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Key Steps to Take Before Signing a Telecom Contract

The quality of one’s telecom services can make or break a business. After all, it dictates the accessibility of the company to its industry partners, customers, clients, and other stakeholders, the ease of collaborative work, and the speed at which it can convey its messages. A telecom contract should then be meticulously drawn up, to ensure that it responds effectively to the organization’s needs.

Here are key steps to take before a company decides to sign a contract.

Determine business goals. Any measure that involves an investment of manpower, funds, and other company resources must respond to a clearly articulated business goal, which should itself be directly aligned with the organization’s vision. There should be a time allocated for answering such important questions as these: which of the company’s marketing goals will be addressed by this contract? How is the acquisition of these new plans going to affect the capability of the company to achieve its other goals? What will be this contract’s short- and long-term impacts?

Set priorities. A company will always have an entire range of goals for its telecommunication needs, but will normally not have resources for accomplishing them all. It is a smart organization that knows its priorities, and plans to target the most important ones - especially those whose effects will trickle down to the others.

Conduct a comprehensive inventory. To know what one needs, it is essential to know what one already has. This will prevent having redundancies in the organization’s telecommunications system as well as procuring items that are incompatible with other components, both of which represent unnecessary costs for the organization. A comprehensive inventory also helps create the big picture so to speak, such that planning involves not only filling gaps here and there analogous to using band-aid solutions, but weaving together a tight infrastructure.

Monitor developments in the telecom industry strategically. It can be easy to get overwhelmed by the number of telecom products and services in today’s market, with new promising developments being spotted by the minute. That said, it is not just going to be a matter of knowing what is available, as earlier argued, but which new issues will be strategic acquisitions for the business. Moreover, the company needs to monitor not only the telecom industry, but also how its competitors are using communication tools to grow their business.

Issue request for proposals. After determining your organization’s goals and the corresponding telecom requirements, it is time to call for proposals for potential service providers. The RFP should contain details regarding the company’s budget, business status, objectives, and existing resources. Then, a competent team should screen the proposals, and engage in telecom contract negotiations with the shortlisted candidates.

For professional guidance in finding the best telecom contract for your business, contact Noble Eightfold today. Noble Eightfold specializes in telecom expense management, telecom proposal evaluation, wireline and wireless contract negotiation, and telecom vendor screening and selection.

Does the Umpire Really Matter?

If you are an avid daily fantasy baseball player, you certainly have come across different sites that offer their own fantasy baseball advice. A lot of them break down all very similar things: Pitcher’s matchup and splits, Hitter’s matchup and splits, Hot/Cold Streaks, Weather, Park Factors (especially Coors Field), and so on. Most of this chatter is all warranted because each series, each game, each matchup in the game has a weight of different factors that are either working for or against the players who have targeted on your team.

For example, a towering fly ball down the right field line in Yankee Stadium will end up being a home run while the same exact hit (same players, weather, etc.) will end up as a fly out at a stadium like Wrigley Field. So by evaluating all of the different factors that go into a fantasy baseball matchup is imperative if you want to win and be successful, and that is what we all aim to do. So why is it that so many DFS touts look over one person that has the biggest impact on the game: The Home Plate Umpire.

The rest of the umpire crew has basically become obsolete with the addition of Instant Replay into the game of major league baseball. If an umpire made a wrong call, on the bases, the correct call will be surfaced with a challenge by either of the competing managers. But, instant replay has no use when arguing balls and strikes and based on how the umpire is calling a game on a given day, it can have a resounding impact on the game. Let me give you a fairly concrete example of how much of an impact the home plate umpire can have on the game. For the 2016-2017 season, Clayton Kershaw has faced the Rockies a total of four time (two at home and two away). For those games his innings pitched/strikeout total was: 6/8, 7/4, 7/10, and 6/6. So for every game except for one, Kershaw averaged over one strikeout per inning. For his second start, he only averaged nearly half a strikeout per inning (quite the drop).

