Sibos saw the opening of a new Asia Pacific office in Hong Kong for EDM vendor Cadis and it has now added more capabilities to service the users in this market via local language support for Chinese characters. The vendor hopes the new multilingual functionality will allow it to gain additional traction in markets that use double byte languages such as Kanji or Bokmal.
“A one size fits all approach to local language support doesn’t work as no two desks view or use data for the same instrument in the same way,” contends Daniel Simpson, CEO at Cadis. “Cadis’ multilingual functionality goes further than other vendors as it is built from the ground up. From one enterprise master, end users have the ability to manage data in the language, manner and speed they want.”
The vendor’s theory is that, traditionally, data translation has been too generic to support the middle office needs of global asset managers and not of a high enough level to adequately translate double byte languages. One character is often incompatible for multiple processes and asset classes and in China, for example, fixed income and equity teams often need different characters for the same set of data tied to a single convertible bond. Buy side firms in Asia often run middle offices in the local language; without suitable translations, managers must resort to cost and time intensive workarounds, says Simpson.
Cadis is therefore claiming that is has invested in its own solution set in order to provide “true” local language support. These encompass individual terms and labels in the language and definitions that the user understands, the vendor says. The capabilities are purportedly able to work with a user’s IT infrastructure from the ground up in order to enable user specific, rather than generic, translations for double byte languages. Asset managers are able to rapidly source multiple golden copies for local operations while working from the same master data as their global counterparts, says the vendor.
Cadis users can receive, store, display, create and modify data in all languages supported by their underlying infrastructure. The vendor’s local language support also encompasses downstream models, applications and processes.
The support should prove invaluable to the vendor in its Asian expansion, which begins with its new on the ground presence in Hong Kong. “The Hong Kong office has been opened to better service our existing clients in the region and gain more traction in the local markets,” says Simpson’s colleague and the vendor’s sales and marketing director, Stuart Plane. Up until now, the client wins in the region have been part of global implementations rather than individual Asian clients. These clients include names such as Invesco, Aberdeen Asset Management and HSBC.
Over the next six months Cadis has six deals in the pipeline, he explains, of which one or two are from Asia and the rest are from North America or Europe.
The vendor is pitching its solution with a focus on lower total cost of ownership (TCO), a common strategy amongst vendors in the current market, given the financial institution focus on fast return on investment. “There is definitely no room for long implementations in this market and our biggest competition continues to be from internal build,” says Plane. However, he reckons the market may be compelling firms to seek outside help rather than build solutions in-house because of cost and staffing pressures.
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