MFS Builds Automated Reports Based on Actuate Tools

MFS Investment Management, a Boston-based asset management firm, and Actuate, a business intelligence software vendor, announced today at the SIFMA show that MFS has been using Actuate's Enterprise Reporting Application Platform to build automated reports in three areas of the firm and will continue to create more.In one application, MFS used the Actuate platform to efficiently disseminate analysts' ideas to investment bankers and traders. More than 200 portfolio managers and research analysts use Actuate to receive information on fund holdings, trade commissions and internal financial research, including graphs, risk statistics, client reports and analyses. Users receive a report similar to a PDF document with embedded links, or they can access the information through a portal.

The trading systems group uses Actuate reports to find any discrepancies in trade records and to make sure that all their systems are in agreement. And the service center uses Actuate to look at and analyze incoming individual client account activity for mutual funds.

"We have the ability to do things we've never been able to do before," says Joe Piotrowski, vice president and development manager at MFS. "It doesn't take any perceptible time to build extensions on Actuate to generate new reports." This has led to cost reductions in support services, he says.