Data versus Information
Data on its own has no meaning, only when interpreted by some kind of data processing system does it take on meaning and become information. To look at it another way, information is data that has been organized and presented in a systematic fashion to clarify the underlying meaning.

Extraction - In order to present information to someone, you need to extract the raw data for that information from one or more storage systems. Many firms rely on older mainframes that have limited output functionality. These systems tend to be very reliable and initially required a large investment of both time and money. For these two reasons, many firms wish to continue using them. This creates some intricate challenges that need to be overcome in order to get the data in a form that can be used for presentation to a client. These systems have been patched multiple times in the last 10-25 years and now consist of what is commonly referred to as spaghetti code. Experienced software professionals to augment and fix the software are harder and harder to find. While mainframes are good at performing functions that are coded into them, in comparison to today's systems they are difficult to update and their output is extremely inflexible. Via customized extraction software and its knowledge of main frame operating systems, Statement Solutions can collect your data and get it into a format that can be converted for current use.

Conversion - Once the data has been extracted it needs to go through a conversion process. There are often three parts to the process. Merging, data integrity validation and output formatting. Merging is when you combine two or more data sources to create the data you want available everywhere. Data integrity validation is making sure that the combined and merged data is correct and complete. Formatting is getting the extracted data to be usable by other applications for printing, presentment and management. Statement Solutions works with many different backends including:

•  ADP

•  Beta

•  CRI

•  SIS

•  DST – Mutual fund backend

•  PFPC – Mutual fund backend

•  SunGard/Phase 3

•  SEI – Trust Co. System

•  Credit Union System

Output - Using custom proprietary software for each client we are able to sort, process, calculate and validate the client's data. Once the data has been converted and validated for accuracy it is stored in a robust relational database. Unlike on a mainframe, all the data within the database can be queried and acted upon. This flexibility lets you look at the data in meaningful ways for your clients as well as for your business. After the data is stored, it can be formatted for various types of output.

Choose your format and Statement Solutions will put your data into it. Most clients implement:

•  PDF

•  Word

•  Excel

•  Jpeg

•  Tiff

•  Html

•  Xml

Others are available and used on a case by case basis.