Better vs. Best Practices

With the recent turmoil in the markets, the investment management industry has entered yet another chapter of dramatic change. A myriad of internal and external factors have created significant challenges for those responsible for managing the firms’ operational infrastructures. In addition, there is now a blurring of the lines of what has traditionally been defined as hedge funds, private equity and institutional managers. This has brought about further complexities.

The operational infrastructure (operations, accounting and technology functions) is constantly being stretched to address ever changing and increasing demands. Truly, it is a balancing act that requires great focus and flexibility to manage. For example, production vs. project; prioritization, then reprioritization; human and financial resource allocations; buy vs. build; manual vs. automation; internal support vs. outsource service.

While firms are constantly striving to achieve best practices, in reality, it’s an elusive state. Given the practicalities of the environment, we prefer using the mantra “Better Practices”. This is a mandate to constantly strive to improve controls, efficiency, capabilities and scalability, while meeting or exceeding internal management, regulatory and legal requirements.

IntegriNEWS will provide insight into industry issues, best practices and thought provoking ideas. The articles are written by IntegriDATA’s senior consultants, who are renowned industry experts, with an average of 20 years of experience in a wide range of key business and technology roles at leading global financial institutions. We hope you find this publication useful. We welcome suggestions for future articles as well as feedback on the newsletter in general.