The Problems With Most Asset Management Software

The Problems With Most Asset Management Software A wide range of industries now make use of asset management software to keep track of their incomes and expenses. [1] Indeed, this can extend well beyond financial data, with a firm’s business assets also including the raw materials that they use for making their goods, the human resources that do the work and the equipment that is so vital to various industrial and commercial processes. [2] But does your chosen asset management software even cater for all of your needs? As a CFO, MD, CEO, stockbroker, fund manager, IFA, high net worth private investor or any of a wide range of other top finance staff in corporations, you will want the asset management software that you choose to boast all of the necessary features under one application. All too often, a vaunted asset management solution will lack such features as… Order management with multiple interfaces [3] From time to time, you might be interested in a quick order, or instead a strategic sale/purchase of a security over a group of portfolios. [4] Whatever your precise needs, you’ll want the order management system to be right, providing you with the kind of real time transparency and insight that is required to quickly identify, understand and respond to opportunities . [5] Even when you have a great volume of trades and information to manage, you shouldn’t be suffering from information overload. [6] You’ll therefore appreciate order management as part of your asset management software that boasts full interface functionality, with pre and post trade compliance. [7] The latter will allow you to keep track of all regulatory and in-house compliance restrictions, allowing you to perform ad hoc checks of proposed orders as well as in pre-trade and post-trade modes. [8] Your chosen asset management software should come with an order management solution boasting interfaces to multiple back offices, brokers and custodians. [9] Portfolio modelling and rebalancing [10] The right asset management solution is also likely to assist you in the portfolio modelling and rebalancing process, so that your portfolio at any one time remains in the best possible state. Such a solution is likely to include strategic/dynamic modelling as well as blended modelling/asset allocation. [11] It should make it possible for you to rebalance a single portfolio or group of portfolios against a strategic model, as a means of generating the orders that you need to achieve the correct weightings against the model. [12] Real time performance measurement and analysis [13] Does your chosen asset management software provide real time performance measurement and analysis to GIPS standards? [14] Any savvy investor naturally wants to keep track of how their investments are doing, but compliance with the GIPS standards goes further. No asset management software can be considered to be in compliance with the GIPS standards unless it adheres to all applicable requirements, including any updates, clarifications, guidance statements, reports, questions and answers (Q and As) and the handbook. [15] The right asset management software is likely to incorporate performance reporting and history, with synthetic blended indices. [16] It should be a complete performance measurement, attribution and reporting solution enabling you to calculate and store rates of return for standard or userdefined categories of an unlimited number. [17] It is, after all, only with access to accurate and

timely information that you turn merely good asset management into great asset management. [18] Is your asset management software truly up to date? Market conditions are continually changing, so it’s vital to have an asset management software solution that adapts to them. [19] The best asset management solution will use the latest technology – being web based, for example, so that the client can take advantage of online services. [20] Indeed, many asset management solutions feature a tablet friendly portal, useful for the continually increasing number of mobile investors who would like to access their information remotely, from anywhere that has an Internet connection. [21] The software’s reporting suite should also be comprehensive in keeping with present investor requirements, incorporating transaction, valuation, contribution and regulatory information. [22] The full interface functionality of a good asset management software solution should cover the importing of files from multiple locations, and its import facilities should include not only transaction data but also prices, security, exchange and holding data for the facilitation of reconciliation. [23] The entry of a traded transaction for an individual portfolio should also be possible. [24] So many asset management software solutions don’t even have a multi-company, multi-tier system or are able to be tailored to the needs of you and your customers – so be sure to include all of the above factors in your consideration of the best solution for you. [25]

1 & 2. http://ezinearticles.com/?Understanding-Asset-Management-Software&id=6391460 3. http://www.investmentsoftwareltd.com/ 4. http://www.financialsoftware.co.uk/index.php/products/imix/

5 & 6. http://www.linedata.com/solutions/alternative-institutional-investment/institutionalinvestment/trade-order-management/
7. http://www.financialsoftware.co.uk/index.php/products/imix/ 8. http://www.tradar.com/export/sites/tradar/downloads/Tradar-compliance-flyer.pdf 9 & 10. http://www.investmentsoftwareltd.com/the-imix-product/ 11 & 12. http://www.financialsoftware.co.uk/index.php/products/imix/ 13 & 14. http://www.investmentsoftwareltd.com/the-imix-product/ 15. http://www.gipsstandards.org/standards/Pages/index.aspx 16. http://www.financialsoftware.co.uk/index.php/products/imix/ 17. http://www.sungard.com/financialsystems/brands/assetarena.aspx 18. http://www.sungard.com/financialsystems/products/aaperformance.aspx 19 & 20. http://www.investmentsoftwareltd.com/about-us/ 21 & 22. http://www.investmentsoftwareltd.com/the-imix-product/ 23 – 25. http://www.financialsoftware.co.uk/index.php/products/imix/