Celent Communications has ranked SunGard, S1 and GL Trade as the top three US vendors of sell-side order management systems.
Celent complies a league table of OMS vendors in its new report: 'Ranking the Vendors of Sell-Side Order Management Systems'.
"While SunGard remains at the top of the pile in terms of functionality, both S1 and GL Trade have developed very robust networks for order flow, both in the US and abroad," says Fritz McCormick, author of the report.
Order management systems (OMS) have grown to become a central component of most brokerage operations, says McCormick. For broker/dealers, these systems have expanded to cover not only traditional trade creation and management workflow, he notes, but also have begun to include some aspects of other functions such as: execution, smart order routing, confirmation, accounting, allocation and network connectivity.
In addition to these extended duties, McCormick views the OMS as the new pivot point for internal and external straight-through processing (STP). "The move towards STP in the US and elsewhere is gaining momentum, and the realisation that a great deal of re-engineering will be necessary to reach STP goals is spurring vendors to think about how their systems can facilitate this impending change," he says.
Institutions looking to implement an OMS should look for an ever-expanding network of execution venues as well as increasing integration, both internally and with the buy-side, says McCormick. He points to a raft of firms closing in on the top three, including Belzberg Techologies, NYFIX, OM Technology, and royalblue.