SST Awards 2013: A Leap of Faith

It is no secret that the management of Waters magazine had wanted to launch a Manhattan-hosted awards programme for quite some time. The conundrum, however, revolved around the format of the event ─ we felt that it should focus specifically on the third-party vendor community serving the sell side ─ and when to hold it.
As it turned out, the answers to both those questions had been staring us in the face all along: We should mirror the format of the London-hosted Buy-Side Technology (BST) Awards in terms of making the SST Awards a call-for-entries awards programme, and we should hold them in the first half of the year rather than in the second half, which is already fairly busy with the BST Awards and the New York-hosted American Financial Technology Awards, scheduled each year in the first week of November and December, respectively.

Preparation
As with any launch event, you've got to prepare fully, ensure that you adequately address all the variables under your control, and then take a leap of faith. And so, on the evening of April 23 this year, shortly after the conclusion of the day-long and hugely successful North American Trading Architecture Summit, 120 people congregated for pre-dinner drinks, followed by a sit-down dinner, entertainment, courtesy of Tommy John, the Major League "lefty" pitcher who twice in his remarkable 26-year career called the Yankee stadium home, and, of course, the handing over of 24 awards.
But even though the primary reason for the gathering was the business of awards, Tommy John stole the show through his inimitable blend of self-deprecation, wit, contagious passion for the game of baseball, and humility. I, like many others, count myself lucky to have met one of the greats of the game.
I am grateful to this year's judges for all their time and advice: Steve Ellis (Wells Fargo Bank), Scott Marcar (Royal Bank of Scotland), David Easthope (Celent), Fred Ponzo (GreySpark Partners), and three of my Waters colleagues, Anthony Malakian, James Rundle, and Jake Thomases. Anthony Malakian (AM), James Rundle (JR), Jake Thomases (JT) and Victor Anderson (VBA) produced the winners' write ups.

Victor Anderson
Editor-in-Chief

Sell-Side Technology Awards 2013 ─ The Winners

But even though the primary reason for the gathering was the business of awards, Tommy John stole the show through his inimitable blend of self-deprecation, wit, contagious passion for the game of baseball, and humility.

• Best Sell-Side Front-Office Execution Platform ─ Bloomberg SSEOMS
• Best Sell-Side Automated Trading Platform ─ FlexTrade
• Best Sell-Side Market Risk Product ─ LCH.Clearnet
• Best Sell-Side Credit Risk Product ─ Numerix
• Best Infrastructure Provider to the Sell Side ─ IBM
• Best Cloud Provider to the Sell Side ─ BT Group (BT Radianz Cloud)
• Best Big Data Technology Provider to the Sell Side ─ OneMarketData
• Best Sell-Side Data Management Product ─ Markit EDM
• Best Data Provider to the Sell Side ─ ACTIV Financial
• Best Sell-Side Complex-Event Processing (CEP) Technology ─ Progress Apama
• Best Sell-Side Trading Communication System ─ Orange Business Services ─ Trading Solutions
• Best Sell-Side Mobile Initiative ─ Pershing
• Best Sell-Side Trading Network ─ IPC
• Best Sell-Side Low-Latency Network ─ Anova Technologies
• Best Data Center Provider to the Sell Side ─ NYSE Technologies
• Best Sell-Side Reconciliation Platform ─ SmartStream
• Best Sell-Side Market Surveillance Product ─ SunGard Protegent
• Best Sell-Side Web-Based Development Environment ─ smartTrade
• Best Implementation at a Sell-Side Firm ─ Caplin Systems
• Best Sell-Side Newcomer (Vendor or Product) ─ Torstone Technology
• Best Overall Sell-Side Product of the Year ─ Numerix
• Best Sell-Side Technology Provider of the Year ─ SunGard