ALPORAX was developed to help automate the entire process of stock portfolio analysis

Overview

ALPORA is a Swiss-based investment analytics firm, which creates new products based on the most innovative companies in different sectors and regions. ALPORA supports investors in the development and deployment of valuable investment strategies by focusing on innovation leaders. It provides services exclusively to certain stock market investors. Investors use the research competencies of ALPORA to integrate the innovation potential of selected companies into their investment processes. ALPORA helps companies to measure, evaluate, and improve their ability to innovate based on industry-specific quantitative benchmarking techniques.

Implementation Process

The goal of the ALPORAX project was to streamline the process of stock portfolio analysis while eliminating manual sources of error. They wanted a solution that automates the entire process of stock portfolio analysis while ensuring quality and facilitating customer contact via CRM.

The ALPORAX solution strategically combines multiple complex analysis steps into a 5-phases process: Setup, Data Generation, Portfolio Calculation, Data Analytics and Final Evaluation. The main phase, portfolio calculation, used the latest algorithms from Artificial Intelligence and Data Envelopment Analysis, into which statistical methods such as French Fama, ESG-based approaches, etc., could be flexibly integrated. To remove errors from the entire process, each step of the process had embedded, predefined quality checks. The integration of external data (e.g. VB. from Bloomberg) was completed automated, thus freeing the user from reliance on Excel documents and manual activities.

The best part about ALPORAX is that itis universally applicable due to a direct interface with data sources like Bloomberg, from where data is obtained automatically. There is also an additional interface allowing direct integration of different Analytics-Codes. In addition to measuring the innovation efficiency of the companies, other analytical models can also be easily integrated, such as support vector machines, decision tree analyses, and Fama-French models.

Microservice architecture, along with highly scalable and flexible Azure cloud services, makes it highly adaptable. Moreover, innovative Microsoft technologies (e.g. Power Platform; DataFlex Pro) have been integrated into the solution to ensure a high-performance solution. Analysis results can be easily visualized/presented through PowerBI interactive reports, enabling fund managers to identify portfolio anomalies quickly.

The completion of the ALPORAX project took place in seven months, including conceptual design, implementation, and extensive testing,

Benefits Achieved

In July 2020, ALPORAX was applied in a real-world context, with the first set of portfolios confirming the process’s anticipated speed and quality improvements. The solution reduced the fund portfolio creation time from

2 weeks of manual work to about 30 minutes of fully automated, error-tolerant, documented & traceable work. Time to market was reduced from 4 months to 4 weeks while improving scalability as twice the investment

products could be created without additional resources, resulting in efficiency gains of 80%.

Conclusion

The ALPORAX solution has three key advantages:

• Automated Al-supported analyses for stock portfolio construction and maintenance
• High adaptability to other forms of analysis (SVM and value investing approaches, stress tests, etc.)
• Clear presentation of results in interactive reports and direct linkage with workflows in CRM, enabling automated communication with customers and partners, makes it a classic case of the use of analytics for investment management.

Key Facts

• Bank Name: ALPORA
• Bank HQ: Switzerland
• Vendor: Inhouse Development
• Solution Implemented: ALPORAX
• Timeline: 7 Months