Demand is rising but there are no clear winners in these areas, unlike the lock by SAP and Oracle on ERP.
The race for pre-eminence in derivatives valuation and exposure forecasting systems is still too early to call. An increasing demand for sophisticated solutions in these markets caused by the crisis and treasury’s overall emphasis on getting its own independent analytics has increased competition, but not narrowed the field as much as in other areas. That’s according to results of a recent survey of about 35 companies in The NeuGroup’s FX managers’ peer groups. And it is in sharp contrast to the world of ERP, where SAP and Oracle are the clear leaders.
According to the survey, FX managers use a host of companies, banks and in-house systems, often in combination, to value their derivative holdings. These include Bloomberg, HedgeTrackers, Reval, Wall Street Systems, Fincad, SAP, Oracle, Quantum, Cognos and Excel. For exposure forecasting, managers primarily do it manually, aided by the ubiquitous Excel spreadsheet, with only a smattering of name-brand offerings like Oracle and Quantum mentioned.
Meanwhile, for ERP systems, SAP and Oracle dominate the field, according to the survey, with SAP the clear winner at 61 percent versus 39 percent for Oracle. For FX e-trading platforms, the clear favorite is FXall, with 86 percent of respondents saying they use the system. The balance of respondents uses either 360T, Reval or Currenex. For FX settlement, the FXall is also the leader, although followed closely by Mysis.
Finally, although the treasury management system field is also crowded, the favorite (although not so dominant) is Quantum (32 percent) followed by SunGard (16 percent) and Wall Street (12 percent). Other systems used include Oracle, Kyriba, Selkirk, F1RST, Treasura and Excel.