Capital Markets Partner Guide 09

CAPITAL MARKETS2009PARTNER GUIDE

INTRODUCTION

FOREWORD

© 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.Microsoft, Active Directory, BizTalk, InfoPath, MicrosoftDynamics, Outlook, SharePoint, SQL Server, Visual Studio,Windows and Windows Server are either registeredtrademarks or trademarks of Microsoft in the US and/orother countries. The names of actual companies andproducts mentioned herein may be the trademarks oftheir respective owners.

Views expressed in this publication are not necessarilythose of Microsoft or Tudor Rose. Acceptance of companylistings does not imply official endorsement of theproducts or services concerned. While every care hasbeen taken to ensure accuracy of content, noresponsibility can be taken for any errors and/oromissions. Readers should take appropriate professionaladvice before acting on any issue raised herein.

The Capital Market Partner Guide 2009 was produced for Microsoft by Tudor Rose(+44 116 222 9900, www.tudor-rose.co.uk)

Capital Markets Partner Guide 2009

elcome to the Worldwide Capital Markets Partner Guide 2009.In the current economic environment and after having witnessed an unprecedenteddestruction of capital in their lifetime, established and battle hardened investment

professionals could be forgiven for staring wide-eyed at the range of challenges they face.In the last two years new regulation has been introduced that opened up the global markets

and intensified both the competitive environment and the need to prove compliance. As profitmargins shrink, institutions need to maximise profit from each client by making better use ofinformation and continuously reducing the time it takes to execute trades. They must achieveall of this in an increasingly tough global economy that is on the verge of introducing moreregulation and tougher processes that will once again change the playing field.Perhaps because of these unique challenges, the companies and departments that are active

in capital markets are often the first to embrace innovative new technologies. Success is awardedthose that can provide comprehensive customer service with split-second timing, andminimised risk using a flexible, scalable and low-cost platform that provides a rich userexperience.At Microsoft, we are frequently asked to help financial institutions solve difficult problems

such as minimising latency, maximising system performance, and improving informationmanagement and communication across channels. We work with a wide spectrum ofpartners around the world to deliver the performance and scalability that today’s investmentprofessionals – and their clients – demand.The Microsoft partners highlighted in this guide provide a range of software and services

that can help banks and capital markets firms to maximise profit, lower costs, minimise riskand ensure compliance in a fast-moving global business.I hope you will find this guide useful, thought provoking and informative.

Michel van LeeuwenManaging DirectorWorldwide Capital MarketsMicrosoft

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CONTENTS

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FEATURESPEND IT WISELY 2How Microsoft’s Advisor Platform can helpfinancial services enterprises differentiatethemselves by providing more holisticcustomer service

ON THE PLATFORM 8Sell-side capital markets firms face uniquechallenges in maximising the profitability ofinstitutional clients. Microsoft has developedthe Institutional Client Platform to address theirspecific needs

STRANGE LANDSCAPE 12Investment managers must give serious thoughtto their IT as they negotiate a changing businessand regulatory landscape

COMMENTARYTRADING FOR PROFIT ORTRADING TO COMPLY? 16Andy Hughes discusses how Microsoft canhelp traders focus on what they do best

CRM FOR WEALTHMANAGEMENT PROFESSIONALS 18Mainstay Partners assessed how wealthmanagement firms are using Dynamics CRM.Here are some examples

PROFILEDCITI 20Citi built its Tick Store Reg NMS solutionusing SQL Server

RAYMOND JAMES FINANCIAL 22Raymond James improved branch officeefficiency with an integrated CRM solution

REGNAN 24Institutional investment research firm Regnanimproved organisation, security and servicewith an integrated Microsoft environment

REUTERS 26Reuters used SQL Server and Windows Serverto achieve a scalable relational databasemanagement system

THOMSON FINANCIAL 28Thomson Financial used a range of Microsofttechnologies to refresh its Portia portfoliomanagement system

XENOMORPH 30Real-time analytics and data managementsolutions provider Xenomorph worked withMicrosoft to deliver high performance onstandards-based technology

DIRECTORYCOMPANIES A-Z 32The directory lists capital markets solutionsproviders alphabetically, with information onsolutions and contact details. It is a resourcedesigned to help you select the most appropriatepartner, rather than a recommendation.

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SPEND IT WISELY

hen you’re a financial advisor orwealth management professional, alot of money rests on your

decisions. Dealing with individual investorsis a pressured job – the different sets ofneeds to be assessed, monitored and advisedon are as varied and numerous as yourcustomers themselves. It’s not just themarkets in which they invest that change –personal circumstances such as familyresponsibilities can also have an impact ontheir investment needs.In addition to these pressures, financial

advisors are also facing the challenge ofattracting and retaining customers who arebecoming increasingly sophisticated anddemanding. Commoditisation of productsand transactions, and consumer demand formore convenience and value, mean thatservice is now a key competitivedifferentiator for financial advisors.

Indeed, with globalisation, the entry ofnon-financial institutions into the market,and an explosion of new investment vehicles,competition is becoming ever more intense.Advisors are on the frontline in the battle forcustomers. Financial services companies arelooking to increase advisor productivity byoffering a broad range of products andservices with greater convenience, and thefocus is shifting away from transaction feestowards a predictable fee based business.Meanwhile financial services enterprises

are pressured to increase revenue but at thesame time maximise their current ITinfrastructure investments and reduce theirtotal cost of ownership. Doing more withless and improving reporting transparencyfor risk, regulatory requirements andbusiness intelligence are areas that areincreasingly being focused upon in thecurrent economy.

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The role of technology in this environmentcannot be underestimated. By enablingalternative distribution channels such asonline sales and service, it is changing theway financial services companies compete.Accordingly, firms are increasingly focusedon the technology platforms that supportthem and turning to Microsoft for highlyscalable, secure and cost effective applicationplatform technology. Time and again,organisations acknowledge the ease of

deployment and savings leveraging Microsoftserver technologies..

THE TIME MIXBut simply throwing money at the problemisn’t the answer – in order to supportadvisors as part of a dynamic business, thesystem needs to be a part of the company’sstrategy, connecting information frommultiple systems and silos so that advisorscan see a full picture not only of how and

FINANCIAL SERVICES ENTERPRISES WANT TO DIFFERENTIATEBY PROVIDING MORE HOLISTIC AND SUPERIOR CUSTOMERSERVICE. UNDERLYING TECHNOLOGIES ARE THE KEY TOPROMOTING THE EFFICIENCIES THAT HELP TO ACHIEVE THIS”

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BRAD PRODGER, DIRECTOR, WORLDWIDE ADVISOR PLATFORM, MICROSOFT

when the customer has communicated withthe organisation, but also of the size andtype of transactions this has resulted in, howtheir needs are developing, and the productsand services that are most relevant to themnow. Customers want round-the-clock, up-to-the-minute service, and in order toprovide that, timing as well as knowledge iscritical – if advisors are to respond to clients’needs and maximise their profitability, theycan’t afford to miss an opportunity.“Because there is so much competition for

assets, financial services enterprises want todifferentiate by providing more holistic andsuperior customer service,” says Brad Prodger,who oversees the Microsoft Advisor Platform,a framework that enables just such anapproach. “Underlying technologies are thekey to promoting the efficiencies that help toachieve this. With Advisor Platform, we’repromoting operational efficiencies acrossthree channels – financial advisors, call centrerepresentatives and the ability to leveragethose same foundational technologies forinteractive client internet sites. The platformenables individual investor/client-facing staffto increase the amount of time they spendwith their client, and decrease the time spenton administration.”Building a platform that can change the

balance of time for advisors in this waypresents two major challenges for companies:integrating it throughout the business so itcan provide the right information andfunctionality; and ensuring that it is acceptedat all levels of the company, so that advisorscan and will work productively with it.

LOOKING FORWARDThat process of acceptance includeseveryone in the company, from businessdecision makers to technology decisionmakers, and ultimately end users. In thisrespect, the presence of Advisor Platform isgrowing due to its ability to offer aframework that integrates with all levels ofthe business – from the technology toemployees’ mindsets.“Advisor Platform is growing rapidly,

especially in Western Europe and theUnited States,” says Prodger. “There’s arealisation among financial institutions thatfinancial advisors and call centrerepresentatives are already familiar withMicrosoft technology – they use it every day,at home and at work, but the key to the

FEATURE


WE WANT TO GROW OUR COLLECTIVE KNOWLEDGE BASEAND DISTIL IT SO IT CAN BE OPENLY CONSUMED BYSUBSIDIARIES ACROSS THE GLOBE”

“

CRM is a major feature of the Advisor Platform,and here it benefits from the enhancedcapabilities of Dynamics CRM 4.0. “Integratedclient data is one of the essential building blocksof a CRM solution, and is the main objective ofmany CRM applications,” says Max Fatouretchi,Microsoft EMEA specialist for CRM in thefinancial industry. “Naturally, integrated clientdata is also useful for developing client profilesand segments, as well as for providing addedvalue and for serving customers individually.Client value traditionally depends on customerequity, which means that the customermonetary value to the organisation must be

OPEN ALL HOURS

BRAD PRODGER, DIRECTOR, WORLDWIDE ADVISOR PLATFORM, MICROSOFT

Advisor Platform is that those intuitivetechnologies are integrated to enterprisesystems and expose relevant informationwith powerful workflow capabilities.”Perhaps this level of familiarity is exactly

what is needed to stimulate a forward-lookingapproach. Europe is becoming recognised as acentre of financial services technologyinnovation, and the region’s financial firms areable to extend their vision beyond Microsoft’sundeniable strength as a client-tier technologycompany to include platform technology.Indeed, when it comes to a fully integratedsystem that all users will embrace, familiarityat the client level becomes a cornerstone ofthe platform’s strength.“In Western Europe,the culture is very forward-looking,” addsProdger. “Advisor Platform is selling intoinsurance, capital markets and bankingsectors because firms are open to innovativeways of promoting operational efficiencies atproven levels of security, scalability andcompetitive costs. Most importantly, theyrecognise that Advisor Platform enablestechnology departments and architects toassemble and orchestrate very large initiativesin a very short period of time.”

For Prodger, this rate of growth helps tobust the myth that initiatives like this mustentail high costs and 12-18 months of work.“By promoting operational efficiencies andhelping to improve the advisor-clientrelationship, the Advisor Platform has adirect impact on revenue and profitability,”he says. “But a strong contribution to that,and to its popularity overall, is that itencompasses many technologies fromMicrosoft that our clients find easier todeploy and customise over time, and thatend users find easy to work with.”

FUTURE PERFECTNo two advisor platforms are the same, aseach is tailored to the needs of theorganisation it serves. For example, while theplatform demonstration environmentincludes Dynamics CRM at its core, thismight not be the CRM platform of choice forcustomers. In this case, Microsoft’sframework is designed to easily integrate toenterprise CRM systems, financial planningtools, portfolio accounting utilities and legacysystems. Disparate data sources andapplications are connected through Web

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determined. Effective CRM gives the financialinstitution a view of the client and clientprofitability without neglecting client needs andrequirements, and it provides a generalapproach for putting the customer at the centreof attention.”“In the Advisor Platform demonstrationenvironment, Dynamics 4.0 is the system ofrecord for client data and drive data from variousapplications,” says Brad Prodger. “It becomes thesource of truth for advisor, call centrerepresentative and operations, to enable visibilityin the client relationship and interoperabilitywith other applications that support financial

advisors wherever they interface.”All CRM processes employed by a financialinstitution derive both from its strategy andvision for CRM, and from its focus on customerneeds, adds Fatouretchi: “Through CRM, theinstitution can better provide customers withthe appropriate products and customisedservices. To do that, it must know its customersand their needs. Customer profiles can bedeveloped to establish customer segmentationso that products and services can be tailored tocustomers, with the goal of increasing thelifetime of customer relationships and raisingthe share of wallet.”

services, while partner applications andMicrosoft technologies drive or communicatewith back-end systems.Advisor Platform is often implemented as

a collaborative portal that gives advisorscentralised access to client information andexpertise across the institution, helpingthem offer more holistic advice, increasecross-selling opportunities and enhanceregulatory compliance. But the collaborativenature of the concept extends far beyond theinstitution itself, due to the innovativedevelopment model behind it.“An important part of the framework is the

capabilities assessment utility we’recurrently constructing,” explains Prodger.“This enables us to ask questions about realbusiness challenges in the clientenvironment, but also to ask specifictechnology questions within the sameframework. This is a quick exercise, takingonly a couple of weeks, and it will result in aprescribed architecture that IT people canthen consume with actual .NET code onactual servers. Then they can use that tobuild a proof of concept themselves.”Again, Western Europe is among the

leaders in the collaborative developmentprocess. “Particularly in Western Europe, butalso in other parts of the world, there are

thought leaders who are picking what we’vebuilt as a core platform and making it muchbetter,” says Prodger, who envisions givingother parties access to those improvements,so that the demonstration environmentbecomes a ‘wiki’, a shared, collaborativedevelopment environment with businessdemonstration functionality. “Financialindustry leaders across the globe are askingfor that type of environment,” he says.

FEATURE


Advisor Platform comes in many shapes andsizes. Here are some examples of howfinancial institutions have benefited from it.

CitigroupCitigroup wanted to provide a Web-baseddelivery platform to distribute targeted andhighly personalised information from 270disparate data sources to its worldwideworkforce in its Global Corporate andInvestment Bank.It used Microsoft Windows Server System tocreate a. .NET Web application that builthighly customisable Web pages targeted at itsinvestment bankers.The system gave Citigroup increasedbusiness agility and responsiveness with anextremely rich and customisable Web-baseduser interface. Scalability was improved andthe organisation has benefited from anextensible content retrieval design, thatsupports new and existing document formats.In addition, the development and deploymentof mobile solutions has been simplified.“We created a portal which enabledindividuals to flexibly create their own viewswhile maintaining the rigours of a systemwhich could be relied on to ensure theintegrity of the information,” says Peter Estlin,CFO of global banking at Citigroup.

www.citigroup.com

SPRINGBOARD TO SUCCESS

“Part of what we want to do is toassemble this framework so that it’s easy toconsume, so we can leverage it to learnmore about the markets and captureintellectual property from those initiatives,”concludes Prodger. “We’ll then repurposethat learning so that over time, theframework will iteratively become strongerand stronger. We want to grow ourcollective knowledge base and distil it so it

can be openly consumed by subsidiariesacross the globe. We’re very much for anopen architecture that enables both thebusiness concept side and the technologyside to consume the information we create,to contribute their thought leadership inimproving that information, and throughtheir experiences with their clients, tocollaborate in building a growing base ofknowledge.”

