Cloud solution provider of the year: SS&C Eze

Asia Risk Technology Awards 2020

Edward Bee, SS&C

Financial institutions have spent years trying to unify their front-to-back office operations to better understand their performance, risk and regulatory compliance.

Particularly in an environment where mobility is ever more a priority, firms need solutions that can work wherever they are. SS&C Technologies caters to this through its cloud-native investment platform, Eze Eclipse, which it integrated during its Eze Software acquisition in 2018.

Eze Eclipse, which tailors to the needs of startup hedge funds focused on equity and event-driven markets, supports the full investment process in a single unified platform through a secure web browser interface.

As there’s no infrastructure required, Eclipse provides firms with a cost-effective solution that allows them to focus on alpha-generating activities. Whether users are at the office, on the road or at home, they have access to best order execution if there is internet available.

Edward Bee, managing director for Asia-Pacific at SS&C Eze, says the company is working to improve accessibility: “We’re looking to improve on that accessibility and will be rolling out a new app that will deliver an even richer mobile experience.”

Eze Eclipse optimises trading with enhanced order-routing and intuitive blotter functionality, centralises the book of record into one platform, and automates transaction communications with top-tier prime brokers, custodians and fund administrators.

As it is an integrated solution, Eze Eclipse clients can easily integrate and simplify their workflows. For example, reconciliation can run concurrently throughout the day instead of waiting until the end of the day. Execution and order management are also integrated, ensuring pre-trade compliance.

Since launching in the Apac region in the first quarter of 2019, the firm has onboarded 25 firms across Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore. More than 150 firms are using Eze Eclipse worldwide.

According to the company, multiple hedge funds launched with Eze Eclipse as their technology backbone out of the box, leaning on SS&C Eze’s experience in the region to navigate operational, regulatory and technology issues. Seven of Apac’s top hedge funds use SS&C Eze as their technology provider.

SS&C Eze’s Apac team is available for support 24/7, and it has a dedicated development team working during Apac hours.

Over the past year, Eze has focused on ensuring features suitability, and has worked closely with clients in the region to address their needs. Eclipse has a flexible architecture, with ongoing development allowing updates multiple times a week.

Eze has made updates to Eclipse Analytics and Reporting so users can have even more in-depth control of their positions and data. Eze Eclipse now includes more reports, including pre-trade compliance alerts, post-trade compliance alerts and Sec13F.

We’re not locked into our past choices in the same way that older or more monolithic products might be. Our goal is to help clients stay ahead of industry standards and maximise their business efficiency

Edward Bee, SS&C Eze

The Sec13F report helps simplify filing the Form 13F report with the Securities and Exchanges Commission. Eze tracks the official list of section 13F securities and generates most of the user’s Form 13F information table.

Eze also made enhancements to the Analytics Grid widget so users can better understand their positions. Users can now include quarter-to-date (QTD) profit and loss (PL) columns and symbol-based historical PL columns, and more Greeks to the Analytics Grid widget. Eze Eclipse is equipped with a Watchlist widget that allows users to monitor a list of securities for potential trading or investing opportunities.

Users can create pop-up alerts that appear when a symbol exceeds, approaches, or drops below a certain last price using the Watchlist widget. They will also see the alerts no matter where they are in the system when the price changes. The alert messages also contain a link right to the New Order ticket, so a user can immediately create a new order.

One benefit of being built in a cloud-native microservices architecture is that as new technologies emerge, Eze Eclipse can take advantage of them and choose the best technologies for the task.

“We’re not locked into our past choices in the same way that older or more monolithic products might be. Our goal is to help clients stay ahead of industry standards and maximise their business efficiency. We prioritise regular technology upgrades for enhanced availability, scalability, resiliency and security to ensure we’re able to do that,” he says.

Looking ahead, Eze Eclipse wants to empower users with even more control and insight. Bee says this will range from giving portfolio managers easy to use what-if analysis directly in the grid, providing operations with detailed, out-of-the-box accounting insights, and improving workflows that matter to its Apac clients, such as swap-financing.

Bee says clients are looking to offload more of their daily operational tasks and reporting so they can spend more time generating alpha. “As part of SS&C, this is a place where we are well-positioned to help. Our clients have always looked at us as an extension of their own team, so this is a natural move for us. We’re looking to bring our clients a complete solution, pairing together technology with a curated menu of managed services and outsourcing options to help them run their business more effectively,” he says.