What are Charles River Development Managed Services?

As the investment landscape evolves for efficiency — especially in the wake of major regulatory changes like the SEC’s recent T+1 settlement ruling — investment management organizations need the right platform solution to streamline operations and boost productivity.

Leveraged by more than 280 clients worldwide, the Charles River Investment Management Solution provides a cloud-deployed front-office platform for this very purpose. This leading platform aids in many crucial aspects of investment management, from trading to compliance.

Additionally, the Charles River Investment Management Solution acts as the foundation of State Street Alpha, a platform that streamlines front, middle, and back office operations.

For investment management organizations, the Charles River platform solution can play a vital role in optimizing operational efficiency — so long as an organization has the right managed services provider to oversee implementation and offer comprehensive platform management support.

Our managed services solution is incredibly comprehensive, providing you with:

• DevOps and service management for rapid development and deployments
• Platform enhancements, including upgrades and customizations
• Service level agreements for timely deliveries on key performance indicators
• Full system optimization and continuous enhancements of your core platforms

What is Charles River Development?

Charles River Development, or CRD for short, is a leading provider of investment management solutions offering end-to-end investment lifecycle support.

Designed for use in front and middle-office operations, CRD helps to automate critical processes for wealth managers, alternative investment firms, insurers, and asset owners. The Charles River Investment Management Solution (IMS) is the company’s platform that supports a wide range of investment activities that help to streamline operations and reduce overall risk.

What makes the Charles River IMS so advantageous is that it is highly integrated and easy to scale, enabling users to boost the efficiency of their investment management strategies.

Through the Charles River IMS, firms can benefit from a wide variety of functions and features, such as:

• Portfolio management
• Trade and execution
• Compliance management
• Risk management
• Performance measurement
• Post-trade settlements
• Data management

Additionally, Charles River IMS facilitates a broad third-party ecosystem that allows the platform’s users to connect seamlessly with many additional applications and tools. For example, an IMS client can integrate external data and analytics within the IMS platform.

How is Charles River IMS Used in Financial Services?

Made specifically for investment management, the Charles River IMS is used widely across the financial services industry by both financial institutions and investment management firms alike.

Let’s take a look at the different industry segments that Charles River IMS services:

• Institutional Investment Managers: Institutional investment managers can leverage the Charles River IMS to consolidate all investment processes into a singular platform capable of managing multiple asset classes. By deploying this platform, investment managers can gain a comprehensive overview of all accounts, investments, and risk exposures. Along with benefiting from portfolio analysis capabilities, institutional investment managers can also use the platform’s integrated order and execution management features to improve trade execution and productivity.
• Wealth Managers & Advisors: For wealth managers and advisors, the Charles River IMS can assist with boosting the efficiency of wealth products and business lines, all from a single platform. Additionally, Charles River’s wealth management capabilities provide tremendous support via institutional class capabilities that can support both discretionary and non-discretionary products. With the Charles River IMS acting as the foundation for wealth management front office operations, wealth managers and advisors can enhance their organization’s mobility, client attraction, and client retention.
• Private & Alternative Markets: Firms and investors operating in private or alternative markets face major challenges when it comes to managing growing volumes of data from multiple sources. The Charles River IMS offers firms the key capabilities needed to aggregate critical data, enabling firms to manage valuations, assess scenarios, monitor portfolios, lower cost structures, and improve overall performance. Plus, Charles River’s platform is highly scalable and is optimized for both public and private assets, ensuring firms have the capabilities necessary to manage an entire multi-asset investment lifecycle from a single, central platform.
• Asset Owners: Asset owners, like pensions professionals and official institutions, can utilize the Charles River IMS to improve their risk and compliance strategies, as well as to make more informed investment decisions. The Charles River IMS supports complex fund and account structures by offering streamlined allocation capabilities and extensive support for all asset classes that asset owners may be responsible for. Moreover, Charles River IMS provides asset owners with centralized portfolio analytics that help to centralize critical data (such as risk-related information) and simplify performance measurement.
• Insurers: Insurers can benefit greatly from the Charles River IMS thanks to look-through capabilities that drive better insights and decision-making. With support for all asset classes, the Charles River IMS offers insurers derivative-based yield enhancement strategies that help to manage the entirety of insurance and investment processes with great efficiency. The risk assessment capabilities of Charles River IMS also aid in understanding potential risks, monitoring changes to client behaviors or situations, and anticipating future risks.

The 3 Key Challenges of Platform Management for Financial Institutions

Although Charles River Development offers a plethora of advantages through its IMS platform, organizations can still face challenges when it comes to implementation and platform management.

The technology involved in a Charles River IMS implementation is multi-faceted, requiring expert technical teams to oversee implementations and ensure the platform is optimized for a specific business use case. Implementations can quickly become complex, particularly if an organization is building off existing systems that currently rely on outdated legacy technologies.

Following implementation, an organization needs either a robust in-house platform management team to handle maintenance and performance management of the platform or, alternatively, a third-party provider to handle these responsibilities on their behalf.

Keeping all of this in mind, here are the three key challenges to deploying Charles River IMS:

1. Integration Complexity: Before an implementation of Charles River IMS can take place, an organization must assess the current state of its existing technology and systems. This can include assessments of data requirements, evaluations of legacy technologies, and examinations of an organization’s third-party integration needs. Additionally, each organization must consider how Charles River IMS will impact its current workflows and how to most effectively deploy the platform’s various capabilities for the benefit of those workflows.
2. Customization Requirements: To make the most out of Charles River IMS, it is crucial for investment management organizations to customize the platform to their needs. This involves a range of different technical requirements and configurations that account for the specific functions of an organization and how to optimize them. On top of these requirements, organizations must determine the best plan of action for carrying out the customization process without disrupting business operations or compromising core functionalities.
3. Regulatory Compliance: Any business operating within the financial and investment sectors knows how complicated compliance can be — especially when implementing new technologies. Throughout the implementation, customization, and maintenance processes for the Charles River IMS, organizations must hold regulatory compliance as a priority at all times. This includes staying up to date on the latest regulatory changes to avoid penalties for non-compliance and to ensure the platform is safeguarded against evolving digital threats.

