AFTAs 2017: Best IT Integration Initiative—Cowen
This was no small task. By what Cowen was calling “Day One,” on June 1 last year, the key objective was to move the Convergex sales and program trading desks, a task which would involve the migration of two trade desks, 400 clients, 2,200 FIX connections and 72,000 subaccounts in a period of just two months.
“The Day One roadmap needed to detail the interaction between our customers and the various trading desks, our soft-dollar and commission-management business, as well as our middle and back office, accounting systems and our websites and client portals,” says Neidenbach. “We also had to test workflows with over 30 different systems to ensure a seamless migration for Day One.”
Part of the complexity was helped by the fact that Fidessa was common to both firms, but there were a number of other considerations to take into account. Different systems existed inside Convergex for commission management, international trading, and various “algo racks” that operated on different platforms. The focus, therefore, had to be on integrating workflows. There were also issues in that Day One fell on a Thursday, meaning that Cowen had to coordinate with its customers to change settlement instructions and connectivity during the week. “Getting this done in a two-month period was a super aggressive timeframe,” Neidenbach recalls. “There was a lot of cooperation and team work, both internally and externally from our customers and vendors. The other complexity was doing this migration in the middle of the week. Not only was it a big change for our clients, but we physically moved two of our trading desks to a new building, new systems, and turrets.”
But the hard work paid off: Customers were trading with Cowen on June 1, and the firm successfully migrated 25 percent of its revenue from Convergex Execution Systems to Cowen. Traders were able to use their systems and their turrets from 7 a.m. and all end-of-day processes operated normally.
The job is far from over, though. Neidenbach and her team are now focusing on Day Two initiatives, which she estimates will continue into the second quarter of 2018. “We have to work closely with the customers and their order management system (OMS) vendors to move to new algo racks and clearing vendors. We are also building international workflows to enable legacy Cowen clients to trade internationally, requiring middle and back offices configuration and compliance approvals,” she says.
Only users who have a paid subscription or are part of a corporate subscription are able to print or copy content.
To access these options, along with all other subscription benefits, please contact info@waterstechnology.com or view our subscription options here: http://subscriptions.waterstechnology.com/subscribe
You are currently unable to print this content. Please contact info@waterstechnology.com to find out more.
You are currently unable to copy this content. Please contact info@waterstechnology.com to find out more.
Copyright Infopro Digital Limited. All rights reserved.
As outlined in our terms and conditions, https://www.infopro-digital.com/terms-and-conditions/subscriptions/ (point 2.4), printing is limited to a single copy.
If you would like to purchase additional rights please email info@waterstechnology.com
Copyright Infopro Digital Limited. All rights reserved.
You may share this content using our article tools. As outlined in our terms and conditions, https://www.infopro-digital.com/terms-and-conditions/subscriptions/ (clause 2.4), an Authorised User may only make one copy of the materials for their own personal use. You must also comply with the restrictions in clause 2.5.
If you would like to purchase additional rights please email info@waterstechnology.com
More on Awards & Rankings
Waters Rankings 2024 winner’s interview: S&P Global Market Intelligence
S&P Global Market Intelligence won two categories in this year’s Waters Rankings: Best enterprise data management (EDM) system provider and Best reporting system provider, which is the subject of this interview.
Sell-Side Technology Awards 2024 winner’s interview: Broadridge
In this year’s Sell-Side Technology Awards, Broadridge Financial Technology won Best outsourcing provider to the sell side thanks to its hugely successful business process outsourcing offering
Waters Rankings 2024: Best market risk solution provider (highly commended)—FactSet
Product/service: FactSet Multi Asset Class Risk Solutions
Waters Rankings 2024: Best portfolio management system provider (highly commended)—FactSet
Product/service: FactSet PM Hub
Waters Rankings 2024 winner’s interview: IPC Systems
IPC Systems won the Best cloud infrastructure provider category in this year’s Waters Rankings. Tim Carmody, CTO of IPC, discusses his firm’s recent success in the rankings
Waters Rankings 2024 winner’s interview: Vneuron
Vneuron Risk & Compliance won the best AML compliance solution provider category in this year’s Waters Rankings.
Waters Rankings 2024 winner’s interview: Cloud9
Cloud9, part of Symphony, won Best trading floor communication system provider category in this year’s Waters Rankings.
Waters Rankings 2024 winner’s interview: AI Risk
New York-based AI Risk won the Best cyber security provider category in this year’s Waters Rankings.