Partnering with FundGuard: Creating the Ideal Source of Change for Order Management Systems

The FundGuard Integration Ecosystem Q&A Part 2 with FundGuard’s Alan Schneider

Is FundGuard’s Partnership Ecosystem the Key to Improved Front Office Results?

In the pre-cloud era of asset management, organizations had only two real options for investment accounting. Build a complex in-house system, or, create a web of vendors offering highly specialized integrations designed for specific investment accounting purposes.

To break this web of disconnected, inefficient systems, the need for a singular source of investment accounting truth is clear — and FundGuard has the technology to deliver it. 

Last time, FundGuard’s Alan Schneider joined us to discuss the FundGuard partnership ecosystem and the value it brings to asset management organizations. Today, Alan joins us once again to delve into the specifics of FundGuard’s partners, with a specific focus on the advantages FundGuard offers to order management system (OMS) providers – but first, a recap of FundGuard’s partner ecosystem.  

FG: As a utility investment accounting tool, FundGuard is poised to play a crucial role in the asset management industry of the future — but which partners does FundGuard take on and how does FundGuard support them?

AS: You bring up a great point right off the bat — we strive to be the ultimate utility for investment accounting. When we put this into practice, this means providing an investment accounting solution that can be leveraged for a variety of different uses.

Let’s think about this in the context of four specific partner categories FundGuard works with: 

• Execution and Order Management Systems (EMS/OMS): An OMS is a digital system designed for executing and facilitating investment trades and decisions. This requires many essential investment accounting activities that must be  optimized for effectiveness and efficiency, such as having the most current position and cash information for investment decisions and assembling orders to send to brokers and keeping track of order fulfilment. FundGuard supports OMS providers in numerous ways, with one of the most crucial being the ability to provide intraday, real-time IBOR with updates to the OMS.

• Performance Attribution: The performance attribution process (also called attribution analysis) is all about measuring the performance of a portfolio against a specific benchmark or performance indicator. Along with measuring the performance of one specific portfolio, performance attribution can also be leveraged to analyze the overall performance of a fund or fund manager. FundGuard bolsters the performance attribution provider offerings by ensuring faster and simpler, API integrations to its investment accounting  for r on-demand performance calculations. 

• Reporting: Reporting is a massive component in any organization related to asset management. For reporting providers, the ability to provide highly accurate data without driving up tech costs is the most important to need. FundGuard  supports reporting partners by not only ensuring accuracy but also providing the necessary proof to regulators and other stakeholders that all investment accounting reports are accurate. 

• Consultants & Service Providers: Consultants and service providers need the right back-end investment accounting capabilities to provide optimized professional solutions to clients. FundGuard helps consultants and service providers leverage better opportunities to collaborate and embrace innovation. Additionally, consultants and service providers can set themselves up for competitive success by embracing FundGuard’s investment accounting utility and positioning themselves as early adopters. 

Diving into the Order Management Use Case: How Does FundGuard Optimize an OMS?

FG: If we were to look more closely at one specific partnership use case, order management is certainly an interesting one to place under the microscope. Can you give us some more insights into the OMS investment accounting process and how FundGuard can help improve upon it? 

AS: To begin, I want to draw your attention to something we discussed in the previous Q&A:

“Investment accounting modernization means providing an investment accounting solution that operates flexibly across the investment lifecycle. Achieving this requires many moving parts, most notable of which is a truly cloud-native core. Without this, the resulting best-of-breed or all-in-one solution won’t be much better than existing legacy systems. Being merely cloud-enabled won’t be enough in the long run.”

Organizations and service providers of all kinds in the asset management space have long relied on legacy systems and technologies. This was simply the way of the times in decades past. 

However, for OMS providers to keep up in the modern age of asset management, it is crucial to find the right ways to implement technologies that simplify and streamline the investment  process. 

When we think about investment accounting from the OMS perspective, we need to consider:

• Integrations: In legacy “integrations,” each piece of the investment accounting puzzle has its own integration process coming from separate sources – the investment accounting system, transfer agents, reconciliations, etc.. This makes integrations highly specialized, with no single source of truth. In turn, activities related to IBOR management, are  fragmented and difficult to manage.

