AFTAs 2018: Best New Technology Introduced Over the Last 12 Months (Infrastructure)—Axioma

For many capital markets firms, irrespective of whether they are from the buy side or sell side, legacy systems are invariably the cause of inefficiency, inflexibility and unnecessary cost. It is therefore now more important than ever for market participants and the technology providers servicing them to build and deploy open and flexible technologies that support interoperability, customizable investment strategies and operational scalability. Axioma’s cloud-based axiomaBlue platform has hit the ground running in this space since its launch in October last year, winning the 2018 best new technology introduced over the last 12 months (infrastructure) category at the AFTAs. 

Sebastian Ceria, founder and CEO of Axioma, describes axiomaBlue as a cloud-native environment that functions similar to a computer’s operating systems. He explains that it is designed to act as an intermediary layer, using application programming interfaces (APIs) to connect and manage individual technologies from various providers. The platform allows multiple applications to more easily interoperate with each other, supporting data consistency across all embedded systems, including front-to-back office operations. “The key today is infrastructures that are open,” says Ceria. “That means whatever piece of technology you put in a client’s system, they have to be able to interact and interoperate with other tools from other vendors in a seamless and consistent fashion. Otherwise, the choice is a monolithic platform that becomes all-encompassing, rigid and the client becomes completely dependent on one vendor.”

The infrastructure service offers clients a variety of integrated modules and packages relating to security, interoperability, scalability, and transparency. It is currently available with Axioma’s API-first risk product, and features new business intelligence and dashboard capabilities. 

Recently, Axioma’s complete technology suite was added to the platform, which covers risk management, performance attribution and customized analytics, as well as portfolio construction and optimization. Additionally, the open architecture is developed to allow third-party vendors to more easily integrate their technologies such as order management systems, accounting platforms and investment books of records. 

Going forward, Axioma intends to continue introducing additional capabilities to axiomaBlue and forge strong alliances with technology partners by adding their services to the platform. Ceria explains that Axioma is currently in talks with OpenFin, a provider of desktop workspace applications, to collaborate and integrate its services. “One objective is to increase the number of Axioma services on the platform and the second is to illustrate its openness by bringing partner applications on top of the infrastructure,” he adds.