In mid-2015, a leading asset management firm faced an unprecedented challenge. Their successful domestic investment strategies had attracted significant interest from institutional investors in Europe and Japan, presenting an exciting growth opportunity. However, this international expansion created a surge in business-as-usual (BAU) enhancement requests that threatened to overwhelm their existing technology team.

The firm’s proprietary trading platform, built primarily for domestic markets, needed substantial modifications to support new regional requirements. Our team was engaged to provide critical staff augmentation, focusing on enhancing the compliance engine and integration layers between their Order Management Systems, Investment Accounting, and various Reference and Market Data Systems.

The initial assessment in June 2015 revealed the scope of the challenge. The onboarding of a major Japanese pension fund required over 50 system enhancements, ranging from new compliance rules to custom reporting requirements. Simultaneously, several European institutional clients were in the pipeline, each with their own unique requirements for regulatory reporting and investment restrictions.

One of the first major projects involved enhancing the compliance engine to support new security attributes required by European regulators. This included implementing checks for UCITS compliance, monitoring exposure to different types of derivatives, and tracking issuer concentration limits across multiple jurisdictions. The complexity lay not just in implementing these rules, but in ensuring they could be applied selectively based on the client’s jurisdiction while maintaining existing compliance checks for domestic accounts.

By September 2015, we faced another significant challenge with the implementation of account sleeves for a large European insurance company. Their investment mandate required incoming funds to be automatically allocated across multiple investment strategies based on dynamic allocation rules. This required extensive modifications to the order management system’s cash management module and the creation of new interfaces with the accounting system to ensure accurate tracking of sleeve-level positions and performance.

The expansion into Japanese markets brought its own unique challenges. In November 2015, we needed to implement new data feeds to support client’s reporting requirements. This involved creating new integration points with market data providers and enhancing the platform’s capability to handle Japanese character sets in security names and client reports. The team also implemented specific trading restrictions related to Japan’s short-selling regulations and foreign ownership limits.

Throughout this period, our team worked closely with the client’s operations team to streamline the enhancement request process. We implemented a prioritization framework that balanced business requirements, revenue impact, and technical complexity. This approach helped manage the backlog effectively while ensuring critical client onboarding deadlines were met.

A particularly complex project completed in early 2016 involved the creation of new offshore investment vehicles. New gulf region clients requested access to existing investment strategies through private funds domiciled in Caymans and British Virgin Islands. This required significant enhancements to the platform’s fund structure capabilities to support master feeder, including the implementation of new compliance rules, NAV calculation procedures, and reporting requirements.

The success of these enhancements relied heavily on our team’s deep understanding of both the technical platform and the busienss landscape. Regular knowledge transfer sessions were conducted with the client’s permanent staff, ensuring that the enhanced capabilities could be maintained and further developed after our engagement ended.

By March 2016, the results of our engagement were evident. The platform successfully supported operations across three continents, handling over 200 new compliance rules and processing trades for more than 50 new international accounts. The enhancement request backlog, which had peaked at over 300 items, was reduced to a manageable level of 40 business-as-usual requests.

Key achievements included:

  • Implementation of over 50 new security attributes for enhanced compliance monitoring
  • Creation of 12 new data feeds for international client reporting
  • Development of a flexible sleeve management system supporting dynamic allocation rules
  • Launch of 12 new offshore investment vehicles with specific business requirements
  • Enhancement of investment accounting platform to support multiple jurisdictions

The project demonstrated the importance of scalable system architecture and efficient staff augmentation in supporting rapid business growth. The enhancements not only enabled successful international expansion but also improved the platform’s overall flexibility for future growth opportunities.

Looking ahead, the firm is well-positioned for continued international expansion. The enhanced platform capabilities provide a robust foundation for entering new markets, while the documented enhancement processes ensure efficient handling of future client requirements. The success of this engagement extends beyond technical achievements, the firm had increased its Assets Under Management (AUM) by $15 billion through new international clients, significantly diversifying their investor base beyond US markets. More importantly, the established technological infrastructure and operational frameworks have created a scalable sales channel for future international growth, with a projected revenue increase of 25% from international management and performance fees in next 5 years. This engagement serves as a testament to how effective staff augmentation can help organizations navigate periods of rapid growth while maintaining system integrity and client satisfaction, ultimately driving substantial business value and revenue growth.