Asset, portfolio and wealth managers know the tools they need to remain competitive: a real-time aggregate view of a customer’s assets and allocations, a clear picture of the changing conditions of financial markets, and applications that are robust, flexible, and easy-to-use. But for that, financial services institutions need to overcome the challenge of having to access information from independent systems that use complicated and competing interfaces. They need dynamic and holistic tools and a CRM system that they actually use. Microsoft has developed the tools and a partner network that speaks to these areas. We ask these solution providers to give us their take on what makes sense for financial services providers as they seek to satisfy the demands of the next generation client.

By Nadine Kjellberg

Oklahoma-based Central National Bank (CNB) drives ATMs and issues and processes prepaid cards on its own behalf as well as for other financial institutions. A few years ago, the bank identified a golden opportunity to hook its prepaid card system and an array of other self-service transaction services into the switch using Postilion’s integrated solution for self-service banking and payment processing. That foresight not only enabled CNB to win customers, but it also allowed it to tap markets its competitors have yet to penetrate.

Despite the implementation challenges, software-oriented architecture (SOA) can be a great vehicle for streamlining and expanding financial services offerings. Insurance provider Unum is now finding this out through an ambitious joint effort by business and technology specialists to build a new self-service portal for small to medium-sized business (SMB) customers.

For many insurers, analyzing policy and claims data pulled from disparate systems is no easy feat. In search of an enterprise data model and warehouse, Insurance House partnered with Skywire Software based in Frisco, Texas. Internal reports and product design analytics are now produced in near real-time, and the reduced integration costs have allowed the insurer to reduce IT headcount by half.

• Joe Pimbley on Physics and Risk

• Lab49’s Innovation Contest Gives Top Prize to ‘Stock Information Boids’

• SAP, Microsoft Team to Help Banks With SOA

• Wombat, Gissing Bring Low Latency Market Data to Traders’ Desktops

Financial services firms across the industry continue to feel the repercussions of the sub-prime mortgage meltdown and the ensuing credit crunch and market volatility. In response, they’re looking for solid strategies that can help them weather current market challenges.

Jason Rushforth, global VP of financial services at CDC Software, stresses that as financial services firms respond to current conditions, they need to take care not to resort to short-term thinking. Rather than implementing stop-gap measures, he says, firms need to look for solutions that will enable them to mitigate the immediate effects of the downturn while also strengthening their position for the long term.

We spoke with Mr. Rushforth about which kinds of strategies can deliver the best results for financial services firms, both now and in the future.

As budgets tighten amid recession worries, technology departments have a harder task on their hands. They have to find technologies that make their companies more efficient – but a tight belt is not something known to inspire grand thinking.

On the cover this month we feature Kumar Vadaparty, director at Merrill Lynch’s Global Wealth Management Technology division.

Developers often are criticized for being myopic, but it is perhaps more the fault of the culture around them that fosters that mentality as developers are compensated not for their great ideas, but for finishing the task in front of them as efficiently and cost effectively as possible.

Sales traders operate in a fast-moving environment, and so don’t want to be burdened by islands of non-integrated technology, says Mark Adams, development manager with Execution Ltd., a London-based full-service agency stockbroker. Execution set about aggregating the information from three principle types of systems – external market data feeds, customer relationship management and trading – into a unified front-office desktop application that would help the sales traders become more efficient and more profitable, he says.

For sell-side organizations, good customer relations are the key to revenue generation. But providing high-quality customer service means first knowing what the client wants, and then being proactive in meeting its demands. So when Scotia Capital wanted to upgrade its legacy customer relationship management capabilities it turned to Salentica Systems, a Microsoft Dynamics CRM partner that has built a range of value-added tools as extensions to the Microsoft CRM.

Online banking is now a mainstream access method for consumers in the U.S.  Many observers are convinced that banks must stop thinking about online banking as a distinct delivery channel and work on integrating it with their other delivery channels in such a way to help differentiate them from their competitors.  This forum provides our industry leaders with the opportunity to discuss the latest trends in online banking and what banks should be doing to provide their highly desirable customers with the best possible online experience.

Kumar Vadaparty and his development teams get high marks from the industry

By Paul Allen

While Merrill Lynch’s win in this year’s Windows in Financial Services Developer Awards for its Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Framework is a striking achievement, even more notable is that it is the second year in a row the firm has triumphed in the awards. So what is behind their success?

Silverlight, Microsoft’s new cross-platform and cross-browser plug-in, holds tremendous promise across all areas of financial services to meet rising demands among workers and consumers for rich, interactive online experiences. To help drive that potential, Microsoft is creating a series of innovative demos for presentation at industry events as well as in individual meetings with banks, traders, and insurance firms.

CME Group, formed when the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade merged in 2007, is the world’s largest and most diverse exchange, but with size comes challenges. The company needed a faster, more streamlined way to conduct audits of companies clearing transactions through it, and to share that information among auditors and managers. Its development team created Castle, a solution that cuts CME’s development time and audit reviews by 20 percent allowing auditors to work in the familiar interface of the 2007 Microsoft Office system. WFS spoke to Roman Benko about this solution and his team’s innovative use of Microsoft technology. Benko is associate director of systems development for the financial exchange.

The financial industry’s data mavens know well that crisis inspires change. New regulations and increasing volumes have been moving data management up to the notice of company decision-makers. But how far has the industry gotten in considering managing data content as an asset? For some, enterprise data management seems to be getting more its due with executives starting to realize there is a business opportunity to be had. For most others, while they have made progress in getting data management positioned as an important task, there remains many battles to be won in the areas of organizational alignment, governance, and funding.

Windows in Financial Services recently conducted a WFS Council roundtable moderated by EDM Council’s Michael Atkin. The purpose of the roundtable was to take stock of where we are as an industry in setting data management as a business priority. The following experts participated: John Bottega, Citigroup; Rob Casper, Morgan Stanley; Joe Cleaver, Microsoft; Peter Giordano, CIBC Oppenheimer; Adam Honore, Aite Group; Mohammed Jafar, MetLife Investments; George Lipsker, Avanade; John Mulholland, Royal Bank of Canada; Jim Perry, Goldman Sachs; Peter Serenita, JPMorgan Chase; Larry Tabb, TABB Group; Julie Warren, New York Life; and Paul Yaron, Bear Stearns.

High-Performance Computing – or as it is increasingly called, High-Productivity Computing – continues to drive innovation and profits for a wide range of industries. Today, technological evolution is driving HPC in new directions with non-traditional “Edge HPC” applications. Wall Street firms are increasingly seeking to improve productivity with both traditional and Edge HPC.

• Tabor Research: Gaining an Edge: Wall Street Firms Expand Productivity in “Edge HPC” Arena
• Microsoft Brings Ease-of-Use to HPC
• Dell, Microsoft And Corporate Modelling Deliver Performance with Production Ready Solutions
• Digipede: Digipede Enhances HPC Developer Productivity
• IBM Solutions Offer Financial Institutions Flexible, Cost-Effective HPC Alternatives
• Verari Systems Leads The Way To A Greener HPC
• The Increasing Importance of HPC to the Insurance Industry
• Milliman Leverages Analytical Capabilities Through High-Performance Computing

The challenges facing Wall Street are causing a dramatic increase in the need for processing power but companies are already near their limit in terms of energy consumption and space, not to mention funding. They need higher performance but within the same power envelope. To find out what Intel has in store for the HPC market, WFS interviewed Richard Dracott, General Manager of Intel’s High Performance Computing Group.