Data Connection: A Look at the Future Thomson-Reuters

Thomson’s announcement in late May of its $17.2 billion bid to acquire Reuters will create a company with 34 percent market share in financial news – putting it a single percentage point ahead of Bloomberg, with 33 percent.

Of course the big story is the merger of data and news products. Thomson’s strengths in specialized information for institutional investors like tracking analysts’ estimates and Reuters’ comprehensive current and historic market trading data will be a good match.

But in these times of fast-paced markets, huge data volumes and increasing data demands, the technology through which data is delivered is essential. In that respect, Thomson’s acquisition of Reuters will be a merger of likes. Both companies have strong Microsoft ties. Thomson Financial is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and has several partnerships with Microsoft. In one partnership that began a couple of years ago, the company agreed to optimize its PORTIA portfolio management system on Microsoft, and just this spring the new PORTIA Workspace created with .NET Framework 3.0 and Vista was launched. Meanwhile, Reuters has long been a key capital markets partner with Microsoft and has been a leader in using Microsoft’s instant messaging, smart tags and other technologies.

The new company will be broken into separate units for financial (called Reuters) and professional services (called Thomson Professional). Thomson’s Richard J. Harrington will retire upon completion of the deal and Reuters’ Thomas H. Glocer will lead the new corporation. David Thomson, grandson of the founder of Thomson Corporation, will be chairman of the combined Thomson-Reuters and the Thomson family will own 53 percent of the company.

Lab49 Creates Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation Practice

Lab49, a consulting firm that specializes in building advanced applications for global financial institutions, announced it has formed a practice dedicated to developing Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) applications for the financial services industry.

WPF provides a next-generation development platform for graphical user interfaces that incorporates two and three dimensional graphics and animations, real-time data feeds, and rich user interaction. It enables smooth and scalable rendering at a fraction of the effort required by previous platforms.

As an early adopter of WPF, the consultancy has been prototyping and applying WPF to financial applications since its introduction. Initial client projects include developing a prototype for a buy-side order management system and an algorithmic trading workstation for a top investment bank.

“Current user interfaces, such as trade blotters and pricing screens, tend to pack traders’ monitors with dense, inflexible grids of numbers with little enrichment or visualization. They tend to present data, not information. WPF, a cornerstone of Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0, lowers the entry barrier for rich, attractive, visual, and interactive GUIs. The technology harnesses the full power of today’s graphics hardware to provide a fast and responsive visualization of data,” said Daniel Chait, founder and director, Lab49.

Metavante Gains Independence

Marshall & Ilsley Corporation has announced its plan to split Marshall & Ilsley Corporation and Metavante Corporation into independent public companies.

Metavante, a Gold Certified Microsoft Partner, is a leader in banking and payment technologies to financial services firms and businesses worldwide. It has products and services for account processing for deposit, loan and trust systems, image-based and conventional check processing, electronic funds transfer, consumer healthcare payments, and electronic presentment and payment. No management changes at Metavante are anticipated.

“When this transaction is completed, we will have access to financial resources to continue to build new products, acquire additional companies, invest in new technologies, as well as attract and retain the best employees in the industry,” says Metavante CEO Frank Martire.

Liquidnet Acquires Miletus Trading

Liquidnet, the premier electronic marketplace for blocktrading, has acquired Miletus Trading, a leading agency-only brokerage firm that provides advanced, quantitative execution strategies and analytics to institutional investors. The transaction closed in late March.

Liquidnet is an active user of Microsoft technology; it uses Microsoft .NET Framework and has recently been upgrading its database to SQL Server 2005. Liquidnet CEO Seth Merrin calls the acquisition an integral part of Liquidnet’s strategy to build a more efficient global institutional marketplace for the buy side.

“Miletus and Liquidnet are like-minded firms. Both companies are focused on how innovation and technology can empower buy-side traders and improve their trading results,” he says.

Fidelity Buys Asset Control Which Buys TAP Solutions

Boston-based Fidelity Ventures has taken an undisclosed majority stake in Asset Control, a Dutch provider of centralized data management solutions to financial services firms. In a concurrent move, Asset Control says it has acquired TAP Solutions – which provides Microsoft-based data management software for financial services firms – in order to extend its offerings to institutions of all sizes.

