Buy-Side Technology Awards: Best Buy-Side Client Reporting Platform─Equipos

Reporting is not the sexiest of topics from a buy-side perspective─with its bias toward the front office and the all-important focus on alpha generation, all other support or auxiliary buy-side functions tend to be overlooked when it comes to implementing new technologies in order to increase transparency and levels of service, create a competitive advantage, and improve operational efficiencies. But if one area of the buy side is set to buck that trend, it is client reporting. As new regulations sweep across North America and Europe, it has become increasingly vital for buy-side firms to keep their investors regularly appraised of their services and performance, areas that especially institutional investors have come to expect in recent years. Over the last two years, Equipos has shown itself to be the market leader in this realm, winning the Best Buy-Side Client Reporting Platform category for the second straight year.

Equipos is in a particularly good place right now─the privately owned business has enjoyed a 35 to 50 percent year-on-year revenue/profit growth since 2009, it has expanded its client base by nearly 25 percent since last year, and its headcount is up 20 percent since September 2011. The company has more than 60 clients across North America, Europe and Asia, and is experiencing impressive growth due to its rapidly expanding Equipos Partner Network─the vendor only entered the North American market in 2009 and now the region makes up nearly 30 percent of its business in terms of revenues. Equipos has found a home with those mid-size to large buy-side firms that require enterprise-wide solutions.

Through its Coric suite, it has a multi-channel delivery portal for wealth managers that offers full transparency. Users have a choice of hosted; self-hosted, in-house installed; or platform-as-a-service (PaaS) delivery options. Additionally, the firm has added a new level of client data privacy protection that allows firms governed by strict data privacy laws or internal controls to process client reports outside a jurisdiction/region, without that client data ever leaving the jurisdiction.