BUY-SIDE TECHNOLOGY AWARDS: Best buy-side performance measurement and attribution product: BI-SAM

There are three technology vendors in this year’s winners’ circle that, to my mind, epitomize the qualities and attributes of the archetypical buy-side technology vendor: RIMES Technologies, Cadis, and Paris-based BI-SAM. All three are modest in size—in terms of headcount—and all focus exclusively on the buy side, although Cadis has started to find interest from a number of custodians. Yet despite their relatively small size, they all have extensive client lists featuring the industry’s most celebrated asset management names.

But BI-SAM, which has now won this category for the third consecutive year, provides more than performance measurement and attribution technology—its flagship B-One platform has deep data management, risk measurement and attribution, and client-reporting functionality, in addition to its market-leading performance support. A key criterion that buy-side firms consider when looking for a performance vendor is its ability to not only support on-the-fly, granular performance calculations, but also its attribution support, helping end-users zero-in on the sources of their returns in their portfolios, and more crucially, the level of risk consumed by the portfolio managers in obtaining that performance. This is also becoming increasingly crucial for institutional investors seeking greater transparency into fund managers’ activities, and it is here, in our opinion, that BI-SAM leads the industry.

New functionality added to B-One over the last 12 months includes GIPS Composites management; a new workflow module enabling automated monitoring and control of performance, risk and reporting; new automated checks, impact analysis, period close and approval processes improving data quality and control; new attribution support which now includes issuer-level calculation, fund in fund (look through) and new methods of combined fund reporting; and enhancements to the ex-ante risk module, including new statistics, matrix-management improvements, and new “what-if” analysis support. —VBA

JUDGE'S COMMENT
BI-SAM has invested heavily in its capability and product, which has now paid off as it has won a number of new clients and is seen as the benchmark for performance systems.

BI-SAM REACTION
“We are extremely pleased and honored to receive this award for the third year in a row. We have made, and continue to make, a significant investment in enhancing B-One, to maintain its position as the best performance measurement and attribution product in the global asset management market. We will continue to enhance B-One according to the evolving client and market needs using the latest technologies, keeping in mind that working in partnership with our clients is always the best way to proceed.”
—Bénédicte Godet, marketing manager, BI-SAM