Service: Vendor Selection

Selecting a Data Aggregation Vendor? Here Are 5 Questions You Should Ask

Numerous vendors provide data aggregation services, and choosing the right one for your business requires asking the right questions. You may be tempted to select a solution based on the broadest coverage of sources, such as custodians and banks, or product pricing. Those criteria work well if your goal is to provide a snapshot view for your front-office advisors and clients who require a holistic financial picture. On the other hand, if your objective is to create an accounting book of record (ABOR), providing key inputs for critical investment management and reporting activities, you need to ask vendors about their processes. Here are five questions that will help you narrow your search and find the best fit.

by Tina Madel, CFA, Wealth Practice Lead…

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Top Benefits of Hiring a Consultant To Manage Your Front-Office Transformation

The front office of an investment management firm is rarely, if ever, managed by a consultant. Key functions such as Head of Portfolio Management and Head of Trading are roles best suited for internal personnel. However, there are certain scenarios when it’s more effective to leave the work to an external resource. Here, we explain how front-office consultants can help your firm through a business transformation in ways internal resources can’t.

by Elizabeth M. Colebrooke, Principal…

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Purchasing a New Trading Platform? Don’t Overlook These Key Requirements

Portfolio management and trading platforms are some of the most critical decision-making, analysis, asset management and workflow tools within your organization. When it comes time for a system overhaul, small missteps can have costly and negative impacts. Let’s uncover the key requirements your firm can’t afford to miss in a system analysis.

by Elizabeth M. Colebrooke, Principal…

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Bigger Isn’t Always Better: How Niche Consulting Firms Add Meaningful Value – Part 1

As the famous author Oscar Wilde once said, “The answers are all out there, we just need to ask the right questions.”

This concept can be applied to the broad world of consulting. All consulting firms, regardless of size, are tasked with fulfilling a client’s business objective. They provide requisite guidance and pertinent information at critical decision-making points. However, in a crowded market with many options to choose from, how can you be certain you have the best consultant for the job? It comes down to asking the right questions and understanding your needs. Here, we explore the unique value-add of a niche consulting firm.

by Jose R. Michaelraj, CIPM, CAIA, Senior Consultant

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4 Steps To Establish a Successful Proof of Concept Scope

The most effective system implementations start by establishing a proof of concept (POC) to validate a vendor’s ability to support your requirements and highlight areas where custom solution design may be required. A key component of a successful POC is a clearly defined scope that identifies the types of scenarios, number of portfolios, goals and criteria for completion. Yet we see time and time again firms overlook this element. Here are four key steps to establish a thoughtful POC scope that will allow your implementation to go off without a hitch.

by Nicol S. O’Connor, Senior Consultant

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Implementation Archaeology: When Finding Business Logic Becomes an Easter Egg Hunt

Picture this: The monthly performance report has just been received, but it’s missing some data. No errors were generated, yet the blank section on the output indicates something went wrong. The analyst sends a message to IT to report the error, and this starts the Easter egg hunt for the issue.

How many times has this happened to you or your colleagues? Whether you rely on a large single vendor, multi-purpose platform or multiple integrated systems, I’d be willing to speculate it’s a common occurrence. Beyond tracking down today’s Easter egg, how can we avoid the problem in the future or remedy our existing platforms?

by Christopher D. Sadala, Senior Consultant

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3 Ways To Accelerate Your Vendor Selection Process

Finding a vendor to solve a business need is often treated as an analytical task – pick one that checks the most boxes and provides the biggest “bang for the buck.” However, several other factors should feed this decision. Vendor selection is not only about choosing the right platform, but also about picking the right partner who closely fits the firm’s culture and offers complementary services. Often, organizations find themselves in a precarious situation when extensive analyses conducted over several months do not yield decisive outcomes. Here are three ways to accelerate the process and reach a viable option.

by Christine (Tina) M. Madel, CFA, Principal

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RFP Blues: Hitting the High Notes

LISTEN TO THE MUSIC

Have you ever been to JazzFest in New Orleans? If not, I highly recommend it: ten or more stages – zydeco, jazz, blues, rock, country, gospel, African, krewes, big names, local names – all playing at the same time. The problem is:  standing in the middle, program in hand, faint music coming from all directions, people celebrating – what’s your choice going to be?

Each listener has a different strategy, but I’ll tell you what absolutely no one does:  send out multi-page questionnaires in advance to each and every band asking them about their style, instrumentation, influences, playlist, recording history, etc. Nobody RFP’s JazzFest.

by Mark R. David, CFA…

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How Investment Management Firms Benefit from Engaging the Right Consultant

During an era when critical skills are in short-supply and valuable IT and business personnel spend most of their working hours in meetings, consultants can make the meaningful difference between a project’s success or failure. The right consultant brings diverse skills, broad perspectives and an understanding of both business and technology. In addition, consultants are best positioned to contribute in a way seldom possible by others since they can apply focus and attention to the task at hand – something that is difficult for full time employees to do when they are juggling competing demands and BAU tasks. This article:
• delves into business problems prevalent in many investment management firms, especially in vendor product evaluations and implementations;
• deals with how an outside consultant can play a significant, contributory role; and
• leverages a practical use case to demonstrate key benefits and tangible results delivered by a Meradia consultant who moved an almost failing project to a successful outcome.

by Jose R. Michaelraj, CIPM, Senior Consultant

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