For the last two decades, asset managers have invested heavily in back-office operations to accelerate everyday processes, improve speed and accuracy in accounting and reconciliation, and ensure data quality.
Now, firms are turning their attention to improving front-office productivity – leveraging technology to help portfolio managers, traders, compliance, and risk professionals make informed decisions in a timely manner and execute them efficiently at scale.
Our “Tech It Up” podcast team recently caught up with Frank Matarese, managing director of product management for SS&C Eze, to discuss the evolution of the front office and where the industry is headed. With three decades of experience in investment technology, Frank is well-positioned to offer insights into the changes he has witnessed and foresees in the industry.
Cloud Turnaround: The Investment Industry's Biggest Technology Shift
Frank shares that the biggest shift he’s seen in investment technology is the movement toward the cloud. Ten years ago, every firm he talked to said they would never move to the cloud, citing security concerns. Now, it’s where everyone wants to be.
In that context, Frank talked about the appeal of cloud-delivered or SaaS solutions, particularly for smaller firms that want to be more flexible and forgo a significant investment in IT infrastructure. Cloud delivery enables them to take advantage of the “latest and greatest” technology without having to worry about lengthy implementations and upgrade pains.
In the coming years, he expects SaaS and managed applications to dominate as technology providers develop applications natively in the cloud rather than simply moving on-premise software to a remote data center.
Front Office Redefined: Managed Services and Artificial Intelligence Take Center Stage
How else does Frank see the front-office landscape taking shape over the next three to five years?
He sees an increasing trend toward managed services as firms look to refocus staffing resources from routine operational activity toward more critical functions.
He also sees new technologies like AI and machine learning as being where the cloud was 10 years ago and gaining importance as the industry figures out how best to use them. With firms crunching an ever-increasing data volume, he sees AI's value not so much in “picking stocks” but in enabling front-office staff to digest the data that matters most to them more quickly.
From Interface to Infrastructure: Eze OMS's Facelift, Fixed Income Focus, and Front-to-Back Integrations
When it comes to the technology advancements Frank is most excited about at SS&C, he points to Eze OMS’s “full facelift” developed to enhance the user experience through improved visual ergonomics. Meanwhile, the team is working behind the screen to improve performance and scalability.
Frank also shares that Eze’s front-office users can expect to see a major expansion of the platform’s fixed-income capabilities in the near future as the bond market moves toward greater electronification of executions.
Additionally, the Eze team is working on strengthening its full front-to-back technology capabilities for wealth and asset managers through integrations with the Genesis Platform. Other Eze OMS ecosystem integrations include Advent’s award-winning accounting solution, Geneva, and SS&C’s robust risk platform, Algorithmics.
For a more detailed conversation on the front-office technology landscape and a sneak preview of the Eze roadmap, check out the full podcast episode, “Ready, Set, Go: Building the Front-Office Platform of Tomorrow.”
