Perspectives

The investment management industry – which relies on efficient processes and interdependent digital technology platforms to remain competitive – must keep pace with the perpetual rapid changes to industry standards and requirements and the technology that governs them. The latest innovations could be in any number of arenas: business processes, machine learning, artificial intelligence or blockchain to name a few. Adopting change is compulsory – lions and tigers and bears, oh my! The variables for a firm to consider include:
* Identifying the current drivers to implement changes
* Choosing the ‘right’ next changes considering the drivers
* Optimizing the implementation of the changes by using Agile methodology
Enlisting qualified strategic consulting partners can be instrumental in successfully spending smart instead of spending big when firms seek to maximize their front-to-back efficiency.

by Joshua B. Levitt, Principal

Technology transformation projects are inherently challenging – from determining how a specific firm compiles their data and technology, to innumerable decisions to be made, data files to validate, functionality to configure and test, to go-live events. When technology transformation projects impact front office teams, a highly specialized project management approach must be employed to minimize disruptions to uber time-sensitive front office revenue-generating productivity while keeping the project on schedule.
While the definition of ‘front office’ differs among organizations, here within the front office references a few distinct groups: Portfolio Management, Trading, Quantitative Analysts and Risk Managers. These front office groups fulfill critical roles involving time-sensitive initiatives. They represent investment management firms’ strategy and intellectual capital, and directly generate revenue for investment management firms. Their skills are the costliest; therefore, their time is at a premium. This paper shares the keys to executing this specialized, non-disruptive approach to managing front office technology transformation projects.

by Elizabeth M. Colebrooke, Principal

What are the key differences between investment performance measurement systems in the market? How are these tools evolving to better meet industry needs? These are important questions for firms considering significant investment in a new or upgraded toolset. Meradia has first-hand knowledge of many of the top systems in the market accrued from direct implementation efforts and have combined this knowledge with product strategy to provide insights on where the industry is progressing and to highlight disrupting themes. This is useful for investment performance professionals as a precursor to an RFP and/or an aid to firms considering a system change.

by Laurie J. Hesketh, CIPM, PMP, Managing Director

Investment performance calculators have witnessed steady growth in functionality during the past couple of decades. Leveraging huge data management platforms that contain exception management and workflow capabilities, calculators provide upstream integration capabilities. By expanding calculation breadth to include attribution effects and risk statistics, they are knocking on front office doors. As vendor consolidation occurs and performance systems endeavor to deliver one-stop solutions, it is important to understand design mechanisms related to each functionality that drives system efficiencies. In this paper, we examine returns and ex-post risk statistics.

Refer to Part 1 of this two-part series which lists the subset of risk statistics with which we are concerned and the benefits of calculating these in a performance calculator.

This Part 2 delves into systemic factors that enable efficient computation of risk statistics and why conventional architectures encounter scaling issues.

by Jose R. Michaelraj, CIPM, Senior Consultant

Investment performance calculators have witnessed steady growth in functionality during the past couple of decades. Leveraging huge data management platforms that contain exception management and workflow capabilities, calculators provide upstream integration capabilities. By expanding calculation breadth to include attribution effects and risk statistics, they are knocking on front office doors. As vendor consolidation occurs and performance systems endeavor to deliver one-stop solutions, it is important to understand design mechanisms related to each functionality that drives system efficiencies. In this paper, we examine returns and ex-post risk statistics.

This Part 1 of a two-part series lists the subset of risk statistics with which we are concerned and the benefits of calculating these in a performance calculator.

Stay tuned for Part 2 which delves into systemic factors that enable efficient computation of risk statistics and why conventional architectures encounter scaling issues.

by Jose R. Michaelraj, CIPM, Senior Consultant