Eze Blog

What is an Order Management System (OMS)? | SS&C Eze

Craig MacAdams — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 15:15:55 GMT

Market Changes Put Focus on the Capabilities of an Order Management System

In its 2025 Investment Management Outlook survey, research firm Deloitte notes that investment firms are “Navigating fast-paced change, elevated risk, and outsized opportunity.” The report says that in 2025, critical priorities for investment firms will be growing revenue, streamlining operations, and managing risk.

The good news is that today’s technology is helping firms to navigate these changes and secure new opportunities. One such technology is the Order Management System (OMS).

With features that enable you to implement your investment ideas quickly and accurately, the OMS helps you create operational efficiencies, capture more opportunities, and enhance your bottom line.

To fully understand the scope of the OMS’ capabilities, this blog reviews the features, functionality, and benefits a modern OMS brings to an investment firm’s operations – and its ultimate success.

Order Management: The Heart of an Investment Firm’s Operation

Before diving into the qualities of an order management system, it's essential to understand the importance of the order management process in an investment firm's operations.

Order management is the bridge between investment strategy and execution. It transforms a portfolio manager's investment ideas into actionable trades.

At its core, order management involves handling buy and sell orders for financial securities such as stocks, bonds, options, futures, and other investment products. This function ensures that these orders are executed efficiently and in strict compliance with regulatory requirements while maintaining alignment with the firm's overarching strategies.

What is an Order Management System (OMS)?

What is an OMS? Today, as firms strive to maximize operational alpha, many turn to their OMS. The right OMS can provide a fast, accurate, and integrated way to help you focus on alpha-generating activities and turn investment ideas into reality.

A modern OMS also offers capabilities like portfolio modeling, the ability to view P&L and exposures, order routing, decision support, and analytics functionality. Together, these features help your firm meet the challenges of today’s markets.

While early OMSs focused on equities, today's OMS supports your firm’s ever-expanding array of asset classes.

As the hub of your investment activity, your OMS must be configurable and flexible. If the trade generation process is clunky and inefficient, it wastes valuable time and puts you at a higher risk for errors and missed opportunities.

Finally, your OMS platform must be able to grow and scale with you as your needs change. Without that scalability, you may be forced to pay for expensive upgrades, custom enhancements, or system replacements, making the total cost of ownership of your OMS much higher than you originally budgeted for.

Understanding the Capabilities of an Order Management System (OMS)

A well-designed OMS empowers firms to make smarter decisions, reduces operational risks, and provides the scalability needed to grow their trading activities seamlessly.

To realize these benefits, ensure that the OMS you choose has these critical functions:

Order Creation and Management

Accurate order creation is essential for successful trade execution, and an OMS ensures that each order is fully equipped with the necessary data and identification for placement. A robust OMS also provides asset class-specific workflows and enables streamlined order allocation based on fund groups displayed in a single view, allowing you to generate and allocate orders with maximum efficiency.

Rules-Based Order Routing

An OMS should deliver customizable, automated solutions that elevate daily trading operations.

For example, a configurable OMS can auto-route low-touch orders based on pre-defined rules, freeing your team to focus on high-touch trades.

Once an order is created, the OMS routes less-sophisticated trades to the optimal execution venue, such as exchanges or brokers, using strategies based on liquidity, trading costs, and market conditions. This frees up trader time to work more complex trades in the Execution Management System (EMS).

Trade Allocation

After the trade is executed, the OMS automatically allocates it to the relevant client accounts based on predefined strategies or custom rules. Automating trade allocation improves efficiency and accuracy, ensuring that client portfolios are correctly updated without manual intervention.

Position and Portfolio Management

The OMS tracks current positions in real time, helping you see how individual trades affect your firm’s overall portfolio holdings, exposures, and risk. With this up-to-date view of portfolio performance and exposures (like sector, region, or currency), you are better able to make informed decisions quickly.

Compliance and Risk Management

The OMS conducts rigorous pre- and post-trade compliance checks to ensure every trade aligns with regulatory standards and internal policies, including restricted lists and position limits.

These checks proactively reduce the risk of compliance breaches, shielding your firm from potential penalties and reputational harm.

Trade Settlement and Reconciliation

The OMS seamlessly integrates with post-trade systems to swiftly and accurately complete the settlement process after each trade. It also reconciles trades with counterparties and custodians, ensuring alignment across parties, minimizing risk, and finalizing trades smoothly with minimal delays or errors.

Scalability and Flexibility

Today’s OMSs are designed to seamlessly scale with your firm’s growth, flex to evolving investment strategies, and stay ahead of regulatory shifts, all while supporting a diverse array of asset classes—from equities and fixed income to derivatives and alternative assets.

Connectivity with Other Systems

A good OMS integrates seamlessly with other essential systems like Portfolio Management Systems (PMSs), Execution Management Systems (EMSs), risk platforms, and market data feeds. This connectivity enables smooth data flow across platforms, minimizing manual input and errors while enhancing decision-making and risk management.

Dependable Service and Support

A next-generation OMS provider should deliver exceptional service that adapts as your firm grows and evolves. Their service teams are composed of seasoned professionals who understand the unique demands of the investment industry.

