How Many Elephants Can You Fit in a Room? In most instances, we only have to ignore one elephant in the room at a time. But when it comes to the conversion or updating of investment systems and data, the room could end up packed with a passel of pachyderms if you’re...

Headed For a Crash? No one would deliberately drive off a cliff. We get that. But most companies that are headed for a precipice don’t even know they are. In fact, they’re usually well-intentioned, serious of purpose, and very intent on what they’re doing — so intent...

A Pain in the Back Office "I'm only a trade away from a problem." If you're managing a substantial backroom operation, that statement probably sends shivers down your spine. Derivatives and other complex investments are important portfolio assets for institutional...

Your Investment Software is not Word® Business users often act as if upgrading their investment system is like getting a new version of Microsoft Word. It’s not. Word doesn’t require a project plan. It doesn’t require thorough regression or unit acceptance testing. It...

Changing Roles. Changing Rules. Even with common objectives, IT departments and business users can end up working against each other, resulting in bad feelings between them and dissatisfaction with the results. That’s because the IT and business sides of the house...

Implementing a New Accounting System: Myths vs. Reality Selecting and implementing a new accounting system isn’t easy. A committee has to select the software. The contract has to be negotiated. Then the implementation comes with common myths vs. harsh realities. Myth...