To further this support, of those three games where he averaged over one strikeout per inning, his strike % was all over 65% right around his season average. But for the game where he only got four in seven innings, his strike % dropped down below 60%. Now, Kershaw is known to be one of the most accurate and deadly pitchers in today’s game and when a he has a subpar performance like this, it more so has to do with the umpire than his actual performance. This is why it is absolutely imperative to do your daily fantasy baseball research on the umpires because they truly have more of an impact on the game than the average fan realizes.

Is Recent Performance the Most Compelling Stat in PGA?

Fantasy PGA may be one of the hardest Daily Fantasy sports out there. Just think about it. For example, let’s look at the next fantasy Golf tournament available on both DraftKings & Fanduel and it is the PGA Championship. This is one of the biggest golf tournaments of the season and there are over one hundred and fifty players in the pool for this upcoming event. That is a monstrosity of a number that is surely to be overwhelming even to the most advanced Daily Fantasy Golf players out there.

So how does one to proper fantasy research and analysis in order to decipher which players are in the best position to be playing on Sunday and have a chance to crack the top of the leaderboard? With 150 players to choose from, your guess is just about as good as mine but there maybe something that is quite obvious and tends to be overlooked and that is recent performance.

Think about it, don’t you want to roster players who have been consistently playing some of the best golf in the professional realm? There is a some caveats to that. You have to put into perspective two things: Which courses they have been playing at recently and Which tournaments they have been playing in. They both essentially have been the same reasoning for it. If a guy has been killing it at short courses in some low stakes tournaments that are not even being played by some of the greats then you have to take that recent performance with a grain of salt.

On the other hand, if a no-name golfer, like Paul Casey earlier this month, has been able to play consistently well at the big stage against other high-caliber golfers then maybe a guy like that is onto something. It’s honestly not one of the hardest things to differentiate, but if you do it right it will pay off huge dividends in picking correctly. By finding a low-priced golfer who has been on a tear lately, he will have an easier opportunity to exceed his value and allow you more wiggle room to pay up for the top golfers who are certain are going to be able to last all of the different rounds of cuts that are employed throughout the weekend.

The Switch Hitter

Switch hitters in baseball are players who have the ability to hit left handed and right handed. These players are very valuable because it does not matter if the pitcher on the other team is right handed or left handed, the switch hitter can adjust and hit accordingly. Because switch hitters are so versatile, this allows the hitter to get their full allotment of at-bats per game. Some of the best switch players include Lance Berkman, Frankie Frisch, Roberto Alomar, Mark Teixeira, and Carlos Beltran. Switch hitters are very useful if the pitcher on the other team is left handed, the hitter can switch to hitting right handed.

In fantasy baseball, having a switch hitter is very advantageous because switch players can play right handed and left handed. However, hitters who are left handed should be avoided because if the pitcher was left handed, it will be very difficult for the left handed hitter to get a clean hit. According to past games, a lefty vs lefty matchup is exceedingly difficult to excel because it is one of the most difficult for a hitter to adjust to. Lefty hitters are some of the hardest to target in Daily Fantasy Baseball because they are not as versatile as right handed hitters or switch players. For this reason, if a starter is relieved for a lefty specialist, your left hitter would most likely get pinch hit for and thus resulting in missing an extra one to two at-bats during that ball game. It would be more difficult for lefty hitters to get more points for the team. Fantasy players tend to choose switch hitters on draftkings and fanduel because switch hitters are more useful and are very valuable to the team.

Switch hitters are great for matchups and it allows them to be paired with any left handed or right handed pitcher with no problem. Draftkings and Fanduel tend to promote switch hitters as their top picks because switch hitters are the most valuable hitters. Draftkings and fanduel strategists tend to advice daily fantasy baseball players to not elect for left handed hitters because they are not as versatile when the pitcher on the other team is also left handed.

Can you get enough Soccer?

