"You can resist an invading army; you cannot resist an idea whose time has come" - Victor Hugo
ASSET MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE INCORPORATING FRONT, MIDDLE AND BACK OFFICE IN A SINGLE SYSTEM WITH A PRICING STRUCTURE THAT MAKES SENSE
About Us
Cumulus Investment Solutions Limited is a new software company. It was created to build the next generation Asset Management System (Quartz). It was launched at the end of 2019, being the culmination of 5 years of concentrated research and development. Initially, eighteen months was spent researching the market and committing the design to paper. This ensured the software would be multi jurisdictional, location independent and future proofed. Quartz was designed for the Cloud. When we started this project that was a bold move. Financial Services companies, typically conservative by nature, were sceptical about Cloud usage for mission critical systems. In 2020, with over 60% of company workloads being committed to the cloud this decision has been proven correct one. This is a significant differentiator to legacy vendors, who typically have had to retrofit solutions for the Cloud. This simply replicates existing inefficiencies albeit in a Cloud environment.
Steve King has over 40 years international Investment Management industry experience. He has also been the architect of four global systems as well as founding a successful TPA in the late 90’s.
The new Quartz system :-
- is located in the Cloud (Microsoft Azure) making it location independent
- is rules based making it relevant around the World;
- has an OMS;
- has regulatory pre trade compliance across jurisdictions;
- has automated Fund Accounting;
- uses Tableau business intelligence tool for all reporting :
- has a sensible pricing structure
It encompasses all aspects of a fund managers’ operations from Front to Back from a single database. It also has a pricing structure that makes sense and does not have any hidden extras.
For Fund Managers
Only the very biggest fund managers have their own operations staff supporting all of their funds needs.
The majority of fund managers often keep their own records that need to be reconciled to the official fund records kept by TPA’s and Prime broker/Custodians.
Access to Quartz for fund managers can occur in two ways. If they are using a TPA who uses Quartz, they will have access to the OMS and will be dealing directly from the records of the TPA.
They will also get pre trade compliance as a result. The second method will be by using the Quartz system as a stand-alone product. They will have access to just the elements that they need. The benefits of this:-
- An OMS that has several deal allocation methods based upon different strategies
- Reduction in the use of spreadsheets
- Communication tools to TPA’s, Prime Broker/ Custodians and other third parties
- Real time valuation of assets when connected to data provider (Bloomberg etc..)
- A more robust infrastructure that will give clients the reassurance around their investment
- Allow the managers to concentrate on what they are paid for’ to run the funds.
- Cost reduction, system sensibly priced without additional AUM charge.
For Third Party Administrators
TPA’s are using software that is charged on a per module basis, which will often include an element of AUA. This from a software vendors perspective is great. However, they have none of the issues around finding clients and keeping them happy.
The developers of Quartz have long held the opinion that keeping all of the records is far easier than trying to keep partial records and trying to present them as complete.
The systems rules based approach allows for all fund structures and jurisdictions to be administered alongside each other.
To summarise, Quartz software is now complete and ready to revolutionise how we work:
- End to End process
- Reduce reconciliation as all records are generated from initial transaction
- Added sales through offering clients OMS and pre-trade compliance tools
- Cost reduction through efficiencies and error elimination
- Reduction in staff/fund ratios.
- Business Intelligence tools to assist management
- Flexible reporting to allow bespoke information to clients
- Compliance tools that allow breach process to be centralised
- utilising the software’s rules-based engine that provides a very flexible system to be used in any jurisdiction and for any investment vehicle.
- built on the culmination of 40 years working and developing software for the industry designed by a User for a User.
- exploiting the Cloud therefore it can be implemented speedily with users in multiple locations working on the same data.
- using Microsoft Azure to achieve scalability.
- Cost reduction, system sensibly priced without additional AUA charge.
Product
Quartz is the first Asset Management System designed for the cloud that encompasses all aspects of a fund managers’ operations from Front to Back office from a single database.
Built For The Future
Quartz is current, built for the future. Existing software is aging, expensive and fragmented, its operations rely heavily on FTP to keep disparate databases functioning. Reconciliation is extensive and costly.
