Primark Signs Up Two Customers For Primark Information Optimizer

WALTHAM, MASS--Primark has signed up two US customers for the Primark Information Optimizer (PIO), which was launched in January (IMD, Dec. 7, 1998).

Although the company declines to name the customers, it identifies them as large, multi-national investment houses.

In an exclusive interview with Inside Market Data, Joe Kasputys, chief executive officer and chairman of Primark, says that PIO has become the lynchpin of Primark's aim to integrate its many companies and products.

PIO is essentially middlewear that links Primark's disparate databases for access via a single interface. It was developed with Englewood, Colorado-based middleware supplier New Era of Networks (Neon), of which Kasputys is a board member. Primark decided to work with Neon, says Kasputys, rather than opting for the "scorched earth" method of changing over to one system, which can prove expensive and often goes unfinished.

As well as using the product internally, Primark sees PIO as a full-fledged data integration and delivery platform and has entered the business of selling the PIO as a product for use by customers that may be looking to integrate their own disparate databases alongside Primark databases.

Kasputys sees this product as a way to leverage more data sales. "We are niche oriented and that will continue largely to be true, but you will see us go into more dealing rooms," he says

The new PIO clients were existing customers of Primark services and have since expanded their use of Primark data in relation to their purchase of PIO.

Kasputys sees the PIO product in the same space as Bloomberg's Data License and Standard & Poor's Compustat.

To support the PIO product, Primark has built its own project management and consulting group, headed by Don Weiner, vice president of technology. Weiner recently joined Primark from Bridge, where he was director of workstation products (IMD, Dec. 7, 1998). Before Bridge, he was at Telerate in the team responsible for the development of the Active1 display software.

Weiner says Primark has other rollouts planned within the next two months, but declines to elaborate.

Internally, Primark has been using PIO for almost a year to link its many disparate databases. PIO was first used within Primark's Disclosure, Datastream/ICV and Worldscope units. The service now provides a consolidated data feed that includes all of Primark's content sources, including I/B/E/S earnings estimates and Wefa's economics data.

The PIO uses the publish-and-subscribe method to distribute data through Neon's messaging middleware. Content will be sorted through identifier keys, including ticker symbols and CUSIP numbers. Neon's rules engine provides the messaging and queuing capabilities as well as reformatting of the data, while Primark has created the concordance tables for the PIO to create query structures and translate information into one recognized set of keys.

PIO currently has 68 keys at the attribute level and 14 at the company level. Weiner says that PIO is able to ingest any third party key and concord it electronically. He also notes that concordance is continuously updated and tested.

The concordance tables can be accessed remotely from Primark or can be installed with software at the client's site, which is likely to involve the consultancy work.

Another key product that Primark will be focusing on is its Piranha analytical application, which is also in use at the two new PIO client sites. Piranha, which the company compares to an indepth version of Edgar, offers additional SEC filings alongside fundamental information. Piranha allows users to store and access data from Primark databases as well as companies' own databases. Kasputys says that Piranha is a global product that acts as an Internet-delivered add-on to its Global Access product, which is targeted to analysts and portfolio managers.

Global Access, launched in 1996, is currently subscribed to by approximately 1,000 clients, with 44,500 desktops and Kasputys sees a large potential for growth in its customer base.