Soccer is by far the most popular sport around the world with an estimated fan base close to three billion people. That number shocks me everytime I read it and that may because I live in the states where our sports media is dominated year-round by our big four of sports (Basketball, Baseball, Football, and Hockey). But when you zoom your focus out a bit you realize you big soccer really is. There is literally more soccer than ever with most professionals playing year-round. This is done by spending nearly three quarters of their year playing with their domestic club and playing the remaining summers with their international club. I guess that’s the reason behind playing these guys, at times, over two hundred thousand a week.

For their domestic club, each player competes, at a minimum, for three pieces of hardware. First is there league cup which differs if they are in the English Premier League or Spain’s La Liga. Then there is the corresponding domestic cup that goes hand in hand with their domestic league. Finally, is the most desirable trophy that any footballer could ever imagine winning: The Champions Cup. Champions League is truly a phenomenal event that FIFA puts on each year. By allowing the world’s best clubs to compete, concurrently with their seasons, we get to see how truly spectacular these players and clubs are.

For their international club, players compete for a variety of different tournaments and cups. The most valued of them all being the World Cup, which is hosted in similarly like the Olympics. In between the huge World Cup tournaments, continents put together their own tournaments with the most notable of them all being the European Championship. These tournaments are the hardest to scout for fantasy soccer. This is because, most countries roll out much different lineups and different formations than we are usually seeing. To be successful in these contests, it takes extra fantasy soccer research and strategy.

The best part about all of this? DraftKings has a slate for every single one! There is no way you could get tired of Daily Fantasy Soccer until now. Draftkings puts up close to 20 slates a week, and that is for soccer alone. Luckily for them, there is no shortage of soccer fans and lucky for us there is no shortage of slates to deplete your bankroll on!

Harnessing big data in venture capital operations

Big data has become a buzzword in corporate America in the past couple of years. Today, it finds many applications in the world of venture capital, and companies seeking to survive in today’s business climate are compelled to learn how to harness its power.

In the domain of asset management, big data refers to huge volumes of datasets in which analysts may observe relationships, patterns, and trends. For the purpose of growing funds under one’s management, these large amounts of information may be processed – subjected to computations, rearrangements, and visualization, in order to help guide investment decision-making.

For venture capital in particular, big data can be useful in performing trends analysis, which will reveal the next big thing, or what they refer in the industry as “unicorns”. Tools may be employed to examine patterns of customer behavior, the credit scores of companies, the costs of targeted marketing, and the analytics of website traffic – all of which may reveal insights about the ventures that possess high growth potential and are worth investing in.

Indeed, these insights can guide venture capital managers in selecting which entities, out of thousands, to put their money in. Moreover, they might help in the conduct of comprehensive risk-benefit analysis. Or they can aid managers in composing sound business advice to the entities they decide to acquire, transform, or sell off. Finally, big data analysis might also concern societal problems whose solutions can be the idea for a startup.

These tasks may sound simple, but with big data, there are so many challenges that can hinder successful and speedy data mining, aggregation, and analysis.

For one, features should be able to organize information based on such parameters as source, relevance, and timeliness. The platform should allow for quick and effective data visualization, especially through catchy and easy-to-understand graphs and charts. There is also a need for digital space – a secure and cost-efficient one – for data storage and real-time access to and file sharing or collaboration between multiple parties.

Thankfully, select asset servicing firms have been providing means to use big data to spur growth in venture capital. These firms possess innovative technology for data management, and can scale these solutions according to the requirements of the asset category as well as the client asset managers. Definitely, they can offer valuable assistance in drawing critical insights, as well as boosting efficiency in operations, leading to the profitability of the assets under their watch.

Adopting cybersecurity principles in hedge fund management

Theoretically, the advent of more and more advanced technologies for hedge fund management should be a welcome development. They ease the workload, and they drastically reduce possibilities for errors. Cyberattacks, however, have become part of the daily realities fund managers now face.

If they are to effectively address this looming threat to successful hedge fund operation, firms need to employ the following cybersecurity principles in their performance of functions.

