Hansard has been an FE fundinfo customer for over ten years and have been outsourcing their document production from 2010. When FE fundinfo approached Hansard with their Report Production solution, the group recognised the time-saving benefits, reduced risk and positive brand association as key benefits to adopting the service.
Adam Hussey, Funds Marketing Executive at Hansard, talks through the service, key benefits and how Report Production solves the monthly challenge of producing factsheets for over 160 internal funds.
Background of the company
Hansard was formed in 1986 and started selling life insurance products in 1987. With their Head Office based in Douglas on the Isle of Man they also have offices in Ireland, the Middle East and Malaysia, employing approximately 200 people across the globe.
Hansard have historically focussed on regular long term savers but also operate in the single premium market, providing clients with access to a range of funds and products which allow them to preserve and grow their wealth.
Relationship with FE fundinfo
Adam, whose responsibilities include fund group and third party relationships, tells us; “FE fundinfo are probably the biggest third party relationship we have because we rely heavily on their data for our brokers.
“I’ve been working with FE fundinfo since 2008. In 2009/10 we started to work with you for more of your data services, so for the provision of data and the production of our factsheets. I would say the relationship has been strong since 2010.”
Why FE fundinfo Report Production?
Hansard have over 160 internal funds and are required to produce timely factsheets for their entire range monthly. The factsheets are produced for brokers and clients who need access to accurate and reliable data on their investments. Due to resource constraints, internally, it made sense to outsource to a third-party specialist.
Adam tells FE fundinfo, “It was something we just could not do in-house ourselves, and despite our dedicated IT resource and quite a large IT department it just wasn’t we something that we were comfortable doing ourselves.
“There are companies like FE fundinfo who specialise in this so it just made sense to outsource it. FE fundinfo know what information needs to go on there and how to structure it.
“Before working with FE fundinfo, we would have provided information as and when required on our internal funds but in terms of dedicated regular factsheet production, that was probably not something we did.”
Support and training from FE fundinfo
“Support wise it’s very good. If you have an issue you can just pick up the phone give FE fundinfo a call or drop an email and set up a conference call.
“The offer of training is also there too; we appreciate being able to have a demo online from your team. Training is something we plan to take advantage of going forward because the FE fundinfo team are obviously very knowledgeable about what the Report Production system can do.”
Key benefits to the business
Since moving to FE fund info's Report Production the main benefits has been that it saves time. “We used FE fundinfo’s old factsheet production system which was great because it took the burden away from us, but with the new Report Production system, the time savings are a real benefit.
“The whole process maybe takes half a day from start to finish. The generation of the factsheets is a lot quicker than it was. To give you an idea, the old system involved a spreadsheet with over 100 tabs then manually typing the data into the system to populate the factsheets. Now we provide FE fundinfo with CITI codes and that’s all we need to provide to generate the factsheets”, says Adam.
Hansard recognise FE fundinfo’s reputation in the industry and the positive brand association this brings among their clients and brokers.
“Ultimately if we talk about the key benefits it’s also about utilising your expertise. For us it helps with the view that brokers have about us because we produce factsheets using data from one of, if not the, best third party data provider out there and we can stand behind that.
“There is a difference between saying here is data we have provided, and saying here is data provided by FE fundinfo because any broker that knows the market should know that FE fundinfo are one of, if not the, best out there so the data they are looking at is reliable and is going to be the most up to date that’s available.”