Front-office recruits signal SimCorp’s OM³ push

SimCorp has recruited two ex-Colonial First State front-office specialists to assist purchasers of its buy-side software, Order Management³ (OM³), to implement the system.

The investment administration software vendor has hired Chitra Shanker and Jamie Fenchel from Colonial First State Global Asset Management (CFS GAM) to implement OM³ for clients including Victorian Funds Management Corporation and QBE Insurance Group. At CFS GAM, Shanker worked as senior program manager and Fenchel was team leader of the front office development and support team. “They were specifically hired for project implementations of OM³,” Nick Quinn, SimCorp director sales and marketing, said. “A lot of the recruiting is for support and delivery now. We’re scaling-up the delivery side of our business.” The hires bring SimCorp’s Australian implementation team to 15 members, while its Singapore-based crew number seven. OM³ is a buy-side tool aiming to free up more time for traders to focus on transactions by providing them with relevant market information from a ‘domain’ relaying information such as indications of interest and sources of liquidity. SimCorp recruited former head of trading with London’s Sabre Fund Management, Keith Wright, to develop the domain. Both Shanker and Fenchel have recently been overseas to be trained on OM³ by Wright, as well as SimCorp’s backoffice product, Dimension. While Wright is the senior manager of the OM³ domain, information relevant to the information resource is also channeled through SimCorp’s regional offices. David Stieger, a member of SimCorp’s marketing team in Australia, is responsible for passing local traders’ requirements and feedback on to Wright, Quinn said.