Be proactive. Do not wait for a cyberattack before taking steps to improve the company’s digital infrastructure. Assess the vulnerabilities of your system to any such breach, and invest the necessary tools and resources to respond to them. Tap an IT security expert, or send your IT personnel to training on cybersecurity. These days, fund managers may also get in touch with insurance providers to include network security in their coverage.

Set the rules for cybersecurity. Establish clear guidelines for people within and outside of your network who are all accessing your business data, and monitor compliance accordingly. Reward those who diligently observe them, and punish those who do not. This helps to promote a culture of vigilance and caution, one that also respects your company and your client-investors’ information.

Develop a plan for disaster recovery. Everyone in this day and age is susceptible to data breaches – even big tech companies, in fact. If a violation of privacy does occur, people in your company should know what to do. There should be a concrete plan for communicating the event to all stakeholders, the steps being taken to minimize its impact, and how it will be prevented in the future. There should also be stipulations for alternative IT resources available should parts of the company’s digital infrastructure seem compromised.

Best practices in cybersecurity for hedge funds

In the age of data, the world is treated to faster and cheaper ways to connect and share information – a most welcome development for businesses around the world. But for players in the hedge funds industry, this development has been double-edged, making it important for people in the business to be aware of the best practices for preventing cyber-attacks, and promoting security of one’s digital assets and investment data.

Publish a clear set of guidelines about allowable release of information. Cyber-attackers usually take advantage of those opportunities when employees can make judgment calls. The solution to this problem is the establishment of a clear set of guidelines about when information can be released, and the protocols to follow when executing such a release. Who are authorized to do it? What kind of entities can information be released to? What steps for verification should be conducted before acting on requests for data? Who is authorized to approve such requests? Through what channels can these data requests and releases be performed? And if there are suspicious requests, who should be informed? If these are stipulated clear as day, there would be no instance of a staff accommodating queries from an unidentified member of the press, through, say, a phone call.

Set up protections for all computer units. Especially when they are all connected to a network, all computer units should be equipped the latest anti-virus systems, security patches, and firewall. This is especially important for digital infrastructures that include cloud-based portfolio management systems that allow for real-time, multi-party viewing from different locations. Each unit must be protected and have an auto-lock measure when not in use. Other devices – for example, mobile phones – outside of the network should be vetted. It is also helpful to set up the computers of ordinary employees in user mode, so that only the accountable personnel, such as the IT staff, can make drastic changes to the system.

Create access limitations to files and gadgets. Not all files are kept among in-house personnel of the company. Sometimes, as they accomplish their data management tasks, they deal with suppliers, partners, brokers, and regulatory bodies. When sharing files with these parties, password protections would ensure that only the authorized people will be able to view documents. Same goes for such gadgets as company-issued laptops, phones, and thumb drives.

To create a secure fund management digital infrastructure, hedge funds will benefit from partnering with asset servicing firms.

Do Centers score more than other positions?

The center, once a great and notorious position executed by the greatness of the likes of Bill Russell, Wilt “The Stilt” Chamberlain, and Kareem Abdul Jabbar. These men dominated the game and the paint racking up numerous rebounds, points, and blocks on a nightly basis. The games back then were funneled through big men with pick and rolls and post ups being played out on every possession and was the go to means of scoring. Nowadays, boy have things changed. We have been blessed with the likes of the some of the deadliest shooters to ever play the game because the game itself has changed. Guys on the court are freaks of nature with most of them ranging closer to 7ft tall than 6ft with athleticism we have never seen before. That has evolved the game for a need of space. There is simply too much mass around the hoop. The hopes of first getting in the lane and then being able to huck a shot over 7ft 4 in wingspan of Kevin Durant is seemingly impossible.

