The mutual fund and asset management industry is highly regulated, requiring constant compliance and management of vast amounts of documentation. These documents include records for securities, equity, debt and compliance, all of which are critical for the organization’s operations and regulatory adherence. Managing these records manually is inefficient and error-prone, leading to missed deadlines, non-compliance and financial penalties. To overcome these challenges, a leading mutual fund company adopted DMS+ AI/ML-powered Document Management Solution to automate and streamline their document lifecycle management.

Challenges

Before implementing DMS+ solution, the mutual fund company faced several operational and economic challenges:

• Extensive compliance demands: Each security required around 100+ documents annually, each with its own expiration and renewal schedule. These documents were managed by different teams, making it difficult to track updates and deadlines.

• Inefficient manual processes: Documents were scattered across various departments and folders, making retrieval time-consuming. The lack of a unified system led to delays and missed compliance deadlines.

• Costly manual updates and tracking: The absence of automation in tracking document expiration dates and renewals meant increased labor costs and a higher risk of errors.

• Disparate systems: With documents managed across multiple systems and locations, there was no efficient way to track, update, or maintain compliance without significant manual intervention.

Solution

To address these issues, the company implemented Enterprise Document Management System (DMS+) platform, designed specifically to meet the complex needs of the mutual fund and asset management industry.

Key components of the solution included:

Securities Document Lifecycle Management:

• Centralized document management: DMS+ platform created a centralized repository to manage all securities-related documents, ensuring easy access and tracking.

• Automated planners and reminders: The system generated planners and sent automated email alerts before and after expiration dates, ensuring that documents were renewed in time.

• Dashboards for visibility: Real-time dashboards gave the company a comprehensive view of pending documents and upcoming deadlines, helping prevent missed compliance obligations.

Equity and Debt Document Management:

• Automated workflows: The ECM platform created automated workflows for document submissions, verifications and approvals based on business logic like company ratings and exposure limits. Analysts received automated notifications for updates.

• Comprehensive compliance reports: The system generated real-time compliance reports, allowing the company to track all documents and deadlines across departments and create an audit trail for transparency, highlighting the importance of automated compliance management.

AI/ML-Powered Automation:

• The platform used AI and ML to automatically classify documents, extract critical data and streamline compliance reporting. This reduced manual intervention and ensured greater accuracy in document management, reflecting the impact of AI and ML in mutual fund solutions.

Economic Benefits of DMS+ Document Management Solution

The implementation of DMS+ Document Management System (DMS) delivered significant economic benefits to the mutual fund company, both in terms of cost savings and operational efficiency:

Reduced Operational Costs:

• Labor cost savings: By automating document management tasks like data entry, classification and compliance tracking, the company reduced the number of man-hours required to handle these processes. This freed up employees to focus on higher-value tasks.

• Reduced printing and storage costs: The digitalization of documents eliminated the need for physical storage, reducing costs associated with printing, filing and maintaining paper documents. This also freed up valuable office space, showcasing cost savings with document management systems.

Minimized Compliance Penalties:

• Avoidance of fines: Automated alerts and compliance tracking significantly reduced the risk of missing regulatory deadlines. In an industry where non-compliance can lead to heavy fines and reputational damage, this provided considerable cost avoidance.

• Improved accuracy: AI-powered data extraction and document classification ensured that documents were correctly categorized and tracked, reducing the risk of human error and subsequent financial penalties.

Increased Efficiency and Faster Turnaround Times:

• Quicker approvals and renewals: Automated workflows allowed documents to move through the approval chain faster, reducing the time it took to complete compliance tasks. This led to more efficient use of resources and faster turnaround on regulatory reporting.

• Time savings: The automated document tracking system reduced the time spent searching for and retrieving documents, further improving productivity.

Scalability Without Additional Costs:

• Handling growth with ease: As the company’s operations expanded, DMS+ solution scaled effortlessly to handle the increased volume of documents and compliance requirements without incurring additional administrative costs. This made the solution a cost-effective and scalable document management process for future growth.

Better Decision-Making Through Real-Time Insights:

• Informed decision-making: The customizable dashboards provided real-time insights into document statuses, helping management make informed decisions quickly. This added transparency and enabled better financial planning and resource allocation.

Conclusion

DMS+ has proven to be a game-changer for the mutual fund industry, helping companies not only comply with complex regulatory requirements but also achieve significant cost savings and operational efficiencies. By leveraging AI and ML-powered automation, the solution streamlined document management, reduced human error and ensured that the company stayed ahead of its compliance obligations. The result was a more agile, cost-effective and scalable document management process that allowed the company to focus on growth and innovation.