Phil Lynch, who was CEO of Reuters Americas from 2001 to 2005 before becoming a venture partner with Fidelity Ventures, will succeed Ger Rosenkamp as CEO and president of Asset Control. Rosenkamp will continue to serve as chairman of the board.

TAP’s flagship TAPMaster product is a modular system built on Microsoft technology to provide plug-and-play accessibility to a broad range of data vendors and business application providers.

News from ACORD LOMA

The insurance industry’s premier technology conference, the ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum, was held in Florida in late May. Here is some of the news Microsoft and its partners announced at the show.

Microsoft Assists in Developments of ACORD Insurance Capability Model

Microsoft Services participated in the working group on ACORD’s new Insurance Capability Model by providing insights and thought leadership.

ACORD’s Insurance Capability Model is one of five specific components that collectively create the ACORD Standards Framework. It helps define business process models, identify where existing ACORD standards can be leveraged, and identify areas for ACORD Standards asset reuse.

Microsoft Services used its business architecture methodology as input to the ACORD working group effort and continues to do so as an ongoing member of the working group.

“ACORD’s Insurance Capability Model, used with the Microsoft Insurance Value Chain, will provide the industry with a working methodology and industry standards framework to develop and implement successful solutions for addressing mission-critical challenges,” said Dennis Maroney, worldwide insurance industry manager for the Commercial Sector Group at Microsoft.

The model was first reviewed at the ACORD Standards Forum held Nov. 13–15, 2006.

Exstream Introduced Dialogue Live for Agents in the Field

Exstream used the opportunity of the ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum to introduce Dialogue Live, a solution that merges interactive document completion in the field with corporate document production and fulfillment.

Integrated with Exstream’s market-leading enterprise document automation Dialogue software for high-volume and on-demand production of personalized customer communications, Dialogue Live provides insurer’s customer-facing employees with the flexibility and autonomy to complete interactive, point-of-need, personalized documents for clients, while ensuring accuracy and costs are controlled through centralized production and fulfillment.

A field agent can meet with a client and walk through an electronic version of a new insurance application. Each new form is pre-populated with relevant information from previously completed pages and content from a central database, then created on demand and given to the client on the spot to review and sign. The data inputted on premises is then dynamically transmitted back to the central database, where it will be stored and reused as needed for all subsequent interactions with the customer.

The company also introduced version 6.0 of its Dialogue enterprise document automation software. The new version adds more than 250 enhancements and eight new modules, including new SOAP and Web services interface modules; support for PDF digital signatures, font subsetting, and file size optimization; four new modules for Dialogue Live interactive applications, including Dialogue Live Format (DLF) Designer, DLF Output, DLF Input, and DLF Fulfillment; and six new charting capabilities.

Progressive Migrates Mainframe-based Policy Management to Microsoft, Speeds Service

Progressive Group of Insurance Companies replaced a nearly 30-year-old mainframe-based policy management application that is central to its operations with an application on Microsoft software, to improve speed and efficiency.

The new application, which helps more than 28,000 employees and 30,000 agencies manage insurance policies from creation to reissuance, was built on Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition (64-bit) and developed utilizing Microsoft Visual Studio® 2005 and the Microsoft .NET Framework. It integrates seamlessly with existing Progressive applications that support new policy creation, endorsements and reinstatements.

The company needed an infrastructure that was connected and adaptable to the evolving needs of its internal business partners. The new policy management application controls transaction workflow, and manages data exchange with more than 100 separate systems across the enterprise.

Progressive’s vast network of agents will access the new policy management application through Web-based access supported by Microsoft SQL Server 2005. The application enables real-time policy processing and interaction with thousands of independent sales contractors.

“By speeding service to its customers from quoting all the way through to policy issuance on a modern platform, Progressive again shows why it is among the world’s leaders in innovation,” said Bill Hartnett, U.S. insurance industry solutions director at Microsoft.

New Capgemini Global Insurance Team Serves Six of Largest Global Insurers

Capgemini, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, announced at the ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum that it has formed a new Insurance Solutions team that counts six of the largest global insurers in North America and the UK as its clients. The new division is comprised of business consultants and IT professionals dedicated to serving the needs of the insurance industry. The team and two other new Industry Solutions organizations, Banking and Capital Markets, comprise the newly created Capgemini Financial Services Strategic Business Unit. The unit is led by Raymond Spencer, former CEO of Kanbay International, which was acquired by Capgemini late last year.