How No Code can make you a data superhero

The No Code movement is democratising the ability to access, wield and analyse data, putting power back into the hands of ‘business users’, who know best how to make the most of it in their own industries.  

As Steve Jobs proved, you don’t have to be a coder to do amazing things; you just need to be inspired with the right ideas. Gartner, for example, predicts no/low code will represent 65% of all app development by 2025.  

No Code solutions are becoming especially important in the funds industry, where the right tools can transform how you receive, understand, and send data. Operations professionals in the funds industry no longer need to be limited by a lack of access to programmers or developers. 

So, you – yes, you a business user in the front, middle or back-office - can be a data superhero without learning how to code. 

We spoke to Fund Recs CEO Alan Meaney to find out how No Code solutions are revolutionising work-life for investment operations.

1. What is No Code? 

No Code software does what it says on the tin. It allows non-technical users to complete tasks that previously required developers to write code.  

A No Code platform provides an accessible, user interface for non-technical users using drag and drop components to create relevant automation and connect the dots. Everything that the end user needs to use is already built into the tool. 

Here at Fund Recs, we’ve seen the huge benefits that No Code can deliver. With the No Code movement in mind, we’ve developed Fund Recs Fusion. It allows end users to automate the ingestion, normalization, and delivery of complex data files. From there, the data becomes easier to manage and transform for use downstream in other internal or external systems.

2. Why should investment managers be aware of it?

No Code solutions simplify tasks, empower people and speed up projects. You no longer have to constantly call in the often-stretched IT department to develop automation or to onboard new processes. 

For example, if systems are so complicated that IT must be involved every time a new client is onboarded then there is an opportunity to improve operational efficiency and reduce the opportunity cost of a delayed onboarding. No Code systems, which can be easily configured by the people who know the data, the problems they are facing, and what they are trying to achieve, can save teams considerable time and companies thousands of euros. 

That’s just one example of a lot of the tasks that investment managers could do more quickly and easily themselves without IT back-up. IT has enough on their plate, dealing with data protection, cyber security and their own skills shortages that will make wasting their time ever-more expensive.

3. Why is it so important to increase efficiency?

In the funds industry, we all know about margin pressures. Passive investment, increased competition and fee transparency are all putting downward pressure on costs. We need to become more efficient in an ever-more competitive space.  

Maximising efficiency not only reduces costs but also frees up staff to focus more on value-added areas like building and nurturing client relationships.   

We all know how important this is. But sometimes staff forget if they are under pressure to meet deadlines. The all-important client relationship can get pushed down the list of priorities. It shouldn’t. 

4. What are your favourite examples of no code in action?

One of our clients reported that their highly paid and highly skilled risk team were spending 60% of their time manipulating and preparing data just to get it into a format that allowed them to begin doing the analysis they were hired to do.  

Paying risk analysts to do manual data work is not only a waste of time and money, but also demoralising for these specialists to do things with no value added.  

Using our Fusion platform to automatically ingest, normalise and transform the data means the risk team can focus on monitoring risk, a critical role. The client can also scale more quickly by adding funds without adding headcount to the risk team.  

Just think about the difference in saving 10 minutes on each file.  

Consider the risk team example above. Let’s conservatively assume that the salary and associated costs of the team were €150,000 per annum. Dedicating 60% of their time to manual data manipulation is costing the business €90,000. That’s before factoring in other issues like quality control and the risk of a clerical error. Using technology for automated data transformation provides the opportunity for a significant return on investment.

5. What are the hidden advantages of No Code solutions for an investment manager? 

The cost of losing your best people is incalculable. In today’s quantitatively eased world, access to financial capital is no longer as much of a problem. Increasingly, it’s human capital – the skills, drive, innovation of your people - that differentiates corporate winners from losers. But the best people are in increasingly short supply, making recruitment and retention a growing concern. And by growing concern, it’s an all-consuming HR issue. The cost of losing and then replacing an employee ranges from thousands of euros up to twice their annual salary.

6. What are the challenges of No Code? 

“With great power comes great responsibility.” As Peter Parker found out in Spiderman, there are a couple of important factors to consider when giving business users powerful tools to manage their data. 

Data governance is a way to ensure that your company’s business users work with your data in a secure, authorised, controlled and auditable way. Think of it as the safety systems on SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, designed to protect the payload (your data) in a use case that unlocks potential to transform an entire industry.  

Data lineage is also very important. Being able to track back to the original data source can help with downstream remediation.

What the future looks like

“The future of coding is no coding at all,” – Chris Wanstrath, CEO of Github, the world’s biggest development platform.   

No Code is undoubtedly the future. Even if there were enough coders to go around – and there aren’t by a long way – it makes sense to automate data processing and to enable non-technical people to fix, adapt and creatively engage with their own stuff.   

The benefits are too obvious to ignore. It makes your business more agile, efficient, engaging and productive. Making work more fun is maybe a bit of a stretch, but employees will thank you for freeing them from Excel hell. They might even stick around long enough to help drive your business forward. 

Find out more about our No Code solutions now. Request a demo today.