Best Research Provider: FactSet

The judging panel agreed with last year’s poll, putting FactSet at the top of the leaderboard for its popular research offering, FactSet Research Management Solutions. This marks the fourth win for FactSet in the Best Research Provider category, which has in previous years been decided by a readers’ poll. This year, judges confirmed what readers have highlighted in the past—that FactSet is “by far the industry leader, solidly entrenched across the market.”

FactSet is the largest provider of risk management solutions (RMS) in the industry and, according to judges, FactSet Research Management Solutions has gained credibility in the market, benefitting from more than 10 years of building on its service. The service provides a central location for ideas, notes and recommendations, and offers real-time notifications, making research data faster and easier to manage. But it is not just the technical features that make it stand out. The unique FactSet information­­­—including market data, analytics, event data, broker research and supply chain information­—also helps position FactSet as a front-runner. 

This in-demand data makes FactSet the provider of choice across market segments, with the service equally suited to a start-up hedge fund or small endowment, and the largest institutional asset managers, pensions and sovereign wealth funds. Firms can benefit from valuable FactSet RMS tools to help them stay compliant and access research information on the go. Judges said FactSet RMS has “great tools for regulation”, enabling users to give regulators transparency into research processes, and an “interesting” email-based solution­—one of the features available from this fully mobile platform that elevates research data to the next level.