SS&C Eze’s Innovation Challenge: Back and Better Than Ever

The Innovation Challenge is just one example of SS&C Eze’s culture of innovation at work. It’s an annual competition where teams self-assemble around an idea and collaborate intensely over two days, creatively tackling any market problem or project that interests them. After two days of coding, employees produce real-world solutions which are evaluated based on degree of technological innovation, practical value to our clients or internal processes, and completeness. The top-scoring teams then compete head-to-head in the Battle of the Champions.

The Innovation Challenge has been incredibly beneficial to our organization, inspiring countless new solutions and advancements over the years, many borne out of problems our clients are trying to solve. It has also been invaluable in building camaraderie and keeping morale high, especially in a remote environment, and in nurturing employee curiosity and creativity and furthering SS&C Eze’s culture of innovation. (You can read about some of the other ways SS&C Eze fosters the innovative mindsets necessary to build our next-gen technology here.)

Last year, 185 talented Eze employees from across the globe came together virtually to form nearly 40 teams. Competing in a remote environment posed some unique challenges, of course, but adaptability is a core value at SS&C Eze, and our teams thrived despite the change.

Entries ranged from portfolio visualizers and embedded trading insights to chatbots, tradebots, and voice-assisted automation, but, ultimately, the quick-entry trading ticket for Eze Eclipse came out on top. And this year’s competitors have some big shoes to fill – the quick-entry ticket allows users to trade from virtually any screen within the platform, such as an accounting report, improving trade entry speed by up to 70%. The new trading ticket was also the first Innovation Challenge project to not only be ready for production but released in the product before the winner was even crowned.

Since being named last year’s winner, the quick-entry trading ticket has been well received by Eze Eclipse users. According to the CFO at a long-time SS&C Eze client, it’s a neat way for PMs to be able to use the system in a cool new way. In recent weeks, we have seen as many as 225 orders placed via the ticket in a single day, and some clients are even using it as their primary means of order entry.

Click here to read more about last year's competition and see the winning entry in action.

I am pleased to return to coordinate the Innovation Challenge for its seventh year. Last year’s competition was fierce, and this year’s Challenge is shaping up to be no different. I am hearing a lot of enthusiasm and friendly competition among employees, and I look forward to checking in with them throughout the event to see how they put their great minds to work and, ultimately, what thrilling innovations they bring to the table.

This year, the competition format has received some exciting updates, which will allow SS&C Eze clients and partners to be more involved than ever before. In addition to our esteemed SS&C Eze judges, this year, the Challenge welcomes guest judges, including Charles Walters, Chief Information Officer at Bardin Hill Investment Partners. The guest judges will lend their expertise and first-hand experience as users of SS&C Eze products to help decide which innovation will take home the gold. We are also pleased to be able to share more of the Challenge than ever before on social media with live updates and behind-the-scenes footage from the competition.

To stay up to date on the competition and have a chance to support your favorite innovation in the Battle of the Champions, be sure to follow the #SSCEze and #LifeatSSCEze hashtags on LinkedIn!

To learn more about life at SS&C Eze, explore our open roles:

And to see our culture of innovation at work, learn more about SS&C Eze’s innovative solutions.