How CapMan Saved Hundreds of Hours with Automated Reporting

Managing Quarterly Reporting for Multiple Funds

CapMan's reporting team is responsible for creating quarterly reports for nearly 20 funds, which include investments in Nordic office, retail, residential, and hotel properties, as well as private equity and infrastructure. These Limited Partner (LP) reports must be customized to meet each institutional investor's template requirements. 

LP reports document a fund's performance, portfolio updates, risks, opportunities, and expenses, providing investors with the necessary information to make informed decisions.

To compile these reports, the team pulls data from nearly 20 sources across private and public clouds, as well as multiple third-party applications such as rent and loan management systems. They also calculate key performance indicators (KPIs) for internal reporting to CapMan's management and investment teams.

Previously, the team used Alteryx Scheduler for data extraction and manually calculated KPIs in Excel. However, when Alteryx discontinued their scheduler, CapMan began searching for a new solution.

Automating Reporting with KNIME

Several factors led CapMan's reporting team to select KNIME. The combination of KNIME Analytics Platform with the KNIME Team Plan provided the exact scheduling functionality they needed to automate their LP reporting process. Additionally, the team found KNIME Analytics Platform’s interface more intuitive and easier to use than their previous solution. The open-source nature of KNIME Analytics Platform was another benefit.

After selecting KNIME, the team automated their reporting process in three steps:

1. Building Data Workflows: Using KNIME Analytics Platform, the team converted and built data workflows that connected to about 20 cloud-based data sources, including third-party applications such as loan and rent management systems through existing API integrations. They pulled data into their internal data warehouse, calculated metrics, and transformed the data according to each investor's template requirements. They also calculated KPIs for internal reporting.

2. Scheduling Workflows: With the KNIME Team Plan, the team scheduled these workflows to run automatically each week. They also monitored workflow execution and handled any errors that arose.

3. Generating Reports: The team connected KNIME to PowerBI to generate the final formatted reports. These reports were then automatically distributed to investors. Additionally, they created internal dashboards for management and investment teams, with support from a Finnish company, Greenstep, to enhance data processing and BI modeling.

Reduction in time spent on quarterly reporting 

The team, responsible for reporting and data processes, successfully transitioned the workflows and automated many manual reporting tasks. This has significantly reduced their quarterly reporting workload, saving days that were previously spent on manual data processing. While not all reports are fully automated yet, CapMan is making significant progress toward greater automation. This time saving allows the team to focus on analysis and other value-adding activities.

Given the success of automating LP reporting with KNIME, CapMan plans to expand its use to other teams that currently rely on Excel for data processing.

Looking to automate some of your own data work? Start a free trial of the KNIME Team plan.