Buy-Side Technology Awards 2014: Best Buy-Side Data Management Product—Markit

The product has continued to excel in its ability to allow firms to centralize their data management, breaking down silos by distributing data across the business via its hub-and-spoke model, and trace their data through its entire lifecycle. Like any good reigning champion, Markit EDM continues to look for ways to improve. According to Paul McPhater, COO of enterprise software at Markit, performance, flexibility and functionality are the three main areas the vendor is always looking to enhance. That’s why Markit EDM now allows its customers to add new securities or issuers and supplement external information with data specific to their organization, making it possible for clients to create and manage datasets and run side-by-side source comparisons. Upgrades have also been made to Markit EDM’s data-matching capabilities. Customers can now use a common identifying code to cross-reference information from internal and external sources, preventing duplication or loss of data due to incorrect matching with a complete audit trail.

Integration with other Markit products has continued as well. Over the past year, Markit EDM has created interfaces with Markit Corporate Actions, Markit Analytics, Markit thinkFolio and Markit WSO, with collaborations with Markit Genpact KYC Services and Markit On Demand also in the works.

A nod toward developing for mobility has also been made, as the product has switched from Silverlight to HTML 5. McPhater says Markit is also in the process of finishing a series of customer advisory groups that allows clients to indicate what they’re looking for. The feedback will help guide Markit EDM toward even more enhancements.

“Outsourcing data management is no longer seen as the Wild West—it has become the industry norm,” McPhater says. “We’ve seen both buy-side and sell-side institutions take up interest here. To that end, we are working on a variety of outsourcing solutions. Whether firms are looking to create an investment book of record (IBOR), manage data costs or meet regulatory requirements, it all comes back to having cleansed and validated data.”

Click here to read about Markit's win in the Best Buy-Side Pricing/Valuation Service category.