With this extensive experience, they grasp both the urgency and intricacies of front-office operations, ensuring you receive timely and effective support.

What are the Benefits of an OMS?

An order management system isn’t just a tool—it’s an essential part of your firm’s successful operations.

Let’s take a closer look at how the OMS brings value to your operations:

Increased Efficiency

Automating manual tasks through an OMS dramatically reduces processing times and optimizes workflows, giving your portfolio managers and traders more time to focus on what truly matters—generating alpha and driving performance.

Enhanced Accuracy

Manual order entry is often riddled with risks. By automating order placement and routing, an OMS minimizes human error, ensuring higher accuracy and reducing the chances of costly mis-trades.

Improved Risk Management

With real-time pre- and post-trade checks, an OMS helps you stay compliant with regulatory requirements while protecting your investments. This proactive risk management boosts both internal and investor confidence.

Greater Transparency

A centralized OMS provides complete visibility into all order activity, allowing you to track order flow effortlessly. This transparency not only streamlines performance attribution but also highlights opportunities for how your firm can improve.

Growing with the Needs of Your Firm

Modern OMS solutions are built to scale alongside your business, seamlessly adapting to growth and evolving trading strategies. Their flexibility also ensures smooth connectivity with various systems, tailoring perfectly to your unique operational ecosystem.

Next-Generation OMS Supporting Investment Managers’ Success in Today’s Markets

A next-generation OMS is critical in today’s changing markets. And when investment managers look for a modern solution, they choose SS&C’s OMS.

At SS&C, we have a demonstrated history of anticipating market needs and developing technical innovations to support them.

Our cross-asset OMS technology includes access to advanced automated trading tools through seamless connectivity to our EMS and enables quick and easy connections to vital third-party systems to create a complete investment ecosystem that can grow and expand as the needs of your firm change.

And with real-time integrated pre-, intra-, and post-trade compliance, the OMS ensures compliance is a consideration at each step of the process.

As part of our commitment to innovation, we recently revealed an upgraded OMS user interface. This update keeps pace with investment managers' evolving use of the platform, improving visual ergonomics, offering cleaner grids and blotters, and eliminating unused options.

This robust technology and ongoing innovation – combined with our outstanding service and support – enable you to meet today's market demands and prepare for whatever may lie ahead.

Learn More

To learn more about the next-generation OMS, trading technology trends, and selecting the right front-office solution for your firm, download your free copy of our Trading Technology Buyer's Guide .

OEMS in Flux: New Developments in the OMS and EMS Landscape | SS&C Eze

Craig MacAdams — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 14:45:00 GMT

In the TabbFORUM Annual Trends Report, Colby Jenkins, TabbFORUM contributing writer and an expert in electronic trading and market structure, explores the latest developments shaping the Order Management System (OMS) and Execution Management System (EMS) landscape, specifically looking at combined OEMS solutions.

As Colby points out, trends that have long defined the OEMS space are now accelerating. Demand for access to new markets, asset classes, and enhanced workflow connectivity is surging across a complex and evolving market structure.

These rapid changes are placing greater pressure on OMS and EMS systems to adapt to both operational and technological challenges.

To gain deeper insights into how technology is evolving to meet these demands, Colby interviewed a range of OEMS users and industry leaders, including Andrew Rosenthal, a senior director of business development at SS&C.

Choosing the Right Front-office Technology Model: Modularity vs. End-to-End

Colby’s research reveals that as market complexity increases, the expectations placed on OMS and EMS vendors have grown significantly. Vendors must now stay competitive by delivering seamless efficiency across the interconnected domains of investing, trading, risk management, and compliance.

According to Colby’s report, selecting the right OMS/EMS solution depends largely on a firm’s unique needs. He notes that two primary approaches dominate the market:

End-to-End Front Offices: These systems provide simplicity by offering a unified OEMS platform where all workflows are closely integrated.

Modular Front Offices: A best-in-class approach that allows firms to customize their technology stack by selecting individual front-office components tailored to their specific needs.

Each approach offers its own set of potential opportunities and challenges, making it difficult to choose the right solution. As one decision-maker interviewed by Colby notes, “A lot of the time you simply do not know what you don’t know. With cutting-edge technology, this can lead to analysis paralysis.”

For firms opting for an end-to-end front-office solution, SS&C’s Andrew Rosenthal stresses the importance of seamless integration to create a unified workflow. He explains:

"Look for a front-office tech stack that is truly unified and fully synchronized. This ensures that users no longer have to swivel between systems—any activity occurring in the EMS is simultaneously reflected in the OMS in real-time, and vice versa."

The Eze OEMS exemplifies how seamless integration can streamline workflows while delivering a tailored user experience. Regardless of asset class, the platform allows users to customize dashboards to fit their roles while maintaining visibility and collaboration across the firm.

As Colby’s TabbFORUM report highlights, selecting the right OMS/EMS solution isn’t just about technology—it’s about empowering firms to navigate the complexities of modern markets with confidence and efficiency.

Evolving Market Dynamics Reshape the Trading Ecosystem

Workflows, buy-side client types, and asset classes have seen significant advancements in recent years, giving rise to what Tabb refers to as a “wholly new trading ecosystem.”