Developed for Cloud
Quartz has been developed for the Cloud. Legacy vendors are implementing new initiatives around Cloud computing that only replicate existing inefficiencies in a Cloud environment. Whilst we believe ‘Public Cloud’ provides ready made infrastructure resilience and scalability, we recognise some organisations will want a ‘Private Cloud’ solution.
appeals to Third Party Administrators
Quartz appeals to Third Party Administrators as they will be able to offer front office tools that are integrated into their administration platform.
Fund Managed Independent of Location
Quartz allows Fund Managers, with regional offices in the countries where the investment is made, a means of managing their global mandates in a way that is location independent from a single database.
End to End Solution
Quartz is an end to end solution. The system has been developed over a five-year period. It is the culmination of 40 years of experience in the design of asset management systems that makes this system unique. The designers have created a system that can be easily adapted for any fund structure, financial instrument or compliance regime. All of this in a Cloud or Private Cloud environment.
Our team.
Steve King
Founder & CEO
Steve King is founder of Cumulus Investment Solutions. He has spent 13 years building three successful businesses in the Global Asset Management Industry, with an Asset value of $10 Billion under management, taking Phoenix Fund Administration Services (Phoenix) from start up to circa $10 million (2012) turnover and three to 65 people. Prior to that he worked at GT Management for 17 years.
Raymond O'Neill
Director
With 26 years’ experience in the Asset Management industry in London, Dublin, Boston and Bermuda, Raymond has held leadership positons in both global organisations and entrepreneurial start-ups. He has worked with clients in an advisory, audit and risk management capacity, conducted a variety of acquisitions and office launches and acts as a Director of numerous regulated companies and investment funds. More recently, Raymond was a founding partner and CEO of Kinetic Partners. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants (FCCA), a Member of the Chartered Financial Analyst Association (CFA) and a Certifed Director with the Institute of Directors (IoD).
Al-Noor Ramji
Investor
Al-Noor is one of the best-known figures in Information Technology in the City of London. He was founder and CEO of WebTek Software, one of the most successful software houses in India. He then became a Director of Misys Plc, provider of systems to the largest banking organisations. Prior to this he served as a Global CIO at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson following a number of senior IT and business positons with Swiss Bank Corporation and Credit Suisse First Boston. He has also served as CEO of BT Exact, BT’s Research & Technology division, CEO of BT Global Services and CIO of BT Group PLC
Insights
System.
Order Management
The system allows fund managers to model trades/portfolio’s and then pass to an Order Blotter, where they can be worked in the market. The system is integrated with FIX for managers who wish to automate this process. The system has pre-trade compliance to flag potential problems during the order creation process, therefore catching compliance breaches before Orders have been completed. Managers can also up-load trades into the system via a trade upload facility that will also be subject to compliance breach control.
Compliance
Our Compliance section allows rules to be established around any data elements. These rules can then be ‘Grouped’ to create a set of rules associated with a particular regulatory regime. Further to this, a list of eligible markets can be established, and limits set to restrict investment outside these countries. A Compliance Dashboard allows compliance professionals to monitor breaches and trading activity having all their incidents and correspondence in one place.
Income
Income can be generated by Investment Vehicle, which means that dividends and interest is processed at an investment entity level rather than a fund one e.g we process a dividend for particular investment and all clients holding that instrument are updated. Tax rates can be established depending upon the domicile of the Investment Vehicle and Fund. This process will generate accounting entries for the income and any taxes.
Trade processing
The system has its own Standing Settlement Instructions database (SSI) and can be linked to confirmation and settlement systems to automate the entire process
Fund Accounting
Fund Accounting is at the heart of the system. The system has multiple Chart of Accounts meaning that different rules can be established for different funds giving the system global reach. Orders created by managers can generate accounting entries making a fund accountant’s job more monitoring than processing.
Data Maintenance
ISO standards are used throughout. GICS is also central to the system to allow for standardised performance reporting and easy communication with other parties.
Corporate Actions
Like income, corporate actions are processed for an Investment vehicle and then transactions created across multiple funds. A flexible means of creating Events means that any holding can be ‘Spun off’ into multiple holdings.
Prices & Exchange Rates
Flexible connection methods exist to allow files to be retrieved from any data vendor. Exception rules can be created that will then automate the verification of these files.