Soliton Inc. has signed the first round-the-clock client for its managed reference data services offering. The implementation, now live after a three-month evaluation period and three months of training, involves a dedicated Soliton staff handling data cleansing and normalization processes for the investment management division of an as-yet unidentified fund manager in the U.S.
According to Soliton CEO Nazir Noormohamed, the company will provide 24/7 support for the fund manager’s security master database. Soliton has assigned 10 staff to the set-up, based in the U.K., U.S. and Canada and able to devote
round-the-clock attention to maintaining the security master on an outsourced basis.
The Soliton Reference Data Managed Service, available since early 2005, when its first client signed up, manages incoming vendor data feeds from multiple sources. Making use of its TimeSquare data management platform, Soliton provides the data integration, data enrichment, validation, and delivery of reference data and other investment data such as index and pricing data, to internal customer systems and end users.
This latest customer agreement will extend Soliton’s existing commitment from supporting data and workflows in TimeSquare, to providing a remotely managed, 24/7 outsourced data system service and security master support from its operation centers in Canada, the U.K. and the U.S. Noormohamed says Soliton staff dial in to the client site and handle the data management processes from their respective locations. TimeSquare handles automated scheduling, generating an exceptions report that is then handled by Soliton personnel.
The managed service will assist the customer with enhancing the quality of their internally used market information. Noormohamed says this results in alleviating the client need for internal expertise in this area, generating substantial cost savings, while at the same time ensuring greater efficiency from their investment data operations and minimized regulatory concerns.
Noormohamed says commercial terms involve a flat fee for the implementation, plus the opportunity to provide additional services in terms of upgrades and value-added capabilities. He says additional contracts, building on a similar set of capabilities, are in the pipeline.
Soliton offers interfaces to range of data services. These include Bloomberg Data License, Bloomberg Professional, CRSP, FT Interactive Data, Iverson Financial Systems (now part of Capco), Reuters SSL, Reuters DataScope, Standard & Poor’s Compustat and Telekurs Financial’s Valordata Feed (VDF).
Clients for TimeSquare include State Street Bank and Equilend. The company also services Joho Capital, a private investment firm headquartered in New York and focused on Japan and other Asian markets, which has implemented TimeSquare to support its hedge fund activities.
