Press Releases

21 - 04 - 2016

We interviewed the Managing Director of «NPF «Mechel-FUND» Vyacheslav Momot about the Fund’s investment in InfoStroy’s GAMA portfolio Management solution.
Here you will find his answers to a series of questions on how to choose the right system for portfolio management and what criteria to use.

He is also giving us insight into the results the Fund has already achieved.

1. Why did you start to search for a software solution for portfolio management?

— There was a need to develop management accounts for each investment portfolio (a trust deed) as well as the whole consolidated portfolio of the Fund, with the possibility of grouping by issuer, industry and others, in order to consider the influence on the final result and the identification of risks. This is a huge task and prompted us to look at solutions available in the market. Our choice was GAMA because of its proven track record.

2. What are the problems you wanted to solve with the GAMA software?

— The answer to that is really straight forward: Simplification of ungrouping and grouping of portfolios, and the ability to do management analysis, in a single program block.

3. What solutions did you look at?

— We were really lucky to encounter the GAMA solution early in the search process. We also considered the views of Brokers currently using your software solution. We further gathered comments and views on products from other providers. This allowed us to shorten the time searching for the right solution and turn straight to a detailed look at the features of GAMA.

4. What were the key factors that prompted you to choose GAMA?

— The flexibility of the reporting format and the possibility of ensuring that our specific requirements could be taken into account.

5. What do you, as head of the company, think is critical in the implementation of a new IT solution?

— I particularly consider it to be critical that there is inertia in implementing the tasks deployed to the developers. It is further extremely critical that there is a willingness — and desire — to understand the specific requirements of our business. This allows for the right decisions to be made swiftly and saves on any possible additional development costs for implementation of intermediate scripts, to get the required end-reports.

6. How important is it for you to ‘play’ in the financial factor?

— As we are a non-profit organisation of social activities, the financial factor plays a significant role, and the flexibility of InfoStroys GAMA solution is saving us a lot of time.

7. What comes first when choosing a system; the financial conditions, the experience of the developer or the functionality of the solution?

— All three components are mutually complementary, but the flexibility of system setup and the constructive approach you have adopted in InfoStroy, in order to achieve satisfying terms of the agreement, was ultimately what allowed us to enter the contract.

8. When choosing a software solution what is the key needed requirements, and what comes as a pleasant surprise?

— The key was the possibility of managing the Fund’s consolidated portfolio, the visibility and transparency of the calculations and their results. What was also required was the ability to build focused results. The pleasant surprise was the possibility of doing the reconciliation with the active management companies and special depositary. The result was that we found — and highlighted — previously unknown errors in the portfolio assets valuation.

9. Why did you choose GAMA?

— Because of its features for easy integration into the system of risk management of NPF.

10. Who do you think are GAMA competitors at the Russian market?

— In terms of software solutions for NPF’s, with the features provided by GAMA, we have not seen any other providers!

11. What were your goals when implementing GAMA?

— Visibility and portfolio transparency, and the ability to compute forecasted results under different scenarios of market development, as well as creating portfolios of various content and structure.

12. What functionality in GAMA is the most valuable for you?

— The possibility of visibility generated in the context of the Fund’s portfolio composition and structure, as well as by industry and segments of the economy. All reflecting the current state of daily transactions and the accrued interest payments.

13. What was the most difficult part of the implementation, the easiest part, and what was unexpected?

— It was difficult to convince the asset management companies to generate daily reports in the unified format required for GAMA. The easy bit was to understand the GAMA features and their use. The pleasantly unexpected part was the readiness, approachability and hands-on help from the GAMA support manager at InfoStroy, in getting our historical data into GAMA.

14. How would you rate your service support during the implementation phase of GAMA?

— Active response to any request, you even addressed non-standard requests immediately. You also facilitated prompt implementation of the necessary refinement to comply with our non-standard requests.

15. Sometimes one of the downsides of GAMA is that it is called a «closed» solution , i.e. You need a program developer to make adjustments to the program. What do you think about this issue?

— The fact that GAMA is a «Closed» solution is fully covered by the operational response to the needs of the company, using GAMA. It is not an issue for us at all.

16. What would you like to highlight in the service and in the software InfoStroy has provided?

— The ability to use data provided by GAMA for IFRS report generation, as well as the ability to analyse the asset liquidity, according to turnover on the MICEX.

17. How important is the post-implementation support and maintenance?

— Considering the constant development and updating of GAMA you are undertaking, post-implementation service is truly significant and important, and InfoStroy has fully matched our expectations.

18. What are the goals you think have been achieved and which have not?

— We have achieved additional control and reconciliation of transactions, portfolio valuation, and our dealings with the asset management companies and special depositories. We are implementing a further integration with our general ledger software, as well as the generation of NPF specific reports, including those in the IFRS format, as well as the ability to analyse the liquidity of assets, based on their turnover on the MICEX.

19. Is the introduction of GAMA an investment or a cost?

— GAMA is an investment in the Fund’s future development.

20. What do you rate first: the portfolio management software or the service?

— The two is a whole package really – I consider it to be a complex, living organism. Without proper maintenance and support, we would never get the expected results.

21. What would you say to those who are currently in the process of looking for software for asset management?

— Look closely at what is available in the market — and try GAMA.