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Raymond JamesRaymond James Financial is a globalfinancial services firm with more than 4,600advisors. Because 80 per cent of theseadvisors are independent contractors whooperate remotely, the company found itchallenging to share business andcustomer information. It needed acustomer relationship managementsolution that could support its remoteworkforce, integrate easily with existingbusiness systems, and offer compellingcapabilities to encourage widespreadadoption.With independent advisors in 2,200locations worldwide, IT management wasextremely decentralised; softwarestandards were not enforced, and contractadvisors were free to install the tools theypreferred. The company estimates that atone time, more than 2,500 different third-party databases were in use. Accessing keycustomer data was difficult for all but theadvisor who maintained the account, andinformation such as customer notes, bestpractices and reports, was not sharedamong the branch offices or between thebranches and main office. The disparatesystems also left the home office with nofeasible way to track customerrelationships and no central repository forthis valuable business information.

Raymond James adopted MicrosoftDynamics CRM as a global standard, withmore than 1,800 current users, and withplans to make the solution available tonearly 5,000 people across its branchoffices. Today, Raymond James offers apowerful solution that enhances customerservice, helps ensure regulatorycompliance, and integrates easily with thebusiness tools its advisors use every day.Features that help to streamline customerservice functions include customisableonscreen dashboards where advisors canaccess meeting notes, sales reports,forecasts and other customer data.Advisors are also able to take advantage ofthe notes pane feature, which providesusers with an intelligent way to recordfreeform information about customers andopportunities. The notes pane improvesthe user experience by automaticallyattaching date and user-stamped tags tocreate a chronological record ofinformation during a customer interaction,meeting, or other situation.“Being able to store all of our advisors’data in one centralised location is great,”says Shelly. “With all of our client data inone spot, Microsoft Dynamics CRM is ableto help us with compliance.”

www.raymondjames.com


verywhere you look, customers arebenefiting from an increasingnumber of channels and choices,

and making businesses work harder for theirshare of wallet. Financial services firms, likeother industries, have realised that in order tomaximise profitability, they need to improvetheir understanding of each customer. It hasbeen long recognised that businesses need a360-degree view of customer activity across allchannels and product lines, and this isreflected in growing investment in customerrelationship management (CRM)technologies. But for wholesale financialservices firms, there has been a lack of CRMsystems that specifically address thechallenges they face. That is, until now.“Sell-side capital markets financial

institutions such as broker-dealers are seeingdecreasing margins on the products they sell,”says IanWarford, EMEA industry director forcapital markets at Microsoft, which has joinedforces with GaleForce Solutions, InformationManagement Group (IMGroup), IPC andLab49 to launch the Institutional ClientPlatform. “It’s a very competitive market, withmany different product lines such as equities,foreign exchange, fixed income or derivatives.In this environment, simply selling productsisn’t a great way to make money. Increasingly,banks are trying to move their product focus,creating sales teams devoted to equity, foreignexchange and so on. They’re trying to get abetter picture of what their customers aretrying to achieve through their interactionwith them, so they can create cross-productselling opportunities.”“Institutional clients, like hedge funds, tend

to use investment banks as a servicesoperation,” says Vivake Gupta, founder ofLab49. “Many of the traders who nowwork

within hedge funds used to work at investmentbanks. As internal traders at the investmentbank, they were used to receiving in inordinateamount of functionality, detail and interactivityfrom their trading systems. As hedge funds getmore sophisticated, these, now external,traders are starting to demand the same levelof functionality that traders within the banksget, and they want it now.” This is just oneexample of increasing sophistication amonginstitutional clients, says Gupta.In order to provide that functionality,

broker-dealers must deal with a complex andshifting number of tools, says Colin Silvester,director of product management at IPC: “Thetrading environment is hugely complex. Inthe lifecycle of a trade, there are quite a fewdifferent tools or applications that tradershave to utilise, or refer to, or at least plan to –what is actually used is different case by case.”

THE NEED FOR CRM“The notion of using CRM to understandcustomer behaviour, profitability andhistorical communications is fundamental towealth management, and similarly for theinstitutional sell-side,” says Aziz Pirani,president and CEO of GaleForce Solutions,which brings to the Institutional ClientPlatform a wealth of experience gainedthrough its work on the Microsoft AdvisorPlatform. “The challenge today is that sell-sidesales organisations don’t know how tomonetise research by understanding how ittranslates into buy-side transactions. Theyneed to understand client profitability andbehaviour, and client preferences. It’s reallyabout understanding the client history,position, preferences and profitability, fromwhich you can gain insights into how youoptimise product mixes for those clients.”

ON THE PLATFORM

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“As banks become more sophisticated asservices operations, they’re realising that theydon’t have that much consolidatedinformation about the end user,” says Gupta.“As margins on institutional sales shrinkbecause of competitive pressure, banks needto improve the quality of every singleinteraction. Different parts of the bank dealwith institutional clients at different touchpoints, but each salesperson wishes theycould gather all that information together inone place and get a consolidated view of enduser – then they could have a rich telephoneconversation with them that actually dealswith their issues and problems.”The technology to achieve much of this

already exists – for example, rich Internetapplication technology such as Silverlightenables end users to do many routine tasksthemselves that they previously had to asksalespeople to do. But until now, littleattention has been paid to integrating thosetechnologies into a solution that specificallyaddresses the issues involved in institutionalclient relations. “Most of the financialinstitutions within capital markets have somekind of CRM,” says Silvester. “But as atechnology or application set for traders, it’sstill relatively in its infancy in terms of beingdeployed or utilised. Simplifying the routethrough a trade will also provide a commonbasis for information to be shared acrossthose tools, making the process considerablyless arduous for the trader.”“The vision for the Institutional Client

Platform is not simply a cross-product, singleview of the customer,” says Warford. “It’s asingle, cross-functional view of what thecustomer is doing. That’s a big dream, butincreasingly, as the credit crunch bites, banksare trying to achieve it.” Indeed, for an

INCREASINGLY, BANKS ARETRYING TO MOVE THEIR

PRODUCT FOCUS, CREATINGDEDICATED SALES TEAMS”

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IAN WARFORD, EMEA INDUSTRY DIRECTORFOR CAPITAL MARKETS, MICROSOFT


example of this, one only has to look at UBS,which is turning the focus of its investmentdivision towards corporate and institutionalclients while reducing the amount of capitalcommitted to real estate and securitisationbusiness.

A TIGHTLY FOCUSED TEAMThe Institutional Client Platform team isintentionally small, involving just fourpartners at this stage, each intent on creating atruly valuable solution. “It’s a very tight group,because we wanted to focus on ensuringquality and achieving something concrete thatwe can later extend outwards,” says Warford.“We’ve picked the best-of-breed products for

each area so that we have a solid story to tell,”adds Gupta. “Otherwise, you can end up withtwo or three products in each class of offering,and the solution becomes more of a marketingexercise than a real implementation exercise.We’re really interested in seeing this go live,rather than just spreading the names ofpartners around. Having a concretedeliverable is a big part of that.”

The calibre of the partners and their abilityto work together is an important factor withinthe partnership. “Microsoft has a significantfootprint in terms of deployed systemsthroughout our customer base, so we share asubstantial mutual customer sector,” saysSilvester. “We can work together efficiently tocreate a platform that has true relevance tocapital markets firms and their customers.”“The Institutional Client Platform is an

example of Microsoft’s commitment todemonstrating the talent it has in its ownecosystem, and to bring together sets of skillsthat address very particular market segments,”adds Pirani. “The project is very focused onthe biggest pain point in the market right now– sell-side client relationships andoptimisation – and it’s using best-of-breedsolutions to address this.”The team’s initial focus is on integrating

distribution, CRM and client analytics with theturret system – the high-end telephone systemused by traders and salespeople. “It’s a grandvision, but we needed to start small,”comments Warford. “We focused on the

The Institutional Client Platform integratesboth communications and communicationsinformation into the trading environment,significantly simplifying the route through atrade while enriching customer relationships.“It’s an extremely simple process to launch aphone call and talk to the customerimmediately from within the InstitutionalClient Platform,” says IPC’s Silvester. “It’s aboutintegrating communications information, andsmoothly transitioning between differentcommunications media. For example, if atrader had an instant message session runningwith their customer and they want to launch atelephone call, the Institutional Client Platformcan enable that to be done through a singleclick.”As the trader switches betweencommunications media, his or her interactionwith the customer is also enriched by moredetailed, usable information. “For example,”says Silvester, “when you refer to your

customer relationship record for a particularcustomer, you can see the dates, times andduration of the last ten phone calls. The historyof your communication becomes aninformation source in and of itself, giving youmore information about the state of yourrelationship as a whole – who was the lastperson who talked to this customer, and when?Has this customer been in frequent contact?“This kind of information is important, but thenext step is to relate that history to your tradeswith the customer, which highlights whichcustomers are most profitable in relation to thetime spent calling them. We’ve already createdthis solution with Microsoft, and it is in use withcustomers now. The feedback we’re receivingfrom them is that it’s giving them a view oftheir business at micro and macro levels thatthey never had before. They’re using theinformation to improve their understanding oftheir customers and make sure they deliver thebest level of customer service.”

COMMUNICATION, INFORMATION, INTEGRATION

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distribution or sales function of a brokeragefirm – things like how to bring on a customerfaster, CRM and client analytics. Salespeopleneed to understand exactly when a customermay trade a particular foreign exchangeinstrument, whether it’s quarterly or monthly.If they know that, they can call the customerjust before they do that trade, to make surethey do it with them. For example, if the turretis integrated into the system, then wheneversomebody calls, information can be sentthrough to the CRM system and the detailsdisplayed on the desktop.”“In addition to coordinating information

and simplifying transition from oneapplication or process to the next, we’reworking to embed communications into thatenvironment,” adds Silvester. “So at each stage,from any part of the trade cycle, if the traderwants to call the customer they can pullinformation from anywhere within theenvironment to put that call together with asingle click. The platform embedscommunications and communicationsinformation into the environment.”Clearly, each partner has tremendous

respect for the others, and each plays a crucialrole. “Lab49 has terrific knowledge andexperience in the capital market space,” saysPirani. “The turret partners provide greatcommunications for their clients, whichintegrate into CRM. All the partners have deepknowledge in this space, and are best of breedtoday. The CRM really provides a point ofintegration for all these pieces.”“The different components in the

Institutional Client Platform are allindependent products,” adds Gupta. “As ablueprint, it involves all these products. Butthe bank that it goes into may already have alot of existing infrastructure, and adapting thesolution for the time and place it’s applied is adifficult task. You need to know about theinternal product infrastructure and thetechnology ecosystem for each particularbank, and what pieces can and can’t be useddue to compliance or various other reasons. Ifthere are pieces that can’t be used, you need toknow how to integrate the rest of the solutioninto the existing ecosystem, and customise itfor the needs of their particular segment ofend users, of institutional sales and expertise.”

Four partners are working with Microsoft onthe Institutional Client Platform, each with aspecialist area of expertise:• GaleForce Solutions is a leading provider ofCRM software for the financial servicesindustry• IMGroup is an award-winning provider ofend-to-end business intelligence, datawarehousing and collaborative solutions. Itwill be responsible for client analyticsfunctionality.• IPC, a leading provider of indispensablecommunications solutions, will beresponsible for integrating thecommunication infrastructure• Lab49 is a consultancy firm specialising inbuilding advanced technology applicationsfor the financial services industry. It will beresponsible for the delivery, integrationand customisation of the platform forcustomers.

“This is something that we’ve been workingon independently, and we were keen to beinvolved,” says Lab49 founder Vivake Gupta.“As a consulting company, we do bespokedevelopment for a lot of different people. Alot of the developments that we startedworking on ended up going in this direction,so it was very exciting to be involved.Developing a solution to this problem areawould give us a set of standards andpractices, and an architecture that we couldreuse. We’d have a piece of intellectualproperty that can be applicable to manypeople in the industry without having to startfrom scratch every time.”

“There are probably two or three maincompeting technologies that provide thiskind of application framework, andMicrosoft is definitely one of the mostsignificant players,” says IPC’s Silvester. “Forus, this partnership demonstrates how wecan work together and provide mutuallybeneficial solutions to our customers, simplyby sitting down and working out where wecan tie together and where we can innovatetogether. But it also demonstrates that ourcustomers can gain benefits through theircollection of vendors working together.”

PLATFORM PARTNERS


nvestment management is anintricate business. Research,analysis, dealing, settlement, and

reporting all have to be done correctly, andmistakes can cost millions. This difficultterrain is becoming more challenging asregulations such as the Markets in FinancialInstruments Directive (MiFID) transformthe industry to a global marketplace whereentrants of all sizes can compete.Every millisecond that can be shaved off of

the time it takes to trade is a potential stepahead of the competition. But the evolvingindustry is also an unfamiliar territory, as newexchanges enter the market and all playersdevelop ever-more sophisticated ways toanalyse and execute trades, and to stayinformed on the activities of their rivals. Inthis intensely competitive landscape,successful navigation demands speed and acertain amount of stealth.In order to achieve this, financial

institutions need to give serious thought to

their IT. Legacy systems simply can’t handlethe volume of information from variouschannels fast enough to ensure competitivetrading. Indeed, according to research byTowerGroup, updating or replacing legacysystems and improving infrastructure arekey priorities for brokerage firms. “Firms aremotivated by drivers like revenue growth,regulation, technology innovation and ITmanagement,” says analyst DushyantShahrawat in TowerGroup’s report, 2007Top 10 for brokerage firms: business drivers,strategic responses and IT priorities. “Onearea in which firms are seriously consideringautomating processes and replacing legacysystems is derivatives, because enormousvolumes mean that creaking applicationsand infrastructure are holding the entirebusiness to ransom. Revamping theinfrastructure has become a crucial priorityto support next-generation trading effortsand to leverage new approaches intechnology like grid computing, server

STRANGE LANDSCAPE

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consolidation, and hardware optimisation.”Many companies are turning to automated

methods for gathering and analysinginformation, to enable split-secondresponses. “Automated trade execution hasbeen around for many years, and wastraditionally the domain of proprietarytrading desks in investment banks andspecialist hedge funds,” says Jean Williams,product business owner at Asset Control. “Inthe last few years, larger brokerage houseshave made their trading algorithms availableto investment managers, usually at a lowercost than manually worked orders.Algorithms have allowed brokers to reducethe number of active traders, but led to aninvestment in mathematically skilled analystsand programmers to develop and test thesealgorithms. As a result, investment managersbenefit from reduced execution costs, timelyexecution of larger orders, enhanced tradeanalytics, and compliance with regulationsfor best execution and MiFID.”

