Some Sell Side for the Buy Side

I don’t normally discuss what’s happening on the sell side, but for our readers with dealings on both the buy side and sell side, allow me to present something new.

This week, WatersTechnology and Incisive Media announced the launch of the inaugural Sell-Side Technology Awards. These awards are similar to our popular Buy-Side Technology Awards, except that obviously they focus on the sell side, and rather than being held in London, the winners will be announced in New York on April 23.

Like the BST Awards, these awards are open to third-party technology suppliers and the winners will be chosen by a panel of judges that will be announced next week. If you have any questions about how to apply or how the voting process works, give me a call at 646-490-3973 or send an email to anthony.malakian@incisivemedia.com.

If you plan to submit a nomination, don't just drag and drop information from your website. Use the limited space provided to describe the challenges that your product address and results from actual implementations, and be specific about how it is innovative and different from those of your competitors. Many claim their offerings are the best in the industry—few can prove it.

On the Buy Side
Even if your firm doesn’t qualify for the awards, you should keep an eye on the winners to stay on top of the innovations and top products your sell-side counterparts are relying on. In the meantime, you’ll definitely want to catch up on what happened in the buy-side technology arena this week. Here are some of the highlights:

Fighting Zombies: Valuation Scrutiny Upends Private Equity
Regulators and potential investors have made clear that private equity (PE) firms should draw a line from valuation algorithms to limited partner, or LP, reporting. Technology is the ink.

Northern Trust Adds Risk, Performance Info to Data Direct Platform
Northern Trust announced that it is adding additional risk and performance data that will allow institutional and wealth management clients to make more informed comparisons through its Data Direct offering.

BYOD Trend Could Portend IT–Business Relationship Shift
Though Howard Halberstein is cynical about the origin of the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) revolution, Jean Hill says it could be symptomatic of a sea change in the way IT approaches the business side of an organization.

Fixed-Income Panel Talks Fragmentation and SEF Rules
A panel at a recent Tabb Group conference on the future of fixed income debated the delay in implementing swap execution facility (SEF) rules and the effect of venue aggregation.

DCM Capital Goes Under the Hammer
DCM Capital, a sentiment analysis business spawned following the demise of CEO Paul Hawtin's “Twitter Fund,” is up for sale.