Sell-Side Technology Awards 2018 | Infopro Digital Risk (IP) Limited | 2 March 2018 | Andaz Liverpool Street Hotel, 40 Liverpool St, London EC2M 7QN, UK

We will not accept any entries after Friday, March 2.

Hosted by Waters magazine, WatersTechnology and Sell-Side Technology, the Sell-Side Technology Awards recognize the leading technologies and third-party vendors in their area of expertise, through an auditable and transparent methodology developed and managed by WatersTechnology's senior journalists, headed up by Victor Anderson.

2018 Categories:

Best Sell-Side Middle -Office Platform (New for 2018):
• Entries should feature credit and market risk management, compliance, CRM, and reporting functionality, and should ideally be integrated into a single offering, although integrated best-of-breed products will also qualify.

Best Sell-Side Back-Office Platform (New for 2018):
• Entries should feature a number of the following functions: reconciliations, corporate actions processing, accounting, client reporting, collateral management and cash and liquidity management.

Best Distributed-Ledger Technology Project:
• The winning entry in this category should describe the DLT project in detail and explain the product's or project's applicability to a sell-side business process, focusing on the business benefits accruing to sell-side firms that implements such platforms/products.

Best Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technology:
• This category will be awarded to the technology provider that not only illustrates the extent of its AI technology, but crucially also illustrates its applicability to the sell side by way of the platform/tool being implemented in a live, production environment.

Best Use of the Agile Methodology:
• The winning entry in this category must illustrate the extent to which the firm operates in an agile manner through regular sprints and scrums, frequent software releases, retrospectives, and close, ongoing collaboration with clients.

Best Alliance or Partnership
• This category will be awarded to two technology providers that have combined their technologies or services over the course of the last 12 months into a single offering that is currently in use at a sell-side firm. The alliance or partnership must have been struck between Q1 2017 and the end of Q1 2018.

Best Sell-Side Front-Office Execution Platform:
• Entries should have EMS and OMS functionality, multi-asset capabilities, execute large trade volumes in real time, and support compliance and risk management activities.

Best Sell-Side Automated Platform:
• Entries should support algorithmic and/or high-frequency trading functions, and offer end-user flexibility with respect to modifying parameters and interface.

Best Sell-Side Market Risk Product:
• Entries should include ex-post, ex-ante, and Value-at-Risk calculations, "what-if" analysis, stress testing, and Monte Carlo simulations, ideally in as close to real time as possible.

Best Sell-Side Credit Risk Product:
• Entries should include incremental credit valuation adjustment calculations, collateral management capabilities, support for a range of external data sources, and compliance with regulatory best practices.

Best Infrastructure Provider to the Sell-Side:
• Entrants should provide hardware, grid, virtualization, and connectivity services, supporting a range of sell-side firms' internal architecture.

Best Cloud Provider to the Sell-Side:
• Entrants should be third-party cloud infrastructure/service providers to sell-side firms, irrespective of the cloud model on offer.

Best Sell-Side Analytics Product:
• Entrants should demonstrate the extent to which their offerings help sell-side firms manage and interrogate large data volumes to identify trends and correlations, especially when it comes to assisting with various decision-support functions and risk management initiatives.

Best Sell-Side Data Management Product:
• Entries should be sell-side-focused technologies designed to normalize and store all data types, allowing for its sharing and retrieval across multiple business lines through enterprise application integration.

Best Data Provider to the Sell-Side:
• Entrants should be data vendors that provide sell-side firms with consolidated, transparent, clean and reliable datasets/services across multiple business lines and functions.

Best Sell-Side Trading Communication System:
• Entries should feature design simplicity and user-friendliness, high availability, support for simultaneous incoming and outbound calls, voice recording and archiving.

Best Sell-Side Mobile Initiative:
• Entries should feature support for multiple devices and operating systems, offer high availability, advanced encryption security, and accommodate various levels of user permissions.

Best Sell-Side Trading Network:
• Entries should exhibit high levels of buy-side and sell-side penetration, be FIX-compatible, support large message volumes, and demonstrate operational resilience.

Best Smart Order Routing Product/Tool:
• Entries should illustrate how they assist sell-side firms (and their buy-side clients) to comply with best-execution mandates by accessing fragmented liquidity to execute orders across multiple asset classes using smart algorithms that can learn from past experience while minimizing information leakage.

Best Outsourcing Provider to the Sell-Side:
• Entrants should offer multiple business development and engineering services and responsiveness to client demands, while meeting budgetary and time-to-market objectives for sell-side clients.

Best Sell-Side Reconciliation Platform:
• Entries should be third-party-provided, post-trade processing platforms, designed to handle large and complex data volumes in reduced timeframes, and should include automated exception management functionality across multiple asset classes, including OTC derivatives.

Best Sell-Side Compliance Product:
• Entries should have met a specific regulatory demand between Q1 2017 and the end Q1 2018, illustrating how the technology has aided with various compliance functions at sell-side firms.

