• RankiaPro Europe
    • RankiaPro Spain
    • RankiaPro LATAM
    • RankiaPro Italy
SUBSCRIBE
Search
Close
  • Home
  • Insights
    EQUITIES
    EQUITIES
    FIXED INCOME
    FIXED INCOME
    ESG
    ESG
    INTERVIEWS
    INTERVIEWS
    MARKET OUTLOOK
    MARKET OUTLOOK
    ETF
    ETF

    Featured

    outside allianz GI
    Insights

    China Briefing

  • News
    APPOINTMENTS
    APPOINTMENTS
    LAUNCHES
    LAUNCHES
    ASSET MANAGERS
    ASSET MANAGERS

    FEATURED

    rankiapro-blackrock-lanza-nuevo-fondo-ucits-asignacion-global-sostenible-europa
    Launches

    BlackRock launches new Sustainable Global Allocation UCITS Fund in Europe

  • Magazine
    RANKIAPRO EUROPE
    RANKIAPRO EUROPE
    RANKIAPRO IBERIA
    RANKIAPRO IBERIA
  • Events
    RANKIA FUNDS EXPERIENCE
    EVENTS & CONFERENCE CALLS
    EVENTS & CONFERENCE CALLS
    RANKIAPRO MEETINGS
    RANKIAPRO MEETINGS
  • Podcast
  • MiFIDII Training
Menu
  • Home
  • Insights
    EQUITIES
    EQUITIES
    FIXED INCOME
    FIXED INCOME
    ESG
    ESG
    INTERVIEWS
    INTERVIEWS
    MARKET OUTLOOK
    MARKET OUTLOOK
    ETF
    ETF

    Featured

    outside allianz GI
    Insights

    China Briefing

  • News
    APPOINTMENTS
    APPOINTMENTS
    LAUNCHES
    LAUNCHES
    ASSET MANAGERS
    ASSET MANAGERS

    FEATURED

    rankiapro-blackrock-lanza-nuevo-fondo-ucits-asignacion-global-sostenible-europa
    Launches

    BlackRock launches new Sustainable Global Allocation UCITS Fund in Europe

  • Magazine
    RANKIAPRO EUROPE
    RANKIAPRO EUROPE
    RANKIAPRO IBERIA
    RANKIAPRO IBERIA
  • Events
    RANKIA FUNDS EXPERIENCE
    EVENTS & CONFERENCE CALLS
    EVENTS & CONFERENCE CALLS
    RANKIAPRO MEETINGS
    RANKIAPRO MEETINGS
  • Podcast
  • MiFIDII Training
Search
Close
Search
Close

Home | Make the due diligence workflow more efficient with technology

Make the due diligence workflow more efficient with technology

Five recommendations on how you can leverage technology to make the due diligence workflow less costly and more efficient.
Guillaume Rouault

EMEA Director - Business Development at DiligenceVault

2021/01/18

The capital allocator’s due diligence process is a fundamental and integral part of investing in external asset managers; yet both the manager research and the investor relations teams spend much of their time on administrative tasks of gathering and organising paperwork and documents.

As the industry evolves, the need for due diligence continues to increase, with three areas being impacted the most:

  1. Investment due diligence has become more complex and varied, with investors diversifying investments to more asset classes and requesting additional information.
  2. Operational due diligence is now mandatory since the pandemic, and additional regulations and compliance requirements are coming into place across Europe.
  3. Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) questions are now top of mind and are required to be answered to drive towards more sustainable and inclusive investments. Are you ready for the SFDR regulation?

With all the additional questions and answers, the means for information exchange, audit, storage, and meaningful analysis have not kept pace with the sheer volume of requested information.

Due diligence process

Traditionally, data is collected in the diligence process through the following mediums:

  • Some researchers rely on a series of due diligence questionnaires (DDQs) or requests for proposal (RFPs) that are filled out by the asset managers in Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, or other questionnaire templates and collected in email inboxes, data rooms, or shared drives.
  • Others rely on third-party databases where data can be incomplete, dated and is dependent on what the asset managers are willing to disclose, knowing that it’s for a broad distribution.
  • The rest rely solely on the standard marketing materials, DDQs and related documents issued by the asset managers. They are often in PDF formats forcing investors to spend hours manually extracting the most important data points at the expense of the more granular details.

The result is a fragmented due diligence process that is quite onerous, rife with inefficiencies, and full of pain points. The burdensome administrative tasks take away the time that researchers should spend on high-quality value-added analyses.

Whether you are a fund selector, a fund buyer or an asset owner, below are five recommendations on how you can leverage technology to make the due diligence workflow less costly and more efficient.

1. Invest in your data
Structure the data that you collect. This prevents you from being solely dependent on manager databases and a collection of PDFs scattered across emails and shared drives. More importantly, it’s an investment in your digital future and baseline for machine learning algorithms.

2. Be part of a digital diligence platform (DDP).
Leverage a platform that benefits both diligence parties. Sometimes standard questionnaires are preferred, other times you need something custom and a centralized platform makes it efficient for all. Looking back at 2020, in addition to standard investment monitoring, at DV we oversaw tremendous information flow between investors and asset managers: pandemic monitoring, LIBOR transition, sector rotation queries, D&I focus, SolarWinds breach, return to work surveys across 5000+ asset managers.

Leverage a platform that benefits both diligence parties. Sometimes standard questionnaires are preferred, other times you need something custom and a centralized platform makes it efficient for all. Looking back at 2020, in addition to standard investment monitoring, at DV we oversaw tremendous information flow between investors and asset managers: pandemic monitoring, LIBOR transition, sector rotation queries, D&I focus, SolarWinds breach, return to work surveys across 5000+ asset managers.

