Vision Portfolio Management Application Layer: Installation

Overview

The Vision Portfolio Management Application Layer provides an initial set of application and data feed templates that support the needs of the portfolio management function. These templates provide a good starting point for all installations. Because of varying application, data, and support requirements, the basic product is normally tailored to meet the specific needs of your organization. Insyte works with you to implement these customizations and to develop an on-going production process that suits your environment.

A successful implementation requires several key ingredients:

  • small initial group of end users who are eager for information and want a role in tailoring the initial applications
  • strong individual to liaison between users and IT
  • IT support

Once the software has been installed, Insyte recommends a three month phased implementation process to tailor the product to reflect the specific requirements of your organization. In addition to introducing end-users to the capabilities, a key objective during this period is to get the internal group supporting the product acclimated with the software, data integration, and maintenance issues. Because this installation methodology involves end users, IT, and support personnel, it encourages basic knowledge transfer as part of the implementation, which plays a big role in creating a successful environment.

The Vision Run-Time Environment

The Vision Run-Time Environment provides the tools needed to build and maintain a Vision database designed to deliver Web-based applications to users via an internal intranet. Basic capabilities provided in this environment include:

  • Starter Suite of Web-based Applications
  • Initial Data Feed Templates
  • Analyst tools for making temporary modifications to the database
  • Administrator tools for committing permanent changes to the database

This environment addresses the needs of many organizations. Additional capabilities are provided via the Vision Development Environment, which offers language access, production scheduling and other facilities that are useful as your Vision usage expands.

The Vision Run-Time Environment is designed to support three classes of user:

  • Browser
  • Analyst
  • Administrator

A Browser uses a web browser to run applications via an organization's intranet. In addition to the browsing capabilities, an Analyst can generate temporary modifications to the database. These modifications will be reflected in the analyst's private versions of browser reports, although they will not be saved permanently. An Administrator has the ability to commit permanent changes to the database including data modifications and database extensions that are seen by all users.

Tailoring the Product

Once your software has been installed, you are ready to start loading your portfolio data and viewing reports via your intranet browser. Placing the proper emphasis on end user involvement, data feed design, and on-going data management issues during the implementation process helps to ensure a successful rollout.

We recommend the following three month installation methodology:

Month 1: Getting Started with Internal Data

The major objective in the first month is to define and load a subset of your internal data so that portfolio managers can view their own portfolios via their browser. This month includes defining the process for extracting the basic data sets from internal systems and manually loading the data into your Vision environment. The initial data sets should include security, portfolio, and company masters, holdings data, and supplemental data such as industry and sector. The recommended starter feeds are described in detail below. These feeds provide enough information to use most of the starter portfolio reports without modification.

Month 2: Basic Report Customizations and Additional Data

The major objective in the second month is to incorporate links to some external data feeds, tailor existing applications to meet your needs, and introduce one or two custom reports. By the end of this month, we should have a complete functional system that includes all the initial data feeds and applications you require for rollout.

Month 3: Productionization

The major objective in the third month is to productionize the data upload process, address cusip/sedol change and split adjustment issues, and define exception reporting and data error resolution strategies. Part of this month is used to define a process that best fits into your organization's current operating environment. By the end of this month, we should have procedures in place that enable you to manage the day-to-day operation of your Vision system.

Next Steps

Congratulations, you now have a system in production and many happy users. Over time, you will probably want to add new reports and expand the set of internal and external data feeds you incorporate. You will be able to do many of these enhancements on your own using the techniques you learned during the installation process. Insyte's consultants are available to design, develop, and install additional applications with you. At this point you may choose to begin learning the Vision language so that you can develop new reports and applications on your own. General Vision language training is available if and when you decide to embark on this path.

More information about "next steps" is available.

Starter Feeds

To initialize your Vision database, you will minimally want to supply the following feeds:

FeedRecommended Fields
CompanyMaster entityId, name
SecurityMaster entityId, name, ticker, companyId
PortfolioMaster entityId, name
HoldingsFeed acctId, secId, date, shares, mval

You should supply one or more tab-delimited files for each of these feeds.

Hints:

  • Any security referenced in your HoldingsFeed should be included in your SecurityMaster. Any number of additional securities can be included.

  • If you do not have a CompanyMaster, use your SecurityMaster for both feeds.

Consideration: Multiple Asset Types

Question:

    What types of assets are included in your HoldingsFeed?:

Answer: Only equity holdings are included (i.e., no cash or other asset types)

    You are all set.

Answer: Holdings include equity plus cash

    You have several options:

    • use the string CashUS as the value of secId in the HoldingsFeed to indicate a cash holding.
    • identify aliases that are used to indicate a cash holding in the HoldingsFeed and add them to the CashUS security using the SecurityAliases feed.
    • use general multiple asset type rules, described below.

Answer: Holdings potentially include multiple asset types

    You need to add a security type indicator for the securities in your master. You should:

    • supply the SecurityTypeMaster feed with the fields entityId, name, and assetCategory.
    • add the field type to your SecurityMaster with values that correspond to the security types you have defined.

Considerations: International Security Universe

Question:

    Does your universe include international companies? Do you want to be able to present US information in foreign currencies?

Answer: Yes

    You should consider adding country and currency information to your database. This requires that you:

    • supply a CurrencyMaster feed with the fields entityId and name; a sample feed is available.
    • add the field currencyId to the SecurityMaster feed with values that correspond to the currencies in your master.
    • supply an ExchangeRateFeed feed with the fields entityId, date, and usExchange.
    • supply a CountryMaster feed with the fields entityId, name, and currencyId; a sample feed is available.
    • supply a CompanyToCountry feed to map your companies to their countries.

Considerations: Industry Scheme

Question:

    Do you want to be able to see your data grouped into industries and sectors?

Answer: Yes

    You should consider adding industry and sector information to your database. This requires that you:

Starter Feeds - Summary

The following table summarizes the basic data feeds you may need to supply to get started:

FeedRecommended Fields
--- Standard ---
CompanyMaster entityId, name
SecurityMaster entityId, name, ticker, companyId, type, currencyId
PortfolioMaster entityId, name
HoldingsFeed acctId, secId, date, mval, shares
--- Non-Equity Assets ---
SecurityTypeMaster entityId, name, assetCategory
--- International ---
CurrencyMaster entityId, name
CountryMaster entityId, name, currencyId
ExchangeRateFeed entityId, date, usExchange
CompanyToCountry memberId, groupId
--- Industry Groupings ---
SectorMaster entityId, name
IndustryMaster entityId, name
IndustryToSector memberId, groupId
CompanyToIndustry memberId, groupId
--- Security/Company Characteristic Data ---
PriceFeed entityId, date, currencyId, close
FundamentalA entityId, date, currencyId, ...
FundamentalQ entityId, date, currencyId, ...
FundamentalM entityId, date, currencyId, ...

Once you have assembled an initial set of feeds, you may wish to use the document, Getting Started to test load this information.

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