Unlocking Asset Management System Efficiencies in a Shifting Landscape

Every trading day, asset managers must navigate a complex maze of applications to carry out their daily tasks – toggling between OMS platforms, spreadsheets, analytics dashboards and chat tools, all while racing the clock to execute, analyze and report. When these systems don’t talk to each other, it’s a threat to productivity, precision and alpha.

While these challenges are longstanding, the stakes have never been higher: the institutional asset management industry is facing a pivotal inflection point. As margins tighten and competitive pressures mount, firms are rethinking how to drive productivity without overhauling their tech stacks. Technology modernization is no longer optional – it’s essential to stay competitive.

Enterprise browsers offer a new way forward. By enabling critical systems like order and portfolio management, market data, transaction cost analysis (TCA), analytics dashboards and messaging platforms to interoperate securely within a single interface, they eliminate context switching and unlock real efficiency gains. In this article, we’ll explore the key trends shaping the future of asset management technology infrastructure and how enterprise browsers like HERE are helping teams meet the moment.

Legacy Tech Migration

The Reality: Many asset managers continue to depend on legacy OMS, PMS and Excel-based workflows. While firms are increasingly migrating to cloud platforms and adopting modular SaaS tools, the shift is far from complete. Regardless of the selected method, their overall goals are to improve data accessibility, reduce technical debt and enable real-time collaboration across teams.

The Pain Point: Legacy technology hampers workflow agility. Asset managers often juggle a patchwork of systems – from desktop-based tools to newer cloud-native apps – resulting in constant context switching, performance lags and a frustrating user experience. This inefficiency not only slows down critical investment decision-making but also poses challenges for attracting and retaining top tech-savvy talent.

The HERE Solution: HERE Enterprise Browser brings legacy and modern systems together under one secure, policy-controlled environment. It enables seamless access to critical tools (including through configurable Supertabs) while preserving context across applications, enabling users to share intent and data in a permissioned and compliant way.

Data as a Strategic Asset

The Reality: In today’s markets, data is a strategic asset for productivity and alpha generation. Firms are investing heavily in centralized data platforms, data lakes and governance frameworks. On the front lines, portfolio managers and analysts want self-serve access to clean, normalized data of all varieties, spanning market data, ESG metrics, risk exposure, alternative assets and beyond. As a result, data science teams and citizen analysts are becoming embedded within investment teams.

The Pain Point: The challenge at hand is balancing democratized access with strict control over data quality. On any given day, a portfolio manager might toggle between a dozen platforms just to compile a basic risk snapshot or performance report. When systems don’t interoperate, valuable time is lost stitching together data – time that could otherwise be spent on high-impact decision-making.

The HERE Solution: HERE Enterprise Browser provides a single, secure interface to access and search across all applications for relevant data. With functions like SuperSearch and built-in interoperability, portfolio managers can search inside and across all apps to quickly locate, aggregate and act on relevant insights without switching tabs or losing context – all while maintaining strict governance and permission controls.

AI for Alpha Generation

The Reality: Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping asset management, with automation spanning the front, middle and back office. Investment teams are using AI to ingest documents like earnings reports and contracts, run sentiment analysis on news and social media and synthesize research faster than ever. Generative AI is also being piloted for tasks ranging from client communications to internal knowledge retrieval.

The Pain Point: Despite the momentum, many firms remain in the experimentation phase with GenAI, held back by concerns around explainability, compliance and secure deployment. Data scientists often work with external tools that require strict isolation and security controls, limiting wider adoption and slowing down iteration cycles.

The HERE Solution: HERE Enterprise Browser enables secure AI integration within the browser workflow. With app-level controls and built-in data loss prevention, firms can confidently experiment in a flexible, integrated environment. With our recently launched AI Center, organizations can embed their preferred AI models – whether it’s ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini or a proprietary LLM – directly into their employees’ daily workflows.

Hybrid Work Enablement & Digital Collaboration

The Reality: The future of work is hybrid, and expectations have permanently shifted. Today’s investment professionals demand the same secure, high-performance experience whether they’re in the office or working remotely. To meet these expectations, firms are embracing Slack and Teams integrations, virtual data rooms, cloud-based research platforms, digital meeting tools and bring-your-own-device policies. In 2025, flexibility is not just a perk – it’s a competitive advantage for both productivity and talent retention.

The Pain Point: With multiple teams operating across locations and time zones, maintaining secure, streamlined communication is a constant and ever-evolving challenge. Portfolio managers need to collaborate in real time with both internal team members and clients without sacrificing performance or creating new risks. Fragmented tools and inconsistent, disjointed workflows can slow execution and weaken team alignment.

The HERE Solution: HERE Enterprise Browser delivers a unified, policy-controlled workspace that supports secure access to all tools – no matter where employees are located. With centralized controls and a consistently smooth user experience, firms can ensure that productivity and security go hand in hand. Whether it’s trade execution, risk analysis or internal messaging, every workflow is at your fingertips.

Locking Down Cybersecurity & Compliance

The Reality: As asset managers grow their digital infrastructure, their exposure to cyber risk grows in tandem. Regulatory bodies like the SEC and ESMA are ramping up scrutiny, and requirements around ESG and operational resilience are prompting a rethinking of controls. In response, more firms are investing in zero-trust security, identity and access management (IAM) and compliance automation.

The Pain Point: Managing sensitive client data, financial models and trading activity in a high-pressure, high-stakes environment means there’s zero margin for error. The risk of data leakage – whether through unauthorized downloads or unsecured app access – poses serious compliance and reputational threats. With hybrid work in the mix, firms need granular, enforceable controls that go beyond the basic defenses.

The HERE Solution: Built on Google Chromium, HERE Enterprise Browser offers an enterprise-grade zero-trust architecture that protects every user session. App-specific controls prevent unauthorized copy-paste, screen captures and more – all governed by fine-grained data loss prevention (DLP) policies managed by IT and compliance teams. Activity is fully auditable, enabling firms to meet internal security standards and external regulatory obligations.

The Future of Asset Management Is HERE
Asset managers today need more than just faster tools – they need a connected, streamlined experience that eliminates friction, enhances agility and unlocks real-time insight across trading, risk and research workflows. With HERE, firms can achieve a holistic view of market activity, performance and operational risk – all through a simple, scalable solution that layers seamlessly over existing infrastructure.

Ready to unify your desktop and streamline your systems? Get in touch to demo the only enterprise browser purpose-built for the future of work.