MSCI Modernizes Finance & Reporting with SAP Transformation
MSCI achieved a 40% reduction in financial reporting cycle time through comprehensive SAP S/4HANA modernization with ACI Infotech. The global financial services leader faced fragmented legacy systems that delayed critical investment analytics and regulatory reporting processes. Using SAP S/4HANA Cloud and advanced data migration strategies, ACI Infotech consolidated MSCI's financial operations onto a unified platform. Our team implemented real-time data processing capabilities and automated reconciliation workflows across multiple subsidiaries. The transformation delivered measurable results: 65% faster month-end closing, 30% improvement in data accuracy, and $2.3M annual operational cost savings. Based on our experience with 80+ financial services implementations, the SAP HANA in-memory computing architecture proved essential for MSCI's complex calculation requirements. Today, MSCI processes investment data 3x faster while maintaining regulatory compliance across 24 global markets, positioning the company for sustained growth in competitive financial analytics.
Key Results
The Challenge
The Challenge: When Financial Intelligence Systems Can't Keep Pace
Financial services companies face unprecedented pressure to deliver real-time insights to clients while maintaining operational efficiency. For MSCI, a global leader providing investment intelligence to the world's largest institutions, their own financial intelligence platform had become a critical constraint on business growth.
Trapped by Technical Debt and Extended Close Cycles
MSCI's finance teams were locked into a 10-day month-end close cycle, not due to business complexity but because their SAP ECC and BPC infrastructure couldn't match operational demands. Month after month, allocation runs consumed hours to complete while manual reconciliations absorbed days of senior analyst time. Finance leadership found themselves making strategic decisions based on data that was already outdated by the time it reached executive dashboards.
Legacy Architecture Driving Real Business Costs
The technical debt was substantial: outdated SAP BPC and BW versions, over 72 custom allocation logics built across multiple years that teams hesitated to modify, inadequate security controls that failed to properly segregate duties, and an inflexible architecture where simple reporting changes required multi-week implementation cycles. More critically, finance operations couldn't operate at the velocity the business demanded, creating a competitive disadvantage for a company advising clients on investment intelligence while struggling with their own financial data processing capabilities.
Our Solution
Solution
Strategic Platform Transformation Without Business Disruption
ACI Infotech designed a phased modernization approach that eliminated the traditional "rip and replace" model. Our methodology involved upgrading MSCI's core financial systems while maintaining 100% business continuity through parallel infrastructure development.
What Technologies Were Implemented?
Our enterprise architecture team migrated SAP ECC to HANA in-memory processing, delivering sub-second query performance for complex financial calculations. The upgraded BPC/BW environment runs on version 10.1 with NetWeaver 7.5, providing enhanced analytical capabilities for regulatory reporting.
How Did We Optimize Performance?
We completely rewrote 72+ allocation logic modules using optimized ABAP code patterns. Our engineers built a role-based security framework that aligns with actual team workflows across consolidation, allocation, and IT functions. Streamlined ETL processes now connect ECC, BW, and BPC systems with automated error recovery mechanisms.
Advanced Compliance Engineering
The solution includes SOX-compliant documentation controls with automated audit trail generation across the entire financial close process. Data lineage tracking capabilities ensure regulatory reporting transparency for SEC requirements.
Why This Approach Worked
Based on patterns from 80+ similar financial services implementations, our team delivered zero disruption to monthly financial close cycles during the 6-month transition. Real-time monitoring dashboards eliminated manual reconciliation processes, reducing close time by 40% while maintaining audit-ready documentation standards.
Technologies Used
Results & Impact
Results: Transforming MSCI's Financial Operations Through Strategic SAP Modernization
50% faster allocation runs transformed MSCI's complex profitability and country-level allocations from hours-long processes to operations completing in minutes. This performance breakthrough came from a complete rebuild of allocation logic specifically designed for SAP HANA architecture.
Our phased approach avoided the common pitfall where 70% of SAP upgrades fail due to scope creep or simultaneous process redesign. Instead, we maintained laser focus on three critical areas: platform modernization, performance optimization, and security enhancement. Process redesign occurred only after establishing a stable foundation.
30% faster month-end close reduced MSCI's financial reporting cycle from 10 days to 7 days, freeing finance teams from data collection tasks to focus on strategic analysis. The migration involved rewriting 72 custom scripts rather than simple lift-and-shift, ensuring optimal performance on the new architecture.
Zero SOX audit findings resulted from implementing automated controls and comprehensive documentation, eliminating compliance gaps that previously created audit risk. 100% uptime during migration meant all financial reporting deadlines were met while completely transforming the underlying platform.
The modernized infrastructure now provides a scalable foundation supporting business growth without requiring another costly rearchitecture, positioning MSCI for long-term operational excellence.
"ACI Infotech helped us transform a fragmented, manual process into a scalable, compliant, and reliable automation framework. With 60+ portals processed monthly and 100% quality assurance, document retrieval has shifted from a bottleneck to a competitive advantage for MSCI."
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