan lifecycle events and cash flows. Even minor errors could lead to substantial financial losses, and the team lacked the capacity to manage the large volume of errors. A solution was urgently needed to clean up the data and prevent further operational delays.
Solution:
eClerx collaborated with the client to conduct a full-scale data quality check. The approach bypassed the existing data in the mainframe by recreating the information directly from the original loan agreements. eClerx implemented its proprietary DocIntel platform, combined with its loan subject matter expertise, to accurately capture data and identify discrepancies.
First, eClerx established a secure environment for the project, ensuring all data transfers were secure and compliant with the bank’s requirements. Next, the DocIntel platform was deployed to automate the data capture process from the loan agreements, which was then followed by manual enrichment to ensure that any gaps left by automation were accurately filled in.
To ensure alignment with the bank’s internal processes, eClerx collaborated extensively with the client’s operations team to create a detailed data capture rulebook that accounted for all possible exceptions. A three-layer review process was implemented to guarantee data accuracy, including a final review by subject matter experts to ensure that the captured data adhered to the agreed-upon rules.
Finally, the newly captured data was reconciled with the bank’s mainframe system, allowing the team to identify and rectify discrepancies between the two data sets.
Impact:
The results of the data quality check were transformative:
- Reviewed 4,500 loans, capturing 140 data points per loan.
- Achieved a 99.99% accuracy rate in data capture.
- Identified 9,500 discrepancies, but by filtering out 98% of potential errors.
- eClerx reduced the workload for the client’s team to only 2% of the data needing manual review.
The data cleansing exercise provided the client with reliable, accurate data, allowing them to confidently manage their loan operations. The streamlined process significantly reduced the risk of financial instability and operational delays, enabling the client’s team to focus on resolving a manageable number of discrepancies.
The collaboration between eClerx and the client demonstrated the power of combining advanced technology with deep domain expertise to deliver efficient, impactful solutions.
Enhancing credit adjustment accuracy for a major media company
Client:
The client is a major media company with a large customer base in the United States.
Challenge:
The Vice President of Customer Care faced challenges in identifying legitimate credits issued by care agents. With limited oversight, less than 1% of adjustments underwent audit, impacting customer satisfaction and billing accuracy.
Incorrect adjustments led to billing discrepancies and negatively affected customer expectations and satisfaction.
Solution:
eClerx proposed a hybrid approach combining people and technology to tackle these challenges. The solution involved collecting and analyzing historical data and adjustment reason codes, where it was identified that 5 out of 24 reason codes accounted for over 70% of the credited dollars, with approximately 20% deemed invalid. A comprehensive program was then developed to flag unqualified adjustments for reversal.
This program ingested credit metadata and analyzed voice interactions and transcripts. Fallouts were manually audited to ensure accuracy, and actionable feedback was provided to agents to enhance their future performance. Additionally, a change management process was implemented to maximize the adoption of the new system and minimize risk.
Impact:
The initiatives resulted in significant improvements.
- Enhanced productivity by allowing the team to focus on higher-value tasks.
- Reduced costs by eliminating unnecessary callbacks.
- Strengthened risk management capabilities.
The solution achieved a projected Return on Investment (ROI) of 1.75x in the first year and 2x in subsequent years.
Additionally, the client experienced enhanced trust, customer loyalty, and increased customer satisfaction.
This collaboration demonstrated the effectiveness of combining data analysis and technology to improve credit adjustment accuracy and customer care processes, leading to substantial business benefits.