In addition, continues Williams, someinstitutions use more specialised automatedinvestment decision-making: “Many hedgefunds use quantitative models that determinewhich instruments to trade, as well as howand when to trade them. These practices arealmost never used by traditional long-onlyinvestment managers. Practitioners ofautomated investment decisions often citethat their quantitative methods remove anyinherent bias that is introduced by manualanalysis of markets, and claim that theirinvestment decision-making process is 100per cent repeatable. In practice, the marketsare constantly changing and models alwaysneed to be modified.”“The popularity of automated trading is

due to a number of factors,” says BrianSentance, chief executive officer ofXenomorph. “For example, there are costsavings involved: why pay an expensive traderto manually implement something that acomputer can do? And once automated,


trading algorithms are commercially scalable– they can be made available to more users,easily and at low cost.”The technologies most widely used in the

field of automated trading are often referredto as complex event processing – tools thatcan be used by business users to define event-based decision processes to help automateday-to-day activities. “In order to automateinvestment decision making, the challengeremains the collection of vast amounts of datafrom disparate sources, the cleansing andvalidation of that data, and presenting it to aproprietary algorithm for analysis,” addsWilliams. “The quality of raw investment datais rarely sufficient to support these processeswithout a supplementary data managementsystem.”“The processing power and delivery

technology are now here to deal with the ever-increasing amounts of data involved,” saysSentance. “Trading venues are becomingfragmented, as regulations such as MiFID andRegNMS increase the number of venues fortrading securities, and hence the number ofplaces where prices should be searched forbest execution of a trade. In addition, thedecimalisation of trading prices in the US inrecent years has decreased average tradetransaction size but resulted in dramaticincreases in the number of transactionsplaced.”“The exponential growth in the amount of

data a financial firm must process and theshortening useful lifespan of any newalgorithm continues to place incredibledemands on capital markets firms,” says AndyHughes, director of investment managementsolutions at Microsoft. “Excel has long beenthe standard for analysing data andconstructing financial models, and Microsofthas made significant investments in new

products such as Windows HPC Server 2008and SharePoint Server 2007 with ExcelServices, which, when used together, can helpcustomers continue to build their financialmodels quickly, share them securely withcolleagues and trading partners, and delivercalculation scalability and fault toleranceacross many machines containing multipleprocessors.”Of course, trading is a context-sensitive as

well as a time-sensitive business. Theseemingly inexorable rise of the algorithm hasraised questions – for example, how will therole of humans evolve alongside thesetechnologies, and how accurate areautomated processes in the face ofunexpected events?“Increased automation has already had a

significant impact on the roles of humantraders,” says Williams. “Statistical testing ofalgorithms is frequently undertaken and theoverall levels of performance are generallysuperior to those of a human trader. Due totheir investment in automated systems,brokerage houses have fewer tradersprocessing orders. However, additionalinvestment is usually required in the areas ofrisk management, audit and compliance.”In truth, algorithms are unlikely to

automate people out of a job – rather, thehuman role in investment management andanalytics will evolve with the technology.“Algorithms are not foolproof,” says Williams.“Unexpected events will eventually occur inany market. The best an algorithm developercan do is to try and minimise the impact of anextreme situation.”Key to this are both rigorous testing and

talented people. “Models can only be testedagainst situations that have occurred in themarket in the past, using massive databases ofprice movements going back many years,”

FEATURE

THE EXPONENTIAL GROWTH IN THE AMOUNT OF DATA AFINANCIAL FIRM MUST PROCESS AND THE SHORTENINGUSEFUL LIFESPAN OF ANY NEW ALGORITHM CONTINUES TOPLACE INCREDIBLE DEMANDS ON CAPITAL MARKETS FIRMS ”

“

ANDY HUGHES, DIRECTOR OF INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS, MICROSOFT

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addsWilliams. “Consequently, models areonly as good as their analysts, programmersand testers, although certain market eventsare often blamed on poorly implementedmodels – for example, the Japanese marketcrash as a result of unchecked computer-generated sell orders; or the recent sub-primecredit crunch resulting from incomplete riskanalysis and valuations of credit securities.”“There is still very much a place for human

intuition, creativity and ingenuity in puttingtogether trading ideas,” says Sentance.“Certainly, there will always be new, morecomplex products that will be handledmanually until they become standardised andmore mainstream. That said, automatedtrading will dominate and continue to growthrough all of the vanilla products andmarkets.”Sentance continues: “Some of the current

issues in automated trading include dataquality, with the usual adage that bad datameans bad decisions. Another issue is time tomarket with an idea – while low latency is akey technical concern in being ‘fastest’, howquickly a new trading idea can be put intoproduction in the market is a key concern.The usability/ease of use with which traderscan create, simulate, back-test and deploy anew trading model is vital in this regard. Thearea of back-testing seems to be under-resourced at the moment, and we believe thiswill be a growth area for technology.”As Williams points out, increased

automation has resulted in significant numberof new tools, typically point solutions thatlack integration with existing systems andprocesses: “Modern investment managersmust develop and manage an architecture tosupport investment operations that not only

directly addresses the management ofinformation assets within the firm, but alsocomplements the unique workflows of thesebest-of-breed solutions.”Sentance believes that automated trading

will make its mark on the shape of theindustry. “There is likely to be increasedconsolidation in the broker market, as thebattle becomes a more intellectual andtechnical one with stiff competition facingthose institutions that do not have theresources and expertise to differentiate theirofferings to clients. Additionally, throughautomation, more exotic instruments willgradually become accessible to a widerinvestment base, resulting in yet more assetsto trade.”There can be no doubt that now is an

exciting transitional period for investmentmanagers, and that this is no time for them torest on their laurels. “In recent years, theamount of trading analysis undertaken hasgrown tremendously,” observes Williams.“The performance demands placed oninvestment managers requires them to accessnew markets and to trade new instruments.Although tools are increasingly available tosupport the analysis required for theserequirements, the underlying problem stilllies in accessing all the necessary data when itis often siloed within an organisation. Thisaccessibility and deployment issue hasresulted in an exponential demand for front-office focused data management solutionsthat can rapidly adapt to new requirements asthey arise.”

This article was originally published in theSpring 2008 issue of Finance onWindowsmagazine


TRADING FOR PROFITOR TRADING TO COMPLY?

COMMENTARY

or traders, it’s always been aboutbeing creative and innovative inunlocking value via trades based

around arbitrage, hedges and innovativefinancial structures. However, newrequirements such as US SecuritiesExchange Commission (SEC) Rule 17a-3and 17a-4, Regulation NMS, risk analyticsand market reference data requirements haveall placed trade compliance in the spotlight.The result is a need for a more holistic andintegrated approach to regulatorycompliance and risk management practices.

INNOVATION VERSUS COMPLIANCECapital markets participants have alwaysprided themselves on being able to stretchand stress-test the boundaries to unlockvalue via trade arbitrage, exotic financialstructures, complex number crunching andleading-edge use of technology. Creditderivatives, algorithmic trading and hedgefunds are but a few examples of suchinnovation. With its focus on efficient useand arbitrage of economic capital, theindustry has also constantly explored newareas for efficiency, productivity andinnovation, be it STP, DMA, TCA, bestexecution, latency or high-performancecomputing.Based on some of the new regulatory

compliance and risk management practicesin capital markets, three broad butconsistent themes can be seen to emergeacross trade lifecycle compliance:• Electronic business records• Structured and unstructured data• Market data management.

In the past, we probably would dismiss theabove as IT functions. But in today’s world,

these functions assume great relevance forthe capital markets trading lifecycle.

US SEC RULE 17A-3 AND 17A-4US SEC Rule 17a-3 requires broker-dealersto maintain certain records, including tradeblotters, asset and liability ledgers, incomeledgers, customer account ledgers, securitiesrecords, order tickets, trade confirmations,trial balances, and a range of employmentrelated documents. Rule 17a-4 specifies themanner in which the records created inaccordance with Rule 17a-3 and certainother records produced by broker-dealersmust be maintained. It also specifies therequired retention periods for these records.In combination, Rules 17a-3 and 17a-4

require broker-dealers to create andpreserve, in an easily accessible manner, acomprehensive record of each securitytransaction they effect and of their securitiesbusiness in general. As a result, storage andretention policies, archiving and retrieval,and search capabilities have becomeimportant. All types of existing and newelectronic communications such as email,instant messaging (IM) and voice mail needto be stored and handled in a morestructured and integrated manner.

US REGULATION NMS1Regulation NMS (RegNMS) includes:• Rule 610, which addresses access to markets• Rule 611, which provides inter-marketprice priority for displayed and accessiblequotations

• Rule 612, which establishes minimumpricing increments

• Amendments to the joint-industry plansand rules governing the dissemination ofmarket data.

ANDY HUGHES LOOKS AT HOW MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGIESCAN HELP TRADERS TO FOCUS ON WHAT THEY DO BEST

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Hence the need to collect, store, analyse andreport market data becomes a criticalbusiness function.Reg NMS broadly requires trading centres

to establish and enhance policies, workflowsand processes, documentation, fair and non-discriminatory access to quotations, limit onaccess fees and disclosure mechanisms forbest bid or best offers.

OTHER REGULATIONSThe European Union Markets in FinancialInstruments Directive (MiFID) is anotherregulation that focuses on best execution,process, market data and transparency inreporting, and impacts the Europeanoperations of capital markets firms.The recent amendments to the US Federal

Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP), put intoeffect by the Supreme Court to govern civilprocedures in US courts, is another relateddevelopment that will alter the waycompanies retain and delete data. Broadly,the new rules focus on being able to identifywhere important data is located anddevelop a plan for retrieving it.

IMPLICATIONSTraders can expect challenges in the waytrade lifecycle information is managedacross the value chain. Affected areasinclude electronic business records,structured and unstructured data,OMS/EMS technology, trading systems,quotations and market reference data from acorporate actions reporting perspective.Traders typically deal with a large amount

of diverse forms of electroniccommunications during a trade lifecycle.Hence, it becomes critical to plan for aholistic and integrated approach to helptraders deal with these new operationalrequirements for electronic businessrecords, structured and unstructured data,and attempt to reduce operational tasks andfocus on the market trades.Traders expect simplicity, ease of use and

integration with existing front-officetechnology and desktop tools while dealingwith these new operational requirements.

Microsoft’s collaborative solutions are usedby many global organisations to createcontent, influence corporate culture andmanage change.Microsoft’s Financial Services group

works with a rich ecosystem of leadingindustry solution providers to help meet thespecific needs of the capital marketsindustry. They represent a powerful blendof cost-effective and quickly implementedsolutions designed to help lay thegroundwork for future innovation andsuccess in a world of increasing regulatoryand trade compliance requirements, so thattraders can do what they do best – trade forprofit – instead of unduly focusing on theconsequences of non-compliance.

With its record centre capabilities, MicrosoftOffice SharePoint Server 2007 offers anintegrated approach to handling structuredand unstructured data. The Microsoftintegrated innovation building blocks andplatform can provide significant value byoffering a unified communications platformthat combines VoIP, e-mail and instantmessaging.

MICROSOFT OFFICESHAREPOINT SERVER 2007

MICROSOFT OFFICEA set of technologies included in the 2007release of the Microsoft Office system canbe used as building blocks in conjunctionwith a sound compliance strategy to helpaddress the challenges of dealing withstructured and unstructured data andinformation, and enhance productivity. Theintegrated search capability across desktopand intranet becomes critical during anelectronic discovery process. Organisationscan also use Information RightsManagement (IRM) to better protect andmaintain greater control over digitalinformation, including confidential andsensitive spreadsheets.


CRM FOR WEALTHMANAGEMENT PROFESSIONALS

COMMENTARY

ealth management firms are facingnew client demands andcompetitive challenges. To deliver

personalised services and advice, capitaliseon new opportunities and facilitatecompliance with regulatory requirements,firms are looking for customer relationshipmanagement (CRM) solutions that can helpthem manage complex client relationships inconcert with business processes. For manyfirms focused on wealth management,Microsoft Dynamics CRM is an increasinglypopular choice.To more clearly understand how wealth

management firms are using DynamicsCRM, Microsoft turned to IT advisory firmMainstay Partners for an independentassessment. Mainstay Partners interviewed anumber of firms to identify the measurablebenefits they have achieved throughdeploying Dynamics CRM. Their stories arepresented in the customer profiles below.

TRANEL FINANCIAL GROUPIllinois-based Tranel Financial Group’smission was to move beyond customersatisfaction to ‘customer delight’, fostering astrong competitive edge. The group neededan intuitive CRM solution that advisorscould use to quickly capture, record andaccess all client information. By delivering afull history of interactions within seconds,an effective CRM solution would not onlyincrease customer satisfaction, but also serveas the basis for more accurate reporting.Dynamics CRM offered Tranel a familiar,easy-to-use solution that users readilyadopted.

Since implementation, Dynamics CRMhas reduced the amount of time financialadvisors spend on administrative tasks,freeing them to provide better client serviceand acquire new clientele. Benefits include a60-80 per cent reduction in time needed tocreate customer reports; and 50-75 per centless time spent preparing for client-reviewmeetings.

RAIFFEISENBANK KLEINWALSERTALRaiffeisenbank Kleinwalsertal is Austria’slargest cooperative bank and one of Europe’smost successful financial services institutions.Before implementing Microsoft DynamicsCRM, advisors juggled at least five differentapplications when gathering customerinformation, making it nearly impossible forthem to gain a unified, up-to-date client view.Dynamics CRM integrated easily with

Raiffeisenbank’s existing bankingapplications, and advisors now work with acentralised, 360-degree view of customerdata that enables them to quickly respond toqueries and deliver advice based on accurate,comprehensive information. The companycan also avoid non-compliance fines bymeeting Austrian Government requirementsfor reporting on customer satisfaction levels.Equally important, advisors can now spendmore time with clients, enabling them touncover new business opportunities whileenhancing service.Dynamics CRM also enables

Raiffeisenbank to measure the effectivenessof marketing programmes and businessdevelopment activities. Raiffeisenbankexpects to realise the following benefits:

MICROSOFT DYNAMICS CRM IS AN INCREASINGLY POPULAR CHOICE FOR MANYWEALTH MANAGEMENT ORGANISATIONS WANTING TO CAPITALISE ON NEWOPPORTUNITIES AND FACILITATE REGULATORY COMPLIANCE. HERE ARE SOMEEXAMPLES OF HOW THEY ARE USING THE TECHNOLOGY

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• Two per cent increase in revenue• 60-70 per cent decrease in time to createcustomer satisfaction reports

• 17 per cent increase in employeeproductivity.

