European Investment Bank implements Blue Curve to reduce costs and increase capacity

The Client

Blue Curve has been working since 2001 with a leading European investment bank whose services range from banking, insurance and asset management and serve over 60 million private, corporate and institutional clients in over 60 countries.

The bank's global team of experienced Research Analysts, Economists and Strategists are in continuous contact with institutional investors worldwide. Their reputation for producing high quality research and analysis stretches from traditional strengths in emerging market equities to a growing prowess in global research and fixed income analysis.

The research team covers a wide range of industries specialising in telecoms, media, chemicals, oil & gas, retail and most emerging markets.

With the delivery of research to over 30,000 clients daily from 10 offices throughout Western Europe, it is essential to maintain client satisfaction, ensuring the correct information is delivered at the right time, through the right distribution channel.

The bank had to improve the efficiency and accuracy of all the processes involved with producing and distributing research to maintain and improve customer service and to save the bank time, money and resource. To achieve this, a complete overhaul of the entire process for the production and distribution of research was embarked upon.

The Problem

Inconsistent data
The bank's existing systems created many problems and inefficiencies. Prime amongst them was the fact that too much time was spent on the document formatting and data integration from multiple sources.

Although there were a variety of systems already in use to aid productivity, there was a lack of consistency between them as the information was not being centrally sourced or managed. The bank couldn't guarantee that the information shown in printed documents was the same as that displayed on the web or sent to third party aggregators. The inherent inconsistency undermined client confidence in the analysis.

Integration of the data was required to show one consistent view across applications. The bank's desire was to achieve this using browser technology.

Regional Differences
Although the research being produced had good branding, the document template design varied amongst the many European offices. Research and data was being sourced and produced in different formats from spreadsheets, Microsoft Word, and different databases such as Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Access. Again, a lack of consistency was creating extra work.

Managing the regional differences was also proving time-consuming and error-prone due to problems with multiple currencies, languages and terminology.

Inefficient Distribution Process
Even with a distribution system in place the bank was still struggling to accurately reflect and respond to their clients' research needs. Due to the high number of separate tasks that needed to be undertaken to distribute content, the system was becoming inflexible. As a consequence the bank could not ensure delivery of the correct research to the right person at the right time.

Even with the system in place, research was being distributed manually through many different channels, such as paper, fax, internal websites, e-mail and also by using 3rd party vendors such as Multex, Bloomberg and First Call. Each different distribution channel or vendor meant a separate manual process. These processes were placing a huge burden on the research department and were increasing resource costs due to the high volume of research and it's time-sensitive nature.

The large volume of email was also overloading the banks email network, poor client data management was producing huge costs from unnecessary print runs, and too many people were employed to get everything out on time.

The banks desire was to automate the distribution as much as possible to reduce costs and improve client service.

The Solution

The bank wanted to reduce costs as much as possible, and as soon as possible, so its first focus was on improving the research distribution process. Following a successful distribution project, the focus then turned to building a consistent central earnings database and finally implementing fully automated document templates across the whole of Europe.

Removing The Inefficient Distribution Process
The bank first embarked on an implementation of Blue Curve reach. Blue Curve reach maintains all the clients contact details and offers a browser interface to allow salespeople to simply and accurately reflect client preferences.

In conjunction with Blue Curve, the banks project team undertook the following tasks

• The bank linked their existing CRM system to Blue Curve reach for the update of client details. The CRM system remained the central source of client data, and the integration removed the need to enter data twice.
• The Blue Curve reach database was then populated with client research preferences from multiple sources across Europe. Sales people took 6 weeks to contact all their clients to confirm their research requirements and promote the accuracy of future research distribution.
• Internal and external email bureaus were connected, printers were linked and all distribution to third party vendors was automated.

The final result of less than 3 months work was a huge reduction in print costs and increased client awareness of the international research capability of the banks research franchise. The bank was also able to make huge resource reductions with the removal of the manual distribution processes.

The direct cost savings made from the introduction of Blue Curve reach paid for the whole system within a matter of months.

Ensuring Consistent Data
The second phase was to implement Blue Curve insight. Blue Curve insight is a configurable database for all earnings and forecasts linked to data feeds and analysts spreadsheets.

The following tasks were successfully completed over a period of a few months:

• A consistent data model was created for each sector including sector and company specific data item terminology, calculations and language translations.
• Over 150 analyst existing spreadsheets were linked to Blue Curve insight database.
• DataStream data for all European market coverage supplemented the analyst's forecasts.
• Sector and regional aggregates and ratios for all 30 sectors were implemented Europe-wide.

The Blue Curve insight implementation ensures that salespeople have a consistent view of the analysts forecast and a master database will ensure that clients will have confidence and more transparency in the research produced. Blue Curve insight ensures consistent data is made available across all presentation formats.

Blue Curve insight also handles any regional differences regarding language, terminology and sector calculations, thereby saving the bank significant time and effort.

Consistent Document Design
Blue Curve create was used to link the consistent data in Blue Curve insight into Microsoft Word Templates to enable a consistent and more efficient production process.

Using Blue Curve create the bank successfully:

• Implemented Microsoft Word templates for their 4 research products. The templates incorporated multiple variations dependent on the reports' sector and language. Blue Curve create automated the selection of templates based on the company that was being written about.
• Linked each template to Blue Curve insight for automated population of data and charts.
• Integrated existing Chart and Table Wizards to enforce a consistency of branding and remove the need for detailed verification by editorial staff.

The implementation of Blue Curve create hugely improved the efficiency of the production process by introducing a consistent automated approach. The efficiency gain has allowed the bank to increase their coverage and range of products whilst reducing the resources involved in the editing, checking and verification processes.

Overall

The implementation of Blue Curve insight, create and reach eliminated the key inefficiencies with the banks research lifecycle. The bank has saved a significant amount of money from reduced print runs and reduced headcount. The business now enjoys a consistent brand and consistent data which, in conjunction with more accurate distribution, has contributed towards an improved client service. The bank is also now well positioned to increase its coverage and product range without having to increase its resource levels.

The bank will continue to improve its processes as Blue Curve continues to improve its core functionality for Blue Curve insight, create and reach.