December 2015 waterstechnology.com50

Finally at the top of the pile in this consistently close-fought category, Eze Software Group (ESG) wins the 2015 best integrated front-office platform award, adding to previous victories in the OMS, EMS and best overall technology provider categories.

The challenge for Eze during 2015 has been integration. The Boston-based buy-side specialist’s aim is clear: to offer buy-side clients a single, integrated platform for all their asset management needs. Although ESG hasn’t yet finished this build, what’s most interesting is just how effective its front-office offering continues to be at a time when plans for growth remain a priority. The aim in the years to come is for ESG to offer a seamless set of front-office applications, combining the Eze order management system (OMS), the RealTick execution management system (EMS), the Tradar portfolio management system (PMS), as well as data management, compliance and commission-management functions.

“Users that want an advanced trading experience can leverage all the robust position-keeping and compliance management within the OMS without leaving the environment of the EMS,” says Rob Keller, ESG’s executive managing director of product management and development. “We’ve been focused on integrating that workflow from an advanced trading perspective, leveraging some of the deep domain expertise of the compliance engine within the OMS, and after 18 months, we have a number of clients who are really enjoying that functionality.”

One of the primary advantages of this model is that it allows firms to maintain the speed to market needed by traders, while simultaneously meeting their investors’ guidelines. It might be a work in progress, but clients appear happy nonetheless: Eze claims to have over 100 clients using both the PMS and OMS in a seamless, integrated manner, with more than 1,500 asset managers now using one or more components of the Eze Software Investment Suite.

ESG’s acquisition of TKS Solutions in October this year has also deepened its accounting expertise, most notably through TKS’ Penny offering.

It seems that ESG plans to follow this successful pattern of acquisition and integration that put them ahead of the pack in the integrated from-office platform category this year.

Keller summarizes his plans for the year ahead: “We’ll continue to integrate the offering and add new features, or buy new companies and add them to create a full front-to-back solution. You’ll see us integrate TKS Penny more seamlessly into the entire workflow. We’re also working to enhance some of the capabilities of the Tradar PMS, especially reference data synchronization, while the other big initiative we’re rolling out is additional cloud-based services.”

—DGD

Eze Software Group

Best Integrated Front-Office Platform

Richard Hill, Katya Surudina (Eze Software Group), and Victor Anderson

December 2015 waterstechnology.com

Eze claims to have over 100 clients using both the PMS and OMS in a seamless, integrated manner, with more than 1,500 asset managers now using one or more components of the Eze Software Investment Suite.

Winners’ Circle

Winning the category for the best integrated front-office platform is all about offering a product that seamlessly connects all the tools and capabilities a user might need in one place. The Eze Software Investment Suite certainly checks that box. Dan DeFrancesco speaks with Pete Sinisgalli, CEO of Eze Software Group, and Rob Keller, executive managing director of product management and development, about enhancements made to the product over the past year, and what can be expected going forward.

Complete Package

Q What separates Eze Software Investment Suite from other integrated front-office platforms in the industry?Pete Sinisgalli, Eze Software Group: We have taken our extensive experience in execution management, order management and portfolio management and integrated these tools together to make workflows seamless. Having the core needs of the buy side addressed by one suite allows clients to evaluate and execute all the positions and transactions holistically, thereby tracking exposure and risk more accurately. A lot of providers out there still struggle with synchroniz-ing across systems.

We are also very flexible. Unlike some providers, we can support any combination of native and non-native systems, including our full Investment Suite, some combination of platforms—OMS and EMS, or OMS and PMS, or even just commission management—or a blend of our systems and those from third parties. With vendor-neutral open architecture, Eze Software Investment Suite integrates with other systems via application programming interface (API) or file interfaces. Our solutions are therefore highly flexible, which allows us to build workflows around asset managers’ unique requirements.

Finally, customer service: We don’t just install the software and then call to check up in six months—we pride ourselves on being a true technology partner to our clients. We have a large and active consulting team available to address client needs across time zones, and we spend a lot of time and effort on client education and support. Client feedback informs our product roadmap and allows us to build flexibly to meet a variety of workflow needs.

Q Over the past 12 months, what enhancements have been made to the Eze Software Investment Suite? What was the reasoning behind making these upgrades?Rob Keller, Eze Software Group: We’ve continued to expand the multi-asset class capabilities across the full Investment Suite, support-ing derivatives, equities, fixed income, asset-backed securities, and specialty offerings. We’ve enhanced support for more robust, advanced modeling capabilities, including at the portfolio and trade allocation level, to meet client demand.

We have also made significant investments to workflow integra-tions across the Investment Suite. For instance, our seamless EMS/OMS trade entry and compliance integration link is unique in the market. In the past, an order would have to be generated in the OMS to run pre-

trade compliance checks and then re-keyed into the EMS, losing some real-time compliance access along the way and bear-ing time-to-market costs. This integration between the EMS and OMS allows users to utilize robust pre-trade compliance checks of Eze Software OMS without having to leave the EMS. It ensures that clients can manage integral workflows quickly and efficiently without giving up in-depth analytics. Similarly, to meet demand for integrated portfolio reporting, we’ve invested in integrating the OMS and the portfolio accounting system, most notably to address European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) demands.

Q What are the key components or tools that users are looking for when it comes to their integrated front office? How have these demands changed over the past few years?Sinisgalli: Growing regulatory scrutiny and resulting reporting requirements have increased the need for enhanced compliance oversight. This has led to demand for more robust tools to manage compliance alongside trading in an integrated manner.

Greater scrutiny around execution capabilities is driving demand for robust trade analytics within the EMS, including vendor-agnostic analytics driven by real-time data from various market sources.

Asset managers continue to seek out more holistic, consolidated workflow solutions to reduce overall trading costs.

Q What future enhancements are planned for the Eze Software Investment Suite?Keller: We’re focusing on enhancing our rules-based workflows for low-touch and no-touch trading strategies. With our recent acquisi-tion of TKS Solutions, we’ll be integrating TKS Solutions’ technology to further enhance our shareholder accounting capabilities. Our cloud platform will see a new accounting and position-keeping tool soon, and we’ll continue to expand it. Our roadmap continues to be driven by client demand. Some requests that will be addressed will be enhancements to more advanced workflows, such as swaps and pairs trading. W

waterstechnology.com December 2015

Pete Sinisgalli Rob Keller

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