Change is the only constant in the evolving ecosystem of investment management. Driven by increasing investor demands, expanding regulations, and a heightened competitive landscape, the industry finds itself at a crossroads. Confronted with this reality, firms will need to focus on their core product offerings and ensure that their technology infrastructure is capable of meeting the demands of today’s market dynamics.
Scaling a firm’s business to meet investor expectations and stringent regulatory requirements is no easy feat. The current climate demands managing and making informed decisions on hundreds or hundreds of thousands of individual portfolios, each with unique characteristics, such as risk tolerance, investment goals, and market conditions. As a result, managing the underlying data is increasingly more complex, as more volume means more data flowing through the firm’s systems, raising the risk of latency, inconsistency, and errors.
Many firms have a stark realization that their current technology platforms or ecosystems are woefully inadequate. Many existing technology platforms can only handle so much complexity before buckling under the strain of modern demands, needing more agility and capacity to manage the growing complexity of portfolio management without compromising on quality. What firms need is a modern connected investing platform that satisfies these eight requirements:
- Stronger integration between portfolio management and trading: It is crucial to have a seamless transition from decision-making to execution, empowered by automation,
- Scalable portfolio management: Modern platforms should enable portfolio managers to efficiently handle highly personalized investor preferences within a portfolio modeling framework.
- Portfolio analytics: Advanced analytics are essential for a deep dive into portfolio exposure and performance insights. They are integrated seamlessly with accounting and reporting systems to ensure data integrity.
- Institutional-strength trading: It is imperative to have a robust trading infrastructure that supports various asset classes, offers real-time insights, and conducts compliance checks,.
- Single source of truth: Consolidating data across the front, middle, and back office into a single cloud data store ensures reliability and supports a robust Investment Book of Record (IBOR) for firm-wide data consistency.
- Microservices architecture: This architectural style enhances application flexibility, integrating various services smoothly into the core platform.
- Cloud delivery: Cloud deployment gives firms the flexibility to add or swap out modular components as needed and upgrade any component without disrupting the platform.
- Front-to-back consolidation: Seamless integration of portfolio management, trading, and accounting, underpinned by unified data, streamlines workflows and enhances efficiency.
As the investment management industry navigates these highly competitive times, embracing a connected and advanced investment platform is paramount. Such platforms are not merely a means to manage complexity but a strategic imperative to achieve greater speed, efficiency, and accuracy. By incorporating the eight technology platform capabilities above, firms can position themselves to thrive in a market influenced by constant change and heightened investor and regulatory expectations.
You can delve more into the eight essential capabilities in our whitepaper, Breaking Down Silos – A Connected Investment Experience, or request a demo to see how the Genesis Platform, SS&C Advent’s, purpose-built applications covers all eight essential capabilities.
