Best Market Data Provider (Vendor): FactSet

The result for FactSet highlights that the vendor—which has earned a reputation for its impressive analytics solutions since it was founded in 1978—is getting it right with clients. FactSet now has almost 86,000 users globally and prides itself on 95 percent client retention.

FactSet came out as the company with the greatest number of wins in last year’s Inside Market Data Awards, being named Overall Data/Service Provider after impressing with two category wins and other strong entries in other categories. The vote of confidence from users is a nod to the vendor’s continuous focus on product enhancements in the financial information space. Bill McCoy, senior vice president, analytics strategy at FactSet, says he is pleased the company has won both the Best Market Data Provider (Vendor) and Best Analytics Provider awards this year, taking the approach that data by itself is inert, and only has value with context, timeliness and relevance. 

The past year has seen FactSet expand its offering by adding more unique content and entering into strategic partnerships for market pricing, risk modeling, attribution capabilities and derivatives valuation.

The product development focus is also centered on organically building out content. One area in the spotlight this year is FactSet’s passive investment content, which includes index funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and alternative investment content, including private equity investments. “We’re aggressively moving into passive and alternative investment arenas,” says McCoy, who explains there are different factors influencing the portfolio following the increased use of index funds and ETFs, and this makes the magnitude of the analytics exercise more profound and the use of evaluation schemes even more important. In terms of improving private equity content, it is about adding to the existing fund data FactSet offers. “We’d like to enrich the data on private equity investments and make it deeper and broader,” says McCoy.

The reader vote is testament to the fact that continuous focus on product improvements does not go unnoticed by users. “We look at what can serve clients better, and we make it happen,” says McCoy. It seems readers picked up on this lesson when voting FactSet best in class for 2017.