We have developed a cloud based RegTech software tool, known as Allatus Unity® that applies a method and machine learning to improve the efficiency and quality of Regulatory Reporting solutions. Allatus Unity creates reusable knowledge about data that accelerates future projects and highlights system rationalisation opportunities. Benefits are threefold:
1) Cost reduction; Over 50% of project costs saved through reuse of existing knowledge and efficiency improvements.
2) Compliance and Control; the knowledge base enables organisations to demonstrate control and understanding of the reporting landscape reducing the risk of Regulator penalties.
3) Staff morale: improved morale as Business Analysts have a purpose built analysis method and tool to help them work collaboratively and reuse previous analysis work and solutions. It also enables collaboration and sharing across the organisation breaking down silos.
The tool can be used for any reporting and data tracing/understanding, including for regulations such as BCBS239, Solvency II, GDPR and also used to rationalise across Management Information Systems. It can be used across any jurisdiction and any industry.
There are 3 main elements to the software; Capture, Share and Exploit.
- Capture allows upload of report templates. Machine learning guides Business Analysts in matching the report terms to a single Business Glossary. Once complete Analysts move on to understanding the detailed requirements by developing business rules using a pre-defined and validated syntax . This process connects the Business Glossary Terms to the detailed data items in a Logical Data Model. The next step requires client source system data definitions to be matched to the Logical Data Model.
- Share allows all the knowledge developed to used. There is drill down and across capability through reports, glossary, data model and source systems and also graphical data lineage functionality where an end to end view of the data and its usage can be understood and shared.
- Exploit allows users to download reports and analysis built from the knowledge base at the touch of a button. Detailed Functional Specifications and Test documents can be produced automatically. A Data Element Usage Heatmap shows all the data items used across reports highlighting key data elements and showing the overlap in data needs across reports to highlight report rationalisation opportunities.
The Allatus management team have over 80 years experience across data architecture and design, systems development, data warehousing and finance and risk reporting. This shared knowledge and experience and has been used to design and build Allatus Unity.
The 3 co-founders have worked in Financial Services for over 90 years combined and experienced over and over again the inefficiencies of Reporting and Data Warehousing projects, in particular the reinvention of methods for requirements gathering on every project with no reuse or reference to what already existed.
The use of Excel and Access databases, while useful on a one time basis, do not allow for collaboration and development of a long term knowledge base. Much times is wasted developing such artefacts, that eventually get lost and out of date.. Excel, Word and MS Access do not allow for collaboration and development of a long term knowledge base
There is was no software tool available to do the work we repeatedly needed to do to develop a set of requirements and gain an understanding of data and how it should be used and to allow us to collaborate and share our work. We decided in 2011 to build a tool and our vision is for this tool to become the tool of choice by Business Analysis and Data Management professionals for this type of work.
The frustration of knowing there must be a better way but no solutions available drove us to setting up the company and designing and building the solution. This was reinforced by the fact that the volume of regulation was increasing which simply compounded the problems that Banks were having to keep up leading to more silo’d, non-reconciling solutions.
How we started
We received a SMART Innovation grant from Scottish Enterprise in 2012 to help with the initial research and development. We also received some other grant funding through Scottish Enterprise.
We are self-funded where the co-founders have been doing contract work and all income has gone into the company to fund business development and product development as well as cover day to day costs. We have also undertaken 4 funded proof of concept projects.
We spent 18 months supported by the “Entrepreneurial Spark” programme.
We are currently (Oct 2018) in discussions with a large UK Bank about a licence agreement.
Having had two previous offices we are now in Codebase in Edinburgh.
A key challenge that we have is that people doing the work we are trying to simplify do not usually have budget and the people who have the budget have never done this sort of work and so don’t get the challenges. The solution also cuts across operational silos and so needs wide buy-in.
Stewart Pitt Co-Founder, CFO/ Business Development
Evelyn Owenson Co-Founder, Chief Architect
Hang Chung Co-Founder, CTO