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SunGard Hedge360 – Best Managed Accounts Technology Platform

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SunGard’s cloud-based Hedge360 bridges the gap between front-, middle- and back-office operations and supports the full investment lifecycle for alternative investment fund managers.

The platform presents managers with a bigger picture. Rather than using specific SunGard products such as Front Arena, VPM, APT, etc, Hedge360 amalgamates everything under one roof.
 
“When a hedge fund manager starts a hedge fund, they need a Portfolio Management System (PMS) that is able to provide real-time P&L and desk level risk. PMS will enable the hedge fund managers to start trading and build a track record for their investments,” explains Dae Kim (pictured), Global Head of Hedge360.
 
“After a year, if performance has been good they may attract institutional investors who ask the manager to run parallel with their fund administrator. Traditionally, the hedge fund manager will need to find a fund accounting software. With Hedge360, SunGard’s VPM is already integrated and we are able to load the necessary data from Front Arena and have the platform running for the hedge fund managers with very little involvement. We already know their strategy, instruments they trade and have the historical information.
 
“For Hedge360 we have a simple mantra – ‘make it easy’.”
 
 “Being able to support smaller managers by providing the right level of technology sophistication and help them to be more credible to institutional investors helped drive business growth in 2013. By integrating all of SunGard’s product offerings, normalising a lot of the functionality and standardising what we think the market requires to successfully run a hedge fund we were able to bring the price point down,” says Kim.
 
As SunGard owns the software, integrations and the data centres the client’s technology footprint is almost zero. All they need is a browser to access different products on the platform.
 
Last year, SunGard enhanced Hedge360 by creating a client investor portal. Increasingly, hedge fund managers need to generate reports for investors at the click of a button, particularly if they are running managed account mandates.
 
As Kim explains, products like Front Arena and VPM are built for specific audiences; in this case traders, portfolio managers and fund accountants. What was missing was the ability to address the needs of hedge fund CIOs who need a view of the entire organisation. Not to mention investors requiring clear insights into managed account (or fund) performance and fund marketers being able to provide a real time snapshot of the fund at investor pitch presentations.
 
“The web portal sits on top of all the applications. This allows us to grab data from any product on Hedge360 and design interactive dashboards – heatmaps, graphs – which are HTML5 enabled and can be opened in iPads and other mobile devices. It gives CIOs, investors and fund marketers an end-of-day snapshot of the fund,” says Kim, adding that the big drive for 2014 will be managed services.
 
“This year we are pushing managed services with Hedge360 so as to handle not only the technology requirements of managers but also their day-to-day operational requirements – trade processing, security master set-up, end-of-day reconciliations – and be an extension of their operations team.”
 
On winning the award this year, Kim says: “Hedge360 only launched in February 2012 so to win an industry award from Hedgeweek is a big deal for us. It shows we are doing the right things and addressing the needs of the market.” 

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