There is growing interest among investment managers in the concept of an objective, quantitative measure of their relative success in achieving straight through processing (STP) for transaction processing. This is exactly what STP Metrics’ service offers, allowing management to gain a better understanding of how to deal cost-effectively with operational bottlenecks.
"The service provides useful information for companies at all levels of STP sophistication," explains Graeme Austin, managing director of STP Metrics. "For example, investment management companies which have invested in the automation of their internal processes may be able to identify specific process steps where external parties, such as brokers or custodians, could do more to improve their service offerings." From another perspective, for a larger international or global firm, comparisons across operations in different countries could offer insights into cost discrepancies and operational risk profiles in different business units.
For STP Metrics, the agreement raises the profile of its automation benchmarking service, especially in European markets such as Scandinavia and Germany, where SimCorp has a large and growing customer base. It is also envisaged that with input from such firms, broader international comparisons between markets may emerge.
For SimCorp, there is now an opportunity to offer a new service with both immediate and longer-term value. "This agreement clearly demonstrates our commitment to assist our customers in continually improving operational efficiency," comments Torben Munch, SimCorp’s market director. "While we anticipate that our customers will find that they have good STP ratings relative to similar businesses in other geographic markets, industry best practice changes all the time and we must not be complacent; data from this service will allow our customers to give us early indications of how we can best enhance our product in future."
