An Analysis of Asset Management Vendors Using Porter’s Model

$100 trillion of global investable assets demands money management that, in turn, demands systems and operational services to run. Traditional and new vendors are rapidly filling this space, but is there enough room for all?

Multiple buy side vendors are expanding their vertical product stack in an attempt to provide asset managers, custodians, fund administrators, and hedge funds full front-to-back applications and services. Additionally, more traditional sell side vendors are crossing the boundaries into the buy side, and new players keep entering the marketplace. Is the field too crowded? Are vendors providing additional cost benefit to buy side clients? Are the buy side’s needs so diverse and growing at such a rate to be able to sustain the multitude of vendors?

“There is roughly $100 trillion of investable assets on a global level, and that amount is growing and transitioning due to demographic shifts and the continuing transition of pension savings,” says Jay Wolstenholme, a senior analyst with Celent’s Insurance practice and author of the report. “All these assets need management and resulting systems and services. There is definitely competition in the vendor space to serve this market.”

This report utilizes Porter’s five competitive forces to analyze the level of competition among technology vendors in the asset management industry.