OVERVIEW

The Model Buy Side award recognizes best practices of technology usage in the portfolio management and trade execution life cycle within the management of institutionally held assets.

This is the main award that an institutional investment manager in the industry can receive from Celent. Please note this category does not include private client, advisory or wealth management services for HNW, mass affluent or retail investors. If you service this sector, please consider applying to be a Model Wealth Manager.

Submissions for our 2025 are now open, and will close on January 17, 2025.

We will announce our Model Buy Side winners at our flagship Innovation & Insight event on June 18, 2025.

Please be sure to read our FAQs carefully before submitting your nomination. Should you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to modelbuyside@celent.com.

NOMINATION TYPES

This year, we are looking for initiatives across all areas within institutional asset management supporting the portfolio management, trade execution and asset administration functions. While we welcome nominations based on a diversity of initiatives, we anticipate many to align with these areas:

• Advanced execution
• Compliance
• Investment research
• Data and analytics
• Decision support
• Digitalization
• Ecosystem and business model innovation
• Future of work
• Front to back operating model paradigms
• Market and investment risk
• Operational Alpha and front office enablement
• Strategic sourcing (Outsourcing, Managed Services, Insourcing)
• Nextgen portfolio management
• Technology infrastructure modernization (high performance cloud stack, APIs, AI/ML ,etc)

Essential information:

• The nomination must be submitted by a Financial Institution (FI) on the “Buy Side” (e.g. institutional asset manager, fund manager, hedge fund, etc.). We welcome technology vendors to encourage their Buy Side clients to participate, but vendors themselves are not eligible for an award. However, vendor partners named in the FI’s submission will receive recognition e.g. named in the awards ceremony and in the related report(s) and blog(s) on the winning submission.
• All nominations must be submitted online.
• The FIs are welcome to submit multiple nominations, but they must be substantively different. Do not submit the same initiative more than once.
• There is no fee to submit the nominations and nominating institutions need not be a Celent client.
• We plan to recognize one FI as the overall Model Buy Side of the Year but reserve the right to recognize additional winners in specific categories.
• We judge the initiatives on three evaluation criteria: demonstrable business benefits, degree of innovation, and technology or implementation excellence.
• Celent will work with each winner to publish a case study of their winning initiative, which will be available for Celent Capital Markets research subscription clients. The FI will have the opportunity to review and approve the draft before publication. Celent subscribers can access an example case study here.
• Before submitting your application, please review our extensive FAQ section for further information. If you still have any questions, please contact us at modelbuyside@celent.com.

INNOVATION & INSIGHT DAY 2024

Interested in learning more about the program?

Visit our I&I Day 2024 hub page where you can watch interviews with last year's winners, hear from our team on the key trends and themes from the 2024 program, and watch our fireside chat between Zilvinas Bareisis, Head of Retail Banking and Payments, and Chunka Mui. They discuss many topics, from AI to climate change to trust, and how financial institutions can embrace, navigate, and shape the changing world.