BST Awards 2021: Best outsourcing provider to the buy side—SS&C Advent

OVERVIEW

SS&C Advent is a buy side-focused technology, data and managed services provider with a 20-plus year track record. 

Typical user-firms: SS&C Advent serves global wealth managers in the traditional asset management and alternative markets, typically with more than $2 billion in assets under management that service both individuals and institutions.

Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Windsor, Conn., SS&C Technologies has over 22,600 employees across 150 office locations in 35 countries. 

It has more than 18,000 clients across the health and financial services industries.  

WHAT’S NEW

In January 2021, SS&C Advent made a SOC I Type 2 audit report available for its managed services solutions. It also made a number of enhancements in the past 12 months aimed at improving the UX of the AOS Console, including “smart commenting,” reducing manual requirements to resolve daily custodial reconciliation breaks by up to 90%, and a new API. The firm continues to expand its managed service offerings, which now includes Tax-as-a-Service for certain regions. AOS expanded its technical account manager headcount to service growing client numbers and customer accounts. It also strengthened ties with other SS&C business units like Eze by hosting its OMS, as well as providing managed services on top of Eze Eclipse. 

WHAT’S TO COME

SS&C Advent is planning a broader rollout of AOS Console in 2022 to existing clients and new ones. It will explore additional service offerings like settlement services, which is currently in beta. AOS is also restructuring its support team to move from a software-focused technical organization to a client service-, solution- and value-focused organization.

WHY THEY WON

Few companies, if any, have the deep buy-side-specific domain knowledge and track record of SS&C Advent, which when coupled with the firm’s broad reach across markets and geographies and its extensive product stable, makes for a compelling proposition, especially from an outsourcing/managed services perspective. This is the first time SS&C Advent has won this category and only a fool would bet against it being the last.