What we do / Advise
Operations advisory and transformation
Operations consulting from practitioners who implement what they recommend.
We help credit asset managers design their operating model, select and implement the systems that support it, and bring their data to a standard that finance teams, lenders and auditors can rely on. Once a new process is in place, our operations staff can also perform it as a managed service.
Advisory practice
Four areas of advisory work.
Each engagement is led by a practitioner with direct experience of the function under review. We scope every engagement around defined deliverables that the client can act on, such as a target operating model, an implementation plan or a consolidated data model.
Operating model design
We define how the operations team, its processes and its controls should be organized as the manager’s business grows.
Questions we answer
- Which functions will struggle as volumes grow, and why?
- Which activities should stay in-house, be automated or be outsourced?
- Who performs each step, and who reviews it?
Typical deliverables
- Current-state process documentation
- Target operating model
- Defined roles, controls and a transition plan
System selection and implementation
We evaluate systems against the client’s actual workflows, then manage the migration so that reporting continues without disruption.
Questions we answer
- Which systems suit the investment strategy and the asset mix?
- How will data be converted and validated?
- How will the cutover be managed around reporting deadlines?
Typical deliverables
- Requirements and system evaluation
- Implementation and data conversion plan
- Reconciliation of migrated records to the legacy books
Data strategy
We establish a single reliable source for each reported figure and assign clear ownership of it.
Questions we answer
- Where does each figure originate, and who owns it?
- How should legacy data sources be consolidated?
- What do lenders, investors and auditors each require?
Typical deliverables
- Data inventory and lineage
- Consolidated, reconciled data model
- Reporting specifications
AI enablement
We identify where AI can be applied usefully in credit operations today, and the data and controls it depends on.
Questions we answer
- Which tasks suit AI, such as reading notices and agreements?
- What data and controls must be in place first?
- How will AI outputs be reviewed and evidenced?
Typical deliverables
- Assessment of candidate use cases
- Data and control prerequisites
- A pilot workflow with review steps
When clients engage us
Five situations that typically prompt an engagement.
- A system migration that has proved more complex than anticipated
- Operational processes that have become entangled across funds, facilities and teams
- Critical processes that depend on one person’s Excel workbook
- Data spread across legacy applications that do not reconcile with one another
- A new fund, facility or strategy that the current operating model was not designed to support
Methodology
Four stages, from assessment to transition.
Assess
We work alongside the client’s team to document how each process is actually performed, including any manual workarounds.
OutputCurrent-state documentation
Design
We set out the target model, with options, costs, dependencies and a recommended sequence of work.
OutputTarget model and plan
Implement
We configure the systems, migrate and reconcile the data, and document each new process as it is built.
OutputOperating process and controls
Transition
The client’s team takes over the new process, or our operations staff perform it as a managed service.
OutputHandover or service agreement
Engagement governance
How we govern an engagement.
- A named engagement lead
- One senior practitioner leads the engagement and remains accountable for it from scoping through to steady-state operation.
- Agreed service levels
- We agree in writing what we will deliver, and how delivery will be measured, before the engagement begins.
- Documented process
- We document every process we design or take over, step by step, before responsibility for it transfers.
- Parallel runs
- New processes and systems run in parallel with the existing ones until their outputs agree.
- Defined escalation
- Matters that require a client decision are escalated through a route agreed at the outset, accompanied by our completed analysis.
Who benefits
What an engagement gives each team.
- COOs and CFOs
- A clear view of what the operations function will need at its next stage of growth, including costs and sequencing, from a firm that can also carry out the implementation.
- Operations leaders
- Documented processes, defined roles and controls, and the removal of the manual workarounds the team has relied on.
- Technology and data teams
- Requirements grounded in actual workflows, a data model with clear ownership, and a migration plan that includes reconciliation to legacy records.
Flagship engagement
Bringing fragmented fund data together for inception-to-date reporting.
Credit asset manager, AUM 10bn+ · Sponsor: CFO · Consulting engagement
- The requirement
- Fund metrics on an inception-to-date basis
- The starting point
- Data held in three kinds of source: legacy systems, Excel files and newer systems
- The result
- Modeled reports and reconciled outputs, delivered to the finance team
“With minimal direction, Dacumen managed to make sense of our unstructured data, modeled the reports, and delivered reconciled outputs. Their unique expertise enabled us to deliver on this challenge.”
Placeholder
Client name or logo for the flagship case, if the client authorizes a named reference.
An integrated offering
How consulting connects to our software and services.
Data and technology implementation
Build
Orion, SmartRec, TradePath and Levfolio are software products developed by our own operations practitioners.
ProductsManaged investment operations
Run
Loan administration, portfolio monitoring, fund operations, data operations and reporting, performed by our operations staff.
Managed servicesDiscuss an engagement.
Describe the issue in a few lines. We will tell you whether we can help and how we would approach the engagement.