So what the game has changed. Big men are still valued in things like NBA fantasy basketball right? Well to tell you the truth yes they are valued and necessary, but not for the same reason as they used to be. With teams electing to spread the court more to combat the athleticism of players, no longer are coaches sticking two behemoths out there and are now opting for as many sharp shooters as possible. That’s why nowadays NBA fantasy rankings are usually point guard and shooting forward heavy. There are two major reasons for this: these two positions more than any other are indispensable in the sense that someone will always have to be filling that kind of rule & players are these positions are double and triple double threats consistently filling up stat sheets. So the reason now, centers are valuable is because there are only a select few that actually provides value to their team. Those who do daily fantasy basketball analysis are as conscientious as ever of this trend in shrinking lineups and are careful as they proceed when selecting at this position. Not only does the playing style of the team’s center matter it is also extremely vital to be weary of who they are matched up against. Don’t be too riled up when a guy, like Andre Drummond, is basically a no show in the fantasy realm when he’s matched up against the electrifying Warriors.

The need for a reliable portfolio management system among hedge funds

Hedge fund management can be described as both a science and an art. It is an intricate series of processes that involve choosing the right blend of investment types and investment policies, the right allocation of assets to individuals and companies alike, and finding the right equilibrium between risk and performance. A portfolio management system is a handy tool for accomplishing these tasks.

Asset allocation is conducted in view of optimizing an investor’s risk/return profile by choosing the right long-term blend of assets. Different asset types, after all, do not work together like an orchestra performing a classical symphony; it could oftentimes be a case of controlled chaos. Proper asset allocation involves choosing a blended suite of assets, all of which having low correlation to each other, with the volatility of the blend depending on whether an investor tends to be aggressive or whether they prefer to play it safe.

Indeed, portfolio management features the difficult business of predicting which investments will generate profit and which ones will not, and this is where the element of diversification comes in. This involves distributing risk and reward within a specific class of assets, mitigating volatility at any given time, with the eventual goal of collecting returns of all asset classes.

Lastly, rebalancing allows an investor to maintain the blend of assets that is most indicative of their risk/return profile, so that their portfolio does not get unnecessarily exposed to higher risks and/or lower returns.

Portfolio management is a key element in ensuring the success of hedge funds. It requires the determination of core strengths and opportunities for development, ascertaining risk, identifying challenges, and doing all that with the primary goal of maximizing return on investments regardless of the risk involved.

Finding the right company that can provide an effective portfolio management system to handle all these functions can be daunting at times. But doing the right amount of research will always pay off, if the company turns out to be an asset servicing firm with years of experience, high-end, cloud-based technology that takes care of said portfolio management, and only the finest talent onboard to handle back office work and answer any questions a hedge fund manager may have. A commitment to integrity, quick and efficient delivery of reports, and a transparent way of doing business are also very important when it comes to choosing an asset servicing company to help out to this end.

The rise and rise of middle and back office outsourcing

The middle and back offices are the often unseen divisions of investment management firms. Their lack of visibility belie their importance, however, as these offices are responsible for processing the logistics of the deals brokered by the front office. In the capricious atmosphere of modern investing, where the competition for new money is getting fiercer and investment management technology is growing by leaps and bounds, decision-makers are searching for middle and back office solutions that they can leverage for better gains.

Evolution in investment operations support

Traditionally operated in-house, the middle and back offices provide crucial assistance to the front office’s dealings with clients via IT, human resources, accounting, risk, and compliance support. When inefficiencies or fixed costs within these offices swell, they can become a key weakness in the investment management firm’s system, diverting resources away from the core tasks of fund decision-making and strategy. As these operations vary little from firm to firm, the middle and back offices began to be considered as commodities that can be replicated by capable third-party providers.

This development opened up the industry to the possibilities of outsourcing their investment operations support. Outsourcing’s immediate appeal stems from the prospect of reducing the capital outlay and opportunity costs involved in maintaining their own middle and back office operations. Despite these advantages, however, many investment management companies remain reluctant to outsource a part or all of these offices. According to a white paper by BNP Paribas, fear over the loss of control over these support functions is the top reason for this reluctance.

