Celent Ranks the European Vendors of Wealth Management Technology 2009

“Some of the most exciting developments in wealth management technology are happening in Europe today, says Celent, a finance industry analyst cabinet. This report examines the leading European vendors in the wealth management market segment and evaluates their offerings and ability to serve the growing wealth management market. As part of the report, Celent provides detailed profiles of each leading vendor, followed by detailed comparisons and rankings.

In order to compare the European wealth management solutions appropriately, they can be grouped into two separate categories. Front office solutions analyzed include those of Distribution Technology, Finantix, Odyssey, TechRules, and Thomson Reuters. For front to back office coverage, Celent analyzed the offerings of Avaloq, Oracle, SAGE, SunGard, and Temenos.

No one solution was considered best in all categories of wealth management, but rather solutions differentiated themselves based on the various functionalities analyzed. Within the “Breadth of Functionality” category, SunGard led the front to back office solutions, followed by SAGE and Avaloq. Oracle and Temenos rank lower than the rest of their group in this category, but their strength lies in client support and recommendations and advanced reporting, respectively. For the front
office solutions, Odyssey and Distribution Technology receive the high-est scores, followed closely by Finantix. These vendors excel in client management, financial planning, and portfolio construction functionalities. Although lower in the rank, Thomson Reuters provides good trading and compliance functionalities as well as reporting, while TechRules has strong risk and analytics functions.

In the “Advanced Technology” category, Avaloq and Temenos receive high marks for the front to back solutions, while Finantix and Distribution Technology score best for the front office vendor category. In terms of number of clients, Temenos is the winner in its front to back office category, followed by SunGard. For the front office vendors, Odyssey has the largest number of clients, followed by Finantix. In the last category, “Depth of Client Services,” the top quartile is dominated by Oracle in the front to back office category, and by Odyssey and Thomson Reu-
ters in the front office category.

The report begins with an overview of how the European wealth management technology market has evolved in the past 18 to 24 months, as well as a vendor preview of the main wealth management vendors in the space. A detailed profile for each vendor follows, identifying its strengths and weaknesses. Also included in the study is the vendor comparison section, which evaluates each solution’s features and functionalities and further compares vendors by number of clients, deployment options, and support schemes. The last sections include a vendor ranking through the ABCD dimensions and Celent’s future considerations of where wealth management software is headed.

The ten vendors covered in this report are: Avaloq Evolution AG, Distribution Technology, Finantix, Odyssey Financial Technologies, Oracle Corporation, SAGE SA, SunGard, Temenos Group AG, TechRules, and Thomson Reuters. To aid in the vendor evaluation, this study utilizes the Celent ABCD Vendor View, which shows at a glance the relative position of vendors in the following categories: Advanced technology, Breadth of functionality, Customer base (number of clients), and Depth of client services.

Ask the ABCD matrix by sending an email to raphael at itnews.lu