As one fixed-income trader from a US-based asset management firm noted, “It’s just about night and day how we are approaching markets today compared to even just a decade ago.”

Andrew echoes this sentiment, emphasizing the rapid pace of change: “Requirements are evolving faster than ever. As a result, the software firms rely on to manage their business must be flexible enough to keep up with these demands.”

To meet this need for adaptability, technologies like the Eze OEMS are designed to support all asset classes and strategies within a single platform—eliminating the need for auxiliary systems.

“No matter how our clients adjust their strategies, explore new asset classes, or implement new compliance rules, they have a tech stack that empowers them to do so with confidence,” adds Andrew.

Supporting Firms as They Do More with Less

The challenges highlighted in the TabbFORUM research—ranging from demands for new markets, asset classes, and workflows to a broader client base—are driving investment firms to place a greater emphasis on efficiency.

As the TabbFORUM Report notes, the time required to complete both major and minor tasks is becoming an increasingly critical factor in technological decision-making.

In response to these pressures, Andrew advises firms to consider the interconnectivity and data consistency provided by an investment ecosystem. Unified solutions like these are proving to be invaluable assets for firms aiming to do more with fewer resources.

By creating a single source of truth, these ecosystems enhance communication between traders, portfolio managers, and other team members, streamlining operational processes and paving the way for greater collaboration and innovation.

Powerful and Adaptable: The SS&C Front Office

A strong technical foundation enables SS&C to offer users modern front-office technology that keeps pace with changing market trends, investor preferences, and shifts in operations today—and well into the future.

Our technology—from the backend architecture to front-office features—is developed and serviced by hundreds of experts with knowledge of the industry, investment firm operations, and front-office needs. This combination of people, technology, and commitment to client success gives firms the resources they need to navigate changing markets.

Access more information about the Eze OEMS. Or read the TabbFORUM research.

Designing a Unified Investment Ecosystem | SS&C Eze

Tim Duffy — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 23:02:01 GMT

Applying the Investment Ecosystem Model to Meet Today’s Market Challenges

As firms grapple with changing market conditions, rising client expectations, and tightening regulatory demands, many seek out more complex strategies with diversified assets or new vehicles for implementing investment strategies. The key to successfully managing these strategies lies in data accuracy and flexible, connected technology.

But all too often, a firm’s current technology comes with its own complexities: a patchwork of point-to-point integrated systems, tactical patches, and manual workarounds.

Firms are left wondering how to implement new technology without adding complexity or cost to their already stretched operations.

Instead of simply layering on more technology, forward-thinking firms are instead building investment ecosystems. These ecosystems offer interconnected technologies, tools, and services that work together to support and streamline an investment firm’s operations – with consistent, real-time data.

This post provides real-world examples of how firms are building investment ecosystems to tackle today’s challenges and prepare for the future.

Future-Proofing Your Technology

At SS&C, we have leveraged this model to build the Genesis platform ecosystem, covering all facets of the investment lifecycle – portfolio management, trading, analytics, accounting, and reporting.

Rather than distributing a firm's data, applications, and services across multiple locations or servers, the cloud-based Genesis platform enables teams to access their everyday solutions in one place with a single point of entry. Everyone – from the front to the back office – can trust that they are working with the same unified data source.

Eze Marketplace provides another way for users to capitalize on the value of an investment ecosystem. As the needs of their firm change, users can discover and add pre-qualified solutions directly within their SS&C platform and start using them almost instantly. By accessing this market of plug-and-play solutions, firms save time on vendor evaluation, implementations and integration, as well as due diligence, thus minimizing risk.

No matter how you configure it, leveraging an investment ecosystem ensures that your technology can keep pace with your firm's demands while future-proofing your operations no matter what lies ahead.

Onboarding and Utilizing Data

Although firms understand the importance of data in their investment operations and decisions, managing that data and effectively incorporating it into their processes can pose a challenge.

The investment ecosystem model, with its open and interconnected structure, facilitates the quick onboarding of data and the specialist tools firms need to make their data work for them. Firms can easily integrate new data sources and tools into their existing systems, reducing the time and effort required for implementation.

With SS&C Data Lens, for example, firms can access investment and alternative data sets on demand. This centralized data solution simplifies a historically arduous process and rationalizes costs by allowing firms to only pay for the data they need and removing the need for added data infrastructure and staff. Additionally, there is efficiency gained by allowing users to self-service their analytics needs, removing the time spent aggregating and generating reports.

Examples of specialist tools firms use to better manage their data include fixed-income solutions with built-in analytics and data specific to the bond market and AI data analytics tools for helping identify opportunities or risks.

At SS&C, Eze technology users can access such tools within their existing technology platforms through Eze Marketplace, allowing them to tap into new data and tools as their asset classes and strategies change.

Combatting Fee Pressure with the Use of Services

Technology and data aren’t the only ways to build an investment ecosystem.

As firms contend with fee pressure brought on by competition from low-cost, passive ETFs, many look to expand the footprint of their firms without adding headcount or overhead.