Focus on added value

While such a reservation is warranted, it must be noted that due to the competitiveness of the asset servicing industry, asset servicing firms are going above and beyond the mere provision of operations and technical solutions. They optimize the latest innovations in investment management to deliver services such as data aggregation and normalization across all asset classes, connectivity to a diverse group of prime brokers and custodian banks, mobile data management, and data warehousing – all of which lead to the kind of effective decision support that enables asset management firms to concentrate on their core competencies.

According to the BNP Paribas white paper, the market for outsourcing can be considered as mid-way to maturity. For the investment management industry, it’s an exciting time: asset servicing companies will only become more sophisticated, giving the asset manager a wealth of solutions more varied than before.

Portfolio management system aids in compliance

After the numerous controversies that cast doubt on the practices of some entities in the financial sector, lawmakers and industry authorities have formulated various policies aimed to protect the right of client investors, and ensure that asset management practices truly serve to boost the economy. Compliance with these rules have since become a crucial component of a firm’s operations, and for this a portfolio management system comes in handy.

This tool allows firms to deal with the growing demand among investors for transparency regarding trades involving their funds. Moreover, it aids asset managers as they try to adhere with the complex requirements of SEC and CFTC, among other regulatory bodies.

Portfolio management systems are particularly important in keeping records of trades, as well as the generation of files or reports therefrom. More importantly, the top-of-the-line kinds can present the data in ways that facilitate easy comparison of different portfolios, to guide future actions on the assets in question.

While there is a call among client investors for improved transparency, confidentiality remains paramount for select data among industry players, and an asset manager should find a software that enables this. Data protection is promoted through such features as audit trail, encryption, and control access.

A portfolio management system can also act as a virtual assistant of sorts, by releasing automated reminders about the deadlines for filing reports or documents. And for this purpose, they can deliver the needed files easily, through a data warehousing solution that offers secure access to authorized users anywhere in the globe where there is internet connectivity.

As for regulations regarding the assurance to make the best investment decisions for their client investors, this technology also allows for optimized performance of the portfolio, through its capability to display all data based on such categories as asset class, currency, and price points, allowing for insightful comparisons.

Finally, industry regulations call for asset management technologies that are backed by provisions for disaster recovery. The solutions’ makers should be able to answer the following questions: What happens to all the client transactions involving assets under their management in the event of a disaster? How long will the system be up and running again? What are their back-up plans to ensure business continuity in case of these scenarios?

Through the best-of-breed portfolio management solutions, even today’s small and mid-sized asset managers can conveniently take on the compliance challenge that comes with the business.

Social Media Marketing: Questions to Ask Before Hitting the Post Button

Almost all businesses today recognize the importance of establishing a presence on social social media. Marketing teams now devote time to building company profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and the like, with many enlisting staff to manage the communities in these websites full-time.

These community managers are tasked to gather content for publication, moderate the pages, and respond to user actions. The first task entails serious deliberation to find the most catchy and informative material that also effectively delivers the brand messaging. Here are questions these managers need to ask themselves before hitting the ‘post’ button:

Is the message clear and concise? What is the key takeaway for the post that’s about to be published? Can this be easily gleaned from the entire material? Social media is not for winding content because people can quickly get distracted. Determine if you have different points that can be published as separate posts. Just condense the message into a sentence or two for Facebook, and 140 characters for Twitter. For longer ones, such as official statements, direct them to a page where they can read it in full. If it is a photo album or a video, always compose a description that summarize what it is about, because not everyone will actually click on it. And if you’re going to include a link, use a link shortener site like bit.ly.

Double-check for spelling, grammar, and factual basis. Your goal in social media marketing is to build your company’s online image especially as a brand that can be relied on for updated information especially regarding the latest industry developments. This should translate to your credibility as the source of high-quality products and/or services. Do live up to this image by posting things only after they have been thoroughly checked for spelling, grammar, and most importantly, basis in fact that can withstand the scrutiny of discerning consumers and your competition.

Is there a call to action? What exactly is the action you want your viewers to take after reading your post? You would probably want them to do any of the following: Visit your brick-and-mortar stores/branches, check out your website, call your telephone, or provide their email address. Make sure any of these options is clearly indicated towards the end of your post. You can also install it as the pop-up button before they leave your page.

