SmartStream's Endeavors Not Going Unnoticed

A year or two seems like a long time in the financial services industry, and even longer when it comes to the technology supporting it. The past two years, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, are a case in point: so much has changed across the industry, not least firms’ working practices, their operational and technology needs, and third-party providers’ abilities to develop new technologies and services to address those needs. While managed services and AI technologies have been on firms’ radars for a while now—certainly long before the start of the pandemic—both are now center stage, working hand in glove to deliver sophisticated functionality ‘as a service’. Both are areas in which SmartStream excels, and where the firm has focused much of its development attention for a number of years now, especially on the AI front with the creation of its Innovation Lab in Vienna in 2017. The efficacy and extensiveness of SmartStream’s managed services strategy are clearly articulated in the two whitepapers contained in this report: Managed Services in 2021—Poised for Lift-Off and SmartStream RDU—More Pertinent Now than Ever. This research illustrates its versatility across an increasingly prominent realm.       

All the research conducted by WatersTechnology over the past two years has shown unequivocally that capital markets firms are now, more than even, looking to consume mission-critical technology and services as part of a managed service offering, while those that already have mature strategies in place are looking to build on those initiatives while simultaneously seeking to rationalize the number of relationships they have. In essence, they’re looking for fewer but deeper relationships with specialist providers such as SmartStream.

A quick glance through this report shows that SmartSteam’s endeavors haven’t gone unnoticed. It won the best AI technology and best sell-side middle-office platform categories in the 2021 Sell-Side Technology Awards, while in WatersTechnology’s Data Awards, it walked away with the best reference data initiative and best reference data integration vendor categories. It also picked up two reconciliation awards last year in the Waters Rankings and Buy-Side Technology Awards. And, not to be outdone by her firm’s products and services, Linda Coffman, executive vice president and head of SmartStream’s RDU, was awarded the trailblazer (lifetime achievement) award at the 2021 Women in Technology and Data Awards. Not bad for a year’s work.