Decades of experience servicing asset managers and asset owners gives us a front-row seat to the challenges and pressures facing the industry.
By Markus Steiner, Senior Vice President & Branch Head, State Street, Zurich
Our clients continuously grapple with volatile markets, product rationalization and shifting investor requirements, as well as new financial regulations, shrinking margins and the rapid pace of technology transformation. They also want continuous coverage and operational resiliency that help protect them in times of uncertainty. Collaborating with our clients, we went to work on innovation of our own, creating a platform that extends beyond our traditional back- and middle-office solutions.
When we announced the acquisition of Charles River Development in 2018 and the vision to connect clients’ front-, middle- and back-office, the industry watched closely.
State Street AlphaSM redefines the common definition of ‘alpha’ to mean powering better performance and outcomes at every point in the investment lifecycle. The platform supports businesses across the entire investment process, automating workflows and streamlining operations, and giving assets managers quick and deeper insights into portfolio construction. With data identified as the lifeblood and a central component to the buy-side operating model, we made sure to incorporate system interoperability.
Having an effective data management strategy helps institutional investors and wealth managers uncover new insights, operate more efficiently and better serve their clients.
Meeting Your Data Challenges
To help meet these challenges, we launched the State Street AlphaSM Platform, a cloud-native, end-to-end data management and warehouse solution for institutional investors and wealth managers.
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The platform enables clients to seamlessly assemble and access investment data spanning internal and third-party services across their investment processes. It provides access to front-office data in near real-time and incorporates data catalog and visualization capabilities that deliver higher quality data while reducing cost and accelerating decision making.
Employing a data platform with frictionless integration to the front office can help reduce the cost and risk associated with these complexities.
Client Benefits:
- Simplified data management – The consolidation of data sources and systems onto one platform eliminates manual reconciliation, increases data timeliness and accuracy, and encourages collaboration across your organization.
- Faster, more efficient investment decision-making – Frictionless access to the information you need helps you take action on that data quickly. Our platform allows you to incorporate data from your own systems and preferred providers, making all of your information available across the investment lifecycle in near real-time.
- Increased focus on innovation – Less time spent managing data means more time spent on the business activities that make a difference to your investors: generating enhanced returns and developing new investment products.
Core Platform Capabilities
The Alpha Platform leverages Microsoft® Azure and Snowflake to provide a centralized data management solution that aligns with your environment, delivers data in near real-time and integrates with third parties.
The platform provides:
- Frictionless access to a complete set of near real-time data with a deep history and full transparency into data availability, definitions, usage and lineage.
- Cloud-native technology with the scale and flexibility to meet the demands of today’s shifting markets, while allowing for data delivery directly via the Charles River cloud, your cloud or a hybrid environment.
- An extensible data model that facilitates data sharing across client and marketplace ecosystems, with a complete framework for integrating third-party or client-specific data sets.
- The Data Marketplace enabled by Snowflake, which expands access to data sources that allow you to uncover unique insights. Simplified data integration helps reduce integration costs and speeds time to value.
Institutional investors and wealth managers today are challenged by the depth and breadth of data available to them. They need new, innovative tools to manage and interpret this data at scale. We are committed to providing our clients with a data platform that meets these challenges within the investment management industry.
Our solution is a seamless environment for collecting, curating and validating the data that drives client investment processes. The model is fully open and interoperable, enabling the integration of your data and that of third-party services.
Having State Street as your partner provides you with market knowledge and global insights, region-specific local expertise, access to scalable and proven services, and rapid knowledge transfer, where necessary, for the development of best practices to scale your operations.
State Street is present in Switzerland since 1998. From our Finma regulated custody bank in Zurich with close to 100 employees, we oversee a broad and diverse customer base comprising pension funds, insurance companies’ investment foundations, asset managers, fund management companies and public entities.
For further information please contact Daniel J. Genoud at +41 79 824 34 27 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
