CASE STUDY

Powering agile growth: How Osmosis NL built a future-proof investment solution with Bloomberg

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Osmosis NL

Osmosis NL, a forward-thinking asset manager, was founded with the core belief that technology could enable a lean team to achieve institutional-grade research capacity and operational agility. Facing the challenge of building its infrastructure from scratch without the burden of legacy systems, Osmosis NL sought to avoid the high costs and complexities of multi-vendor integrations. By partnering with Bloomberg, Osmosis NL implemented a comprehensive, integrated solution for its entire front-office. This strategic decision has empowered their portfolio managers, streamlined workflows, reduced operational costs, and ultimately translated into superior value and lower fees for their clients.

Osmosis Investment Management NL is a modern asset manager committed to leveraging cutting-edge technology to scale efficiently while maintaining the agility and focus of a boutique operation. With a vision to build an innovative AI-driven research system, Osmosis NL designed its infrastructure from the ground up to empower its analysts and portfolio managers, enabling them to deliver superior outcomes for clients.

Key insights

Osmosis NL’s strategic partnership with Bloomberg allowed the firm to build a sophisticated and scalable front-office infrastructure from inception, sidestepping the complexities and costs of multi-vendor system integrations.

Bloomberg’s comprehensive suite provides an integrated solution for portfolio management, research, trading, risk management, and restrictions, enabling Osmosis NL’s portfolio managers to dedicate more time to research and investment decision-making

The operational efficiencies achieved through Bloomberg’s solutions translate directly to client advantages, including lower management fees, enhanced potential for performance through improved research, and robust risk management, all within an institutional-grade framework.

“Our core belief is that the use of technology will help us to scale while maintaining the agility and focus of a small firm. Technology makes a small company big. We are committed to this approach throughout our firm.”

Jankees Ruizeveld
Head of Research and Technology, Osmosis NL

Situation

As a newly established asset manager, Osmosis NL had the unique advantage of designing its technological infrastructure without the encumbrance of legacy systems. Their foundational philosophy was to harness technology to achieve significant research capabilities comparable to larger institutions, yet operate with the leanness and agility of a smaller firm. This included plans for an innovative AI-driven system for credit research and an automated proprietary financial database. The primary goal was to empower portfolio managers to maximize their time on research and strategic investment decisions rather than system management.

Osmosis NL recognized that a modern, integrated technology stack was paramount to:

Scaling the business efficiently.

Maintaining agility in a dynamic market.

Delivering institutional-grade investment processes from day one.

Problem

The primary challenge for Osmosis NL was to build this advanced infrastructure while avoiding the pitfalls commonly associated with traditional IT build-outs in financial services. Specifically, Osmosis NL needed to:

Avoid substantial costs:

Circumvent the high expenses associated with purchasing systems from multiple vendors and the subsequent integration and maintenance overhead.

Eliminate integration complexity:

Prevent the creation of a complex web of interfaces where modifications to one component could necessitate extensive, costly adjustments across the entire technology stack.

Ensure system cohesion:

Implement a solution where all front-office components worked seamlessly together, rather than as disparate, bolted-on parts.

Maximize portfolio manager focus:

Ensure the chosen system would free up portfolio managers from operational burdens, allowing them to concentrate on alpha generation.

Solution

Osmosis NL undertook a thorough evaluation to find a technology partner that could provide a comprehensive, integrated solution for its front-office operations. Bloomberg’s solutions were selected as the optimal fit to meet Osmosis NL’s strategic objectives.

Bloomberg delivered an end-to-end solution that consolidated Osmosis NL’s portfolio management, research, trading, risk management, and restrictions into a single, unified system. This approach immediately negated the need for complex, multi-vendor integration projects. Key components of the solution include:

Bloomberg AIM:

Providing leading order and investment management technology, forming the core of Osmosis NL’s front-office operations.

Integrated analytics & data:

Seamless access to Bloomberg’s portfolio and risk analytics (PORT) and the rich data available on the Bloomberg Terminal, empowering research and decision-making.

The integrated solution provided Osmosis NL with:

A unified front-office:

A single source of truth and streamlined workflows across all investment management functions.

Scalability & efficiency:

The ability to grow assets and client numbers without a linear increase in operational headcount or complexity.

Reduced operational risk:

Fewer manual processes and hand-offs, leading to greater accuracy and consistency.

Global support:

Access to Bloomberg’s extensive customer support network.

The implementation of Bloomberg’s solution has enabled Osmosis NL to realize its vision of a technologically advanced, agile, and efficient asset manager. Portfolio managers now spend significantly more time on value-additive research and investment decision-making. The firm can make faster investment decisions and apply changes to its portfolios at scale, translating these operational efficiencies directly into financial benefits for its clients through lower management fees, enhanced research capabilities, and improved risk management – all while maintaining institutional-grade investment processes

“Our portfolio managers now spend more time on research and investment decision-making rather than managing system interfaces. This integrated approach enables faster investment decisions, allows us to apply changes to portfolios at scale, and significantly reduces manual processes.”

Victor Verberk
CEO / CIO, Osmosis NL