SIFMA 2010 Buy-side Wrap Up 2

Following last week’s coverage of the 2010 SIFMA Financial Services Technology Expo in New York, we’ve condensed and organized the news we’ve gathered in order to provide more targeted wrap-up highlights and analysis pertinent to buy- and sell-side readers.

Portfolio management platform provider Tradar has added order management and compliance capabilities to the latest release of its Insight product.

The new FIX-enabled order management functionality in Insight 4.0 provides clients the ability to send out orders to various execution venues as well as support their pre- and post-trade compliance needs.

The upgraded platform also includes compliance tools along with a rules manager with which clients can customize requirements to meet future regulatory mandates.

"The current version of Insight has basic restriction checking, so it's primarily based around support for trading limits and exposures," says Gerry Gaultieri, Tradar CEO.

"We have a trade blotter where clients can create orders, but no outbound FIX connection—the only FIX we have in the current version is a FIX drop copied back in from Bloomberg or Passport from Morgan Stanley or Redi from Goldman Sachs."

Based on client feedback, Gaultieri explains, Tradar focused on compliance and FIX-enabled order management as the major enhancements for Insight 4.0.

"One main drivers for Insight 4.0 was a compliance framework that could support regulatory requirements, particularly focused on clients thinking about launching UCITS funds. What we've done is extended that functionality to now provide a compliance engine with a library of rules, which will include support for UCITS, but can also incorporate any future regulatory changes."

In addition, the previous version of Insight already featured a live profit-and-loss (P&L) function. Many Tradar clients had expressed interest in using that P&L as a basis for trading without having to install full-blown institutional order management systems.

"What we've enabled is order creation from that live P&L without leaving it," Gaultieri says. "Those orders can then be checked for pre-trade compliance, and then staged using a FIX server out to execution platforms. Inbound fill management and order completion are also now supported."

Fund administration service provider GlobeOp Financial Services' GlobeOp Managed Services unit, a provider of data collocation, business continuity and application hosting to hedge funds, will offer clients hosted Microsoft Exchange access through a partnership with cloud communications service provider Intermedia.

Through the cloud service, GlobeOp customers can utilize Microsoft Outlook 2010, as well as BlackBerry Enterprise Server and Windows SharePoint applications, without having to install or maintain those programs.

"This extends the nature of the services we provide," explains GlobeOp CTO Bob Schwartz.

"We're finding more and more that in particular with our smaller buy-side clients, they are looking for more comprehensive services even beyond the typical middle- and back-office administration services we provide."

He explains that the administrator began its managed services business about a year ago to support clients' operating applications. With the Intermedia partnership, GlobeOp can now provide similar cloud-based support for more standard office infrastructures.

Post-trade technology vendor Electra Information Systems has rolled out a new software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering to support reconciliation and data aggregation for asset and hedge fund managers.

The new service, eSTaARS, is designed to automate data collection, normalization and aggregation, as well as reconciliation processes. Managers are thus enabled to focus manpower on exception management.

By streamlining the reconciliation function for investment managers, Electra officials say eSTaARS will allow users to reduce both risk and costs associated with such processes.

Enterprise data management technology vendor GoldenSource has launched Data Warehouse, a single repository through which clients can consolidate positions and transactions from multiple sources to boost portfolio analysis and risk management.

According to the vendor, the new product links various data elements stemming from a common source, providing enterprise-wide views of risk, performance and compliance—features particularly relevant for investment managers needing end-of-day reporting. Data Warehouse obviates managers' having to build warehouses atop their data models, claims GoldenSource.

To meet compliance standards, Data Warehouse can store data deleted from its original sources and systems. The product is Web-accessible and includes enhanced data visualization features.

Bottom line: The moves by these vendors to either extend the reach of existing platforms or add hosted delivery capabilities should improve their chances of attaining more market share among small- and mid-tier managers, as well as larger funds looking for lower cost-of-ownership technology options.