To meet those objectives, many firms are tapping into outsourced and co-sourced solutions to scale investment operations and data management.

Selecting a Partner You Can Trust: Open Technology, Risk, and Security

While the new era of investment technology brings exciting opportunities, it also introduces risks. As technology becomes more open, ensuring robust security and risk management is crucial.

When building your investment ecosystem, choose a provider that prioritizes cybersecurity, operational resilience, and has a proven track record of delivering trusted solutions.

The SS&C Ecosystem

At SS&C, we invest over $110 million annually in wealth and investment technology solutions to stay at the forefront of industry innovation. Our investment enhances platform interoperability, creating seamless experiences that unify tools, teams, data, and insights.

Learn more about Genesis and Eze Marketplace or reach out to speak to an ecosystem expert.

The Art of Strategic Outsourcing | SS&C Eze

Kathryn Mendes — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 22:48:28 GMT

Successful outsourcing involves more than managing processes and contracts.

Strategic outsourcing is an art that requires balancing what functions to outsource, which providers to partner with, and how to grow this partnership in alignment with the firm's strategic goals.

When done right, outsourcing enables investment firms to optimize operations, decrease overhead, and better manage risk. At the same time, this strategic move allows firms to focus more on core competencies and better capitalize on emerging opportunities.

In a new SS&C guide, we explore the nuances of successful outsourcing and how you can apply these partnerships to benefit your firm. Below, we give you a peek into what’s inside the guide.

The Forces Driving Today’s Demand for Outsourcing

Historically, outsourcing was primarily limited to functions like trading and fund administration. However, the pandemic accelerated its adoption, with firms now outsourcing a wide range of services, from compliance and regulatory reporting to data management and IT infrastructure.

Several factors are contributing to this growing demand for outsourcing, including profitability challenges, regulatory complexity, and talent shortages.

Choosing What to Outsource and What to Keep In-house

Although firms stand to gain many benefits by outsourcing, successfully doing so requires thoughtful consideration of the firm’s competitive advantages, lifecycle stage, and risk profile, as well as a thorough cost-benefit analysis.

Additionally, keep in mind that more outsourcing relationships are not always better.

As the number of outsourcing relationships grows, many firms find that managing a range of third-party vendors becomes complex and time-consuming. 

Because of this, many firms choose to rationalize the number of outsourcing relationships they have. One way they do this is by working with vendors they already know and trust, like a technology provider.

This approach can enable faster onboarding, cost savings, and a single source for a holistic view of the firm’s operational landscape. Importantly, this option also provides a much-simplified experience compared to the effort of juggling many outsourcing relationships. 

Selecting and Managing Outsourcing Partnerships

To ensure a successful and long-term outsourcing relationship, firms should conduct thorough due diligence, even when working with an existing partner, to ensure its outsourcing expertise and track record match your experience with the other solutions you currently employ.

To lay the groundwork for this type of long-lasting relationship it is important to establish expectations early. Governance mechanisms, like service level agreements (SLAs) and an internal oversight committee, can help clearly define the scope of the partnership and make sure your expectations are met throughout the lifetime of the relationship.

Another effective way of doing this is to foster open and transparent communication between your firm and your outsourcing provider so that any issues or concerns that arise can be addressed before they lead to consequences for the firm.

By carefully selecting the right outsourcing provider and effectively managing the relationship, investment firms can enhance operations, capitalize on competitive advantages, and get ahead.

Dive Deeper: Building a Successful, Sustainable Outsourcing Infrastructure

In the complete outsourcing guide, learn more about building successful, sustainable outsourcing relationships, including 9 characteristics to look out for in an outsourcing provider.

Fewer, Better Outsourcing Relationships | SS&C Eze

Steven.McGill@sscinc.com (Steven McGill) — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 22:46:24 GMT

We recently wrote about the advantages investment firms gain by establishing successful, sustainable outsourcing partnerships, including improved costs, risk management, and scalability. After understanding all of these benefits, it can be tempting to seek a vendor for any and all outsourcing opportunities.

However, while the benefits of outsourcing are undeniable, more vendors don’t always mean more efficiencies for the firm.

The Pitfalls of Over-Outsourcing

As their number of outsourcing relationships grows, many firms find that managing a range of third-party vendors becomes complex and time-consuming. Finding, vetting, and overseeing numerous vendors consumes significant resources – eroding the efficiencies desired in establishing these outsourcing relationships.

Furthermore, with different vendors working in silos, it becomes difficult to achieve a cohesive solution – or a holistic understanding of your firm’s operations. This fragmented outsourcing landscape can hinder collaboration, integration, and agility.

A Smarter Approach: Rationalizing Your Outsourcing Partnerships

To realize the promised value of outsourcing, firms should focus on building fewer, stronger relationships with trusted vendors. By consolidating outsourcing needs with a limited number of providers, you can streamline processes, reduce costs, and improve visibility.

One effective strategy to do this is to leverage existing vendor relationships. Partnering with an existing provider for outsourcing services offers several advantages:

Faster Onboarding: Working with an existing vendor expedites onboarding – simplifying the due diligence and contract management processes and minimizing disruptions to your operations.

