BUYSIDE BRIEFS

- Outsell, Inc., an information industry research and advisory firm, is conducting a multi-client benchmark on the information buying and management operations of the world's largest investment banks and money managers. The Investment Banking Industry Benchmark study will provide information and analysis to assess information center operations in the context of spending, planning, content deployment, and best practices among the largest investment banks and money managers worldwide. Outsell is benchmarking global investment banks of similar scope and size. The study includes investment banks and investment-banking units of diversified financial services companies with more than $600 million in assets.

- SS&C Technologies has appointed eight new executives. They are Steve Kremidas as Vice President Development; Michael Doyle as Vice President,Direct; Beth Mercier as Vice President, SS&C Direct Marketing; Catherine Gorman as Vice President of Development for Hedge Fund and Private Wealth Products; James Merrick as Vice President of Special Development Projects; Gary Schiessl as Vice President of CAMRA Development; Robert Beckius as Senior Developer for Real Estate Products, and Robert Cummings as Senior Director of Internet Strategy.

- The MacGregor Group, a provider of buy-side trade order management systems (OMS) and FIX network services, announced that Hermes Pensions Management Limited (Hermes) has selected the MacGregor Financial Trading Platform (MFTP). MFTP will automate 10 trading desks with 58 users, providing order management, portfolio modeling, rebalancing, and compliance across all instruments. MFTP is a real-time trade order management system that automates the trading process. MFTP is global and supports a wide range of security types and multiple currencies. It also helps eliminates paper flow and double entry of data.

- BNY Clearing Services, a subsidiary of The Bank of New York, has been chosen by Bloomberg Tradebook as the exclusive clearing agent for its newly developed electronic fixed-income trading system. Tradebook's fixed-income system, partly modeled after its equity trading system, is an open central-display and matching system for various fixed-income securities that will serve to facilitate trading among institutions and broker dealers in the secondary fixed-income market. Initially, fixed-income products that can settle through the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, Federal Reserve Book Entry System, Euroclear and Clearstream will be eligible for the system.