A multi-strategy hedge fund manager with $8 billion in assets under management had decided to implement a central repository for securities and pricing data (e.g. security master and pricing master). The firm supported multiple investment strategies by both in-house portfolio managers and external managers who managed segrageted separately managed accounts (SMAs). Investment strategies covered a broad range and included equity long/short, structured credit, global-macro, and commodity trading advisors (CTAs). As a result, the asset classes coverage was extremely broad, both in terms of instruments traded and geographical spread. The firm’s CTO required a short-list of vendors and an initial assessment to make recommendations to the firm’s management committee.
Solution
- Understood the requirements quickly through two focused working sessions with the firm’s business analyst (i.e. asset classes traded, market data sources, and overview of business processes).
- Provided the client with information on over fifteen vendors and assisted them in narrowing the list to five vendors to review in more detail.
- Organized curated short-demos with each of the vendors that allowed the client to understand the most relevant features of each of the products and reduce the list to three vendors.
- Assisted the client in undertaking a detailed evaluation of the three short-listed vendors which resulted in one being selected for a proof-of-concept, which subsequently continued into implementation.
Benefits
- Sped up the selection process, by leveraging our knowledge of the business issues, industry knowledge, and vendor relationships. Vendors were short-listed and narrowed to three contenders within a month – significantly shorter than a full vendor selection process.
- Guided the proof-of-concept with our business and product knowledge helped and bring the client close to making a final product decision that is the best fit for their needs.
- Produced buy-in from key business stakeholders and management team by sharing our industry knowledge of how peer firms solve similar problems, giving the key stakeholders confidence in making decisions.