CARLSON CAPITAL MANAGEMENTLike most wealth management firms,Carlson Capital Management (CCM) relieson referrals to help grow its business, withmore than 80 percent of new clients comingfrom referrals.To accommodate a growing number of

client relationships while preserving highstandards of service to existing clients, thefirm needed an efficient and effective way ofstoring all client contact information, recentcommunications, portfolio data andhistorical information in one system. Itneeded to simplify how it tracked clientinteractions, from meetings and phoneconversations to referrals, event invitations,or even a welcome gift.Since deploying Dynamics CRM, CCM has

gained a 360-degree view of clientinformation and can efficiently extract data,so advisors have information when theyneed it. The company is in a strongerposition to fully service clients. Any teammember can quickly access thoroughinformation about a client, helping them toprovide clients with what they need.CCM predicts that Dynamics CRM will

deliver a 75 per cent decrease in time spenton data searches, as well as 40 per centsavings in campaign costs.

SECURITY BENEFITKansas-based Security Benefit is a growingfinancial services firm with more than 800employees. To expand the reach of salesefforts and fuel growth, the company reliesboth on internal staff and field sales teams,which are spread across 40 locations andspend much of their time at onsite clientmeetings. They rely on information andupdates from the head office to prepare forthese meetings. After each client meeting, theexternal team spent up to six hourssynchronising data from their laptops to the

contact management system – wasting time,draining profitability, and increasing the riskof errors.Security Benefit realised that business

growth depended on peoples’ ability tocommunicate and coordinate informationquickly across internal and external teams. Itreplaced its outdated contact managementsystem with Dynamics CRM, which it wasable to integrate with every area of itsexisting infrastructure. Outside sales teamcan now access the information entered byhead office staff, helping them work fromthe field with confidence and provide abetter customer experience.Dynamics CRM brings Security Benefit

increased agility and improved competitiveadvantage, as well as a 50 per cent savings inCRM system operating costs.

HGCAPITALEuropean sector equity investor HgCapitalneeded to provide easy access to customerinformation and contacts for employees whoare often out of the office. Afterimplementing Microsoft Dynamics CRMMobile, employees can remotely access theinformation on virtually any Web-enableddevice in real time. Because of offline andremote access, HgCapital employees cannow quickly access critical customerinformation when they are making clientvisits. They are also able to effectively analyseintermediary relationships and deal flow.

A WEALTH OF ADVANTAGESAs wealth management firms try to standout in the marketplace by improvingcustomer satisfaction levels and customerloyalty, they look toward solutions that candeliver a holistic view of the customer andcustomer service functions while being easyto integrate into existing bankingapplications. For each of the wealthmanagement firms interviewed by MainstayPartners, using Dynamics CRM has helpedthem deliver improved service, create acustomer-centric approach, build betterclient relationships, and gain competitiveadvantage.


PROFILED

iti’s suite of Lava technology productshas earned a reputation for market-leading performance and innovation

in one of the world’s most demandingcomputational environments – providing real-time feeds across multiple stock markets tohelp traders achieve the best execution pricesfor their customers.The suite of solutions provides real-time

aggregated market data cross multipleliquidity pools including the New York StockExchange, Nasdaq and other major USexchanges. The Lava ColorBook solutionintegrates the feeds from multiple liquiditypools for display on a single-screen montageto give clients an integrated direct marketaccess (DMA) solution. Before this, tradersaccessing multiple markets had separate, non-integrated systems sitting on their desk. TheLava ColorMaker solution builds market-making capabilities on top of ColorBook byintegrating price discovery, direct access andquote management into a single application.Pioneers in creating DMA solutions, the

Lava technology team prides itself in havingbeen the first to provide access to all the USmarket centres. When the team created its firstsolutions, its technical architects had

experience in building Unix-based solutionsfor the financial services industry. Mindful ofexpense, they determined that redundant PCscould provide the same or better reliability asother platforms at a fraction of the cost. Theydecided to build Lava solutions using theMicrosoft Application Platform.Recently, the team again considered a range

of technology choices as it prepared to create anew solution to help it comply withregulations from the US Securities andExchange Commission (SEC). Regulation NMS(Reg NMS) was published in June 2005 with afinal phase-in required by October 2007.At the heart of Reg NMS is the Order

Protection Rule, which requires trading firmsto execute a trade against the best bid or offerin the national market system. Reg NMS alsorequires that trading firms be able todemonstrate to investors that the best pricewas given. Compliance requires the captureand storage of vast data sets, so that in theevent of a query, a trader can recreate pricingfor any given stock across all equity pools atthe exact time the trade was executed.“When this project started we really didn’t

even consider Microsoft because providingReg NMS compliance is so demanding,” addsRocco Mangino, Citi’s senior vice president ofproduct development for Lava technology.“We were looking at specialised solutions thathad been created specifically for tick storageand retrieval, but they were very expensive,and would have required our obtaining newskill sets to deploy and manage.”Among those who believed the Microsoft

Application Platform could support Reg NMScompliance was Ann Neidenbach, managingdirector at Citi. “The requirements wereextraordinary – processing what has nowgrown to more than 200,000 updates persecond across more than 100 million rowswhile supporting query responses of less thantwo seconds,” says Neidenbach. “Thedevelopment team simply didn’t think SQLServer could do it, but I’d seen how SQL

CITI

C

SolutionTick Store Reg NMS solution

BenefitsCompetitive advantage performance;reduced compliance query response times;agility to meet customer needs; scalability;lowest TCO

TechnologiesMicrosoft Application Platform includingMicrosoft SQL Server 2005

PartnerMicrosoftwww.microsoft.com

Server had worked for Nasdaq and believedthat it could.”A comparison of possible solutions was

evaluated to determine which technologyplatform best met the requirements forcreating a Reg NMS solution that could keepup with peak demands exceeding 200,000messages per second, and that could scale intothe future to keep up with the rapid growth inequities trading.“We held a bake-off against other

technology vendors and Microsoft won – onperformance,” says Hays. “The bonus was thatit was the lowest cost solution and providedbetter flexibility as well.”Citi’s Lava technology group developed its

Reg NMS solution, called the Tick Store, usingSQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition (64-bit)running on the Windows Server 2003operating system. Tick Store includes some 70terabytes of data stored in zipped flat files,each holding one day’s data from one tradingsystem. The solution grows by about 30gigabytes per day, adding a terabyte ofhistorical data every 33 days or so. It is hostedon an HP ProLiant DL585 server computerwith eight 64-bit AMD Opteron processorsand 32 gigabytes of RAM.When fielding a Reg NMS query about

pricing, the relevant data is imported from theflat files into the SQL Server relationalenvironment of the Tick Store’s database. TheTick Store includes a key that associates theorder routing with the market data. “We canregenerate any past day from the archive, usingthe order number and time of execution linkedto the historic data,” says Doug Leyens, vicepresident of product development for Lavatechnology at Citi. “We can recreate the exactmarket montage for any given point in time.”Building the Tick Store using the Microsoft

Application Platform has enhancedperformance so well that the Lava technologyteam values it as a competitive advantage.With Tick Store support for pumpinghistorical data, as needed, into the Tick

Database relational environment, compliancequery response times have gone from hours toless than a second. The solution also providesthe agility to meet internal and customerneeds, scalability to match trading growth,and the lowest total cost of ownership of anysolution that Citi looked at.“SQL Server has continued to scale to meet

our needs,” says Neidenbach. “And we see noend in sight for that scaling.”

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PROFILED

lobal financial services providerRaymond James Financial found itchallenging to share business and

customer information with its advisors, 80 percent of whom are independent contractorsoperating remotely. IT management wasdecentralised; software standards were notenforced, and contract advisors were free toinstall the tools they preferred. Indeed, thecompany estimates that at one time, morethan 2,500 different third-party databaseswere in use.“Our contractors are all over the country –

all independent and saving information ontheir hard drives,” says Mike Shelly, vicepresident of business technology managementfor Raymond James. “But they were notbacking up their data. It was really almost acorporate failure in terms of what customerrelationship management (CRM) meant toRaymond James.”The company recognised that the

disconnected information systems werehaving a negative impact on customer service.Client calls and other information were nottracked efficiently, resulting in discrepanciesin information among the branches. The mainoffice needed to better understand itsrelationship with all of the branch offices

before it could view the big picture of howRaymond James managed its customerrelationships.“Our challenge as a global firm is to

maximise our branch efficiency by providingthe right tools for our financial advisors,” saysShelly. “With so many different databases, welacked information sharing. We knew we hadto get the branches the ability to access onesystem for greater efficiency.”Raymond James realised it needed to offer a

CRM solution that could seamlessly integratewith its advisors’ existing systems whileimproving data-tracking capabilities andproviding insights that would enhancecustomer service. But because the deploymentwas an opt-in programme, the company alsoknew that any standard it adopted would haveto be a very compelling product – one thatpromoted easy user adoption while providingtangible benefits to advisors in the field.The Raymond James deployment team

worked with advisors in the field to gain asense of the work patterns and preferencesthat would influence their acceptance of aCRM solution. In an effort to increaseenthusiasm and facilitate adoption in the field,the company kept these advisors informed andinvolved throughout the deployment process.Raymond James considered several CRM

programs including OnDemand, ACT,GoldMine Enterprise, Pivotal and SalesLogix,before choosing Microsoft Dynamics CRM forits flexibility, adaptability and affordability. Inaddition, because Dynamics CRM wasdesigned to partner with applications basedon the Microsoft Office system, it was easy forRaymond James to integrate the solution withits own corporate technology systems. In thefield, where most advisors were alreadyfamiliar with Microsoft technologies, theconsistent interface made Dynamics CRM acomfortable fit for users.“Integration with Microsoft Office Outlook

was critical,” says Shawn Tabor, technologyproduct manager for Raymond James

RAYMOND JAMES FINANCIAL

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SolutionIntegrated CRM solution

BenefitsImproved efficiency across branch offices;easy user adoption; enhanced customerservice; enables compliance

TechnologiesMicrosoft Dynamics CRM 3.0, MicrosoftOffice Outlook 2007

PartnerMicrosoft Serviceswww.microsoft.com

Financial. “All of our branch users openOutlook every day, and that’s the tool they’recomfortable with.”In addition, support for mobility, including

remote access to customer data from portabledevices and online or offline functionality,helped Microsoft Dynamics CRM meshseamlessly with the way the advisors work.The implementation process was backed by

the technical help of Microsoft Services, butthe overall system integration was primarilymanaged by Raymond James’s own five-member development team. “I think it speakswell to the tool as a whole that something socomplex as integration, and as potentiallydifficult to do, could be handled by our owninternal staff,” remarks Tabor.To accommodate the geographically

dispersed locations and to encourageadoption by remote users, Raymond Jamesdeveloped a virtually silent deployment andaccomplished it with minimal interruption tothe users. “The silent installation really paidoff for us in a big way,” explains Tabor. “Wesimply place a link to the installation packageon a navigation console that we provide to allour advisors. Dynamics CRM is availablealongside all of our other standardapplications. It couldn’t be easier for thepeople in the field.”Advisors can now use customisable

onscreen dashboards to access meeting notes,sales reports, forecasts, and other customerdata, while the notes pane feature provides anintelligent way to record freeform informationabout customers and opportunities. Thisimproves the user experience by automaticallyattaching date and user-stamped tags to createa chronological record of information during acustomer interaction, meeting or othersituation.During the implementation, Raymond

James discovered that the data trackingfunctions from Dynamics CRM also applied toprocesses for other roles throughout theorganisation. For example, its legal

department found that the comprehensiveclient documentation captured by DynamicsCRM adds greater evidence in litigationsituations. “Being able to store all of ouradvisors’ data in one centralised location isgreat,” says Shelly. “With all of our client datain one spot, Dynamics CRM is able to help uswith compliance.”Looking ahead, Raymond James is

promising quarterly releases of new featuresand functionality to the existing system,including business intelligence tools. Thecompany expects that these updates willprovide additional value to the independentadvisors and further stimulate adoption acrossthe many branches.Raymond James also hopes to launch

Dynamics CRM within its home officeheadquarters. “Deploying Dynamics CRM toour home office, in addition to our fieldoffices, will not only give financial advisors a360-degree view, but also a tool that reallybecomes a hub,” says Tabor. “This ties all oursystems together, giving a focal point for dataentry and actionable activities. And at ourhome office, it will help us understand ourrelationship with the branch users to reallyunderstand the big picture.”

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PROFILED

egnan conducts research forinstitutional investors onenvironmental, social and corporate

governance (ESG) risks. Based in Sydney, thecompany evaluates the risk profiles ofAustralian companies largely through sourcesof public information, before feeding itsconclusions to fund managers who use theresearch to make investment decisions.Regnan was formerly part of the Westpac-

owned BT Financial Group, where it relied onthe group’s infrastructure for its complexinformation gathering and storage needs.However, in early 2007 the company was spunoff from its parent, forcing it to rebuild its ITenvironment from scratch at a new location.“Sitting within BT Financial Group’s IT

environment was a very comfortable place forus,” says Nicholas Brischetto, manager forcorporate governance at Regnan. “If weneeded support, we just had to raise ourhands and someone would show up withinfive minutes. We suddenly went from beingsurrounded by a complete, well-supported ITarchitecture to having just an office, fivepeople and a telephone.”However, Brischetto continues, there was

an upside to the spin-off: “We saw the spin-offas an opportunity to organise our research ina more structured manner and improve theway we interacted with our partners andclients,” says Brischetto. “The old system oforganisation was ineffective. If I needed to gethold of a document with details of a pastmeeting with a company, I had to discoverwho had saved the document, and then getthem to find it and send it to me. This wastime-consuming and prone to error.Ultimately, we wanted to centralise ourresearch knowledge and data and to integrateit with engagement activities triggered by ourresearch results.”Regnan approached a number of vendors to

explore ideas for a new IT environment. Mostvendor offerings did not fit well withRegnan’s plans, but one company suggested

that the latest CRM software from Microsoftcould prove ideal. It recommended Brischettoget in touch with Microsoft Gold CertifiedPartner JayThom.Regnan engaged JayThom to install,

integrate and host Microsoft Dynamics CRMand Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 for thenew site. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0gave Regnan’s staff access to the company’sdocument libraries, e-mail accounts and CRMsystem through a single portal.“JayThom sorted out everything we needed

in about two weeks – desktops, laptops,Internet access, e-mail, Dynamics CRM andWindows SharePoint Services 3.0,” saysBrischetto. “Rather than forcing everyone towork in a different way overnight, we’reintroducing new features gradually so peopleget used to them. For instance, we haveretained the old hierarchical folder systemuntil staff become more familiar with usingOffice SharePoint document libraries.”According to JayThom’s managing director

Brett Yorgey, the most crucial aspect of theproject was the integration of Dynamics CRMwith Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. “Theintegration means Regnan now has onecentral repository where all its staff can view,access and act on the same data,” he says.“Since it’s all integrated, anyone can edit

these documents within Microsoft OfficeOutlook, and some areas of it can be accessedthrough Windows SharePoint Services 3.0,”adds Brischetto.Regnan pays a monthly fee to JayThom to

host its new infrastructure, an approach thatmeant the company did not have to spend alot of cash upfront to install its own server.The new integrated IT environment is

transforming the way Regnan interacts withits clients and partners. A clear benefit hasbeen the ability to organise research moreeffectively. For instance, Regnan can filedocuments within the CRM system under avariety of tags, which makes it much easier tolocate its research. “The ability to cross-

REGNAN

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categorise companies and issues – or evenmultiple issues – has added flexibility to theway we file things,” says Brischetto.The tagging mechanism in Dynamics CRM

overcame the problem of important researchdocuments or correspondence going missing– for instance, due to staff forgetting wherethey were saved. The improved system ofresearch organisation also means there is lesschance of the wrong document beingattached to an e-mail sent to clients.Because the technologies are integrated,

research housed in the CRM system is easilyaccessed while the user is working inMicrosoft applications such as OfficeOutlook.The Microsoft technology has also enabled

Regnan to be more professional in its dealingswith clients. “In the past, when a client askedfor research on a particular issue we had tocollate information manually from differentlocations to pull together a report,” saysBrischetto. “Generating reports is now muchsimpler and quicker.”With a single click, staff can transfer a

document from an incoming e-mail to a suitablelocation within the CRM system. Furthermore,each staff member now has instant access to ahistorical record of correspondence with everycustomer on any topic.

