SS&C Plans Integrated Product Strategy

WINDSOR, Conn.--The next generation of SS&C Technologies' products will incorporate a wholesale endorsement of Microsoft's architecture and development platforms. SS&C president and chief executive Bill Stone says the next releases should be shipping in this year's third quarter under the name SS&C XE, for Cross Enterprise.

Stone says the company would prefer to ship the initial release of XE on Microsoft's Windows NT 5.0 server operating system and SQL Server 7.0 relational database, but if Microsoft does not have these upgraded versions of its operating system and database ready, SS&C "will deliver on 4.0 first." The current version of the SS&C XE products in development are using SQL Server 6.5, but Stone says the platform will be tested on SQL 7.0.

The upgraded versions of the Microsoft products will permit SS&C to make use of multithreading techniques to spread complex jobs across multi-processor servers.

"We find it extremely effective for money managers to break up tasks among 32 processors in one box," Stone says. "You'll be able to drive processing speeds much faster. The best thing about SQL 7.0 is the raw amount of data it can handle relative to SQL 6.5."

The XE versions of SS&C products will also support Microsoft's DNA fs environment, Stone says, which permits software applications to make more efficient use of wide area network environments.

Earlier this month, SS&C announced it earned $2 million on $69.8 million in sales for 1998. In 1997, the company earned $1.8 million on $42.2 million in revenue.