‘I Truly Enjoy Collaborating with Our Users and Vendor Partners’

Stephanie Brown, a business analyst at the Glenmede Trust Company, discusses how collaboration helps achieve client deliverables of the highest quality and scalability.

(FTF has been reaching out to the speakers from the industry who are participating in the PMCR 2026 conference and giving them the spotlight to encourage more connections among those working in the performance measurement and client reporting disciplines. For this Q&A, FTF got time with Stephanie Brown, a vice president and business analyst at the Glenmede Trust Company, has held her current post since October 2000. For PMCR 2026, Brown is participating in the “Reporting That Engages Clients" session.)

Professional Background & Expertise

Q: Can you tell us a bit about your role and what your day-to-day looks like at Glenmede Trust?

A: My role as a business analyst on the investment systems team provisions the opportunity to simplify the user experience of our internal users; this ideally results in an optimized external client reporting engagement.

Our team is a part of the platform solutions department, and as the name implies, we provide solutions to our business partners. These solutions range from issue resolution to functional enhancements and workflow optimization for our colleagues in performance measurement, portfolio management, wealth administration, and trading.

I joined Glenmede more than 25 years ago and have enjoyed our team’s application suite evolution as an added enhancement to my day-to-day role.

Q: What’s a recent project or initiative your team has worked on that has made the biggest impact for your organization?

A: We are currently working on a client reporting standardization and centralization initiative that will have enterprise-level impact. Our pilot group is actively sharing valuable feedback that is critical to calibrate the final deliverables and help us achieve a more simplified client reporting user experience.

Q: What is your dream project?

A: I’m actually working on it right now!

My dream project is to help transform the organization through the use of more creative client reporting lenses. When we transitioned to our new client reporting application four years ago, several of our internal users experienced workflow challenges that led to dissatisfaction with the reporting application. This was primarily due to workflow changes that were deeply rooted in the 20-year legacy application.

Our team was tasked with translating challenges into teaching/learning opportunities. I particularly enjoyed curating creative training materials and walking through transforming legacy processes and reports that are now reflective of a new look and feel.

Additionally, I truly enjoy collaborating with our users and vendor partners to help bridge the divide between new application features/functionality to help achieve a client deliverable that reflects quality and is optimized for scalability.

Session Insights

Q: What inspired you to participate in PMCR 2026 and speak on "Reporting That Engages Clients"?

A: I have always had an affinity for transforming data/content into a more visually pleasing aesthetic. The title “Reporting That Engages Clients” makes me envision telling the data part of the client’s story through a more creative reporting lens. Naturally, the data is the data. However, delivering the data uniquely can be transformative.

Q: What do you think makes "Reporting That Engages Clients" especially relevant for today’s investment operations landscape?

A: “Reporting that Engages Clients” is critical as a differentiator in today’s investment and operations landscape given the ability for clients to self-service and leverage technological tools to customize their own reports. If they are able to achieve this type of reporting on their own, they don’t need us.

Industry Challenges & Trends

Q: What’s one of the biggest challenges your team or clients are facing right now? Can you fill us in on how you are approaching it?

A: The biggest challenge our team is facing is the transition from the legacy client reporting application to the new one. Unlearning many years of learned behavior is one of the greatest challenges of the people component of change management.

Q: How do you foresee technology (A.I., blockchains, digital assets, automation, data analytics, etc.) reshaping your area of expertise over the next year or two? Any major shifts you are preparing for?

A: Similarly to many firms, we have leveraged A.I. to help automate some of our internal manual operational workflow steps and processes; this has been beneficial as it frees up resources to engage in more innovative approaches to less mundane processes.

Our team has primarily used [Microsoft] Copilot as a data analysis tool to assess the behavior of our internal users and measure application adoption through internal reporting. This has helped us better understand how our users are leveraging applications to do their jobs, reassess data costs and identify usage trends. I believe these more scalable tools will continue to add value as we grow our internal user community.

Q: Which technology has impressed you? Which technology has disappointed you?

A: I am impressed with how easily Copilot integrates with different internal applications, provisioning for ease of parsing large data sets or transforming content into visualizations.

However, I find Copilot’s prompt refining techniques a bit underwhelming.

The PMCR Experience

Q: What are you most excited about learning at PMCR?

A: I am most excited to learn more about the innovative ways artificial intelligence is being leveraged to enhance client reporting and performance measurement in our industry. While we are facing our own challenges, I would particularly like to hear how other firms in the industry are leveraging A.I. visualization to optimize their client reporting books.

Q: What do you hope attendees walk away with after hearing your session?

A: I believe lessons learned in the change management process as well as leveraging creative tools/approaches to ensure each user’s role in the transition to a new client reporting application is well received.

The bottom line is stakeholder buy-in and enthusiasm about the client reporting application and its capabilities will garner more engaged internal users who are excited about keeping reporting fresh and engaging for clients.

Getting to Know You

Q: What’s one thing people might be surprised to learn about you?

A: The one thing that may surprise people is that I have been a dance skater for over 50 years (old school roller quads). Although my arthritis limits me a bit, I still skate!

Q: What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve ever received (or would share)?

A: The best piece of advice I have ever received is to develop a strong work ethic and always remember that the content of your character defines you (from my mom and dad).