Best Sell-Side Market Surveillance Product:
• Entries should incorporate real-time surveillance capabilities for both internal and external obligations, including pattern-recognition software and case-building capabilities.

Best Sell-Side Web-Based Development Environment:
• Entrants should illustrate the benefits gained by sell-side firms using their web-based development environment to build trading applications that can be deployed across multiple devices/asset classes/markets.

Best Implementation at a Sell-Side Firm:
• Entries should be third-party-provided applications, implemented at a sell-side firm, and completed on-time and on-budget between the beginning of Q1 2017 and the end of Q1 2018.

Best Sell-Side Newcomer (Vendor or Product):
• Entries should be new technology vendors or products (or upgrades), aimed directly at the sell side, and launched between the beginning of Q1 2017 and the end of Q1 2018.

Best Sell-Side OTC Trading Initiative:
• Entries should embody new and innovative ways of tackling the increasingly electronic derivatives trading landscape, with demonstrable benefit to sell-side firms operating within this space. Entries should aim to support all functions from pre-trade risk management through to clearing and settlement.

Most Promising Sell-Side Startup:
• Entrants should be focused on providing technology and innovation to an under-served area of the sell side, and they should be less than two years old (in other words, a startup). The winning entrant will be a new firm, rather than a subsidiary or new product from an existing vendor.

Best Reporting Platform or Service for the Sell-Side:
• Entries should feature a way to ease the reporting burden for sell-side firms under regulations such as Emir, Mifir and the Dodd-Frank Act. While data management will be an integral part of the technology, the products or services should focus on all aspects of trade reporting.

Best Swap Execution Facility (SEF):
• Entries in this category should demonstrate competitive market share among existing SEFs, as well as technology that sets them apart from other platforms. While the winning entrant need not necessarily be the largest SEF, it must be able to illustrate its unique value proposition to the sell side, and its long-term viability.

Best Overall Sell-Side Product of the Year:
• The winner of this category will be announced on the afternoon of April 20.

Best Sell-Side Technology Provider of the Year:
• The winner of this category will be announced on the afternoon of April 20.

2017 Winners:

BEST ALLIANCE OR PARTNERSHIP (NEW FOR 2017):
• Nasdaq + Digital Reasoning

BEST ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TECHNOLOGY(NEW FOR 2017):
• Digital Reasoning

BEST CLOUD PROVIDER TO THE SELL SIDE:
• BT

BEST DATA PROVIDER TO THE SELL SIDE:
• Thomson Reuters

BEST DISTRIBUTED-LEDGER TECHNOLOGY PROJET (NEW FOR 2017):
• Synechron

BEST IMPLEMENTATION AT A SELL-SIDE FIRM:
• AxiomSL

BEST INFRASTRUCTURE PROVIDER TO THE SELL SIDE:
• AlphaPoint

BEST OUTSOURCING PROVIDER TO THE SELL SIDE:
• Broadridge Financial Solutions

BEST REPORTING PLATFORM OR SERVICE FOR THE SELL SIDE:
• NEX Abide Financial

BEST SELL-SIDE ANALYTICS PRODUCT:
• AlphaSense

BEST SELL-SIDE AUTOMATED TRADING PLATFORM:
• FlexTrade

BEST SELL-SIDE COMPLIANCE PRODUCT:
• AcadiaSoft

BEST SELL-SIDE CREDIT PRODUCT:
• Numerix

BEST SELL-SIDE DATA MANAGEMENT PRODUCT:
• IHS Markit

BEST SELL-SIDE FRONT-OFFICE EXECUTION PLATFORM:
• Fidessa

BEST SELL-SIDE MARKET RISK PRODUCT:
• FIS

BEST SELL-SIDE MARKET SURVEILLANCE PRODUCT:
• Nasdaq

BEST SELL-SIDE MOBILE INITIATIVE:
• Dealogic

BEST SELL-SIDE NEWCOMER (VENDOR OR PRODUCT):
• IHS Markit

BEST SELL-SIDE OTC TRADING INITIATIVE:
• FIS

BEST SELL-SIDE RECONCILIATION PLATFORM:
• SmartStream

BEST SELL-SIDE TRADING COMMUNICATION SYSTEM:
• Cloud9 Technologies

BEST SELL-SIDE TRADING NETWORK:
• IPC Systems

BEST SELL-SIDE WEB-BASED DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT:
• OpenFin

BEST SMART ORDER ROUTING PRODUCT/TOOL:
• Broadway Technology

BEST SWAP EXECUTION FACILITY (SEF):
• Tradeweb

BEST USE OF THE AGILE METHODOLOGY (NEW FOR 2017):
• Synechron

MOST PROMISING SELL-SIDE START-UP:
• OpenDoor

BEST OVERALL SELL-SIDE PRODUCT OF THE YEAR:
• Nasdaq

BEST SELL-SIDE TECHNOLOGY PROVIDER OF THE YEAR:
• IHS Markit