CEO Comment:

MOVING UP THE VALUE CHAIN

by CEO Peter L. Ravn

The new financial landscape emerging from the crisis of 2008-09 has forced the investment industry to reappraise the business outlook in many ways. Today more than ever, industry players are focusing attention on their IT infrastructures in their constant undertaking to mitigate operational risk, identify long-term cost savings and position themselves for sustainable future growth.

The top business drivers, strategic responses and IT initiatives all embrace an increasing demand for operational efficiency, greater transparency and improved corporate governance. This reflects the need to be agile and adaptable to change, not least to accommodate new and often challenging regulatory and client demands, as the cover article on pp. 3–11 also shows.

This equally applies to SimCorp. As a leading supplier of highly specialised software and expertise for the investment management industry, we must and do make every effort to ensure that our value proposition is fully aligned with the industry’s agenda. Through the SimCorp Dimension platform, the focus must remain on delivering a continually upgraded, seamless and integrated software solution to support changing market, regulatory and client requirements.

Supporting new and existing clients requires that SimCorp steadily grows its business as well as the value it brings to clients. Promoting our aim of globally delivering a best-practice modular solution that can support investment management from front- to back-office, across multiple asset classes and company divisions was the opening of a Canadian office in Toronto in October. The office will further our expansion in North America and underscores our deep commitment to the Canadian market. With the Toronto office, and following the establishment of a Luxembourg presence in September, SimCorp now has 21 international offices.

Demonstrating SimCorp’s unswerving priority to client support and commitment to interaction was the SimCorp Dimension International User Community Meeting (IUCM) in Berlin on 9-10 September. Theme of the 13th consecutive annual conference was ‘Sharing best practices’. Attended by no less than 281 delegates, which marked a 40% increase on 2009 levels, and showcasing a series of workshops and focus groups, the event was a great success, as presented in greater detail in the feature article on pp. 30–33, and boding well for the next event, to be held in Stockholm, Sweden.

The IUCM10 conference programme included sharing best practices in growth and excellence, and this was underlined with the announcement of the SimCorp StrategyLab Growth Management and Cost Management Excellence Awards, this year going to Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management and Nordea Savings & Asset Management, respectively. Both are featured in separate articles in this issue.

Looking forward with anticipation to a new year full of challenges and opportunities alike gives me the pleasure to send our readers my best seasonal greetings and to wish all a promising and prosperous 2011 on behalf of everyone at SimCorp.

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