Enhanced Visibility: By aligning more of your operations under a single vendor, you gain a more holistic understanding of the state of your business and operational landscape.

Cost Savings: Consolidating services with an existing provider can lead to significant cost savings through economies of scale and bundled offerings.

Simplified Oversight: Managing a single vendor relationship reduces administrative overhead and improves efficiency.

Increased Collaboration: Choosing an existing partner for outsourcing allows your provider to gain a deeper understanding of your business and better anticipate and address your evolving needs.

Strategically leveraging existing vendor relationships offers firms a compelling path to optimizing outsourcing initiatives and overall operations.

Quality Over Quantity

While outsourcing can be a powerful tool, it's essential to adopt a strategic approach. By centralizing outsourcing partnerships with a few trusted vendors, you can unlock its full potential and drive sustainable growth for your business.

For over 35 years, SS&C has been a reliable partner for firms looking to optimize their investment operations. With end-to-end investment technology applications, architecture, and a flexible range of front-, middle-, and back-office managed services, SS&C is a single vendor for all of your outsourcing and operational needs.

SS&C’s strategic outsourcing experts act as an extension of your team, seamlessly handling short- and long-term operational processes within your existing SS&C technology platform. 

If you’re ready to optimize your outsourcing strategy, speak with an expert today. Or learn more about the factors that contribute to successful outsourcing and how you can apply them to benefit your firm in our guide, Partnering for Success: The Art of Strategic Outsourcing.

How to Manage Successful Investment Firm Outsourcing Relationships | SS&C Eze

Malcolm Gray — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 22:29:27 GMT

In our ongoing blog series on outsourcing, we’ve covered the art of strategic outsourcing and how to build an efficient outsourcing infrastructure.

With these resources, you’re well prepared to determine what and when to outsource, select a trustworthy partner, and conduct due diligence.

However, once you’ve chosen your vendor, you’re likely wondering how you can ensure that this new outsourcing relationship will grow into a long and successful partnership.

In this blog, we'll explore key strategies for building and managing successful outsourcing relationships.

Setting Standards from the Start

The foundation of a successful outsourcing relationship is built on clear expectations.

Contractual agreements are one way of ensuring that an outsourcing provider adheres to a high standard of performance. When creating such an agreement, ensure each party’s responsibilities are clearly defined and agreed to and that a plan and remedies for non-compliance are in place. This ensures both parties are aligned on the terms and objectives of the partnership.

Another measure of performance you can set from the start is Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). By defining measurable goals and a system for tracking performance, you can view your provider’s delivery empirically and make data-driven decisions to improve and grow the partnership.

Maintaining Open Lines of Communication

Maintaining a high level of communication and transparency with your provider is crucial.

As soon as the contract is signed (or sooner), ask to meet your key outsourcing contacts and establish how your teams will operate together. In this conversation, encourage open and honest communication between both teams – a culture where questions can be asked freely and concerns can be raised without fear.

From there, you will want to get into the details of how you communicate on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

What are your preferred communication channels? How often will you meet to discuss status, address challenges, and share updates? What can you expect in terms of reporting on progress and areas for improvement? Will the vendor conduct annual or bi-annual performance reviews to assess the overall partnership?

Establishing clear and consistent communication with your outsourcing team early on sets the tone for your ongoing relationship and ensures any feedback or concerns are heard.

Including Outsourcing Relationships in Business Strategy Reviews

In addition to scheduled reviews with your vendor, be sure to consider outsourcing partnerships as part of your overall business strategy.

Take this time to reflect on whether your providers continue to fulfill all obligations, maintain high-quality service standards, and prioritize your interests.

This is also a great opportunity to evaluate whether an outsourcing relationship needs to be scaled up or down to meet the evolving needs of the firm. Any quality provider should have the breadth and depth of services and the flexibility in their offerings to accommodate your firm’s needs as your business changes.

By regularly checking in and evaluating the status of your partnerships as part of your overall strategy, your firm can remain agile in its outsourcing relationships.

Your Investment Firm's Outsourcing Advantage

Successful outsourcing isn't a one-time decision; it's an ongoing strategic partnership. By prioritizing clear expectations, open communication, and dedicated oversight, you can build strong, long-lasting provider relationships that drive efficiency and firm success.

If you’re looking to enhance your firm’s outsourcing partnerships, our SS&C experts can guide you through the entire process, from the initial assessment to ongoing relationship management. Let's work together to build a successful outsourcing strategy that propels your firm forward.

Reach out to speak to an outsourcing expert today, or learn more about building a successful outsourcing strategy in our guide, Partnering for Success: The Art of Strategic Outsourcing.

What's Keeping Investors Up at Night? | SS&C Eze

Julia.Lewis@sscinc.com (Julia Lewis) — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 22:25:17 GMT

Throughout the past year, the investment industry faced a number of challenges. Some firms were able to weather the storm, while others were forced to adapt to a rapidly changing landscape. As firms navigated these challenges – fee pressure, geopolitical tensions and evolving regulatory landscapes, just to name a few – they turned to a variety of resources from SS&C to help guide their decision-making.

