Situation Overview

The record-keeping company employs a distribution channel for dividing payments from plan sponsors among advisors, third-party administrators (TPAs), and various vendors. There was a constant need to calculate potential discounts, decide the plan minimums and maximums, exclude certain securities from the fee calculation, etc. For a more integrated and streamlined process, the team required a robust automated system in place, with cutting-edge technology incorporated to make the process smoother for the stakeholders involved. The key features of such a system included the following:

• Ability to handle large volumes of data with speed and accuracy.
• Advanced visibility features to ensure effortless accounting and record-keeping.
• Flexibility to integrate with different types of software systems.
• Scalability to accommodate future growth.

Such a system could play a vital role in ensuring the record-keeping company’s smooth operation and maximizing its clients’ satisfaction levels.

Client Needs Analysis

The development of an efficient automated solution required highlighting the key pain points that needed to be addressed by the proposed automated system. The following were the client’s primary needs:

• Calculate up-to-date discounts, set plan minimums and maximums, and exclude certain securities from the fee calculator using rules.
• Automatically adjust the invoice amount by offsetting plan funds, collecting from revenue generated, or selling off-plan assets in the market.
• Switch from legacy SQL, MS Excel-based billing system to a state-of-the-art automated system to reduce manpower and labor costs.
• Ensure due diligence and fiduciary responsibility.
• Building transparency in the long-term for key areas like client fee payment, service value costs, and details of products invested in individual retirement portfolios.

Challenges to Overcome

Developing a future-proof automated solution to cater to such specific clients’ needs was an uphill battle. There were some key issues facing Founding Minds’ team members throughout the development process. Firstly, reducing the time spent calculating fees and creating invoices from a few weeks to days was a meticulous undertaking. The team further had to ensure that the new system worked with the minimal human interaction possible to maximize the cost-efficiency.  All the while, the team met the challenging task of selecting the right technologies to support a financial system that would be relevant for decades to come.

The Resulting Automated and Scalable Solution 

The diligent analysis and creative efforts of Founding Minds’ industry-best development team paved the way for the creation of a groundbreaking automated solution. The solution includes the following prominent features:

• Horizontal Scalability – the solution is horizontally scalable to meet the client’s infrastructure specifications.
• Well-Integrated Billing Process – a configured billing rule engine is included that connects with various sub-systems to retrieve data and create real-time security market value, and calculate fees on the spot. 
• Fee Hierarchy Enabled – the solution can be customized for any complex fee hierarchy.
• Automated Scheduling – a customizable scheduling system is included for the automation of invoices and statements generation.
• Flexibility of Use – the solution is fully customizable to match any rules the client may require and supports re-calculations, re-runs, and adjustments.
• Accounting Visibility – ledger entries and reports can be created and integrated with the client’s legacy accounting systems.
• Intuitive UI/UX – friendly and easy to use for support staff and back office personnel.
• Audit Logs – for visibility and transparency.

The automated solution offered by Founding Minds resulted from the implementation of many modern, leading-edge tools and technologies. 

Tools utilized

• Agile Methodology for Project Management
• .NET Core Framework for Backend Development
• Angular for Frontend Development
• MS SQL Server as Database
• Rabbit MQ Queue for Queue Management
• App Insights and Log4net for Logging

Technologies Implemented

• Multi-Tenant Cloud Architecture
• Rule-Engine for Billing Calculation
• Invoice Generation
• ACH (Automated Clearing House) for Payments

Outcome and Impact

Through the implementation of the proposed automated solution, the record-keeping company saw success as it gained a competitive edge by improving its workflow efficiency and productivity. With minimal human intervention, the intelligent solution added significant value to the company by:

• Helping calculate complex fee configurations and generating 100s of invoices per minute.
• Aiding in reducing the painstaking task of calculating fees and creating invoices from weeks to a couple of days.
• Assisting plan sponsors in paying invoices by forfeiture, deducting from revenue generated by the plan, or selling plan assets.
• Enabling them to settle payments for 

Our Team

At Founding Minds, our team takes pride in being a reliable partner throughout the technological journey of our customers. We take time to understand customer requirements and combine our business and technical expertise to craft effective solutions. We take a holistic approach to innovate and do so with an understanding of the customer, their business, and trends in the industry.

Summary and Key Takeaways

When a customer approached Founding Minds with a problem, the team took the time to understand the business need, researched the market and came up with a technical solution that satisfied all the customer requirements. The resulting record-keeping, billing, and invoicing solution have been used for several years, generating significant savings for the customer and their end clients. 

Founding Minds brought in a blended team of business analysts, technical architects, developers and managers who delivered the product using best-of-breed technologies in an Agile development process for nimbleness and transparency.

When looking for a software development vendor, it’s important to choose a partner that understands your business and can adapt as the circumstances change. To build an effective long-term solution, this partner needs to be technically competent and flexible.

Founding Minds has a long track record of bringing solutions to market in the financial services domain. We are committed to being a loyal technology partner for your organization.