Big data, the process of collecting and managing extremely large and complex data sets for meaningful analysis and actionable intelligence, has started to become a pervasive theme within many sectors including finance. On the buy side, investment management firms are having to cope with ever increasing volumes of data from disparate sources for use in the investment management process. Additionally, the burden of added compliance and the requirement of greater transparency has led to a dramatic increase in the size of the data that managers need to track and store on an ongoing and historical basis, presenting a challenge for many firms.

According to Denise Valentine, an analyst of research advisory firm Aite Group, "In North America risk and performance analytics are shifting deeper into the front-office tool kit. More complex instruments will require on-demand, real-time, front-office risk and performance analysis. As asset managers expand their repertoire of investments, they will require more data for portfolio decisioning as well as IT infrastructure and technology tools to support larger data volume. Aside from the portfolio management requirements, regulators and institutional clients will probe asset managers for more data."

European-based Aite Group senior analyst Virginie O'Shea adds, "Within the asset management community there is a growing need for analytics support as a result of the challenging business environment, as well as a push to support greater data aggregation requirements for regulatory reporting, and both of these are predicated on these firms moving away from databases and spreadsheets managed by end users. Investment in scalable technology that can support these requirements in real-time is becoming much more important in light of developments such as the European Market Infrastructure Regulation and the second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive."

Building on the success of INDATA's iPM - Intelligent Porttfolio Management® technology and iPM Cloud offerings, iPM Epic™ has been specifically architected to work effectively with very large data sets, both internal and external to the investment management firm, including structured as well as unstructured data, which is routinely used within investment management with great effort and with the significant expenditure of resources. iPM Epic™ seeks to automate the big data challenges that occur within each aspect of the investment management process including optimizing the capture, storage, search, sharing, analysis and visualization of data from a front, middle, and back office perspective for competitive advantage.

"Technology is a great equalizer," commented David J. Csiki, Managing Director, INDATA. "iPM Epic™ is a different approach from the status quo and provides INDATA clients with technology tools that have been so far only available to the largest of institutional investors," he added.

iPM Epic™ also contains numerous enhancements across the front, middle and back office of the iPM software suite including:

• IBOR (Investment Book of Record) module
• More than 180 functionality enhancements to iPM's Front and Middle Office OMS, Portfolio Modeling, Compliance and CRM tools
• More than 100 functionality enhancements to iPM Back Office Portfolio Accounting, Recon, Performance, Reporting and Billing
• New system interfaces with leading industry market data providers
• Expanded outsourcing services as part of INDATA SA (System Administration) for BPO (Business Process Outsourcing)