Waters Technology Buy-Side Awards 2017 | The May Fair Hotel , Stratton St, Mayfair, London W1J 8LT, UK

The Buy-Side Technology Awards 2017 features 32 categories:

Best buy-side OMS
Platforms should feature pre-trade (deal time) and post-trade compliance; support for a range of asset classes including derivatives; a trading blotter; FIX-enabled connectivity; and order generation and routing functions.

Best buy-side EMS
Platforms should feature multi-broker/exchange connectivity; pre-trade transaction cost analysis (TCA); algorithmic trading tools and DMA; and should show strong integration capabilities with OMSs.

Best buy-side risk/portfolio analytics product
Functions should include risk-based portfolio modeling; 'what if' analysis; stress testing; Monte Carlo simulation; and (ideally) the ability to provide VaR and NAV figures.

Best buy-side performance measurement and attribution product
Functions should include calculation of returns for portfolio (benchmarks and composites); calculation of attribution effects for equity and fixed-income portfolios; and calculation of ex-post risk, absolute and relative.

Best buy-side algorithmic/DMA product or service
Functions should include a variety of pre-packaged trading algorithms; ability to test strategies; ability to analyze and interpret market events; ease-of-use and easy to understand GUI (this category covers discrete algorithmic trading products and not EMSs).

Best buy-side commodities trading platform
The panel is looking for a trading platform (or pricing service) developed specifically to support buy-side organizations trading energy, metals and agricultural instruments.

Best buy-side pricing/valuation service
Services will be judged on broadness of product coverage; contributing pricing partners; methodology; and specificity to the buy side.

Best buy-side data management product
Functions should include repository management (design, storage, archiving, retrieval, distribution of data); content management (importing and cleansing routines); business intelligence tools designed to allow authorized business users to interrogate data repository; creation of reports and manufacture of data sets.

Best buy-side cyber-security platform/tool
Entries should provide buy-side firms with threat detection and response support to cyber-attacks across a range of platforms, including email, networks and mobile devices. They should also provide CIOs with an intuitive and easy-to-understand dashboard reflecting the firm's current security status.

Best buy-side collateral management tool
Entries should feature strong workflow and data management functionality, while also integrating well with other back-office platforms, helping user-firms to reduce the operational and credit risks associated with collateral management practices.

Best data provider to the buy side
The panel is looking for the ability to integrate with other systems; also, quality data provision and other functional services.

Best integrated front-office platform
Functions should include the bulk management of multi-asset portfolios to the same benchmark; OMS and EMS functions; modeling; analytics; compliance; multi-asset class coverage.

Best portfolio accounting platform
Functions should include the ability to support multiple currencies, transactions, and instruments (asset classes); back-office connectivity; flexibility and scalability.

Best buy-side client reporting platform
Functions include the ability to customize report formats and the look and feel of reports for different clients and/or portfolios; automated production of reports; and ability to manage source data and to monitor production status.

Best broker-supplied tool/technology
This category is open to any platform/tool provided by a broker or prime broker to its buy-side clients.

Best buy-side compliance product
Functions should include pre-and post-trade compliance capabilities, tools to monitor compliance both with internal policies and external mandates and regulations, and the ability to integrate with other front- and middle-office applications. Both stand-alone compliance platforms and modules available as part of larger applications will be considered.

Best buy-side execution venue
This category's award will go to the dark pool/crossing network provider best able to provide investment managers access to non-listed liquidity with minimal information leakage.

Best fund administrator
This category seeks to acknowledge the industry's best fund administrator (for all types of funds including mutual funds, hedge funds and pension funds) and will be decided on the range of its services and the robustness of its technology, especially relating to the calculation of NAVs and various pricing/valuation functions.

Best buy-side newcomer (vendor or product)
This category is open to any technology vendor established since June 2016 or any product since June 2016 with at least one live client. Upgrades of existing applications are not considered to be new products.

Best implementation at a buy-side firm
This category seeks to highlight a specific product implementation that has gone live between June 2016 and June 2017. The winning implementation will need to have been completed on time and on budget; the winning entry will need to explain (in detail) why the implementation is deserving of this award.

Best buy-side risk management initiative over the last 12 months
This category seeks to acknowledge enhancements to an existing risk management platform or the launch of a new risk management tool (unveiled since June 2016), designed to address current risk management challenges across the buy-side.

