Microsoft to Ship Windows 2000; Caps Year with ECNs

By Feb. 17, Wall Street firms and retail consumers will be able to purchase the new Windows 2000 software from computer makers such as Dell, Compaq and Hewlett Packard.

By Feb. 17, Wall Street firms and retail consumers will be able to purchase the new Windows 2000 software from computer makers such as Dell, Compaq and Hewlett Packard. Microsoft announced that it had finished work on the Windows 2000 software in December, and had delivered the code to manufacturing plants at the end of last year, to be pressed into compact disks and to print the documentation.

Several financial service application providers, most notably, Reuters for its Reuters 3000 Xtra market data, news and analytics service and Power Plus, have already thrown their support behind Windows 2000 in November, according to Matthew Conners, worldwide industry manager financial services.

Other ISVs that announced support for Windows 2000 include Infinity, SS&C Technologies, Financial Models, and Montclair Financial Technology. The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant picked a short list of companies, including Reuters, to work closely with its Windows Joint Development Program (JDP).

“They provide feedback about bugs, functionality, features they’d like to see in the system,” says Conners.

“As part of the JDP, Reuters will have some part of their internal organization running on Windows 2000 when it’s released, and use it for some of the software they deliver to customers,” he says.

1999 was an important year for Microsoft, says Conners, because it has some publicly referencable accounts for big mission critical systems. Windows has won business from several of the electronic communications networks (ECNs), including Chicago’s Archipelago, which has over 2000 NT servers crunching about 30 million shares a day, NexTrade and CyBerCorp, whose CyBerBroker subsidiary searches other ECNs for the best price. Microsoft has a “huge focus” on gaining market share among various ECNs and so-called ATSs, “because it’s e-commerce,” says Conners. Among the ATSs, Microsoft landed Ashton Technology Group’s VWAP (volume average weighted price) Trading System as well as LIMITrader Securities, an electronic corporate bond trading system and Optimark Technologies. Ivy is Editor-at-Large for Advanced Trading and Wall Street & Technology. Ivy is responsible for writing in-depth feature articles, daily blogs and news articles with a focus on automated trading in the capital markets. As an industry expert, Ivy has reported on a myriad ... View Full Bio