Asia Awards 2023: Best performance measurement and attribution product—SS&C Technologies

Overview

Sylvan is an integrated book of record for performance measurement, attribution and composite management that helps firms analyze and understand performance in an operationally efficient way featuring: 

• Timely performance analysis and delivery across all asset classes
• Data management functionality ensuring quality results through its integrated validation process
• Flexible performance and attribution calculations 
• Performance-based risk management
• Flexible reporting with customizable reports and user-definable dashboards
• Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS) compliance and verification

The solution

• Acts as a book of record by storing calculated results while preserving changes 
• Allows performance teams to collaborate toward quality results with exception-based workflow management 
• Defines calculation methodologies such as time-weighted rate of return, money-weighted rate of return, gross/net and after-tax 
• Allows calculations to be rolled up to definable hierarchical structures from both security and portfolio levels 
• Supports GIPS compliance with rules-based membership, disclosure management and reporting of GIPS-compliant presentations

Secret sauce

• Deployment options: Sylvan is offered as a deployed install, hosted, or outsourced. 
• User-definable attribution: Definable attribution calculations are available to meet specific business requirements. Clients have moved their bespoke spreadsheet-based calculations into Sylvan. 
• Self-service reporting: Users can create their own reports and visualization dashboards, including click- and drill-through navigation. 
• Comprehensiveness: Sylvan is a single, integrated solution covering all asset classes and encompassing performance, attribution, risk, and GIPS compliance. 

Recent milestones

Functional: 

• Updated benchmark calculations to allow for more customizability 
• Extended fund-of-funds functionality to adjust for fund performance timing differences and support for drill through on index 
• Enhanced private equity reporting 
• Added more features to existing Excel add-in that facilitates pulling data into Excel from Sylvan for customizable analysis and reporting 

Architectural: 

• Completed migration of all functions to web client using Angular.js Website and ASP.NET Web API

Future objectives

Functional:

• Enhancements to reporting dashboards, validation process, and risk analytics 
• Customizable reporting data mart 
• Enhanced API solution to allow Sylvan real-time integration with both upstream and downstream applications 

Architectural: 

• Docker containerization
• RabbitMQ message bus

Why they won

SS&C Technologies’ second win in this year’s WatersTechnoology Asia Awards is in the best performance measurement and attribution category and comes courtesy of its outstanding Sylvan platform. Sylvan, which arrived at SS&C Technologies as part of its 2005 acquisition of FMC, is so much more than a humble performance engine: It is a multi-asset class performance, attribution, risk and GIPS platform, designed to allow users to customize their own attribution calculations according to their specific needs.