WINDOWS IN FINANCIAL SERVICES Announces 2009 Innovator Award Winners at 2009 SIFMA Technology Management Conference & Exhibit

Windows in Financial Services, “The Source on Microsoft Technologies for Financial Services,” announced their INNOVATOR AWARD WINNERS AT 2009 SIFMA Technology Management Conference & Exhibit held at the Hilton New York.

A total of four winners were selected for clearly implementing technologies that will redefine a new tomorrow in technology and demonstrate a clear-cut advantage they have in their particular sector of the marketplace. Criteria for judging and selecting were based on the end result enabling a concrete resolution to an impending issue, solving practical business problems.

Raymond James created a new suite of business intelligence (BI) tools that can analyze vast stores of product, client, and market data, in order to help advisors continue to make fast, accurate, and cost-effective decisions. The company’s BI platform is based on Microsoft SQL Server 2008 data management software and SQL Server 2008 Integration Services, Analysis Services, and Reporting Services. The BI team used SQL Server Integration Services to load transactional data from more than a dozen databases into a single relational data warehouse. From the data warehouse, team members created a new Analysis Services cube containing half a terabyte of financial data. Since processing times are faster, advisors are now able to run many more queries throughout the day, thus enhancing productivity.

“Securities firms are faced with improving operational performance and enhancing customer experiences to navigate volatile markets,” said Colleen Healy, general manger for Microsoft’s U.S. Financial Services Group. “The winners of the Windows in Financial Services’ 2009 Innovator Awards have clearly demonstrated the ability of technology innovation to meet operational needs and address changing market conditions. We applaud Eikos Partners, Lab49, EDGAR Online and Raymond James for their development of innovative solutions on the Microsoft software platform.”

“Innovation at the financial sector is proving to be a challenge accosting all entities in the financial realm, especially due to an economy that has had seismic rumblings,” said Joe Viviani, publisher, Windows in Financial Services. “This year’s 2009 WFS award winners were able to capture, isolate and overcome a business issue with a solid innovation – and extended its capabilities beyond the traditional limits. Whether on a local or global scale, each of these winners has been able to seamlessly integrate their new technologies into the daily workflow DNA and as a result, save time and worry. We salute all the entries and the winners who took the time to utilize their resources through the Microsoft technology platform to find the right business answer for their distinct business needs.”

Eikos Partners has built a client zero install equity trading system with tick-by-tick position, P&L and sophisticated stock charting that allows users to annotate charts with news and even online chat sessions. The charts update in real-time, and the news and annotations made by users appear on the charts immediately. In addition, moving a mouse over a stock instantly brings up a choice of buy and sell actions, allowing users to make trades in a single click. The user end of the system was built using Microsoft Silverlight and culminates a year of work by Eikos Partners in studying different possibilities for Silverlight. The system also uses Enterprise Gateway from Kaazing to push real-time updates to the client, and Microsoft Azure for back-end processing.

Lab49 was selected by a large investment bank to create a next-generation risk reporting system using Microsoft WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation). When completed, the system will allow real-time updates throughout the day of each of the important risk metrics in the firm (these were previously only available at end of day). Using innovative techniques from WPF as well as employing a cutting-edge user experience design team, Lab49 delivered a host of novel features such as inline charts in column pick lists, animated layouts and historical chart overlays under date range selectors, that have previously been impossible.

EDGAR Online is the only company that has created a historical XBRL data set – including 10 years of history of every U.S. public company at more depth (6,000 data elements) than anyone in the world. EDGAR Online uses its automated processing platform and expertise in XBRL to produce both datasets and end-user tools that facilitate the analysis of companies and industries. The company is also the leading provider of XBRL conversion services to public companies preparing their financial statements in XBRL for submission to the SEC. EDGAR Online uses .NET to stream its data from SQL Servers. EDGAR Online’s tools are written in Microsoft XL and its data collection systems include SQL Server, .NET and Microsoft Office.