3. Make it easy for your investment partners
Reduce friction in the diligence process with your managers by offering reusability of their content and tools to improve online collaboration. While we are working from home, juggling work with home schooling, helping your managers save time and reduce the duplication of documents and emails and therefore the risk of errors is a must.

4. Be a leading investor
Finding alpha has become harder, and avoiding downside risk is more important in an environment where new risk types are developing. Clean, usable, and readily available data makes it easier to analyse and identify downside risks or warning flags, and also identify defensible investing opportunities faster.

5. Technology is an equalizer
Whether you are a team of 20 research analysts, or a team of two or three, with the right technology, you can scale and incorporate the research rigor to reflect your process and investment philosophy.

Ultimately, a DDP propels the industry forward and drives efficiency. It serves up a better experience for both sides of the market, the investor as the requestor and the asset manager as the respondent, thus creating a win-win scenario for all parties involved. Less time is spent on repetitive tasks, and greater time is spent collaborating internally or with investment partners. This leads to greater efficiency and also satisfaction for everyone involved in the data collection process. With over 18,000 users globally, DiligenceVault is leading the charge for a new collaborative digital diligence platform that we all need.

  • DiligenceVault, Investment Funds, Technology

Related Post

Cover-RankiaPro-Top-20-funds
  • Equities, Insights

The top 20 best-selling funds in January 2023

Responsible funds and tracker funds were the only sectors to record inflows of £5.4bn and £11bn respectively.
Cover-RankiaPro-Challenges-Mountain
  • Insights, Market Outlook

What are the challenges facing investors in 2023?

What is the next phase? Will there be a global recession? are some of the questions facing investors in today's complex scenario.
Cover-rankiapro-principales-temas-girara-mundo-inversor-ano
  • Insights, Market Outlook

Main themes on which the investment world will focus in 2023

Will 2023 bring more of the same or are we seeing a fundamental shift in the macroeconomic picture?
NEWSLETTER
If you want to keep up to date with the latest news from the asset management industry and all our events, subscribe now to our newsletter.
Subscribe

Last Tweets

3h

🗣️ Fed moves away from big hikes: raises interest rates by 25 basis points

🔗 #Fed #InterestRates
...#RankiaProEurope
https://rankiapro.com/en/fed-moves-away-from-big-hikes-raises-interest-rates-by-25-basis-points/

3h

🗣️ECB raises rates by 50 basis points and warns of further increases this year

🔗#ECB #Inflation #rates
...#RankiaProEurope
https://rankiapro.com/en/ecb-raises-rates-50-basis-points-warns-further-increases-this-year/

4h

🗣️ @UBP_Group partners with Brigade to widen its liquid alternative offering

🔗#FundLaunch #LiquidAlternatives
... #RankiaProEurope
https://rankiapro.com/en/ubp-partners-brigade-widen-liquid-alternative-offering/

8h

🔝 The top 20 best-selling funds in January 2023
by @HLInvest

🔗#InvestmentFund #BestSelling #RankiaProEurope
...https://rankiapro.com/en/the-top-20-best-selling-funds-in-january-2023/

RankiaPro

  • Home
  • Insights
  • News
  • Magazine
  • Events
  • About us
Menu
  • Home
  • Insights
  • News
  • Magazine
  • Events
  • About us

Terms and uses

  • Cookies Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
Menu
  • Cookies Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer

Contact

  • Email: [email protected]
  • Phone: (+34) 963 386 976
  • Mobile: (+34) 640 308 023

Newsletter

If you want to keep up to date with the latest news from the asset management industry and all our events, subscribe now.

Subscribe

All rights reserved © 2003 – 2021 Rankia S.L.

RankiaPro

  • Home
  • Insights
  • News
  • Magazine
  • Events
  • About us
Menu
  • Home
  • Insights
  • News
  • Magazine
  • Events
  • About us

Terms and uses

  • Cookies Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
Menu
  • Cookies Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer

Contact

  • Email: [email protected]
  • Phone: 963 386 976 – 601 302 692

All rights reserved © 2003 – 2021 Rankia S.L.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide you the best experience on our website, we use technologies like our own and third-party cookies for analytical purposes and to store device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique identifiers on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent may adversely affect certain features and functions.

To learn more, please read our Cookie Policy and Privacy Statement.
Functionality or Personalisation Cookies Always active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function or for the unique purpose of transmitting a communication over an electronic communications network, and cannot be disabled on our systems. Usually they are set up to respond to actions made by you to receive services, such as adjusting your privacy preferences or filling out forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you to the presence of these cookies, but some parts of the website will not work. These cookies allow the website to provide better functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third parties whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies some of our services will not work properly.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics Cookies
These cookies allow us to count traffic sources in order to measure and improve the performance of our website. Storage or technical access which is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing Cookies
These cookies may be site-wide, placed by our advertising partners. These third parties may use them to create a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. If you do not allow these cookies, you may receive less targeted advertising.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
Cookie Settings
{title} {title} {title}
  • RankiaPro Europe
    • RankiaPro Spain
    • RankiaPro LATAM
    • RankiaPro Italy
Menu
  • Home
  • Insights
    • Equities
    • ESG
    • ETF
    • Fixed Income
    • Interviews
    • Market Outlook
  • News
    • Appointments
    • Asset Managers
    • Launches
  • Magazine
    • RankiaPro Europe
    • Magazine Iberia
  • Events
    • Rankia Funds Experience
    • Online Events
    • RankiaPro Meetings
  • Podcast
  • MIFIDII Training

Follow us on social media

Linkedin Twitter Youtube Flickr

NEWSLETTER

Subscribe

Book now

Make the due diligence workflow more efficient with technology