A CSSI Story

CSSI has interacted with, done custom coding for and has ongoing relationships with hundreds of firms working in the investment management sector. As CSSI’s clients have grown by taking on new lines of business or adding new accounts and investment vehicles, so has CSSI in what it can offer to those clients. Below is just one account of that tandem growth.

CSSI’s relationship with the client started in early 2003. The client was looking to provide their account holders with as much information about their current holdings as possible. The decision was made to provide clients with performance returns all the way down to the security level. At the time, the only option for this was the standard Performance by Security report in their Axys system. As the standard report was reviewed it was determined that the IRR generated by the report was not accurate enough to present to their clients. The report extrapolates a securities/sub-totals return across an entire period even if the security/sub-total was not held the entire period. The client remembered meeting a member of CSSI at an Advent Users Group meeting in NYC and discussing what CSSI does. The client reached out to CSSI and worked directly with developers to design a solution. CSSI then created a new “Adjusted IRR” report that provided the client with information they were more comfortable relaying to their account holders.

After the first custom project was finished, the client then came to CSSI for several other report enhancements; some were minor 2 hour projects while others were more significant taking days of design and development time. As the customization of reports and internal processes grew, so too did the dependence on maintaining custom label information, grouping methodologies and even splitting out some accounts into multiple portfolios for performance purposes. The client reached out to CSSI in 2004 to see what could be done to help accomplish the needed tasks with the existing amount of resources. CSSI’s Process Consultants recommended implementing two of CSSI’s existing utilities. One of the utilities, ClientBuilder, would help the client maintain the growing number of custom labels and groups the client needed and the other, Account Translation Utility, would re-route custodian transactions to separate Axys portfolio files based on asset class and security type. The developer of both utilities came to the client’s site and installed both on the client’s systems, educated the client on how both utilities worked and implemented a custom installation CSSI had specially created for the client’s situation.

From 2004 to present the client and CSSI continue to work on various custom coding projects. The client always calls CSSI first when an in house solution does not seem possible, always knowing that CSSI will either direct them to a solution that already exists (at no cost) or provide a detailed proposal for a possible solution (also at no cost). In 2007 when the client decided to enhance the quarterly statements being sent to the account holders, they called CSSI. Several new reports were designed/created and several were updated to accomplish the new statement vision.

In 2010 new legislation resulted in the client needing to get their Cost Basis information in line with the custodians’ system of record. The client knew that CSSI had started taking on BackOffice Operations-style projects and full BackOffice Operation relationships in 2005. The client contacted CSSI and worked out a one-time project where CSSI would update cost basis information directly in the client’s Axys system to get it in sync with the custodians’ statements of record. Once finished, the client’s Cost Basis information was ready to move forward.

The client had a major personnel change in 2011 when their head of Axys Operations decided to take an opportunity elsewhere. The client contacted CSSI and signed up for CSSI’s BackOffice services. CSSI’s BackOffice group connected into the client’s system every morning to perform download and reconciliation of accounts. This allowed the client to focus on all the other tasks that now needed to be spread across the existing in house resources. From 2011 through to today the size of this BackOffice relationship has increased and continues to grow.

As the client’s needs grew and changed through the years, coupled with the ever-changing needs of their account holders and regulations, so too have the offerings of CSSI changed. Starting a relationship from a single custom Axys report and growing it to include CSSI’s BackOffice staff maintaining live account data on a daily basis is a testament to how CSSI treats their clients and all projects. CSSI strives to be and is proud to be the first place this particular client will call when they have a unique question or request.

CSSI’s current offerings span three departments: BackOffice operations, Process Consulting and Custom Development. Using the three departments, CSSI can truly be a one stop solution for their clients, no matter how small the first project may be.