• Maintenance: Legacy integration also puts the onus of maintenance on the OMS client. If the OMS changes or one of the various inputs for the OMS (investment accounting, transfer agency, etc) changes, the client must manage upgrades to assure continued use. With tightly coupled, modern integration, particularly where supported by the FundGuard + OMS partnership, the client gets the benefit from the partners managing the change.

• Real-Time Data: In today’s investment accounting space, accurate and complete, real-time data is key. OMS providers who offer not only daily information updates but also real-time, on-demand data updates help their clients maximize the alpha value to investors. Modern tech integration makes this possible. 

For an OMS provider, the key to efficient and effective investment accounting is an investment accounting provider that provides the tight, real-time integration that’s needed. 

To further the new value proposition from partnering with modern technology, what was once a mutual client relying on two vendors can now benefit from a single FundGuard partner providing all they need to operate. FundGuard’s focus on SaaS investment accounting delivery opens the door for OMS providers to offer what more of the market is seeking, a single vendor, integrated OMS/EMS with investment accounting.

Bringing OMS Providers in the FundGuard Fold: Use Case

FG: As we discussed in the previous Q&A, FundGuard has placed tremendous emphasis on considering all the different investment functions clients perform using investment accounting data. How is FundGuard currently partnering with OMS providers? Can you describe a use case?

AS: We are currently collaborating to help deliver capabilities that enable streamlined, real-time data and workflows for “one-click” execution of investment decisions, compliance monitoring and trading activities. To achieve this, we are enabling – via our investment accounting capabilities – more frequent internal IBOR updates with ongoing communication and information sharing  than standard start-of-date processes would allow. 

FundGuard provides an investment accounting core that is accessible and available through a single, cloud-based integration. In turn, our partners meet the needs of their clients and can address prospective clients’ goals of a single provider solution for the front and middle office with complete investment accounting powered by FundGuard. 

FG: If a single cloud-based investment accounting core is all it takes to optimize not only the OMS process but all asset management processes, why haven’t providers developed investment accounting solutions? 

AS: The technology and processes that go into creating a single source of truth are not simple — and I believe this reality is slowly but surely setting in with many  providers. 

What FundGuard offers is not merely a competitive edge for our partners. Our goal of providing FundGuard as the investment accounting utility the asset management industry needs  is to spare others from  complex and burdensome tasks of assembling the technology, highly scarce industry knowledge and new business management skills  involved in delivering a cloud-native investment accounting SaaS.

As the industry’s utility, FundGuard not only strives to simplify back-end investment accounting processes but to create a central ecosystem from which the entire industry can connect.  

The Three Tiers of the FundGuard Partnership Ecosystem

FG: To wrap up this second part of our Partner Ecosystem series, let’s step back from OMS Providers specifically and discuss the makeup of FundGuard’s partnerships in general. What does a partnership look like? Does everyone receive the same exact solution or does it differ from partner to partner? 

AS: Each partner has a slightly different use case from the next. Some come to us only looking for a way to boost market exposure aligning with the cloud-native investment accounting efficiency, while others are interested in a more tightly-coupled partnership wherein the FundGuard capability  is a vital value-add as a white-labelled component for their product or service. 

Every single one of FundGuard’s partners is going to receive the baseline benefit of the various ways portfolios are viewed (IBOR, ABOR, Tax, etc.) from a single source of truth. The value of partnership you hold with FundGuard depends on your interest in extracting the premium value a complete solution served by a single vendor draws from the market. 

FundGuard Fosters Partnerships that Optimize Investment Accounting

FundGuard is leading the charge into the cloud-based future of investment accountingand collaborating across the industry to bring the entirety of the asset management industry into the fold for a brighter tomorrow. 

The FundGuard partner ecosystem is designed to provide pivotal support to both individual organizations and the industry as a whole. With FundGuard, asset managers and their providers can reduce the burden of investment accounting integrations and connect to a more flexible, collaborative environment. 

Get in touch with our team to begin your journey as a FundGuard partner.