GoldenSource has partnered with analytics and data management specialist Xenomorph to offer the GoldenSource Market Data Solution (GSMDS), a single platform for market and reference data management that gives risk officers what GoldenSource describes as “a 360 degree view of all risk related data”.
GoldenSource looked at a number of potential partners and considered the option to build a centralised data solution in-house, but chose Xenomorph software on the basis of its maturity, market success and fit with the company’s enterprise data architecture. GoldenSource will market the solution with one stop shop for pre- and post-sales provision and claims its first customer, a large financial institution that has recently evaluated the product, will sign on the line in the next few weeks. A further six sales are forecast for this year without aggressive promotion, claims the vendor. In line with A-Team Group research that shows 87% of risk managers are interested in centralising market and reference data, GSMDS unifies trading reference data, such as static data, corporate actions and end of day pricing, with more time critical market data, such as intraday pricing, rates, curves and derived data sets including volatility surfaces and correlation matrices. The result, claims GoldenSource, is increased data quality, consistency and transparency across the investment process and a solution that can address issues such as sourcing information for front office pricing mechanisms and profit and loss values in the middle and back office from disparate sources. Mike Meriton, CEO of GoldenSource, explains: “Risk management, product control and finance officers need higher data quality, transparency and consistency. As companies drive risk management it is critical to further integrate market and reference data.” Sharing Meriton’s sentiment, Brian Sentance, CEO of Xenomorph, says: “The capture, validation, cleansing, storage and analysis of complex datasets such as curves, spread curves and volatility surfaces is becoming more and more important as risk management moves to the fore in the market. GoldenSource is one of the founders of the enterprise data management market and we are already seeing the benefits of this new sales channel for our approach of unified management of data and analytics.” The two companies have been working on GSMDS for the past 18 months, accelerating GoldenSource’s time to market by using Xenomorph’s real-time, time series and curve management technology and an integration approach based on Java and web services technologies. The partnership is not exclusive, but it is the first of its kind for both players. “The financial crisis was the perfect storm for enterprise data management and proved the need for more efficient data management practice as it relates to the growing call for transparency. The market is desperate for more accuracy about exposure in portfolios. Distinct departmental decisions are no longer enough and the need is for enterprise level decisions. Our solution can support this and give a 360 degree view of exposure. We see GSMDS as a winning solution in the marketplace,” says Meriton. Following the launch of GSMDS at FIMA NYC, Meriton adds: “There is tremendous interest in this among new and existing customers. For example, clients in the secruities services space could implement GSDMS and enable increased competitive advantage for themselves and their clients.” GSMDS runs on the old stalwarts of the financial industry, Oracle and Microsoft SQL databases. GoldenSource’s advice to clients is not to take a big bang approach to implementation, but rather to de-risk the process by starting small, winning user approval and then scaling up. Implementation, in large part, depends on the number of inputs and outputs required, with GoldenSource suggesting a timeframe of three to six months for a comprehensive installation. The company says it has no direct competition in the market, with many investment houses creating their own ‘band aid’ solutions to data management, but believes that as the market continues to change, CIOs lacking time and money will increasingly adopt packaged solutions for risk data management. Asia, with a wide variety of instruments, exchanges, currency changes and fluctuations is expected by GoldenSource to be its fastest market in the short term, ahead of Europe the more homogenous US market. However, many vendors are pitching their wares in the space where risk management and data meet, including EDM competitors such as Netik and Asset Control. This year should indicate which approach appeals to the market the most. A step beyond its packaged solution, GoldenSource is also considering a hosted solution and expects to offer both licensed GSMDS software and a hosted service later this year or early next year. This trend towards outsourced and hosted ASP solutions is another key trend within the vendor community and will not be the last instance of a move in this direction this year, as firms strive to bring down costs as much as possible.
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