SOLUTIONS

When designing systems D4D is careful to match the software solution to technology and functionality that in-house staff can manage going forward.

Most financial organisations use locally stored Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to manually transform rigid and inadequate core banking system data. This practice ultimately leads to uncontrollable data sets, containing multiple versions of the 'truth'.

D4D leverages off the organisation's deep data knowledge to produce a centralised, structured, and documented system within a robust application that key staff understand and interface with.

DATA INPUTS, TRANSFORMATION, AND OUTPUTS

Inputs

Financial data sources systems can be broken into two main areas: Core financial data and supplementary data. Each of these sources need to be treated differently with respect to how relevant data points are extracted.

Transformation

Transformation is achieved through a series of import routines, calculations, and output processes.

Outputs

Data is presented in output formats specifically tailored to the information requirements.

SOLUTION APPROACH

The approach to creating a robust information system solution comprises of three main stages: Data Foundation, Proof of Concept, and Automated Solution. Costly mistakes occur where resource is committed to building an automated solution before the questions around data foundation are addressed, and all assumptions and transformation rules are documented and signed off. If reports are based on unreliable data then any business decisions or regulatory submissions based on these will do much more harm than good.

SOFTWARE

D4D has capabilities and experience in a wide range of software applications, where the ultimate selection of the software is driven by the level of desired automation, as well as the in-house skill level of the organisation.

Any system that D4D creates, whether in-house/semi-manual or server-based/automated, encompasses functionality that allows the users to make the changes required for day-to-day operations. For example, changes to the Bank of England base rate, FSCS guaranteed balance amount, or mappings of new products to the relevant balance sheet category.

Software typically employed to create our bespoke solutions would include:

Data transformation and transfer:

Microsoft Excel (including VBA)
Microsoft Access (including VBA)
Microsoft SharePoint (including workflows)
SQL Server (including T-SQL)
Amazon Web Services cloud (EC2)
Microsoft Azure cloud/local (Windows Server)
Microsoft SharePoint cloud

Data reporting:

Microsoft Excel (including VBA)
Microsoft PowerPoint (local server-based, actively linked)
Microsoft PowerBI (cloud-based, actively linked)

Selecting certain software to create a solution dictates the overall level of automation that can be achieved. As you would expect, the higher the functionality of the software, the greater level of automation throughout the complete process of data sourcing to reporting.

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