Archive for the ‘Special Features’ Category

Mike Gilkey joined Avanade from Accenture five and a half years ago, when the company was formed through a joint venture between Accenture and Microsoft aimed at providing consulting and implementation services for applications running on the Microsoft platform. Avanade, which launched in 2000 just after the peak of the technology boom, struggled ... Full story

Taking control of research at buy-side firms used to mean finding a better way to store fat paper reports than stacking them on the floor or the desk until they toppled over. Nowadays those reports are electronic, and regulators want to know how firms are using them, and how they are deciding which broker dealers are sending good research and how they are allocating their ... Full story

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 ... Full story

How do investment managers differentiate between all the different OMS vendors on the market? We looked through out past issues, email newsletters and online content to cull together what customers have said about the decision, in their own words. WHY? Customers cite: • Strong control of ... Full story

Two years ago, the Pacific Exchange realized that it was beginning to run out of processing power in its data center. It had a contract for 85 MIPS on an outsourced mainframe for its clearing and billing system, and the fast-growing options business was pretty close to using up all that capacity. Last year ... Full story

eSpeed, a subsidiary of Cantor Fitzgerald, has launched a wireless electronic data and trading platform for US Treasury bonds and foreign exchange. Aimed at the institutional market, the trading solution is based on Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 and will be available on devices like the Treo 700w and the Motorola Q. eSpeed had launched a wireless market data service last year on Windows but it ... Full story

CRM’s Rebirth Initially, CRM was viewed as a four-letter-word by some users who thought it would solve complex problems out-of-the-box. But the industry is now on a second or third generation of CRM. Companies, as the following examples show, have learned from experience. They are approaching the challenges more holistically, combining new technology with ... Full story

If the popularity of RIM’s BlackBerry caught corporate IT departments by surprise, the threatened shutdown of BlackBerry messaging because of the patent infringement lawsuit by NPT was a second surprise. That has led proactive enterprise CIOs to take another look at their BlackBerry dependency and explore ways to reduce their risk by finding other suppliers of handheld email.... Full story

Maybe it’s because Tim Huval moved from a senior human resources role to become CIO of Bank of America’s wealth management business, but he has a keen appreciation for the importance of employees, or associates in BofA parlance. His emphasis on the importance of a great employee experience to produce an excellent customer experience echoes Microsoft’s 18-month old experience Banking campaign.... Full story

The speed and volume of financial information is exceeding all forecasts. Investment institutions are facing the need to significantly invest in their trading and processing infrastructures with ever dwindling budgets. Firms will not only need to find the right speed, size, and price fit to remain financially viable, but they will need innovative solutions that add more value to each trade. We ask the experts ... Full story