By Paul Allen

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.

“Aggregating all the systems’ information helps us build a [client] profile, and it helps us to service our customers better and follow up much better,” Adams explains. By creating a picture of what stocks a customer might be interested in, it gives the sales traders more reasons to call clients, and provides them with tips and suggestions on what to discuss and how to present that information. The best sales traders work this way, “but what we were looking to do was systematize those best practices of the top producers to raise the bar on all the others,” says Adams.

The core of Execution’s platform is Microsoft Dynamics CRM, which is integrated with Outlook and therefore is already anchored onto the desktop, says Adams. The internal research and trading systems, along with external market data feeds, are then aggregated with that.

“Also to some extent we have unified communications, bringing in phone and email integration, so it is all in one place,” Adams notes. “When we pick up the phone or send an email to a customer, that gets logged and it helps to build up the profile. So between the research and sales traders at a glance we can see who is touching whom, who is in contact with whom. So we can make sure every part of the business is properly hooked into the client.”

Another value-add for clients is the generation of bespoke market sheets, says Adams. These highlight specific information that a client might find particularly relevant in light of sectors or securities they are showing interest in, or areas in which they have been active.

In addition, the CRM system generates commission, and account management and senior management reports. “So we can see not only who is trading with us, but also who is inputting to that relationship,” says Adams. “That takes us towards attribution, as well as profitability, and getting a better view of whether we are getting value for money out of a client.”

As for areas of future enhancement, Execution is looking at publishing research articles and news commentary on stocks and sectors to Bloomberg, Reuters and other providers. On the research side the firm also is focusing on better leveraging the reports, commentary and numerical data they generate.

To this end, it is aggregating that research information with the client profiles and CRM data. So, for example, “if a stock is upgraded, we can make sure the sales traders are aware of this,” notes Adams. “They can get on the phone and pass that information onto their clients, or distribute the information automatically, or highlight it through a client extranet as a significant news story. So building a bespoke news flow.”

Meanwhile, Microsoft – which partnered with Evolution in developing its solution – has taken that original concept and from it built the Institutional Client Platform (ICP). The platform incorporates Microsoft Dynamics for the CRM piece, PerformancePoint for business intelligence and client analytics, and Office Communications Server for integrating the various communication channels, including email, instant messaging and the traders’ turret system.

“What we’re building is an integrated sales desktop,” says Ian Warford, director of Securities and Capital Markets at Microsoft EMEA.

Thus far Microsoft has targeted tier-one banks in London, where it is finding interest across the equities, foreign exchange and fixed income desks, according to Warford. “The story of the Institutional Client Platform resonates with many banks at the moment, the reason being that some banks are looking perhaps to reduce their proprietary trading and focus more on the client experience, to generate more revenue from the client side,” he says.

And while the ICP is limited to CRM, client analytics and communication integration at present, eventually it will extend to customer-facing activities across the front, middle and back offices. Future areas of functionality will cover client on-boarding (which is already in progress), what clients’ margin calls are, their collateral management issues, and the credit risk a customer has across its various product silos, says Warford. It will also reach into the back office to see where a trade is, if a confirmation has gone out via SWIFT, and to make sure the firm is hitting its service level agreements.

“We’re starting small, but the overall vision is quite large,” he says.

www.executionlimited.com