Following several waves of evolution, the research market landscape has witnessed the growth of modern RMS solutions which are built to grow in line with the funds they service. Going forward, interoperability and adaptability will define the future of these solutions.
Following several waves of evolution, the research market landscape has witnessed the growth of modern RMS solutions which are built to grow in line with the funds they service. Going forward, interoperability and adaptability will define the future of these solutions.
Modern RMS systems integrate usability and the user interface of consumer app technology. They have configurability of the tailored homegrown solutions which were part of the first wave of innovation. Additionally, they are secure and compliant right out of the box and help streamline the process and collaboration aspect of research.
“Most of our clients are looking for a solution of that kind,” notes Swati Tyagi, vice president of product, Sentieo, “in addition to this, there is a large ecosystem of solutions built to support investment decision processes and consume and analyse data. As this population of systems has grown, so have the amount of data and insights produced from these systems, and the need to organise this informationhas become more acute.”
As a result, it is now critical for all investment management firms to have a centralised system of records and a compliant, configurable and secure RMS solution that can organise this mountain of information for their team members.
This is a positive shift towards being ready for a world where managers need to continue being efficient and operational while also preparing for change. Tyagi comments: “It really indicates that there is a pent-up demand for investment research solutions with the usability and flexibility of modern CRM platforms – solutions that really understand the investment research terminology, the investment research processes, and solutions that work straight out of the box. This is really exciting for our industry and we’re continuing to partner with our clients to build innovative products that meet their needs .”
The modern RMS is a result of four waves of innovation in the space, says Tyagi. It began with tailored homegrown solutions which were built specifically to meet the needs of the fund they serviced. Although they matched the firm’s needs, they were expensive. These systems needed continuous maintenance in order to adapt and accommodate new data sources or processes, which was a time drain on the fund.
Second came the RMS solution wave, where some solutions were built to address the regulatory needs of RMS markets, but this produced many clunky solutions. Tyagi says: “These solutions were heavy on compliance and not great with usability or workflow management. They were also not flexible enough to match the needs of different types or sizes of funds.”
The third wave was marked by growing consumer technology solutions and the sharing and collaborative functions these tools introduced. Evernote, OneNote, and Sharepoint all form part of this. Tyagi notes that although this worked to some extent, because these technologies were easier to use and adopt, these solutions still did not integrate the workflow of information and continued to be inefficient
This evolution of RMS has led the industry to the current state of affairs – where flexible, user-friendly, compliant solutions can be deployed with ease.
Speed of change
Technology is the foundation that is enabling this development and is fuelling the shift in today’s world. “It is absolutely the backbone of all of these changes,” Tyagi notes, “The move to modern RMS systems is not only happening because the world cannot operate without technology; it’s also driven by the volume of information and the speed of change that investment management professionals and analysts have to handle day in and day out.”
Having disconnected processes adds overheads to investment analysts’ day-to-day work. It also takes time away from some of the strategic work they could be doing instead, which could support more robust investment decisions being made.
This underscores the need for companies to move towards automating workflows and adhering to organisation’s processes by having a single source of information and pre-defined best practices which will allow them to scale and mature with resilience.
Deploying a modern RMS also supports compliance efforts, which are being thrown into focus by ever-changing regulations. Across the industry, experts have witnessed growing demand around compliance and reporting best practices. Tyagi comments: “Everybody wants to make sure they are dealing with investment decisions in a compliant manner and keeping up to date with changing regulations. They need to ensure there is supporting evidence, proper reporting, and audit structures built into their research management systems.”
However, putting this into action can be a complex task, especially due to the swathes of data and information which need to be managed. “One of the major problems in investment research is data and how that data gets organised, tagged and stored into an ever-growing, large and complex filing structure,” explains Tyagi, “being able to access that data whenever needed, and get the intelligence you need from these data systems is just not possible without efficient technology solutions.”
Effective use of data
Making effective use of the deluge of information in a timely manner on a daily basis is critical for investment analysts to enhance their investment recommendations and decisions. Making sense of this data can mean the difference between winning and losing trades.
Tyagi outlines that in order to make sure these investment managers and analysts are able to use this information to their benefit, it is critical for them to have a robust process in place, one which is followed across teams within an organisation.
“All firms, no matter their size, need to invest in designing and implementing processes that help their teams navigate these volumes of data & insights more reliably and putting systems in place to categorize and organise it for quick access. They also need to make sure they do this in the most compliant way possible. Doing this would be a big differentiator for these firms,” Tyagi says.
This growing need among all types of firms also underscores the flexibility modern RMS demands going forward. Any system that can meet the needs of different-sized investment firms and that can be adapted to workflow needs of a variety of teams and their own style of working. Tyagi notes: “If a system is flexible enough to be configured to each team’s or firm’s needs, that system will survive in this market and be adopted broadly.”
There is a myriad of technology solutions currently available in the market and she stresses the importance of having a system which is open and interoperable with the entire ecosystem of clients’ workspaces: “Any system that is interoperable, configurable,can scale with the clients; and can evolve alongside the ever-changing regulations, is the future of RMS.”
Swati Tyagi, Vice President of Product, Sentieo
Swati Tyagi serves as Vice President of Product at Sentieo. She has 16 years of Product Management experience leading conceptualisation, development, and growth of B2B SaaS products for various industries and sectors across the globe. Prior to Sentieo, Swati worked for Diligent Corporation, a leading platform for Governance, Risk, and Compliance where she led the product team for Diligent’s flagship product and helped transform it from a point solution into an integrated platform used by 50% of Fortune 1000 companies. Swati also helped launch social impact apps for fundraising and grantmaking on the Salesforce platform, which were later acquired by Salesforce. Swati holds a Bachelor in Science degree from CCS University in India.
