09:11 AM
SunGard Launches Hosted Version of Front Arena
SunGard has launched a hosted version of its Front Arena solution for hedge fund portfolio management, risk management and operations management.
SunGard said that hedge funds and asset managers are facing constricting infrastructure and IT budgets. At the same time, they are receiving pressure from institutional investors to demonstrate they have robust control over mission critical aspects of their business. Many of these hedge funds and alternative asset managers are therefore turning to hosted delivery rather than in-house installation, the company contends in its release.
With the hosted solution, SunGard maintains that customers can reduce the infrastructure burden by eliminating the need to employ large IT teams to manage and maintain their own hardware, software, pricing, data and disaster recovery. They can also focus scarce resources on core competencies and alpha-generating activities, the vendor stated.
Front Arena is a cross-asset solution that provides trade capture, real-time profit & loss, position control and risk management, which can help hedge funds and asset managers to identify risk and exposure, according to SunGard’s release.
In a statement, Aite Group Senior Analyst Denise Valentine, commented: "The difficult market environment over these last couple of years has forced managers to reduce expenditures while growing new assets. The hosted service provider deployment option reduces software implementation costs over an installation version. Hosted deployment offers a financial and time shortcut to obtaining needed technology".
Paul Compton, head of product management for SunGard's alternative investments business, stated: “For many small- to mid-tier hedge funds, the cost of managing and continuously maintaining installed software has proved to be onerous.” In addition to lowering the cost of infrastructure, Compton said, “Front Arena's hosted solution makes the full functionality of Front Arena’s installed application attainable to almost any hedge fund, regardless of assets under management (AUM).”
Customers of the hosted solution have access to the full functionality of Front Arena’s installed application with the added benefits of regular Front Arena software upgrades, system back-up, disaster recovery and remote accessibility. SunGard also provides full end-to-end responsibility and ownership for both the application and its environment. In addition, Front Arena can be integrated with SunGard’s APT and Monis solutions, helping customers to model their portfolios with multi-factor risk models, price and analyze convertibles and optimize their portfolios. Both APT and Monis are available as part of the hosted solution.
Ivy is Editor-at-Large for Advanced Trading and Wall Street & Technology. Ivy is responsible for writing in-depth feature articles, daily blogs and news articles with a focus on automated trading in the capital markets. As an industry expert, Ivy has reported on a myriad ... View Full Bio