What softwares do they use ? How do they research on different companies ? Where do they get their news from ?
What kind of resources do mutual fund managers, hedge funds and major broking houses have access to?
Each of these entities are different. Usually a Hedge fund will have a dedicated team of analyst, access to bloomberg, simulation software, modeling s/w, RMS-OMS software etc.
Suggest you read this to understand how they do research - http://zerodha.com/varsity/module/fundamental-analysis/