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Buy-side order-management systems are being impacted by demand for electronic trading, continuous compliance and new requirements to handle complex derivative instruments, say vendors exhibiting at this year's SIA Technology Management Show and Conference.

Electronic trading is probably the number one trend driving the initiatives at Charles River Development, says Tom Driscoll, the firm's vice president of sales. "We're seeing interest in connectivity to ECNs, as well as crossing networks and alternative trading systems like LiquidNet and Harborside+," Driscoll says.

On the fixed-income side, there is increased demand for interfaces to MarketAxess and TradeWeb and an uptick in the usage of the Financial Information Exchange (FIX) protocol for fixed income. According to Driscoll, "Fixed-income trading via FIX was little-to-none, and in the last year or so it started to creep up."

"The OMS becomes the cockpit that allows connectivity to all these destinations," he continues. What's driving the connectivity is the need to get best execution, he adds, noting that it typically involves some level of electronic trading, particularly with crossing networks, because that's where the buy side is executing large block orders anonymously.