Partner with experts in digital marketing to master the rules of social media marketing.

Why Successful Multi-manager Funds Require a Sound Portfolio Management System

Due to the complex and pluralistic operational structure of the financial category they typify, multi-manager funds such as private equity, venture capital, and hedge funds involve gathering, processing, and interpreting copious amounts of information from many different sources, and conveying all relevant results and figures to a similarly long list of respective outposts and destinations, at many different times, to produce absolute returns while minimizing risk exposure.

Unlike traditional investment products like bonds, stocks, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, money market funds, and real estate trusts, multi-manager funds are often unregulated, and composition usually involves a fund manager or general partner, several other contributing stakeholders, and a fast-paced, highly integrated culture of heavy, day-to-day information exchange and analysis. Naturally, a dedicated staff able to render daily accounting and communications assistance, back and middle office support services, as well as the existence of an all-encompassing, intuitive-use portfolio management system are, for investment instruments of this kind, absolutely essential.

Luckily, the best of today’s asset servicing firms can now provide extensive asset management assistance tailored specifically for alternative, multi-manager type investment partnerships and funds. These cloud-based solutions for multi-manager funds bring forth such features as all-inclusive automated reporting, with dispatches from a state-of-the-art virtual information hub easily accessed by fund managers and investors alike online. Boasting technology that smoothly and seamlessly consolidates data from many different sources into a single, centralized nerve center, their branded financial reporting framework minimizes error, eliminates redundancies, and optimizes asset and fund performance measurements for easier tracking and decision making.

The leading portfolio management software also offer such features as widget-based fields, screens, and reports that are highly customizable per user, so that data can be added, moved, or deleted as user sees suitable therein, and a nifty performance analysis feature allowing the user to study, review, and evaluate portfolio holdings by country, region, investment strategy, asset class, and industry sector, where users can review how contribution, price, interest rate, or foreign exchange rate impacts their profits and losses statements.

Using state-of-the art portfolio management systems, fund managers, general partners, and investors can find and edit pertinent, investor-specific documents and files, such as financial statements, capital calculations, capital calls and distributions, and tax returns sheets, just to name a few. Further, they offer turnkey document management and handling for recording subscriptions, redemptions, capital calls, and capital gains and income distributions.

Truly, technology can help fund managers make sound value judgments, at all the right moments, for only the best numbers.

Social Media Marketing Principles to Live By

Today, companies are expected to establish social media marketing presence. Below are some basic principles to observe, when using this new platform to promote your brand.

Quality trumps quantity. While it is good pratice to aim for continued growth in following, it is important for an organization to carefully assess the kind of relationship it builds with its community. You can have a million followers on Twitter, but have very minimal engagement with them simply because your posts are out of touch, and you acquired them through questionable or downright bad practices. For example, you follow everyone – without evaluating your actual connection with each user – to hopefully be followed back. The result is nothing but a bloated number of followers who may not have the slightest interest in who you are or what you do. Or you come up with or share posts that pander to your market (e.g. memes that are funny and will surely get a lot of likes), but which do not really effectively communicate what you offer as an organization. Do choose whom to follow, and be meticulous about what you put out there to represent your business.

It is not always about you. Social media is often blamed for the promotion of narcissistic behavior. You should not be drawn into this culture. While your pages are supposed to market your organization, sometimes the best way to promote yourself is by talking about entities or subjects other than you. Share informative news or business articles, laud innovations that are being launched in your industry, and talk about the people who are changing your field. This way, you are establishing your business as a resource of messages with real value, and not just materials meant to boost your brand.

Engagement is key. Social media’s primary advantage over other marketing platforms is the opportunity it offers for real-time public interaction between a brand and its customers or clients. It is then very important for businesses to truly engage their target market. Social media-savvy companies implement regular and exhaustive monitoring, and respond as soon as possible to each feedback or post that mentions their brand. They acknowledge both positive and negative comments, and reach out to the users in a way that reflects their commitment to good customer service.

