Buy-Side Technology Awards 2017: Best Buy-Side Performance Measurement and Attribution Product—FactSet

Shortly after the deal was announced, Chris Ellis, senior vice president of business development at FactSet told WatersTechnology: “We’re not going to do anything to mess B-One up—we’re just going to fill it up with FactSet data and make the results play nicely with the rest of FactSet. We just want to pour more gas on that fire.”

FactSet has been good to its word and has begun fueling that fire, focusing on building out the data workflows and integration between B-One and the rest of the FactSet technology ecosystem. While the B-One platform was already one of the go-to systems for performance measurement and attribution, evidenced by its veritable who’s-who roster of global buy-side clients, the system has been further enhanced by feeding in FactSet benchmark data, security master files, fixed-income analytics and risk analytics data, as well as adding new metrics such as ESG (environmental, social & governance) analytics that are of increasing importance to asset managers and investors alike.

One of the key components of any competent performance measure and attribution system is its data consistency, with data that can be loaded, checked, reconciled and then pushed out for multiple purposes. The B-One platform has been enhanced to address these demands through the addition of a new framework that allows users to build or customize checks when data is loaded from multiple sources, without the need to write specific SQL commands. 

The integration roadmap for B-One into the broader FactSet ecosystem will continue for the foreseeable future. In the short-term, the vendor will concentrate on its data management workflow efforts, with a particular focus on enhancing its analytics on models for multi- strategy funds, while keeping an eye on its long-term goal of creating a unified performance system between B-One and FactSet’s portfolio analytics system. 

In addition to its win in this category, FactSet also won the best buy-side data analytics tool category and the blue-ribboned technology provider of the year category.