Boston – May 25, 2011–In the aftermath of the financial crisis, buy-side firms are leveraging managed services by application vendors to enhance competitiveness and support growth strategies. Unlike traditional outsourcing, Charles River Development (Charles River), a front- and middle-office investment software solutions provider, offers managed services that, in addition to helping manage costs, increase application ROI by supplying expertise that is difficult to build and maintain in-house.
The Charles River white paper, “Managed Services – Turning the Front-Office Platform into a Competitive Advantage,” explains how the strategic use of managed services improves the utilization and value of the investment management platform and gives firms the flexibility to support new business initiatives to manage for growth. According to Charles River, managed services for hosting and application management taps into a vendor’s expertise; freeing up internal resources that allow buy-side firms to focus on core competencies, pursue new market opportunities and deliver better results to customers.
“Fifteen years ago, the managed services approach would have been unthinkable to buy-side firms,” said Ed Fitzpatrick, director, Managed Services, Charles River Development. “What’s changed is that service providers have built on their original strength of economies of scale; developing the deep application and integration expertise, service packaging and delivery models necessary to meet the needs of a wide variety of buy-side firms. More than just managing costs, buy-side firms gain 24x7x365 expertise and support that is difficult to build and maintain in-house.”
Managed Services is a key focus for Bridgeway Capital Management, a quantitative investment management firm in Houston, Texas that leverages Charles River’s Application Management and FIX Network Services. “In general, Bridgeway believes in the best sourcing model,” said Chuck Bates, Operations, Bridgeway Capital Management. “We want to keep our firm small in headcount and focus on asset management. We don’t have an internal IT team, so it’s great to have experts to manage the Charles River system for us.”
“Managed Services: Turning the Front-Office Platform into a Competitive Advantage” outlines four key areas of best sourcing for investment management platforms: application management, application hosting, integrated data services, and FIX network services. To download a complimentary copy of this white paper, please visit Charles River’s website.