Get in touch with experts in digital marketing today to learn more about the effective use of social media for marketing platforms.

Hedge Fund Administration: Answering the Fund Manager’s Needs Through Technology

Hedge fund administration is a flourishing industry. Today 80% of assets under management (AUM) are administered by a third party. Forty-one percent of these assets are handled by the top 5 biggest players in the industry, while 59% employ smaller fund administration companies.

The growth of the hedge fund administration business was bolstered by the financial crisis. Due to a plethora of issues that threatened to tarnish the reputation of the hedge fund industry, fund managers have learned to prioritize not just return of investment, but also clean and efficient operations.

What investors want

Another driver of the growing industry is the change of mindset among investors. In the past few years, institutional investors have contributed enormous capital to hedge funds, resulting in fund managers learning to pay more attention to the demand of such clients.

Institutional investors are notorious for being fastidious about operational transparency. Unlike clients of old who simply cared about returns, institutional investors need assurance that the fees they pay for are going towards the overall improvement of the business which handles their money. This means they also care about operational integrity and regulatory compliance.

Beta plus data

Aside from operational transparency, today’s investors demand daily data. They want quick and accurate reporting that will give insight into their manager’s performance and daily decisions. According to an executive from one of the top 5 fund administrators in the U.S., administrators are currently meeting 60% of client demand for data. This demand will continue to grow as the advancement of reporting technology lead to increased client expectations.

Service through technology

With the rise of hedge fund administration, what differentiates the best from the rest are the way they leverage technology to answer the needs of fund managers. Great fund administrators anticipate the changing needs of the market, have an in-depth understanding of the hedge fund industry, and are frontrunners of innovation. As industry experts, they develop products that help fund managers achieve effective performance and efficient operations.

Business with integrity

The most competitive fund administrators in the market offer not just portfolio management, but also accounting, liquidity management, document management, data warehousing, and other tools and resources that improve the reliability and integrity of the fund manager’s operations.

Hedge fund administration cannot grow without technology, and the best managers are aware of this. With the right technology infrastructure, reporting, transparency, and data management can be handled reliably, contributing to a hedge fund manager’s success and the long-term growth of their company.

Online Reputation: Why Reputation Management is a Sound Investment

These days, managing one’s online reputation has become an integral part of business marketing operations. However, not every company goes as far as enlisting the help of digital marketing and reputation management experts to do the job. This is quite understandable especially for those with budgetary constraints; that is, until one looks at the following points about the value of investing in this service.

People turn to the net for information. Today, just about everyone turns to the internet to find information about their needed products and services, or ask their loved ones to “google it” for them. A solid online reputation is a sound investment because it generally creates leads. A good review on TripAdvisor for your accommodation package or dining establishment is sure to draw visitors, while also cementing the good memories for those who have come before. A bad review, on the other hand, can easily turn the people away from your business.

You can focus on your core competency. By outsourcing to an internet reputation expert, you are also “buying” the very valuable resources for your business: your time, effort, and manpower. You can pour all of these instead on the things you do best: your core competencies. If you are an information technology solutions provider, your people can focus their creative energies on making innovations, instead of monitoring negative writeups about your company. If you are a clothing label, you can start designing your next groundbreaking collection, instead of reporting and blocking spammers on your brand’s Facebook page or Tumblr account.

The experts can make your existing good assets count. Surely, your brand owns a good number of assets, be they positive feedback on review websites or consumer groups, blog entries about people’s experience using your product or service, or even a news or features article published on an online magazine or newspaper. It’s absolutely nice to have all these, but are you getting the most out of them? Do they enjoy visibility, so that they provide your brand the exposure it deserves? With the help of an internet reputation management expert, you can optimize these assets so that they truly work to your company’s advantage.

For more ideas on managing your brand or company’s online reputation, get in touch with an expert provider of a full range of marketing solutions. They can also aid you in making a spot evaluation of how your business is perceived.

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