Best buy-side CRM (customer relationship management) platform
The winning entry in this category should include functionality designed specifically to allow buy-side firms to efficiently manage client relationships that are growing both in terms of numbers and complexity.

Best buy-side reconciliation platform/service
The winning product in this category would need to address the following: exception management, it should provide interfaces to widely-used matching engines, and it should support the automatic reconciliation of a large number of instruments, especially OTC derivatives.

Best outsourcing provider to the buy side
Entrants (providers) should be able to illustrate their ability to provide valuable, cost-effective and efficient outsourced services to the buy side, primarily across the back office, although appropriate middle- and front-office business processes will also be considered.

Best cloud provider to the buy side
Entrants should be able to demonstrate the ability to provide managed software, infrastructure, or a platform-as-a-service, or combinations of all three, with rapid implementations, flexible consumer models, and high security standards.

Best buy-side TCA (transaction-cost-analysis) tool
The panel is looking for a transaction-cost analysis (TCA) tool or service that supports multiple asset classes, a range of benchmarks in its analysis, the ability to assess venue as well as broker performance, and a granular focus on data and its presentation.

Best buy-side data analytics tool
Tools must be able to interrogate large data volumes (both structured and unstructured), and produce actionable analysis based on that information discovery, illustrating the business benefits to buy-side user-firms.

Best buy-side IBOR (investment book of record) platform
Entrants should demonstrate how their investment book of record (IBOR) platform satisfies commonly accepted IBOR criteria/functionality, the tangible business benefits offered by such a platform, and interoperability with existing/legacy systems.

Best buy-side low-latency trading network
This category focuses on the underlying trading architecture/network as opposed to the applications running in that environment. Entries should illustrate the broadness of their connectivity, their proximity to market centers and exchanges, and their ability to manage large data/trade volumes without adding unnecessary latency.

Best buy-side market surveillance tool/platform
This category focuses on the platforms or tools that allow buy-side firms to monitor their traders' activities in real time to ensure they comply with regulatory and client mandates.

Best use of the Agile methodology by a technology vendor
The winning entry in this category must illustrate the extent to which the firm operates in an agile manner through regular sprints, frequent software releases, and close, ongoing collaboration with clients.

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 buy-side business process, focusing on the business benefits accruing to buy-side firms that implements such platforms/products. (The judges acknowledge that while there are no such platforms in live production at present, the technology does hold significant promise for the buy side.)

(New for 2017):

Best buy-side AI (Artificial Intelligence) platform or tool
The winning entry must explain how the AI technology enhances business processes across the buy side and must provide examples of specific use-cases within buy-side firms.

2016 Winners
We are delighted to announce the winners of the 10th annual Buy-Side Technology Awards:

Best broker-supplied tool/technology
UBS Delta

Best buy-side algorithmic/DMA product or service
FlexTrade

Best buy-side client reporting platform
Vermilion Software

Best buy-side collateral management tool
CloudMargin

Best buy-side commodities trading platform
Rival Systems

Best buy-side compliance product
Fidessa

Best buy-side CRM (customer relationship management) platform
Satuit Technologies

Best buy-side cyber-security platform/tool
eSentire

Best buy-side data management product
IHS Markit

Best buy-side EMS
REDIPlus

Best buy-side execution venue
Liquidnet

Best buy-side market surveillance tool/platform
Nasdaq SMARTS

Best buy-side newcomer (vendor or product)
Commcise

Best buy-side OMS
IHS Markit

Best buy-side performance measurement and attribution product
BISAM

Best buy-side pricing/valuation service
Thomson Reuters

Best buy-side reconciliation platform/service
Electra Information Systems

Best buy-side risk management initiative over the last 12 months
BISAM

Best buy-side risk/portfolio analytics product
Axioma

Best cloud provider to the buy side
Eze Castle Integration

Best data analytics tool
S3 Partners

Best data provider to the buy side
RIMES Technologies

Best distributed-ledger technology project
Symbiont

Best fund administrator
SEI

Best IBOR platform/service
SimCorp

Best integrated front-office platform
Charles River Development

Best low-latency trading network
Ullink

Best outsourcing provider to the buy side
FIS Global

Best portfolio accounting platform
SS&C Advent

Best product implementation at a buy-side firm
RIMES Technologies

Best TCA provider to the buy side
Quantitative Brokers

Best use of the Agile methodology by a technology vendor
Confluence

Best buy-side product for 2016
Commcise

Best overall technology provider for 2016
UBS Delta