02:20 PM
INVESTMENT-MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY NEWSFLASHES
SEI Investments is introducing a marketing library as part of its Web-based desktop platform, Global Funds Services Maxworks. The integrated library will be offered to the Oaks, Pa.-based service provider's mutual-fund-distribution customers in order to support their strategies for asset growth. The marketing library will provide access to educational and informational materials such as sales ideas, presentations, wholesaling strategies and business-building tools. In addition, customers can access synopses of reports by SEI analysts, and research and commentary from SEI's Investment Communications Team. The library will be rolled out to customers in the first quarter of 2004.
Charles River Development, a Burlington, Mass.-based investment-management vendor, and Lake Forest, Calif.-based FutureTrade Technologies, an electronic-execution provider, plan to integrate their software systems, using the FIX protocol. The result will enable equity and option-securities orders created or executed by FutureTrade to appear in the Charles River Investment Management System buy-side trading blotter. The interface between the two systems is being offered for Charles River IMS' versions six and seven.
London-based fund-of-hedge-funds group, NewFinance Capital Partners, will implement FOFiX, a risk-management solution from Paris-based Riskdata. The group will use the solution to support its portfolio-construction process. It will enable portfolio managers to view aggregated exposure and risk, according to a statement from Benjamin Moute, NewFinance Capital Partners' head of quantitative research. In addition, he says, FOFiX can produce scenario analysis, exposure, and VaR reports for portfolios, and produce pro-active feedback for investing.
Bisys is implementing a technology platform called Rollover Solutions Network, for automating the opening of IRA rollover accounts for its plan-sponsor and retirement-service clients. The platform, from Princeton, N.J.-based technology provider, Wealth Management Systems, will be interfaced with Bisys' record-keeping platform during the second quarter of 2004. The solution will be accessible through Bisys' Web site for retirement-plan participants, and functions as an electronic interface between Bisys' record-keeping platform and other applications used to open brokerage accounts. Rollover Solutions Network will enable real-time IRA-rollover-account openings, and electronically process participant distributions. In addition, the solution automatically tracks distribution and rollover activity.
Customers purchasing Siebel CRM OnDemand, from San Mateo, Calif.-based customer-relationship-management vendor Siebel Systems, will get the first 90 days of service free. With a purchase of a minimum of five user seats, new customers will receive free gold-level support, which includes seven-day-a-week, 24-hour help-desk service. Once the free service is over, customers can either pay for an additional nine months of continued service under a one-year agreement, or terminate service at no cost. The service, delivered via the Internet, was made available in the fourth quarter of 2003. CRM OnDemand offers the ability for users and their partner companies to manage contacts, sales opportunities, marketing campaigns, and customer-service requests.