Credit Suisse U.S. Wins Developer Award for Integrated Platform

Integrated Platform
CREDIT SUISSE U.S.

In order to support the growth of Credit Suisse Alternative Investments businesses and manage risk across these businesses, the legacy of independent platforms that had been designed for specific businesses did not provide the required agility to the business as a whole. At the same time, to comprehensively manage risk while growing assets under management, Credit Suisse Alternative Investments needed a single view of investments across all its lines of business (LOB). Its solution was the Credit Suisse AIONE(tm) platform, a single, comprehensive platform that supports a range of alternative investments businesses. To serve the Funds of Hedge Funds business, Credit Suisse leveraged the AIONE platform to launch GlobeArc(tm), which provides integrated front, middle and back office functions. GlobeArc integrates highly structured hedge funds data to drive the entire lifecycle, from due diligence through position management, performance reporting, and electronic trading of hedge fund and fund of funds positions. Starting with a Common Data Model driven by business functions (e.g., portfolio management, trading, due diligence) for multiple LOB, including Funds of Funds, has been the key to the AIONE platform’s success, eliminating redundant development and support costs, and freeing up resources to more quickly bring new initiatives to market. The single common data model, driven by business requirements, underpins the versatility of the platform. For example, for the operational data store, AIONE uses a normalized transactional model, whereas for the data warehouse, it uses a dimensional model, and for information interchange internally and externally, it uses XML, FIX and other standard protocols. Besides spanning all LOB, the platform created a single repository for instruments, portfolios, positions and performance. It builds on a common set of base services, including framework services (admin, logging, auditing, exception handling, configuration and monitoring); security (authentication and authorization); and business logic engines. The AIONE platform also includes data services, including operational data, reporting data, data interchange, and ETL, and supports integration with third party vendor systems. The platform is built on homogeneous integrated Microsoft toolset including SQL Server for operational data store and data warehouse, MS.NET Windows Communication Foundation, Windows Presentation Foundation as application services and components, Workflow Foundation for business process management, and SharePoint as the portal and application container. The AIONE platform, which now supports 20+ different LOB, “provides complete agility in incorporating new businesses, strong control and risk management, and a lower total cost of ownership,” says Subhra Bose, Global CTO for Credit Suisse Alternative Investments.

When profit margins start to shrink, companies are tempted to dramatically decrease their IT budgets, with strategic IT development often suffering the worst of the cuts. But some companies this year are refusing to wait out the downturn, following a maxim that perhaps Ralph Waldo Emerson articulated best: “This time like all times is a very good one if we but know what to do with it.” More companies than expected actually do: they are working to make themselves leaner and nimbler, more able to respond to the changes around the corner they don’t yet see. And there are a few among that select group who stand out in their efforts. They are the five winners of this year’s Windows in Financial Services Developer Awards, chosen among their peers for their effective strategic thinking, for tapping the best of the new technology and then integrating, extending it, and tailoring it to support critical business needs. “Even in this challenging market, innovation in financial services is critical,” says Joseph Cleaver, Microsoft Platform Strategy Advisor. “The WFS award winners leveraged the Microsoft platform to continue providing value to their customers while differentiating themselves from their competitors and leading in the industry.” The awards this year were presented at Microsoft’s Seventh Annual Microsoft Enterprise Developer and Industry Solutions Conference in New York on May 5.