EMEA Management Forum Addresses Buy-Side Challenges
In spite of the downturn affecting Europe’s financial community, nearly 80 individuals from 27 buy-side firms across Europe attended Charles River Development’s second annual Management Forum on May 14th in London. Attendees, ranging from trading to technology experts, discussed current industry challenges and how to address them with Charles River’s products and services, including new functionality in the Charles River Investment Management System (Charles River IMS).
Through market-level presentations and product demonstrations, attendees reviewed key topics of interest, including: execution management; product usability and integration; as well as hosted services and data management. In addition, a Traders’ Session showcased new trading enhancements in Charles River IMS while providing an opportunity to gather valuable product development feedback from European clients.
Attendees agreed that execution management, including transparency, control and real-time capabilities, continues to be a challenge across Europe. “With MiFID a key focus, and constantly-evolving execution venues, our clients are demanding more control over their trade execution strategies and best execution,” said Jon Steward, Managing Director, EMEA, Charles River Development. “Charles River IMS helps buy-side traders manage trade execution with features such as: trade reporting; integrated real-time information; connectivity to trading venues; and pre- and post-trade transaction cost analysis (TCA) tools.”
Given the current economy, attendees were also interested in learning how Charles River’s application management solution can help them ‘do more with less.’ Application Management allows clients to house hardware and software at their facility and leverage existing in-house infrastructure and security, while Charles River manages their Charles River IMS application. Hosted Application Management also provides a fully-outsourced Charles River IMS solution in Charles River’s highly-secure, Tier One hosting centers. These solutions deliver increased ROI by helping clients gain the most value out of their Charles River IMS at a lower cost of ownership.
Attendees cited integration with external vendors and a customizable, dynamic desktop as key benefits of the Charles River IMS’ migration to a complete Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) platform. “I was particularly impressed with the user interface, which appears intuitive to use and entirely customizable,” said Andrew Brown, IT Director, Artemis Investment Management. “For example, you can move around integrated vendor windows depending on which sources you use, and the system should be easy to integrate with external vendors owning to its Web services-based architecture. It’s a cutting edge product that’s scalable and has longevity. We plan to upgrade to the new version as soon as possible.”
With increased competition in the market for achieving best execution, buy-side firms are also looking to streamline trading and market data integration across all asset types. Forum attendees learned more about Charles River’s integration with data partners, both from a technology and relationship perspective.
Since the 2008 Management Forum, Charles River has expanded the EMEA client base in France, Germany, Italy, the Nordic region and South Africa, and is actively involved in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. “Our clients are proactive in giving us feedback to help us develop our offerings,” said Steward. “Now more than ever, the buy side is looking to technology to gain efficiencies in its operations and reduce costs while addressing market challenges.”
For more information about our products and services in Europe, please contact Alessandra Anzalone, Sales Executive, +44 20 7397 6848 or AlessandraAnzalone@crd.com
[ Back to top ]