Investor Reporting Transformation through Automated Capital Event Notices with Anaplan & Workiva

The Situation 

A leading global asset manager with over $100M in assets under management in North America, Europe, Asia, and South America modernized and automated its investor communications by initiating a transformation of its capital event notice process for its flagship real estate fund series. 

Historically, the company relied on manual production methods and static tools, such as Excel spreadsheets and mail merge functions. This approach resulted in inconsistencies, limited scalability, and a heightened risk of errors as the firm expanded operations across multiple funds. To address these inefficiencies, the company collaborated with Alpha Alternatives to implement a comprehensive solution utilizing Anaplan and Workiva to streamline and automate the capital notice production process. 

The Approach 

The transformation project involved designing and implementing a centralized model using Anaplan to manage complex cash flow calculations and allocations across 7 capital pools. Workiva was utilized for document automation to produce over 800 investor notices. 

Key features of the project included: 

• Cloud-Based Enterprise Modeling Solution: Transitioned from Excel-based models to a cloud-based Anaplan model for 7 capital pools within the Real Estate private fund families. 

• Automated Capital Event Notices: Enhanced the Capital Events Model within Workiva to streamline and automate the generation of capital event notices. 

• Cash Flow Calculations: Configured cash flow calculations and allocations across the entire fund entity structure up to the investors based on ownership percentages, generating detailed Funds Flow reports and dashboards for LP and legal entity allocations. 

• Data Integration & Technical Framework: Enabled data ingestion from Excel to the Anaplan Data Hub via a third-party service provider, and built a dynamic ETL process, business logic layer, and Document Generation API to support automated notice creation and ensure consistent, end-to-end data flow. 

• Available Commitment Tracking: Developed a comprehensive tracking system for available commitments, which includes the calculation of total commitments, capital called, recallable distributions, and adjustments for investor opt-outs to ensure accurate management of investor positions.  

The Impact 

• Enhanced Investor & Fund Management: Enabled the team to effectively handle complex investor-fund relationships, managing existing nuances while accommodating future variations. 

• Standardization: Standardized the capital event reporting process across funds, providing transparency and consistency in communications. 

• Increased Efficiency and Reduced Turnaround Time: Automation significantly reduced the manual effort required to generate investor notices, ensuring faster processing times. 

• Enhanced Security and Auditing: Implemented user security measures in Anaplan to control data access, ensuring data integrity and reducing the risk of errors. 

• Approval Workflows: Established clear workflows for report approvals, mitigating risks related to version control and enhancing governance. 

• Automation at Scale: Leveraged Workiva’s wDesk and wData to automate over 800 capital event notices across 7 capital pools, significantly reducing manual effort. 

Conclusion 

The company’s investment in an automated and standardized capital event reporting solution using Anaplan and Workiva signifies a crucial stride towards operational excellence. With the expected go-live of the Capital Event Notice solution in Q3 2025, the company anticipates substantial improvements in operational accuracy, reporting turnaround time, and heightened confidence in its investor communications. This project not only addresses their immediate reporting needs but also lays the foundation for scalable growth and improved client engagement in the future.