Custom Platform · Private Equity
VectorMarks: the platform that replaced the spreadsheet.
VectorMarks is an operating platform for private equity — the system PE firms use to target, track, and triage the Fortune 100/500 portfolio companies they manage. It started life as Excel and a stack of proprietary macros: complex to manipulate, invisible in real time, ten minutes to push a single update, impossible to customize per portfolio company. We rebuilt it as a custom .NET platform with a split UI, SSRS reporting, and real-time infographics — and lifted real-time reporting capability 65%.
Target/track/triage of Fortune 100/500 portfolios run on Excel + macros — no real-time visibility, no per-client scalability.
Custom .NET platform · split user interface · SSRS report engine · event-based alerts · per-user sub-databases.
+65% real-time reporting · +30% data integrity · +18% productivity — "more robust than we could have imagined."
What was actually happening.
A PE management firm administering large portfolios for top Fortune 100/500 companies was running its entire target-track-triage process on Excel and proprietary macros. Data manipulation was complex, real-time visibility was effectively nonexistent for stakeholders, every update took ten-plus minutes to enact, and the framework couldn’t be modified per portfolio company — so it couldn’t scale.
Where it hurt most.
- 1No real-time visibilityStakeholders had no live view into the target/track/triage process — decisions ran on stale data.
- 210-min updatesEvery push to management took ten-plus minutes — multiplied across a portfolio, a tax.
- 3No per-client scalingThe Excel/macro framework couldn’t be customized per portfolio company — growth had a ceiling.
- 4Digging through formsUsers populated data by digging into forms instead of working from the frontend.
The work, in motion.
A ground-up custom platform, architected for how PE actually works. Centralized, connected data across every stakeholder; a split interface that lets each user compartmentalize fields, metrics, and infographics to preference; and a .NET SSRS engine generating highly customizable reports down to the micro level. Onboarding built in to keep the learning curve low.
- Custom split user interface — monitor overview in one panel, deep-dive data entry in the other, configurable per user
- .NET SSRS reporting engine — highly customizable reports + micro-reporting, with per-user sub-databases
- Preconfigured event-based reports (critical status-change alerts, weekly progress, master management rollup) · dynamic onboarding tutorial · real-time infographics
Measured, not promised.
Ten-minute updates became real time — for a firm where minutes move money.
“Working with Incipient has been an absolute pleasure. They have truly become part of our team — their insights and suggestions have enabled us to create a more robust platform than we could have imagined.”
.NET application with an SSRS reporting backbone, automatic per-user sub-databases, and a configurable split-pane UI. Event-driven report generation fires on status changes; the macro-and-Excel framework it replaced is fully retired.