In this post, I delve into the key trends and concerns that shaped the investment industry in 2024, as evidenced by the resources firms were most interested in. By understanding these insights, we can gain valuable perspectives on the strategies firms are adopting to face the new year stronger.

Back to the Basics, Time for a Refresher

Whether they were just starting up or in need of a refresher, throughout the year, firms level-set on the basics, from how to start a hedge fund to learning the difference between the Execution Management System (EMS) and the Order Management System (OMS). To further their understanding, firms now can dive even deeper into the scope of the modern OMS in this new blog, What is an Order Management System?

Expert Insights on the Challenges Firms Face

In the face of dynamic markets and evolving strategies, firms turned to our technical experts. In our blogs, 7 Advanced Trading Tools for Uncertain Markets and Overcoming the 5 Technology Challenges of Asset Class Diversification, they learned how to maximize technology and services to overcome challenges.

Making the Technology Transition – When the Time Was Right

Firms struggling to address these challenges with their existing technology turned to this quiz from SS&C to help determine whether it was time to switch to a new solution. In our eBook, Switching Systems Simplified, they found guidance on selecting technology to meet their needs, determining a solution’s Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and preparing to switch systems and manage the tactical transition.

Enhancing Operational Efficiency with Outsourcing

Facing no shortage of headwinds, firms looked for resources to help them withstand, recover, and grow from the challenges they faced. One tool many firms turned to was outsourcing.

To help in their decision to outsource, firms downloaded our comprehensive guide and read blogs on the topic, including:

How firms choose when and what to outsource

How hedge funds, in particular, can boost operations with outsourcing

How to manage successful and productive outsourcing relationships

Real-world outsourcing use cases

As readers learned, when done right, outsourcing enables investment firms to increase efficiency, decrease overhead, and better manage risk. 

Uniting Technology Operations

Another strategy firms employed in pursuit of efficiency was unifying their technological operations.

Firms have discovered that a patchwork of disparate, single-purpose systems that don’t communicate leads to a cumbersome and costly infrastructure.

Because of this, firms are looking at their operations more holistically, turning to comprehensive, forward-looking tech stacks that elevate operations today and support growth over time.

As they strove to unite their operations, firms downloaded our eBook Uniting Your Front Office and Beyond, learning how to bring their OMS and EMS technology together to increase efficiency, decrease risk, and maintain compliance.

When it came to the operation as a whole, they read this whitepaper exploring how a single platform integrating all core functions can simplify operations and help gain a competitive edge.

We Want to Hear from You

This year, we’re thrilled to continue bringing you insights from the experts at SS&C and beyond. I hope you’ll follow along. You can receive every new insight in your inbox by subscribing to the blog.

What topics do you want to hear about from us this year? Let me know.

To Outsource or Not to Outsource? | SS&C Eze

Richard Bradbury — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 22:24:29 GMT

Despite the growing focus on outsourcing in recent years, the question of what functions to outsource and when continues to perplex investment firms.

As the industry evolves, the strategic implications of these decisions grow ever more significant.

In a landscape where speed, efficiency, and innovation are paramount, firms must carefully weigh the benefits and risks of outsourcing. Is it worth relinquishing certain functions to gain access to specialized expertise and cost savings? Or should they maintain a tight grip on operations to ensure control and quality?

In this blog post, we'll delve into three key considerations to help you make an informed decision.

By understanding these factors, you can develop a robust outsourcing strategy that aligns with your firm's unique goals and challenges.

1. Competitive Advantages

When it comes to deciding what functions to outsource, more and more firms are considering outsourcing everything that does not contribute to their competitive advantage.

For many buy-side firms, this means outsourcing functions they consider laborious or areas where there is not much room for differentiation. These functions include tasks like fund accounting and settlement.

By outsourcing these types of tasks, firms are better able to focus on alpha-generating activities within their firm, like trading, portfolio management, and investment research and analysis. Because these functions are key ways for firms to differentiate themselves, they are also the types of business processes firms look to keep in-house.

2. Lifecycle Stage

What stage of its lifecycle is the firm in? Is it early on – in the startup or emerging phase? Or is it more established – managing billions of dollars of capital?

Firms at different stages have different concerns: A newer, smaller firm’s primary consideration may be controlling costs. This motivation will shape its outsourcing decisions, as costs for hiring internal headcount add up fast. These firms, therefore, may choose to outsource more expensive positions, like traders or CFOs.  

Additionally, early on, firms are hyper-focused on growing their core competencies. In this stage of growth, finding, hiring, and retaining top talent in specialized areas outside their key capabilities, like legal and HR, can be challenging.

More established firms will rely on a mix of outsourced and in-house support. For developed firms, outsourcing key positions like traders or executives may be seen as a red flag to investors. However, this does not mean these firms should neglect to leverage outsourcing for more routine operational tasks or responsibilities outside of their core areas of expertise, like IT infrastructure.

3. Cost-benefit Analysis

To guide their outsourcing decisions, firms should conduct a thorough cost-benefit analysis to evaluate the potential advantages of outsourcing vs. keeping operations in-house.

This analysis involves considering all potential costs and cost savings.

Consider what the firm has to gain or lose from a quality, risk, efficiency, and control perspective.