“Anyone in Regnan can record theircommunication with clients centrally usingthe ‘Track in CRM’ button located in eachuser’s e-mail folder,” says Yorgey. “So whoevertakes the next call from that client is up todate with all past correspondence, and canrespond in a well-informed way.”“The integrated Microsoft environment

means we can accomplish our core workmore quickly and professionally,” saysBrischetto. “For an information business likeours, nothing could be more essential.”

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SolutionIntegrated Microsoft environment forknowledge and data storage and customerengagement

BenefitsImproved organisation; improved security;enhanced customer service; faster response

TechnologiesMicrosoft Dynamics CRM, WindowsSharePoint Services 3.0

PartnerJayThomwww.jaythom.com.au


PROFILED

ounded in 1851, Reuters is perhapsbest known as the world’s largestinternational multimedia news

agency, yet more than 90 per cent of itsrevenues come from its offerings for thefinancial services industry. In 2003 thecompany purchased Multex, a financialresearch and information service, andrenamed it Reuters Research. ReutersResearch then launched Reuters Knowledge, aWeb-based financial information deliverysystem, which supplies real-time andhistorical equity, fixed income and economicresearch from the world’s leading analysts toinvestors all over the globe. Using SQL Serveras a foundation for the system has providedthe company with efficient data replicationused for populating a secondary data centre,backup copies, and special-purpose clusters;high availability; trouble-free administrationusing SQL Server Enterprise Manager; and aneasy upgrade path.When Reuters Knowledge was launched the

company needed a system that would supportits needs, which included: efficient datareplication; high availability and disasterrecoverability; easy administration to supportthe dynamic nature of the industry;upgradeability; and scalability. The solution,which was found in Microsoft SQL Server,

provides the foundation of the Web-basedenvironment that supports the Knowledgeservice.The financial research data gathered by

Knowledge includes documents from morethan 900 sources including the world’sleading brokerage firms, investment banks,market research, and independent researchproviders. The financial research historicaldatabase contains more than nine million full-text reports covering over 25,000 companiesthat span 100 countries and 23 languages. Aswell as this the company fundamentalsdatabase contains information on about50,000 companies, and the earnings estimatesdatabase has information on more than25,000 companies. All of this financial data isstored on 231 unique databases with morethan 500 instances of replicated databases,including backup and working copies. Thesedatabases are located on some 150 computersusing SQL Server, with locally attached storageholding 25 terabytes. For the financialresearch documents, the SQL Server databasesinclude pointers to the documents stored inPDF and other formats on file servers holdingabout ten terabytes of disk space.The basic multi-tier architecture of the

system is replicated symmetrically (withspecific exceptions) at the company’s maindata centre at 75 Park Place, New York, with itssecondary data centre in Nutley, New Jersey.SQL Server has met the company’sexpectations and is providing a number ofadded benefits including flawless replication,and high availability and disaster recoverability.All components of the Reuters Knowledge

service production infrastructure are designedwith disaster recovery in mind. “We guaranteeup to 99.9 per cent availability for theinteractive decision support systems, which issomething considering the complexity of ourenvironment with 150 servers running morethan 700 instances of SQL Server databases,and terabytes of information,” Meikson says.“SQL Server has never let us down.”

REUTERS

F

SolutionRelational database management system

BenefitsFlawless replication; high availability anddisaster recoverability; easy administration;upgradeability; scalability

TechnologiesMicrosoft SQL Server; Windows Server


Prior to opening its data centre in Nutley,both of the company’s data centres were in thefinancial district of Manhattan, with theprimary data centre located a block away fromthe twin towers of the World Trade Center.When the World Trade Center was destroyedon 11 September 2001, Reuters Research lostpower to both of its data centres.“We couldn’t even get access to the buildings

for three days,” says Meikson. “When wefinally got a generator into our secondary datacentre on Williams Street, all we had to do onthe SQL Server side was re-configure thebackup SQL Servers as master SQL Serversand we were up and running again. It wasunbelievable, and I say that because I have 20years of experience as a database administratorworking with DB/2, Sybase, and otherproducts, and I’ve experienced so many lesserdisaster recovery efforts where things wouldn’tcome back up as they were supposed to. So wewere all very pleased with the recoverycapability of SQL Server.”Two years later a major power outage

affecting much of the US Northeast andMidwest, from New York to Canada, and as fareast as Detroit, made headlines around theworld. “Again we saw the excellentrecoverability of SQL Server,” says Meikson. “Itis extremely resilient.”Reuters Research is at the hub of a dynamic

industry where agility is required to quicklyrespond to new market opportunities.Meikson’s long experience as a databaseadministrator made him keenly aware of theneed for a database management system thatwas easy to administer – something he hasfound with SQL Server and the SQL ServerEnterprise Manager, which provides a MicrosoftManagement Console compliant user interface.“Enterprise Manager provides a centralised

workspace for managing all of our databases,”Meikson says. “The drag-and-dropfunctionality of the graphical user interface isextremely efficient and easy to work with.With other database products I’ve worked

with I had to memorise long command linesequences. With Enterprise Manager you canjust click away. It provides a nice and easy wayto accomplish what you need to do.”

27


PROFILED

homson Financial providesinformation and technology solutionsto the worldwide financial community.

One of its most popular products is theThomson Financial Portia, a portfoliomanagement system, which is used daily bymany customers to manage more than US$15trillion in assets. Because Portia was written 20years ago as a menu-driven system, tasks oftenrequired multiple steps and frequent humanintervention.“As the pace of financial markets has

quickened, our customers don’t have the timeor patience to click through multiple menus toaccomplish routine tasks such as running areport,” explains Christy Bremner, globalmanaging director of the Portia Business Unit atThomson Financial. “We wanted to support theoptimisation of our customers’ workflows andlet them customise the software to meet theneeds of different users.”By giving customers the ability to automate

the many steps of tasks they perform, run themas a workflow, and customise workflows fordifferent roles, Thomson Financial would helpcustomers to be more efficient while iteliminated inaccuracies. “The more things thathumans need to do, the more opportunity

there is for error, which could expose thecustomer to financial loss,” says Bremner.Chicago investment management firm Segall

Bryant & Hamill uses Portia extensively. “Portiais a powerful product, and we’ve used it sinceour company’s inception in 1994,” says RussMartin, senior financial systems architect for thecompany. “But it’s a little intimidating when youfirst encounter it. It doesn’t follow the softwarestandards that people are used to seeing today,such as toolbars and buttons.”It took several weeks for new employees to

become fluent in using Portia, and Martinfound himself dealing with numerous supportcalls as even experienced users had troublewith infrequently used tasks such as importingportfolio data for new clients. “Our portfolioadministrators had to sit down with a papermanual and navigate very involved procedures,”he says. “It could take up to two hours to set upone new client. When we were looking atgrowing the business, this was a majorobstacle.”As a Microsoft partner, Thomson Financial

used Microsoft technologies to refresh Portia,keeping its functionality while simplifying itsuse. “When we saw the new workflow andpresentation technologies built into Microsoft’s

THOMSON FINANCIAL

T

latest development environment, we realisedhow much faster we could do this job thaneven a year ago,” says Bremner. “It would havetaken us five times longer to do this job usingother technologies.”It took just six months to create Portia

Workspace, the new graphical, workflow-enabled interface to Portia. Now, customers caneasily automate the features and functions thatthey use on a regular basis. They can addbuttons for tasks such as adding a transaction,security, or switching between applications, andcan then use these buttons to move quicklythrough the old menu system. To create aworkflow, users simply link buttons, and thesoftware automates both the human andsystem steps, such as running a nightlytransaction batch.Investment firms can configure the

workspace for particular categories of users,and individual users can further configure theirdesktops to their needs. Operations staff usethe new software to easily monitor systemactivities such as process and workflowperformance.“A diverse group of people with very different

needs use this software in our organisation,”explains Martin. “It’s very useful for them tocustomise Portia Workspace to do theirindividual jobs better. As we grow our business,we have to make our current staff as efficient aswe can. The previous two-hour process ofsetting up a new client should now take just 30minutes or less. This is the kind of efficiencygain that will allow us to easily handle growth.”Martin estimates that users will be up and

running within a week, versus the three to fourweeks currently required. “Using the newsoftware, our users should be able to automatemany steps that used to require theirinvolvement,” he says.Martin and his staff will also be able to reduce

development time on new projects. “We write alot of custom software to create reports andother financial tools, which often needs to pullinformation from Portia,” he says. “Now, our

developers can take advantage of the automatedworkflows to simplify coding efforts.”“As one of the company’s central information

systems, the accuracy of Portia’s data has atremendous impact on the business as awhole,” Martin says. “A seemingly minormistake can affect everyone from portfoliomanagers to operations staff and can lead totrading errors, incorrect portfolio returns, oreven the need to regenerate client statements.With such high stakes, we do everything wecan to ensure data accuracy. With this newsoftware, we have a very effective tool inmeeting these demands.”With existingcustomers such as Segall Bryant & Hamilleagerly embracing the new efficiencies they arediscovering with Portia Workspace, ThomsonFinancial is busy winning new customers withthe software. Portia Workspace is helping uswin new business because of its innovativeapproach to optimising user experience,” saysBremner. “People want to use Portia. We’veincreased our pipeline of new leads and aremore competitive. Nothing else on the marketcomes close to this product’s ability tocustomise workflows.”

29

SolutionRefresh of Thomson Financial Portiaportfolio management system

BenefitsIncreased productivity from automatedworkflows; increased data accuracy; newbusiness from more competitive products

TechnologiesMicrosoft .NET Framework 3.0; BizTalkServer 2006; SQL Server 2005; Visual Studio2005; Windows Server 2003 StandardEdition

PartnerThomson Financialwww.thomson.com/financial


PROFILED

enomorph delivers real-time analyticsand data management solutions tofinancial markets. With offices in

London and New York, its customers areinvestment banks, hedge funds and assetmanagement institutions across the world’sfinancial centres. They use Xenomorph’ssophisticated TimeScape technology, a real-time analytics and data management suite, toaccelerate trading decisions and reduce risk.This technology manages growing volumes ofincreasingly complex data within trading andrisk management, making it immediatelyavailable wherever and however they wish toanalyse it.In order to meet the industry’s extensive

performance needs in the management andanalysis of market data, Timescape was builton proprietary time-series databasetechnology. But today, financial technologyvendors such as Xenomorph are experiencinga push from their customers to providesolutions on standards-based systems. Often,the knowledge within IT departments isbased on standards, and this type oftechnology is easier for them to manage. “Themanagement tools that come with databasesystems such as Microsoft SQL Server arevery mature,” says Brian Sentance, chiefexecutive officer at Xenomorph. “IT teams arelooking to avoid proprietary systems thatrequire them to learn a new set oftechnologies.”To meet customer expectations,

Xenomorph sought to find a way to deliverthe same high performance and speed ofexecution associated with its specialistdatabase systems using standards-basedtechnology. Working closely with theMicrosoft Developer and Partner Evangelistteam, Xenomorph chose to developTimeScape on Microsoft SQL Server 2005database software and transfer the solution toSQL Server 2008 in time for its release.The technologies within SQL Server made

it possible to extend the database’s

performance to trading data standards. SQLServer hosts the Microsoft .NET FrameworkCommon Language Runtime (CLR) and thishelps to ensure that programmers can workmore efficiently by using an enhanceddatabase programming model.Xenomorph is confident that the

TimeScape solution running on SQL Server2008 offers more than just the highperformance traders, risk managers and ITstaff require. The new features in SQL Server2008 also provide extensive databasemanagement functionality, expected toincrease productivity within IT departments,as well as advanced features that help thebusiness to comply with strict datatransparency regulations. Even before theproduct’s release on SQL Server, Xenomorphcustomers have expressed significant interestin the solution, which has the potential toreverse preconceptions of standards-baseddatabases in the financial industry.“Not only can we effectively host our

database inside SQL Server, it becomes a veryhigh performance repository for time-ordered,time-series data,” says Sentance. “It means thedata is exposed in a manner that ourcustomers are familiar with and can easilymanage in-house, which is something thatwould be more difficult with competitorsolutions.”To prove its performance levels,

Xenomorph and Microsoft conducted tests tobenchmark the SQL Server 2008 solution ondatabases of up to 8.5 terabytes of marketdata, numbering half a trillion individual ticksof data. Sentance explains: “With datavolumes rising, we need to come to marketwith credible figures to gain the confidence ofthe industry and our existing customers. Adatabase that handles half a trillion ticks islarge enough to meet many of our customers’needs and we are confident that they will beimpressed by the solution we’re offering onSQL Server 2008.“Our customers want very clear

XENOMORPH

X

information about the performance of oursolution, and in this regard we decided forthis first benchmark to test random access totick data physically stored on disk and notheld in memory. We aimed for time-seriesperformance that was at least an order ofmagnitude better than traditional row-basedsolutions and comparable to our existingproprietary database solution. I am pleased tosay we achieved this with our SQL Server2008 implementation, which additionallyoffered very low levels of contention for multi-user access, and no material degradation ofperformance with increasing database size.”Xenomorph clients have already expressed

significant enthusiasm for the TimeScapesolution based on SQL Server 2008. “Almostevery client and prospect that we mention itto says they’d like to move away fromproprietary solutions towards a standards-based approach,” says Sentance. “They’reextremely keen to work with the SQL Server2008 solution, and our results show that inno way is performance compromised.”Users such as traders and the risk

managers will still see the same financialinstruments, performance levels andexecution speeds to which they’reaccustomed, but customers’ IT teams canexpect to experience a significant difference.The standards-based technology helps toensure that company administrators can nowhandle management of the database withouthaving to rely on specialist developmentteams. “Our clients feel that their developerswill be able to spend more time focusing onvalue-added activities, such as creating moreadvanced user functionality,” says Sentance.

