Hermes Fund Managers has implemented the Cadis EDM Suite as its central data management platform across all of its operations. The fund manager selected the platform as part of the revamp of its operating model and chose Cadis in particular due to its fast implementation time, according to Philip Keeler, head of operations & IT at Hermes.
“We are undergoing a major business transformation that involves the development of a new operating model covering all areas of Hermes’ business,” explains Keeler. “Cadis will become a core component of the new operating model, supporting both reference data management and acting as a central data hub to manage the flow of data between all the new applications being implemented.”
The implementation time was fairly rapid, according to Hermes, as the system has gone live in less than three months from signing the deal. “The Cadis solution was selected following a very successful proof of concept to validate the capability of the product and the initial implementation has been rapid. Cadis Software was the only company that could deliver a solution to meet our demanding requirements and be up and running in a very short timescale. We also anticipate a quick return on the investment,” adds Keeler.
With regards to this expedited implementation, Daniel Simpson, CEO of Cadis Software, explains that Cadis has been engaged in simplifying the installation process of its EDM suite over the last six months. This is part of the vendor’s strategy to aggressively target the hedge fund space, which Simpson believes is a key sector for the future of data management.
“We are targeting the larger hedge funds initially, including multi-strategy funds,” says Simpson. “Those with the size and complexity to warrant investment in a data management solution. The greater demands of the accounting space have driven the adoption of data strategies for these players.”
He believes that the larger EDM players do not offer a compelling enough case for the adoption of their solutions by hedge funds. “They are not nimble or adaptable enough to meet the needs of the hedge fund market,” he says. “Because we are wholly focused on the buy side and have made sure that we have plug-ins to the key parties in the hedge fund space, including prime brokers and fund administrators, we are able to meet their needs.”
Over the next five years, Simpson hopes that Cadis will be able to capture around 30-40% of the top 150 hedge funds in the market. The opening of a new office in New York last month is part of this strategy and this office will act as a hub for the North American market for both fund managers and hedge funds.
The focus in the last quarter of this year and the first quarter of next will be opening a support office for Asia, based out of Hong Kong, says Simpson. The vendor does currently have customers in the region and a support office based in Asia Pacific will help to service their needs. This will be followed by the addition of a sales team at a later date, according to Simpson.
Cadis is also looking seriously at the software as a service model (SaaS), as this would open the market to the mid-tier and smaller players in the asset management and hedge fund space, he says. “The software lends itself to a SaaS model,” Simpson adds. “Since its inception it has been engineered to run as such and there is currently demand in the market for a SaaS offering from Cadis.”
Subscribe to our newsletter
