Despite the bleak outlook that has often given to sell-side research, buy-side firms actually value sell-side research — particularly corporate access and one-on-one-meetings, according to a recent study of asset managers conducted by Thomson Extel Surveys.

The buy-side is turning to the broker voting process to value the research they are consuming, says Diana Blaney, director for North America at Thomson Extel Surveys, who authored a whitepaper on the subject. The vendor conducted a Broker Voting Study in which more than 50 asset management firms worldwide responded to questions on how they value research and what is their broker voting process.

"When we say that equity research is going to survive, it's not just the written research reports. I'm talking about all the equity research and all the services," says Blaney in an interview with Wall Street & Technology. In their responses, asset managers indicated that corporate access, thematic ideas and one-on-ones set up by the sell-side are of value. "The buy-side wants to go to the sell-side if there is something going on in the market," says Blaney. "They are our quickest view into the ramifications. There is certainly value there," adds Blaney in the interview.

One of the new positions on the buy-side is director of corporate access, which is someone who manages their relationship with the sell side to get corporate access. This includes "everything from a meeting with an industry expert, to a field trip to a road trip to a conference, but a lot of the value is on the one-on-ones," says Blaney.

On the one hand, side firms are using this information from the broker vote as a way to compensate the sell-side analysts with commissions. Internally, buy-side firms are using broker voting process to place a value on the research so they can justify how they are allocating their client commission dollars. In addition, the buy-side research departments have grown and they use the sell-side research as a confirmation of their own ideas.

"The buy-side is saying internally (it) need(s) to know what its portfolio managers are using. They need to know if they attend a meeting, they need to put a minimum value on the cost of attending that meeting," says Blaney in the interview. "The internal research departments on the buy-side have gotten so huge. They have to get a handle on what they're using internally versus externally," says Blaney.