Status Update

• It felt good to take a telecoms related project as this one of our core expertise we have not practices for years. The project was challenging and exciting on the modelling front too: we were tasked with fusing a long-range forecasting model with very detailed month-to-month budgeting and reporting system for the board and other senior mgmt. Our solution was to wholesale archiving of actual and past budgets alongside the main live model within single Excel file without any switches, toggles or expensive lookups. The new set up allowed both instant reforecasts with each actuals update and variance analysis of new actuals against past performance and earlier budgets

• Our client has experienced explosive growth in supplying expanding food product ranges to more and more retail chains. A traditional model based on predetermined number of sales SKUs/channels did not work for them due to constantly changing configuration of their sales. FinRobot designed a model with ‘edgeless’ SKUs/channels matrix. Model users drop in data for a new product or a new channel and the model automatically incorporates new data with the rest of the financials schedules and statements

• Our first experience in this space working with a major UK hospital care provider. A small project quickly evolved into a variety of activities from auditing third party models to designing new tools to assess new products and services. Key challenge for us – apart from absorbing very quickly lots of new terminology – was vast amount of individual cost and revenue items underpinning healthcare operations. Libraries which we had to build for basic processes ran into thousands lines. At times we were pushing Excel to the limit. Our expertise in wholesale data manipulation helped win the day to make sure client got a fully functional dynamic spreadsheet as opposed to a bloated stale database

• Another forecasting model for a fast growing client in cloud software space. As the client has a multiregional approach to sales the model had to capture multiple dimensions of selling and servicing clients in numerous regions of the world each supported by local and central sales teams and broken down by business customers’ size and type of services provided. The client’s main issue with their own attempt to build a model was considerable time and effort required for each new upsized scenario. FinRobot designed and built a model with reasonable balance of structure and complexity of formulae to allow each update (product or region launch) to be put through in a matter of hours and not days and weeks consumed previously

• A very neat PFI style model for a new power generation project. As in any project finance model key challenges were to implement a sensible yet flexible CapEx schedule married with complex but yet transparent multiple layers of the project’s funding structure. Given the long life span of infrastructure projects keeping tabs on periodicity of the model was also an important consideration. The model was presented to international lenders and the feedback was exceptionally good

• Another nice opportunity to practice our knowledge of metals & mining space. Assisted with a new model build in support of client’s due diligence of investment target. Perhaps, least challenging from modelling perspective relative to other recent projects but required in-depth knowledge of key drivers underpinning a mining operation, reviewing and in co-operation with the client’s own team validating assorted titbits of information coming out of geology surveys, feasibility studies and target’s financial and management reports

Training

• Completed our summer term lecturing cycle of Advanced Financial Modelling Course at the London Business School. Went well as it did for all past years. Will publish a separate update once students’ feedback is collated.