The Client
An EMEA-based long-term savings and retirement business managing portfolios across Public and Private Investments with over £280 billion AUM.
The Client, having grown through acquisitions, embarked on a long-term Programme of Change to consolidate and enhance operations to enable the business to launch new investment strategies whilst addressing operational challenges.
The Challenge
- The Client aimed to establish a scalable Direct Origination portfolio for Private Credit and Public Market Debt instruments. This required a robust solution to support Front and Middle Office operations in-house, whilst streamlining data flow and processes across the organisation.
- The Client relied on a bespoke proprietary system that lacked the breadth of functionality, was difficult to maintain and was no longer fit for purpose, hindering growth in investment capabilities.
- Processes were manual and inefficient, with siloed and stale data.
What we did
- Advisory Services:
- Provided pre-contract advisory, including Statement of Work reviews and refinement sessions.
- Project Management:
- Led all work-streams including scoping, planning, resourcing, and stakeholder management.
- Delivered proprietary project artefacts, including requirements gathering frameworks, RAID logs, and stakeholder reporting tools.
- Analysis and Design:
- Captured the Current State Operating Model and Data Architecture.
- Designed a Future State Operating Model that aligned business requirements with process improvements, data flows, and integrations.
- Led Business Process Review and Future State Design with BlackRock to translate requirements into actionable deliverables.
- Delivery:
- Represented the Client during system configuration, ensuring business requirements were implemented effectively.
- Managed delivery of a bespoke interface to integrate Aladdin Enterprise Private Credit Data with the Clients’ Data Warehouse for downstream reporting.
- Configured and tested SWIFT capabilities, enabling automated Private Credit trade settlement with improved controls.
- Provided training strategies and materials to facilitate smooth knowledge transfer.
- Designed and executed testing strategies (created test cases and led Unit Testing and supported User Acceptance Testing).
The Outcome
- Delivered requirements on time and within budget
- Standardised system and business process across public and private market functins, providing a scalable solution.
- Seamlessly transitioned ownership to Business as Usual (teams through targeted training and knowledge transfer.