Consider what the firm has to gain by diverting internal resources to higher-impact tasks.

Remember that along with the many benefits of outsourcing, such as reduced costs, enhanced efficiency, and increased expertise, entrusting a third-party provider in this way also comes with the potential for added threats related to risk, security, and regulatory concerns.

To mitigate these risks, careful selection of the right outsourcing provider and effective vendor management are required. Consider the time and involvement these tasks will take and ensure they are outweighed by the efficiencies gained from the outsourcing relationship.

An Outsourcing Strategy for Your Firm’s Unique Scenario

The decision to outsource is a complex one, and, ultimately, your choice to outsource or maintain operations in-house will depend on the specific circumstances and strategic goals of your investment firm.

By understanding the firm's competitive differentiators, evaluating its lifecycle stage, and conducting a thorough cost-benefit analysis, you can make informed outsourcing decisions tailored to your unique scenario and position your firm for long-term success.

4 Ways to Take Back Your Time with Investment Technology | SS&C Eze

Frank Matarese — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 22:21:43 GMT

They say time is money, but during the holiday season, it’s more than that. Taking back your time during this period means more time to spend with family and friends, making memories, and recharging.

However, for many investment managers, the holiday season can also be stressful and full of anxiety. With benchmarks to meet, year-end reporting to complete, and investor reviews to conduct, finding time for yourself and your family can be difficult.

But it doesn't have to be this way.By leveraging the power of investment technology, you can take back your time and enjoy a more stress-free holiday season.

In this blog post, we'll explore some of the ways investment technology can help you optimize and automate your processes, free up your time to focus on what matters most and give you peace of mind about your firm’s operations so you and your team can enjoy your time away.

Co-sourcing and Outsourcing to Alleviate Resource Constraints

As you take time off to be with family and friends over the holidays, the last thing you want to worry about is whether that report was run or if those trades were reconciled.

Working with a co-sourced or outsourced provider can help manage these essential, routine daily and monthly processes so you can step away without stressing.

These types of resources can also be scaled up or down as needed to meet changing business demands. For example, you can enlist the help of your managed services provider to take on some of the operational burden experienced throughout the end of the year when resources may be stretched thin.

Working with an experienced outsourcing team also eliminates the key person risk associated with critical personnel being out of the office. This support ensures continuity in operations and protects the business from costly interruptions regardless of team time off.

Enlisting the help of a co-sourcing or outsourcing provider allows you and your team to better disconnect when you’re out of the office and improves efficiencies, freeing up more time for strategic initiatives.

Learn how one firm saves 4 to 5 hours each day with managed services.

Leverage Vendor Expertise to Optimize Systems and Workflows

Another way to free up time for you and your teams for the holidays and beyond is to ensure all systems and processes are optimized.

Start by ensuring you’re operating on the latest iteration of your technology. Once you’re up to date, check in to see what features or solutions have been released that you may have missed.

Now, you can begin strategizing how best to employ these tools to free up your firm’s time and resources.  

However, when confronted with all these opportunities, it can be hard to know where to begin. 

How can you ensure you’re adequately using all the resources available to you to achieve the most streamlined workflows possible?  

Check with your vendor to see if they can conduct a workflow review. 

Through this process, they should be able to identify workflows in need of optimization and propose the best course of action for configuring your system for maximum efficiency. 

Engaging your vendor in this process can be doubly valuable. The representatives you work with likely have experience working with hundreds of other firms, consultants, and industry leaders. They’ve seen what works, and they know how to achieve it.  

For Eze solutions, we have a service team dedicated to this process. Any client-first organization should be ready and willing to do what you need to optimize your workflows and take back your time. 

By partnering with a trusted technology and service provider, firms can ensure that their systems and workflows are optimized to meet the challenges and opportunities of the holiday season and beyond as efficiently as possible.

Maximize Employee Effectiveness with AI and Automation

To take a meaningful, well-deserved break over the holidays, you must ensure that your time and attention are dedicated to the highest-impact tasks while in the office.

By leveraging AI and automation to streamline processes and reduce manual intervention, you can free up time and resources to focus on more strategic and higher-value tasks.

With these tools, you can automate routine tasks, such as:

Data entry

Reporting

Low-touch trade orders

Client onboarding

Compliance checks

By taking these more manual, repetitive tasks off your plate, you can redirect your attention to more impactful activities, like generating returns, managing risk, and delivering positive client experiences.

This allows you to step away for well-deserved time off with the confidence that your work throughout the year made a meaningful contribution to the firm’s success.

Take a Break, Stay Connected with Mobile Access

The Harvard Business Review reports that statistically, taking more vacation time results in greater success at work. With this tie to performance, it is clear that it’s necessary for employees to take some time to unplug and recharge.

However, completely detaching from what’s going on at their firm can be anxiety-inducing for some and, for others, impossible.

Mobile access to your investment technology can give you peace of mind, as you can review and execute crucial investment activities with security and precision if you need to—no matter where you are.

The Eze app gives you the option to view a high-level, customized summary of your positions and performance and sort, filter, and reorganize your portfolio information to see what matters most. 