31

SolutionStandards-based solution, relationaldatabase management system, highperformance data repository

BenefitsEnhanced performance; simplifiedmanagement; increased productivity;reduced operational risk; complianceneeds met

TechnologiesMicrosoft .NET Framework, Office Excel2007, Office SharePoint Server 2007, SQLServer 2005, SQL Server 2008


AltairaTrading/Portfolio Risk division4422 South Century DriveMurrayUT 84123-2513USA

Blaise Labriola, Managing DirectorTel: +1 801 288 [email protected]

Altaira is the premier cross-asset portfolio system forfront-to-middle trading and risk-management. Usingtools like C# for rapid application development,Microsoft .NET for a rich client interface, grid computingfor unlimited scalability, and Web services for both cross-platform interoperability and extensibility, Altairaprovides both the system and the flexibility to customiseit to meet the needs of today’s competitive markets.Designed by traders for traders, Altaira software has a

number of features, which include job managementservices, deal pricing services and management services.All operate on Microsoft XP or Vista and integrate withmultiple formats to make for the best overall portfolioand risk management solution currently available for thehigh-end enterprise, the individual trader, and everythingin between.

Case study: Linedata Risk Analytics

Asset ControlCrystal Tower20th FloorOrlyplein 101043 DPAmsterdamThe Netherlands

Tel: +31 20 580 6900Fax: +31 20 580 [email protected]

EMEA contact: Claudio Capozzi, EMEA Sales DirectorTel: +44 (0) 20 7743 [email protected]

US contact: John Mitchell, North America Sales DirectorTel: +1 646 673 [email protected]

APAC contact: Alex Rich, Asia Pacific Sales DirectorTel: +65 6248 [email protected]

Asset Control provides centralised data managementsolutions for financial institutions worldwide. Frombusiness-entity to firm-wide projects, the company offersstrategic reference and market data platforms that deliverthe accuracy, consistency and relevancy firms need toreduce costs and risk, manage evolving complianceneeds, and accelerate the delivery of new products andservices.Asset Control has helped some of the world’s most

successful financial institutions optimise their datainfrastructures, enhance decision-making, and reducecomplexity.

Case study: Multinational InvestmentCompany uses TAPMaster

DIRECTORYCOMPANIES A-Z


http://www.asset-control.com/doclib/doclib_download.cgi/77-a8c3ba7fecabd7838d2cea50f8a7bf1b.pdf/8/

http://www.asset-control.com/doclib/doclib_download.cgi/77-a8c3ba7fecabd7838d2cea50f8a7bf1b.pdf/8/

http://www.ldsam.com/linedata_risk_analytics.html

33

Avanade818 Stewart St.Suite 400SeattleWA 98101USA


Avanade is a global IT consultancy dedicated to using theMicrosoft platform to help enterprises achieve profitablegrowth. Through proven solutions that extend Microsofttechnologies, the company helps enterprises increaserevenue, reduce costs and reinvest in innovation to gain acompetitive advantage. Avanade consultants deliver valueaccording to each customer’s requirements, timeline andbudget by combining insight, innovation and the talentof a global workforce.Avanade has helped leading organisations across the

capital markets space implement critical businesssystems in sectors including wealth management, assetmanagement, exchanges, clearing, risk management, andbrokerage. Its solutions span the breadth of the Microsoftplatform and products including Avanade’s EnterpriseCRM for wealth management, business intelligencesolutions, and ACA, the Avanade ConnectedArchitectures, to streamline software development.

Case study: London Stock Exchange

BlueThread Technologies2232 South Main StreetAnn ArborMI 48103USA

Mark Brazeau, PrincipalTel: +1 734 761 6543Fax: +1 734 996 [email protected]

BlueThread is an enterprise content management (ECM)solution provider, which offers measurable businessbenefits. Its EMC framework offers world-class benefitsby delivering a low risk and dramatically lower cost-of-ownership alternative, based on and supported byMicrosoft SharePoint.Serving as the core of this platform, SharePoint

provides highly-scalable ECM repository and libraryservices capabilities that can manage content of all typesas well as their related lifecycles while K2 blackpearl addsrobust workflow/business process managementcapabilities.BlueThread’s SmartDesk delivers this best-of-breed

ECM platform to work processors via an intelligent andintuitive end-user application experience that surfacesonly specific content and processing tools required toprocess work.SmartDesk dynamically gathers, sorts, and presents

only the specific content (images, pdfs, Word documents,and line-of-business data) and contextual toolbars basedupon a specific participant, work type and workflow step.Unlike other generic ECM systems, it frees the user fromorganisational tasks, duplicate data entry, extraneousdata and unnecessary controls, and delivers work andsupporting content to executives, managers andknowledge workers in a highly-optimised userexperience.

Case study: Raymond James

www.raymondjames.com/pr/080226.htm

http://www.avanade.com/us/customers/casestudy.aspx?id=48


Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.1981 Marcus AvenueLake SuccessNY 11042USA

Arlene Driscoll, VP, MarketingTel: +1 888 237 [email protected]

EMEA and APAC contact: Mike West, VP, MarketingTel: +44 (0) 20 7551 [email protected]

With more than 40 years of experience, Broadridge is aleading provider of technology-based outsourcingsolutions to the financial services industry, offering themost comprehensive range of fully-integrated solutions tomeet the operational needs of banks and broker/dealersworldwide.Broadridge offers solutions to support the entire

investment lifecycle, including solutions for investorcommunications, global securities processing, andsecurities clearing and operations outsourcing solutions.It offers advanced systems and services that aredependable, scalable, and cost-efficient. Outsourcing toBroadridge enables its clients to reduce their capitalinvestments in operations infrastructure, therebyallowing them to increase their focus on core businessactivities.

ClusterSeven10 Fashion StreetLondonE1 6PXUK

Henry Umney, VP, SalesTel: +44 (0) 20 7426 [email protected]

US contact: Richard Dodd, VP, AmericasTel: +1 212 858 [email protected]

ClusterSeven’s software non-intrusively monitors andtracks spreadsheets to enable users to more effectivelymanage governance, risk and regulatory complianceobligations in order to generate revenue, enhance staffefficiency and boost productivity.ClusterSeven monitors spreadsheet activity down to a

cell level whether the documents are held within a fileserver environment or a content repository (MicrosoftSharePoint 2007 recommended). ClusterSeven iscompatible with all versions of Excel from 97 to 2007and all data is stored in a SQL Server 2005 or 2008database.

Case study: clusterseven.com

COMPANIES A-Z

http://www.clusterseven.com/fw/main/Case-Studies-10.html

35

Comprehensive Software Systems25178 Genesee Trail RoadGoldenCO 80401USA

Faye Woodley, Senior Manager, Business DevelopmentTel: +1 303 876 1500Fax: +1 303 526 [email protected]

Comprehensive Software Systems (CSS) is a client-centricsoftware development company that provides fullenterprise and point solution offerings to the financialservices industry. It works to understand its clients’specific needs and challenges and offer them innovativesoftware and services for their front-to-back-officeprocessing needs.As an alternative to mainframe technology, CSS has the

ability to rapidly adapt to market demands, client needs,and regulatory initiatives and offers its clients full accessto business data in real time – all day, every day. Itssolutions function either as an enterprise solution or as astand-alone point solution that seamlessly integrates intoa firm’s existing system to gain momentum with a newcompetitive advantage.

Case study: csssoftware.com

Coral882 Pioneer WaySuite 106Mountain ViewCA 94041USA

Colin Clark, EVP, Financial ServicesTel: +1 650 210 3810Fax: +1 650 210 [email protected]

Coral8's next generation Complex Event Processingplatform enables quick creation and deployment of liveanalytic applications that provide up-to-the-minutebusiness intelligence to help users make better decisionsfaster and take appropriate actions that can lead topositive impact on their businesses.Coral8 can help its customers build systems for:

• Real-time profit and loss• Real-time market data analytics• Risk management systems• Smart order routing and execution management• Order and liquidity analysis• Quantitative trading and signal generation• Surveillance and compliance.

All solutions leverage many Microsoft products thatinclude SQL Server, SharePoint, Windows, Windows XPand Microsoft BI products. Coral8 also provides a .NETAPI, allowing customers to integrate complex eventprocessing into line of business applications.

Case study: coral8.com

http://www.coral8.com/solutions/customer-successes.html

http://www.csssoftware.com/index.asp?page=clients


Digipede Technologies6114 La Salle Avenue302OaklandCA 94611USA

John Powers, CEOTel: +1 510 834 3645Fax: +1 510 834 [email protected]

Digipede Technologies delivers grid computing softwarethat dramatically improves the performance of financialapplications by distributing execution across a networkof Windows machines. Digipede helps its financialcustomers gain a competitive advantage by acceleratingcompute and transaction-intensive applications in riskmanagement, correlation analysis, portfolio optimisation,algorithmic trading, and more. Featuring the criticallyacclaimed Digipede Framework SDK, the DigipedeNetwork is designed to be easier to deploy and use thancompeting grid computing solutions. The company hasintegrated its grid computing software with key elementsof the Microsoft technology stack, including .NET, VisualStudio, Windows Server (including Windows HPC Server2008), Excel, and Excel Services.

Case study: III Offshore Advisors

Doculabs200 W. MonroeSuite 2050ChicagoIL 60606USA

Tel: +1 312 433 7793Fax: +1 312 433 7795www.doculabs.com

EMEA and US contact: Rick Tucker, Director of BusinessDevelopmentTel: +1 312 881 [email protected]

APAC contact: Jeetu Patel, EVPTel: +1 312 881 [email protected]

Doculabs is a consulting firm that helps organisationsdevelop sound technology strategies for content- andprocess-related applications such as Office andSharePoint. Its engagements focus on helping clientsleverage their existing enterprise content management(ECM) investments on a broader enterprise basis throughobjective analysis and in-depth market knowledge. Thisapproach is based on the company’s fundamental beliefthat in order to protect a client’s long-term interest,technology advisors should not be implementers.Doculabs helps capital markets clients deliver on their

technology objectives through engagements that addressECM opportunities such as strategic planning,information compliance, e-discovery, and digitisation foroutsourcing. Through more than a thousand consultingengagements for organisations facing technology-,compliance-, and process-related challenges, its provenapproach has provided its clients with the informationand advice they need to make confident and well-informed decisions.

Case study: doculabs.com

COMPANIES A-Z

http://www.doculabs.com/customer/customer.html

http://www.digipede.net/products/case_IIIOffshore.html

37

Finsbury SolutionsWinchester House259-269 Old Marylebone RoadLondonNW1 5RAUK

Jeremy Wood, DirectorTel: +44 (0) 20 7170 [email protected]

Spreadsheet Workbench from Finsbury Solutions is aleading spreadsheet management and compliancesolution based on Microsoft SharePoint.It helps financial organisations address the issues of

risk, audit, version control and compliance that areinherent with the use of business critical spreadsheetapplications. In addition it provides a spreadsheetframework designed to improve the operationalefficiency of spreadsheet based business processes.Key areas of its use include:• Finance• Risk and audit• Product control• Trading• Regulatory and compliance (Sarbanes-Oxley).

The product is based on core Microsoft technologies.These include SharePoint 2007 and SQL Server 2005/8,Windows Server, Office and Windows WorkflowFoundation for advanced authorisation, workflow andbusiness process capabilities.

Case study: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts

GigaSpaces Technologies317 Madison AveSuite 1220New YorkNY 10017USA

John Giubileo, EVP and General Manager, AmericasTel: +1 646 421 2830Fax: +1 646 421 [email protected]

EMEA contact: Edu Meytal, General Manager,International OperationsTel: +972 9 952 6751

APAC contact: Greg Lenehan, APAC Regional DirectorTel: +65 9618 6151

GigaSpaces Technologies is a leading provider of a newgeneration of application platforms for Java and .NETenvironments that offer an alternative to traditionalapplication-servers.The company's eXtreme Application Platform allows

businesses and developers to predictably scale systemsunder any peak demand, guarantee performance underany data processing load, and seamlessly leverage theeconomies-of-scale offered by virtual computingenvironments such as clouds and grids.GigaSpaces customers include six of the world's top

ten investment banks, world-leading exchanges, marketdata providers, hedge funds, retail banks, leadingtelecommunications and mobile carriers, global Web-commerce companies, five of the world's top onlinegaming companies, and leading Internet mediaorganisations.

Case studies: Monte Paschi GroupEnergy Trading Industry

http://www.gigaspaces.com/wiki/display/CE/Sessions#Sessions-RWE

http://www.gigaspaces.com/resources/casestudies

http://www.finsburysolutions.com/news-and-events.htm


Information Management GroupHarmsworth House13-15 Bouverie StreetLondonEC4Y 8DPUK

Garry Miller, Business Development DirectorTel: +44 (0) 20 7842 7800Fax: +44 (0) 20 7842 [email protected]

Information Management Group (IMGroup) iscommitted to delivering innovative business intelligence,information management, CRM, portal and collaborationsolutions.The IMGroup Institutional Client Platform is a highly

sophisticated client management application whichleverages the very latest technologies, includingSharePoint, SQL Server and Microsoft CRM, to provide ahighly cost-effective solution.Data mining, predictive analytics and business

intelligence are surfaced through a collaborative portalframework and integrated with telephony systems toprovide a real-time customer system, which provideshighly relevant point-of-contact information and hasincreased sales performance in one of the world’s largestbanks by a factor of five times.

Case study: imgroup.com

Impendium SystemsFinancial services divisionThe Smith CentreThe FairmileHenley-on-ThamesOxfordshireRG9 6ABUK

Andrew Murray, Business DevelopmentTel: +44 (0) 1491 416 600Fax: +44 (0) 1491 416 [email protected]

US contact: Stuart Clark, Business DevelopmentTel: +1 617 457 5200

APAC contact: Business DevelopmentTel: +61 280 049 600

Created in 2005, Impendium Systems is a capital marketsand treasury specialist, which provides highly automatedoperational processing applications developed onMicrosoft technologies.Its applications include: Revenue Recovery; Market

Claims; Fails Management; and Trade Exceptions. Theyoffer real-time operational risk and customer information,automated exception handling, and audit transparencyfor capital markets, investment management and treasuryorganisations.Located in the UK, US and Asia Pacific, the company

offers global coverage to a number of investment banks,global custodians, fund managers and corporatetreasuries.

