Primark's Information Optimizer Renamed Enterprise Data Access

BETHESDA, Md.--Now that Primark Corp. is ready to launch the Information Optimizer, the company has come up with a new name for the database product, Enterprise Data Access.

"The core of it is an industry cross-reference database," says David Ellison, Primark's chief technology officer. "The Information Optimizer was a difficult term for people to understand. People only thought of the cross-reference. It's that, but it's also linking data from our different services, including Datastream, Worldscope and I/B/E/S."

To help promote the Enterprise Data Access service, Primark has formed a client consulting group that's focusing on buy-side clients. The group has already helped four firms customize their implementation of the Data Access.

Initially, the group has five people, but Ellison expects that total to grow to 15. Vice president of technology Don Wiener is running the client consulting group in New York, while Gareth Evans, who recently joined the company from Totem, is running the UK office.

Ellison says the Enterprise Data Access is designed to minimize the level of infrastructure at client sites. The service uses IBM's MQ Series and New Era of Network's Neonet messaging middleware products to distribute equities data through the publish and subscribe method.

Primark maintains the cross-reference files with permanent identifiers such as ticker symbols and CUSIP numbers for each security in its database.

As transactions and prices are sent to client sites, Primark's database verifies them against the existing master re cords. The data is then transmitted via MQ Series and Neo net based upon the clients' definitions.

Neon is also used to verify that each transaction that comes through the database hasn't somehow changed a rule in the database's master records. For example, if a company makes an initial public offering, the Enterprise Data Access will verify that a new ticker symbol is being used.