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Operations Newsflashes: Reuters and Novell Form Alliance, and more

Reuters and Novell Form Alliance, BlueBay Taps Into TLM, Schroders Outsources Middle Office, Putnam Investments Finds Coherence

Reuters and Novell Form Alliance

Reuters and Novell recently announced an alliance in support of Reuters Market Data System (RMDS) on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from Novell for financial institutions worldwide. Novell and Reuters have been working together to extend the performance and support benefits of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server to RMDS customers.

The move will allow Reuters clients to take the market standard data platform RMDS and run it on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, which is becoming increasingly popular within the financial services industry. Reuters also has joined Novell's PartnerNet program and has certified RMDS on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server to help ensure the future success of joint financial services customers.

"Novell's support for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from a broad range of hardware vendors and partners in financial services makes it an excellent fit with the needs of Reuters clients." said Michael Parlapiano, Reuters global head of Information Management Solutions, in a release.

BlueBay Taps Into TLM

Following a competitive review of the marketplace, London-based BlueBay Asset Management has selected Transaction Lifecycle Management (TLM) solutions from SmartStream Technologies. BlueBay specializes in fixed-income credit funds, and will utilize SmartStream's TLM Corporate Actions and TLM Reconciliations.

TLM Corporate Actions will automate the firm's event management processes, ensuring all corporate actions are captured and processed within compliant time frames. TLM Reconciliations will automate the reconciliation and exception management of BlueBay's cash and stock transactions received from Sungard's investment accounting solution.

"This purchase reflects our strategy of deploying best-of-breed products to support our rapidly expanding business," said Simon Lumsdon, IT Director, BlueBay, in a release. "By creating scalable, flexible operations we aim to continue to deliver outstanding service and returns to our clients while carefully controlling our cost and risk."

SmartStream delivers integrated, multiproduct solutions that help enable enterprisewide TLM, from trade inception to settlement in a single scalable platform, all within the framework of its STP Control Architecture.

Schroders Outsources Middle Office

Schroder Investment Management is outsourcing its middle office investment operations in North America to Bank of New York (BNY). As part of the outsourcing arrangement, BNY has assumed responsibility for a range of operational functions, including trade support, fail management, data management, investment accounting, third-party custodian reconciliation, performance measurement and end-client appraisals on a private label basis. In addition, the bank will develop and host a private-label Web portal for Schroders.

"We want to continue to focus on building our business and providing superior investment performance," said Mark A. Hemenetz, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Schroders, in a release. "The Bank's outsourcing solution enables us to focus on our core competency while effectively managing costs."

The Bank of New York provides outsourcing solutions through BNY SmartSource, working in a consultative capacity to help investment managers evaluate their outsourcing options, maximize efficiency and mitigate risk whether they manage assets on behalf of institutions, private clients or fund vehicles, according to BNY.

Putnam Investments Finds Coherence

Putnam Investments, with nearly $200 billion in assets under management, recently announced the selection of Tangosol to provide data grid solutions. According to Putnam, the vendor's Tangosol Coherence data grid solutions helps large financial institutions more easily deploy massive enterprisewide applications.

Grid computing is a core strategic technology in virtually all of the advanced mission-critical applications currently being developed, according to Tangosol. The use of Tangosol technology provides several key enablers to Putnam and its clients.

"Our selection for data grid capabilities is strategic," said Maurizio Ferconi, managing director and head of Financial Engineering at Putnam, in a release. "Tangosol Coherence 3.1, with its advanced features, has anticipated and responded to our needs with solutions that are well ahead of anything else in the market."

Philippe Bibi, senior managing director and CTO at Putnam, cited grid computing as one of his firms top initiatives in 2006. Putnam's goal with its grid computing project is "to develop a grid environment that provides resiliency and performance at a cost-effective price," Bibi said in a release. "About 10 percent of new projects today are using grid solutions, which is an indication that the field is picking up and has passed the level of being only of academic interest."

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