Case study: Global Investment Bank

COMPANIES A-Z

http://impendiumsystems.com/CMS/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=43

http://www.imgroup.com/clients/casestudies.aspx

39

Infusion Development291 Broadway13th FloorNew YorkNY 10007USA

Christian Schneider, COOTel: +1 212 732 6100Fax: +1 212 732 [email protected]

EMEA contact: Bryan Shiffman, DirectorTel: +44 (0) 207 936 [email protected]

APAC contact: Cortez La Palme, General ManagerTel: +971 50 354 [email protected]

Infusion Development is a Microsoft Gold CertifiedPartner that applies emerging technologies to solvecomplex software problems. Its international offices inNew York, London, Toronto, Boston, and Dubai offer afull suite of information technology services with a focuson talent, technology, and design-driven methodologies,placing Infusion at the forefront of application andinterface exploration.Infusion has implemented solutions for many of the

world’s largest organisations in the financial services,travel and tourism, healthcare, technology, andgovernment sectors. Infusion’s proprietary and Microsoftemerging technology solutions are implemented aroundthe world by its team of over 200 full-time consultants.

IPC Systems3 Second StreetJersey CityNJ 07311USA

Tel: +1 201 253 2000Fax: +1 201 253 2361www.ipc.com

US contact: Len Bontempi, VP/Managing Director,AmericasTel: +1 212 858 [email protected]

EMEA contact: Kevin Acott, Managing Director, EMEATel: +44 (0) 20 7979 [email protected]

APAC contact: David Dodd, Managing Director,Asia PacificTel: +852 2899 [email protected]

IPC is a leading provider of indispensable financialtrading communications solutions to the world’s largestfinancial services firms and global enterprises. With 35years of expertise and product innovation, IPC providesits customers with global systems and solutions, as wellas a suite of products and enhanced services that includeadvanced Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and anintegrated network with 24/7, 365 day managementservices for more than 40 countries.The company produces a number of IPC solutions,

which utilise Microsoft Windows, including: EnterpriseAdministration Server; Enterprise Hoot Intercom; TotalCircuit Management; Voice Recording Systems;IQ/Impact; and Proteus Trader.Based in Jersey City, New Jersey, IPC has

approximately 1,000 employees throughout theAmericas, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions.


K2EMEA divison26 Worple RoadWimbledonLondonSW19 4EEUK

Ruan Scott, VP, EMEA divisionTel: +44 (0) 20 8971 3450Fax: +44 (0) 20 8946 [email protected]

US contact: Glen Bryant, VP, US divisionTel: +1 425 883 [email protected]

APAC contact: Weng Him Koh, VP, APAC divisionTel: +65 6327 [email protected]

K2 is a platform for building process-driven applicationsthat improve business efficiency. Its applications areflexible and scalable and can span employees,departments, organisations and line-of-business systems.All applications are built on .NET and leverage existing

investments in Microsoft software infrastructure –Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, InfoPath, Visio, VisualStudio, Office, Exchange, BizTalk and OfficeCommunications Server.K2 solutions are deployed by a growing number of the

global Fortune 100. The company is a division ofSourceCode Technology Holdings, based in Redmond,Washington, and has offices all over the world.

Case study: Ai Claims Solutions

Kynetix Technology GroupToken House12 Tokenhouse YardLondonEC2R 7AS

Matt Dolton, Client Services DirectorTel: +44 (0) 20 7836 1800Fax: +44 (0) 20 7836 [email protected]

Kynetix partners with UK capital market firms to enableits customers to concentrate on their core competencies,build valuable client relationships and focus on profits.The company’s key differentiator is its ability to deliverpurpose-built solutions quickly, using its specialistfinancial services insight.Kynetix can fix inflexible, home-grown, or out-of-date

packaged applications by rapidly building andimplementing software solutions incorporating MicrosoftDynamics CRM, BizTalk Server, Office SharePoint Server,SQL Server and Excel Services.As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, it has the

capabilities to provide flexible, rapidly delivered,integrated solutions that provide its customers with acompetitive advantage.

COMPANIES A-Z

www.k2.com/en/displaycontent.aspx?id=964

Linedata Services260 Franklin StreetBostonMA 02110USA

Annie Morris, Managing DirectorTel: +1 617 912 4700Fax: +1 617 912 [email protected]

EMEA contact: Simon Bennett, Director of SalesTel: +44 (0) 20 7360 [email protected]

APAC contact: Marie Christine Merkly, Director of SalesTel: +852 3583 [email protected]

Linedata Services is a global technology leader forinvestment software, solutions and support. LinedataServices’ Asset Management division providescomprehensive, scalable solutions to the buy-side, frompre-trade to post-settlement, with hundreds of clients atmore than 1,000 sites and 13,000 users in 40 countries.Linedata is unique in offering a full front- to back-officesolution via enterprise installation, or as an applicationservice provider (ASP), and has 20 years of experiencedelivering hosted and ASP solutions that now have SQLServer and Windows Communication Foundation attheir core.Linedata’s LongView Live, an intuitive, jetfighter-like

interface for its LongView Trading Order ManagementSystem (OMS) is built on Windows PresentationFoundation. Linedata is also on the latest version of .NETand is fully certified on Vista and Windows Server 2008.

Case study: SunTrust

Misys123 Main Street8th FloorWhite Plains,New York 10601USA

David Stewart, Product ManagerJessica Buhl, Product Marketing ManagerTel: +1 914 428 7200Fax: +1 914 428 [email protected]@misys.comwww.misysbanking.com

Misys Opics Plus is a .NET service oriented, front to backoffice, core treasury, capital markets and derivativessolution. On a single platform, it processes vanilla andcomplex derivatives, fixed income, equity and treasurytrades. Opics Plus delivers optimal performance andfunctionality with Microsoft endorsed architecture,enabling multi-tiered and parallel processing.As an extension of the Opics Plus offering, the Opics

Plus Middle Office Suite provides a single integration ofOpics Plus, Opics Risk Plus and Eagleye for Opics Plus.The Middle Office Suite creates an ‘environment of

protection’ by performing sensitivity analysis, scenarioanalysis and cash flow forecasting while calculating VaR(Parametric, Monte Carlo and Historical Simulation),performance measurement and attribution.Measurements can be monitored against user-definedlimits in real-time. Notifications of limit breaches areavailable via email, SMS or alerts. The Middle Office Suitecalculates hedging recommendations that can beleveraged both internally and externally.Misys is a Microsoft Key Capital Markets Partner

Solutions provider and Microsoft Global IndependentSoftware Vendor in the Financial Services industryvertical. Opics Plus was awarded the 2006 Windows InFinancial Services Innovator Award for Treasury &Capital Markets.

41

http://www.ldsam.com/documents/SunTrustCaseStudy.pdf

Murex8 rue Bellini75782 Paris Cedex 16France

Tel: +33 1 44 05 32 00Fax: +33 1 44 05 32 [email protected]

EMEA contact: +33 1 4405 3200

US contact: +1 212 381 4300

APAC contact: +65 6216 0288

Building on over 22 years of experience in capitalmarkets, Murex has developed an unmatchedcompetence in the design and implementation ofintegrated trading, risk management and processingsolution for the world’s top financial institutions, hedgefunds, asset management companies and corporations.Featuring leading functionality in each asset class,

MX.3 offers unrivalled product coverage of interest rate,foreign exchange, equity, credit and commodityinstruments – whether vanilla, structured or derivative.The solution benefits from an architecture designfocusing on robustness, low cost of operation, andevolution. Murex services are readily compatible with theMicrosoft .NET environments.

Netik40 Fulton Street11th FloorNew YorkNY 10038USA

Doug Jeffrey, NA Sales DirectorTel: +1 212 267 8800Fax: +1 212 267 [email protected]

EMEA contact: Keith Hale, EMEA Sales DirectorTel: +44 (0) 20 7293 [email protected]

APAC contact: Ed Cresswell, Sales ExecutiveTel: +971 509 193 [email protected]

Netik is a leading global provider of financial datamanagement services and products to the securitiesindustry. Netik’s data management products include: NetikGlobal Securities Master; Netik GSM, a reference datamanaged service; Netik InterView, a data warehouse for thestorage of holistic financial data; and Netik InformationPortal to visualise data and sit at the heart of investmentoperations at many of the world’s leading asset managers,hedge funds, wealth managers, private bankers, primebrokers, fund administrators, custodians, investmentoperational outsourcing providers and investment banks.Netik’s InterView and Information Portal solutions

take full advantage of the Microsoft SQL platform,incorporating reporting services, analysis services andintegration services.

Case study: Daiwa Securities Global Asset Services

COMPANIES A-Z


http://www.netik.com/downloads/articles/Netik_Reprint_RDR_Jan07_web.pdf

New Access13 avenue des Morgines1213 GenevaSwitzerland


EMEA contact: Loredana Sabbagh,VP Marketing and CommunicationTel: +41 228 799 [email protected]

APAC contact: Steve Chu, Managing DirectorTel: +65 6271 [email protected]

New Access SA, referencing EFG Bank, ING Bank andBanque Safdié amongst its prestigious clients, is a leaderin the banking software industry in the following fields:• Branch is a powerful integrated platform for clientacquisition and relationship management, and allowsfor customisable features; seamless integration withtransaction systems; and security-proof control. It alsohas the ability to connect with existing bankingapplications to act as a portal to the front office, and/orto provide its own components for client relationshipmanagement, portfolio and document functionalities

• Logical Access Suite is specifically developed for thebanking industry. This electronic documentmanagement system provides for the administration,acquisition, workflow and documents’ classification ina variety of formats

• Olivia is a complete portfolio management system forasset managers

• Xeres produces any document in a high-quality lookingformat. This includes reports, legal forms anddocuments to be filled in and signed by clients.

The Microsoft technology used in New Access bankingsolutions include: .NET; C#; SQL Server; and Visual Basic.

.

Pendo Systems60 Park Avenue20th FloorNewarkNJ 07102USA

David Coad, Director of SalesTel: +1 646 873 7732Fax: +1 646 346 [email protected]

EMEA contact: Pamela Pecs Cytron, CEOTel: +1 646 873 [email protected]

Pendo Systems is a premier provider of softwaresolutions for global financial institutions. Pendo Systems’core product, BasisPoint, is a global enterprise-gradeinvestment accounting engine that is rapidly becomingthe new standard in investment accounting systemdelivery.The BasisPoint software is Microsoft-based, including

Windows 2003 Server and Microsoft SQL Server 2005systems, and features a unique, sophisticatedfunctionality that provides powerful processing and theflexibility to support complex investment strategies.BasisPoint has an enterprise architecture that follows

standards for interoperability and portability forapplications, data transfer and remote system access.Alongside Microsoft’s SQL Server 2005, which allows forease of integration, enhanced performance andscalability, BasisPoint provides enhanced navigation thatleverages Microsoft’s .NET framework to extend andenhance its feature-set to the customer.

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Portrait SoftwareThe Smith CentreThe FairmileHenley-on-ThamesOxfordshireRG9 6ABUK

Paul Frederick, EVP, Global Business DevelopmentTel: +44 (0) 1491 416 600Fax: +44 (0) 1491 416 [email protected]

EMEA contact: Neil Skilling, EMEA Sales DirectorTel: +44 (0) 1312 403 [email protected]

US contact: Mark Smith, EVP Sales and MarketingTel: +1 617 457 [email protected]

APAC contact: Chris Lowther, General ManagerTel: +64 21 453 [email protected]

Portrait Software empowers business-to-consumerenterprises to drive sales, reduce attrition and optimisemarketing spend with next-generation marketingaccelerators for Microsoft and legacy customerrelationship management (CRM).Portrait’s Always-On-Marketing suite integrates

advanced analytics with powerful, event-drivenmarketing automation to engage each customerindividually in profitable, two-way, intelligent dialog viaany channel of interaction.Portrait’s suite is a .NET solution, which extends

Microsoft CRM to accelerate cross-selling during inboundand outbound interactions by infusing automated best-next-action (BNA) decision-making into Microsoft CRMscreens.

Case study: Merrill Lynch

Protégésoft1 North Bridge Road19-04 High Street Centre179094Singapore

Kumaran Pillai, CEOTel: + 65 6584 [email protected]

Protégésoft works to solve the needs of investors byproviding financial visualisation solutions to bettermanage their portfolios. Its applications exploit the latesttechnology available to deliver the most innovativesolutions that help its clients improve their businessperformance.Portfolio Builder is an enterprise-oriented platform for

financial planning, portfolio and risk management forwealth management applications in a Web 2.0environment. Customers can dynamically construct andrebalance portfolios, as well as set alerts to notify userswhen the risk deviation exceeds acceptable levels. Thesecapabilities result in portfolios that are risk adjusted andhelps investors to achieve optimal investmentperformance.Key benefits of the solution stack include:

• Optimised investment portfolios resulting in consistentabove average returns

• Lower unit costs for portfolio monitoring andrebalancing achieving more than 1,000 per centproductivity gains

• Multiple-account rebalancing enables banks andfinancial institutions to serve the mass-retail marketeffectively.

Case study: www.protegesoft.com

COMPANIES A-Z


http://www.protegesoft.com/casestudies/Default.aspx

http://www.crmxchange.com/webcast/dec08.asp

Pyxis Mobile1601 Trapelo RoadSuite 260WalthamMA 02451USA

Christopher Willis, EVP, MarketingTel: +1 781 997 [email protected]

Pyxis Mobile is a leading provider of wirelessapplications that meet the diverse needs of the financialservices and insurance industries. Pyxis Mobile’ssolutions are used by mobile financial professionals toassist in asset growth, portfolio management, customerand field service, and IT support.To date, Pyxis Mobile applications are in use at 28 of

the top 50 global asset managers, 15 of the top 25insurance carriers, and three of the top five US banks.Pyxis Mobile’s customer list includes such companies asAIM, Blackstone Group, Deutsche Asset Management,Pioneer, Manulife, New York Life Investment, AXAFinancial, Henderson Global, Sun Life Financial, andOppenheimerFunds.