If you need to take action while out of the office, preconfigured ‘quicksend’ buttons let you act on what you see, empowering you to execute the trades you want to when you need to directly from the Eze app.  

Recent updates to the Eze app build on these features, giving you greater insights and the ability to act more efficiently if you need to check in when you are OOO: View and access all the fields available in the desktop version of your application, review and act on pre-trade compliance alerts remotely, and leverage more app real estate on-the-go with tablet access.

With mobile access to your investment technology, you can take time away from the office with the confidence that if an issue arises, you’re never far from the information and tools you need to keep your business on track.  

Learn more about the Eze app or download the app for iPhone or Android.

Optimize Your Operations, Maximize Your Holiday

The holiday season should be a time for relaxation, celebration, and spending quality time with loved ones.

By leveraging investment technology to optimize and automate processes, you can free up time to focus on what matters most and ensure peace of mind about your firm's operations. Take back your time and ensure your firm is well-prepared for the holiday season and beyond.

From all of us at SS&C, we hope you and your team have a relaxing and enjoyable time off this holiday season.

Unlocking Market Potential: How the Latest Eclipse Enhancements Empower Hedge Funds | SS&C Eze

Josh.Holbrook@sscinc.com (Josh Holbrook) — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 17:05:00 GMT

With today’s markets evolving faster than ever, falling behind is not an option.

The latest enhancements to Eze Eclipse do more than help users keep up; they empower them to go beyond solving the challenges they face to pursue new opportunities.

With tools that enable more efficient front-office operations, optionality in strategy execution, and seamless access to new markets, Eclipse equips users with the functionality they need to stay competitive today and lead the way tomorrow.

Connectivity and Tools That Support Asset Class Expansion

Fixed income has become an increasingly key focus for firms in recent years, with demand surging as investors seek to mitigate risk and hedge against inflation.

To meet this demand, Eclipse has expanded its fixed-income capabilities, offering seamless connectivity to leading platforms like Tradeweb and Bloomberg, simplifying bond trading and enhancing market access.

Eclipse also offers more robust tools for managing swaps and native support for Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS), Asset-Backed Securities (ABS), and Credit Default Swaps (CDS). These features enable users to trade more efficiently across a broader range of instruments.

With these enhancements, Eclipse empowers firms to diversify their strategies and capitalize on new opportunities in fixed-income markets and beyond.

Front Office Functionality That Saves Time

In markets defined by shifting investor preferences, fluctuating profit margins and sustained high interest rates, firms must prioritize streamlining processes and managing risks to remain competitive. The latest updates to Eclipse are designed with these challenges in mind.

To start, Eclipse lets users merge parent orders directly from the blotter. This functionality simplifies workflows and increases operational efficiency—both of which are essential in today’s fast-moving markets.

Additionally, a new rebalancing feature allows traders to align portfolios leveraging a static model, providing enhanced flexibility in maintaining and evolving portfolios in line with strategic goals.

Finally, Eclipse now supports up to 20 quick-send buttons directly in the blotter, helping traders execute orders more efficiently. This streamlined order-routing capability not only saves time but also empowers users to capitalize on fleeting market opportunities by minimizing delays from order creation to execution.

Expanding Optionality with an Investment Ecosystem Approach

As firms diversify their asset classes and streamline processes, many are adopting a new approach to technology: building an integrated investment ecosystem. These ecosystems connect technologies, tools and services, enabling them to work together seamlessly to support and optimize a firm’s operations.

In line with this trend, one significant recent update is the expansion of Eclipse’s interoperability.

Through Eze Marketplace, users now have access to even more plug-and-play solutions that extend the Eclipse platform with tools for:

Risk Management

Reporting

Data Analytics

Trade Surveillance

Liquidity Management

Transaction Cost Analysis (TCA)

These tools expand a firm’s investment ecosystem, equipping them to better navigate today’s complex market landscape with increased agility and precision.

Streamlining Processes with Managed Operations

In today’s markets, operational efficiency is a competitive necessity.

With rising fee pressure and intensifying competition from low-cost ETFs, firms must execute every process with precision.

Eclipse’s expanded managed operations solution addresses this need by enhancing trade matching services, which boosts the efficiency of post-trade operations. Firms can also gain greater transparency in their position and cash reconciliation breaks, improving oversight and confidence in their operations.

Unlocking New Potential with Eze Eclipse

When it was introduced in 2017, Eclipse promised hedge funds something different: technology that combined fast implementations, robust functionality, and an accessible, easy-to-use interface backed by the largest services team in the industry.

Today, hundreds of firms rely on Eclipse’s cloud-native microservices architecture to support the evolving needs of their firms.

Recent Eclipse enhancements build on this rich history, making it an even more powerful tool for firms by enabling more efficient investment operations, optionality in implementing investment strategies, and positioning firms for long-term success.

These updates are a continuation of Eclipse's ongoing development. As Eclipse continues to evolve, users can expect even more innovations from the front- to back-office and support for the complex demands of modern alternative investment strategies.

Ready to experience the power of Eclipse? Dive deeper into the platform, or contact us today to see how Eclipse can help your firm stay ahead.