What are Managed Services for Charles River Development?

Managed services is the practice of outsourcing IT management to third-party companies.

For Charles River Development and the IMS platform, managed services are a comprehensive set of solutions designed to manage, optimize, and maintain a Charles River IMS deployment.

With the help of managed services, investment management organizations can gain all of the advantages of the Charles River IMS platform without overburdening their internal teams. This is especially beneficial for organizations without large in-house IT teams, as platform management is a broad responsibility that involves many moving parts.

In addition to providing maintenance and management of the Charles River IMS platform, managed services can also act as an important support pillar within an organization’s digital infrastructure.

For example, if an organization needs to integrate many different applications and tools into the Charles River IMS platform, a managed services provider can not only oversee these integrations but also ensure the platform is ready and optimized for the specific mix of integrations needed.

The Benefits of Managed Services for Charles River IMS Deployments

By outsourcing your organization’s platform management needs to a managed services provider, your teams can re-focus on core business operations without worrying about platform performance.

Here is an overview of the five key benefits of managed services for Charles River IMS deployments:

• Expertise and Specialization: Working with a technically-complex platform like Charles River IMS requires a high-level of expertise. Managed services providers who specialize in CRD can not only ensure your implementation and deployment of Charles River IMS goes smoothly but also that the platform is customized for your specific needs. This often includes consultative services that detail the best practices and business insights to keep in mind when using Charles River IMS, as well as recommendations for the ideal customizations and configurations.
• Cost Efficiency: Outsourcing platform management to a managed services provider can be incredibly cost-effective compared to handling all the necessary implementation, management, and maintenance processes independently. This is particularly true for organizations that do not currently have a large internal IT or platform management team, as deploying Charles River IMS would require the organization to recruit, onboard, and train new team members. Instead, a managed services provider can provide an organization with the skill, talent, expertise, and resources necessary to ensure a fully-optimized Charles River IMS deployment.
• Scalability: Any investment management organization should be considering the importance of scalability when planning to implement the Charles River IMS platform. With the help of a managed services provider, your organization can scale your services according to evolving organizational needs, new customer demands, and changing regulatory standards. Additionally, the right managed services provider can assist with the management of increasing data volumes and the addition of new portfolios as your organization scales and grows.
• Business Innovation: Entrusting your Charles River IMS management to a managed services provider gives you and your teams new opportunities to focus on business innovation. Rather than spending heaps of time, labor, and budgetary resources on managing the platform in-house, managed services provide your organization with the capabilities necessary to take a more hands-off approach to platform management. In turn, your organization can spend more time concentrating on core competencies and strategic objectives that drive business growth and success, as well as dedicating more time to building exceptional experiences for clients.
• Risk Mitigation: One of the most challenging aspects of platform management for Charles River IMS is risk management and mitigation. Managed service providers come equipped with robust risk management strategies that contain well-defined processes for not only platform maintenance but also platform upgrades, data security, and risk reduction. In a time when data breaches are an increasingly prevalent issue in the investment space, this makes managed services a valuable resource and tool for avoiding costly operational disruptions.

What to Look for in a Charles River IMS Managed Services Provider

The key to an optimized Charles River IMS strategy is to find the ideal managed services provider for your organization. When looking for such a provider, it is vital to find an organization that is committed to offering customized services built for the specific needs of your business.

Here are four essential factors to look for in a managed services provider:

• Charles River Development Expertise: First and foremost, you must prioritize finding a managed services provider with a proven track record of expertise with CRD. A managed services solution can only go so far without the right level of in-depth knowledge and experience with the specific technologies involved in Charles River IMS, making it pertinent to select a managed services provider that is specialized for Charles River IMS platform management.
• Single Point of Accountability: With so many different platform solutions on the market for investment management today, finding a solution that provides a single source of truth and accountability can feel near-impossible. However, the best managed services providers can help you streamline your operations and digital infrastructure into one core system, resulting in greater overall efficiency and productivity. Additionally, a single point of accountability can ensure your teams are well-connected and empowered to collaborate for the betterment of the business.
• Customization Capabilities: Always opt for a managed services provider that offers custom-developed solutions. Whether you are implementing Charles River IMS for the first time, seeking help with managing the platform, or striving to optimize integrations, your managed services provider should provide you with the critical support necessary to customize your platform and core systems to your exact needs and objectives.
• Regulatory Compliance Support: As you look for the perfect managed services provider for your needs, don’t forget about regulatory compliance in the process. Overlooking the importance of compliance when implementing the Charles River IMS can lead to costly penalties for non-compliance, as well as expensive and time-consuming processes to fix instances of non-compliance. Your managed services provider should not only demonstrate a strong understanding of financial regulations but also have the credentials necessary to oversee and optimize your compliance strategy.

Turn to Exadel for All of Your Charles River IMS Needs

At Exadel, we offer advanced business technologies and expert managed services you can rely on.

With a focus on building custom, highly scalable solutions for investment management organizations, Exadel provides end-to-end expertise on crucial tasks like platform management. Exadel specializes in a wide range of platforms, including Charles River IMS.

Take your Charles River IMS platform to the next level with Exadel’s managed services solutions.

Speak with the Exadel team today to learn more.