Rapid AdditionInternational House1-6 Yarmouth PlaceLondonW1J 7BUUK

Toby Corballis, CEO+44 (0) 20 7993 [email protected]

Rapid Addition provides leading edge products andservices to the financial services industry based on theFIX protocol for the Microsoft platform, which areemployed by brokers, investment managers, and some ofthe world’s leading exchanges.Its products include high-performance FIX engines,

workflow enablement of FIX via integration withMicrosoft’s BizTalk Server, an Internet-based Web-Dealerplatform, and Algo-strategies editor.ShortCut, the company’s FIX enablement of BizTalk,

comprises a FIX adaptor, and a series of FIX-to-FIXMLpipelines and schemas that can be used and modified byclients to support extensions to application messages. Itenables organisations to rapidly FIX-enable their pre- andpost-trade workflow and can be used to map between thedifferent versions. Additional features include the abilityto set up a FIX message routing hub using out-of-the-boxwith no additional coding, handle EMX messages, mapbetween protocols, and support the transparency andtrade reporting requirements of MiFid, RegNMS andother legislation.

45

Rule Financial101 MoorgateLondonEC2M 6SLUK

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7826 4444Fax: +44 (0) 20 7826 [email protected]

Rule Financial is a leading UK independent provider ofbusiness consulting, IT services and bespoke technologyto the banking and investment communities. Employingover 230 staff at its London headquarters and near-shoredevelopment facilities in Spain and Poland, the companycounts the world’s foremost financial institutions amongits clients.Exceptional people, rigorous standards and over a

decade of hard-won experience have given the company astrong competitive edge in this constantly changingmarket.Rule has extensive experience developing robust

capital markets solutions using Microsoft technologies. Itworks closely with Microsoft to ensure its solutionsfollow best practices and maximise their technologypotential. Rule has developed a bespoke line of businessapplications ranging from highly flexible Web-basedsolutions, to smart clients with rich functionality. Itsconsultants have extensive experience across the breadthof Microsoft product offerings including the .NETFramework, ASP.NET, Visual Studio, WPF, Silverlight,C++, SharePoint, Excel and SQL Server.

ScaleOut Software10900 NE 8th StreetSuite 900BellevueWA 98004USA

Dan McMillan, VP, SalesTel: +1 503 643 3422Fax: +1 509 753 [email protected]

EMEA and APAC contact: David Brinker, COOTel: +1 503 643 [email protected]

ScaleOut Software’s data grid solutions drive the nextgeneration of application performance for gridcomputing. Its Windows-native distributed caching spansthe cluster to provide grid applications with fast, in-memory data access for high performance.Advanced features for grid-based applications, such as

parallel data query and method invocation, extend thepower of distributed caching to simplify programstructure and shorten design cycles. ScaleOutStateServer’s unique, highly integrated and self-managingdesign makes distributed caching easy-to-deploy and use.

COMPANIES A-Z


SingularityCapital Markets division100 Patrick StreetDerryBT48 7ELNorthern Ireland

Philip Mills, Account ManagerTel: +44 (0) 20 7826 4470Fax: +44 (0) 20 7826 [email protected]

US contact: Nino Stimac, Account ManagerTel: +1 212 203 [email protected]

APAC contact: Andy Lim, Account ManagerTel: +65 9616 [email protected]

Singularity provides business process agility software andservices that equip financial market businesses to streamlineoperations, realise efficiencies, and increase effectiveness.Over 100 financial institutions globally rely on

Singularity to deliver process agility and efficiency. In thefront-office it improves efficiency and effectiveness ofpeople-intensive processes such as on-boarding a newcustomer, handling a customer subscription orredemption, or dealing with a customer complaint. In theback-office it improves straight through processing rateswhile equipping people to handle exceptions efficientlyand flexibly.Singularity’s business process management software,

the Singularity Process Platform, equips companies forrapid process automation. The platform is built onMicrosoft technologies, including MSOffice, SharePoint,Dynamics CRM and BizTalk.

Case study: JPMorgan Investment Bank

SunGardCapital Markets & Investment Banking division25 Canada SquareLondonE14 5LQUK

Jane Boorman, Head of Strategic Alliances andBusiness DevelopmentTel: +44 (0) 20 8081 [email protected]

SunGard provides solutions for today’s investmentbanker. Whether it’s controlling the cost of trading ororganising settlements, there’s a SunGard solution forevery kind of investment banking.SunGard’s capital markets and investment banking

solutions include:• Supporting cross-asset trading and trading strategieswith Front Arena

• Assisting enterprise-wide, market, and credit riskmanagement with Adaptiv, which is used by 12 of theworld’s top 25 banks.

Case study: American Express Bank

47

www.sungard.com/~/media/financialsystems/casestudies/adpativ_casestudy_quentinstorrsfox.ashx

http://www.singularity.co.uk/jpmorgan-case-study.lit

Thomson ReutersThomson Portia22 Thomson PlaceBostonMA 02210USA

Tel: +1 617 856 2700Fax: +1 617 824 [email protected]://portiaservices.thomsonfinancial.com

EMEA contact: Bruno Ballardin, Regional ManagingDirector, EMEA and AsiaTel: +44 (0) 20 7542 [email protected]

US contact: Craig Lange, Americas Account DirectorTel: +1 617 856 [email protected]

APAC contact: Danny Li, Asia Sales, DirectorTel: +852 3762 [email protected]

Thomson Portia is a wholly owned subsidiary of ThomsonReuters, a leading source of intelligent information.Thomson Portia offers the investment industry powerfuland comprehensive enterprise-wide investment accountingsystems, which automate the trading, analysis andoperations of roughly 300money managers in 43 countriesandmanage roughly US$15 trillion. The company alsoprovides buy-side professionals the tools to manage dailytransaction activity and to efficiently report activities andreturns to management, clients and regulators.The customisable Portia Workspace runs on both

Windows XP and Windows Vista and utilises theMicrosoft .NET Framework 3.0. Additionally, Portia isoptimised to run on the Microsoft SQL database. Thistechnology has had a dramatic effect on improvingefficiency, optimising workflow across the organisation,and simplifying day-to-day activities.

Case study: ING

TrintechWarnford Court29 Throgmorton StreetLondonEC2N 2ATUK

Carol Orr, Marketing ManagerTel: +44 (0) 20 7628 [email protected]

US contact: Hilliary Opseth, Marketing ManagerTel: +1 972 739 [email protected]

Trintech is a leading global provider of financial softwareand has mapped its software architecture, utilising theMicrosoft .NET Framework, onto the latest Microsofttechnologies. Its solution suite provides an effective end-to-end automated system for reconciliation, exceptionmanagement, compliance and risk management, and isdeployed in over 600 leading companies worldwide.

Case study: Lloyds TSB asset management

COMPANIES A-Z


www.trintech.com/lloyds-tsb-asset-finance-division/

www.tf-portfoliosolutions.net/pdfs/Thomson_PORTIA_ING_Reprint.pdf

49

Vhayu Technologies100 Cooper CourtLos GatosCA 95032USA

Shanti Dev, Head of SalesTel: +1 408 354 9810Fax: +1 408 354 9820shanti@@vhayu.comwww.vhayu.com

EMEA contact: Tim King, Director of Sales, EMEATel: +44 (0) 20 7070 [email protected]

APAC contact: Ty Inoyama, Senior ConsultantTel: +81 3 5456 [email protected]

Vhayu delivers the fastest market data solutions for thecapture and high-speed analysis of massive amounts ofstreaming and historical data, to the world's leadingfinancial institutions. Through its unique patented Velocityand Squeezer technologies, Vhayu combines software andhardware to provide significant competitive advantages tofinancial firms concerned with the processing and storage oftick data by enabling faster and smarter trading decisions.The Vhayu Velocity tick database provides advanced 64-bitWindows andMicrosoft Visual Studio V8 support.Partnered with some of the world’s leading technology

and financial services organisations, Vhayu's customersinclude eight of the top ten global financial institutions,the leading online discount broker, the largest financialinformation provider, major hedge funds and tradingsystems vendors.Vhayu was founded in 1998 by Intel technologists.

Headquartered in Silicon Valley, the company also hasoffices in New York, London and Tokyo.

Case study: Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) Capital MarketsABN Amro Capital Markets

Visual Numerics2500 WilcrestSuite 200HoustonTX 77042USA


EMEA contact: Greg O’Rorke,International Territory ManagerTel: +44 (0) 118 963 [email protected]

US contact: Andy McClure, Director of Sales, North AmericaTel: +1 925 831 [email protected]

APAC contact: Toshitomo Kobayashi, CountryManager/Representative DirectorTel: +81 352 117 [email protected]

Visual Numerics develops leading edge data analysis andvisualisation solutions for technical, business andscientific communities worldwide. Visual Numerics’ dataanalysis product, the gold-standard IMSL NumericalLibraries in C, and C# for .NET and Fortran, leveragesMicrosoft architectures including the desktop, WindowsHPC Server 2008, F# and IronPython.Visual Numerics partners with Microsoft to provide

advanced analytic solutions and services for FinancialServices and Capital Markets that are unsurpassed in theindustry. Financial applications that can be built usingthe IMSL Libraries include: risk management; portfoliooptimisation; forecasting; fixed income analysis; tradingstrategy optimisation; interest rate modelling; and equityprice modelling and analysis.

Case study: NextSigma

www.vni.com/successes/nextsigma.php

http://www.vhayu.com/VhayuNews.aspx?NewsItemID=39f3b483-6b8c-4ef1-9653-fabeb7178ef2

http://www.vhayu.com/VhayuNews.aspx?NewsItemID=fd151b53-8f7c-4f23-ab70-e12393ed6799

Volanté Technologies41 East 11th Street11th FloorNew YorkNY 10003USA

Tel: +1 212 905 [email protected]

Volanté Technologies is an innovative data managementsolutions company serving the capital markets industry.Its proven solutions accelerate data integration for assetmanagers, broker dealers, stock exchanges, serviceproviders and industry utilities. They also run on the.NET and BizTalk platforms to enable rapid integration ofMicrosoft solutions with heterogeneous protocols,applications and middleware platforms.Volanté’s rich, financial domain-aware set of pre-built

components coupled with its award-winning integrateddevelopment environment has attracted customers,system integrators and independent software vendorsacross the financial industry due to its ease of use andcomprehensive features. Volanté is a Swift partner and iscertified in the messaging data services category.Volanté’s solutions are easy to maintain, are highly

reusable and self-documenting, enabling lowermaintenance costs and providing better overall businessagility.

WealthCraft SystemsSales and Marketing divisionUnit A9/F On Hing Building1 On Hing Terrace CentralHong Kong

Cliff Harkins, EVPTel: +852 3586 8233Fax: +852 3585 [email protected]

WealthCraft Systems is an IT company that designs,develops, markets and supports a flexible, scalable andsecure technology platform for wealth managementservices primarily for financial institutions. These includeinvestment advisory firms, securities brokerage firms,retail and private banks, mutual fund companies andinsurance companies.WealthCraft's principal business solution, Advisor

Workbench (AWB), tightly integrates with MicrosoftDynamics CRM to give financial professionals the toolsand services required to develop and expand their wealthmanagement business within the familiar Microsoftenvironment. AWB's software and services solutionenables more efficient and effective customer relationshipmanagement, financial planning, investment research,portfolio management and trade execution allowingfinancial institutions to enhance customer loyalty,improve financial advisor productivity, strengthencustomer relationships and increase assets undermanagement.WealthCraft also offers Atoms Order Management, an

integrated back-office system, which provides orderexecution, order management and portfolio andcommission management. Based on Microsoft BizTalkServer is Atoms SwiftNet Funds Gateway, a messagemiddleware solution, allowing financial institutions tobecome SwiftNet enabled to send and receive SwiftNetmessages.

COMPANY LISTINGS


Xenomorph8th Floor36 Old JewryLondonEC2R 8DDUK

Brian Sentance, CEOTel: +44 (0) 20 7614 8600Fax: +44 (0) 20 7614 [email protected]

US contact: Naj Alavi, Managing DirectorTel: +1 888 936 [email protected]

APAC contact: Matthew Skinner, DirectorTel: +44 (0) 20 7614 [email protected]

Established in 1995, Xenomorph has offices in Londonand New York. The company delivers data and analyticsmanagement solutions to the financial markets, and itssolutions leverage clients’ proprietary expertise, enablingthem to analyse and manage more data with greatercontrol.Xenomorph’s TimeScape data and analytics

management system contains the following modules:• Security master• Prices/rates/curves management• Data/database integration and normalisation• Tick/time series database technology• Data distribution• Analytics/spreadsheet management• Derivatives/product valuation management• Data analysis/decision support

Trading, research, risk, product control, IT and back-office staff use TimeScape at investment banks, hedgefunds and asset management institutions across theworld’s main financial centres.

Case study: xenomorph.com

Xinnovation1 New England Executive ParkSuite 104BurlingtonMA 01803USA


US contact: Michael Cioce, Director, BusinessDevelopmentTel: +1 781 494 [email protected]

Xinnovation sets itself apart from its competition byfocusing on business automation solutions that delivermeasurable value, from its roots as a services firmthrough its evolution to a product company. Xinnovationreduces corporate effort necessary to create and managemission critical documents and to effectivelycommunicate with clients.It’s XiDocs solution adds functionality far beyond

document management. XiDocs bursts documents,spreadsheets and presentations into searchable contentfragments and allows business teams to collaborativelyassemble new materials by searching for and repurposingcontent. The power of XiDocs is fully realised wheninserting corporate data into rich charts, tables andgraphs in a fully automated manner with DocGenapplication servers. Best of all, it does this using toolsusers already know, Microsoft Office, while allowingpublishing to high-end print-ready PDFs.

Case study: Fidelity

51

www.xinn.com/site/Portals/0/Fidelity-Cover-Story.pdf

http://www.xenomorph.com/casestudies/

XSP3595 Grandview ParkwaySuite 600BirminghamAL 35242USA


EMEA and APAC contact: Neil Sheppard, COO, EMEATel: +44 (0) 20 7959 [email protected]

US contact: John Kehoe, Director, Business Developmentand Account Relationship ManagementTel: +1 646 300 [email protected]

XSP is a leading provider of corporate actions automationsoftware for the global financial services industry. TheXSP v5 platform is a state-of-the-art solution developed toautomate each step in the processing of corporateactions. From data management to entitlementmanagement and notification and response capture,global financial institutions gain immediate return oninvestment with XSP’s flexible modular approach andrules-based workflow engine.Engineered using advanced Microsoft technologies,

the XSP v5 platform is built around a service orientedarchitecture using .NET technology (including theEnterprise Library) and Web services for globalenterprise-wide processing. This highly scalablearchitecture provides a flexible solution for integratingthe platform with a wide range of legacy financialsolutions including leveraging Microsoft’s BizTalkAccelerator for Swift to integrate with the Swift AllianceNetwork. The Microsoft Enterprise Library provides arobust platform for meeting a variety of enterpriserequirements for solutions architectures.

COMPANY LISTINGS


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Documents

Capital Markets Partner Guide 09