Our roots in consulting equips us with a deep knowledge of business technology, methodology and the business. Our experience spans stratgic collaboration with C-level executives, Line of Business Owners and Department Heads, as well as hands-on design and development in the trenches with Technical Architects, Database Administrators and Developers. Our services are structured to address the granularity and focus of the needs of these various business contingencies. Our services include Technology Strategy, Vendor Selection and Systems Development.

Package Selection and Implementation

We are proficient in analysing business requirements and evaluating industry solutions against them. Our approach to vendor selection is based on the philosophy that business needs must be articulated accurately and unambiguously, thereby enabling candidate solutions providers to present their products and/services with the highest relevance. Typical steps in the vendor selection process include:

• Accurate, precise and concise specification of business requirements in a Business Requirements Document (BRD)
• Establishment of consensus among stakeholders that the BRD is indeed the basis for solutioning
• Development of a vendor-neutral architecture that captures core business flows, exception and reconciliation processing, per the BRD
• Development of a Request for Information (RFI) around BRD and vendor-neutral architecture
• Delivery of RFI to a set of candidate solution vendors selected based on our own expertise as well as client input
• Evaluation of RFI responsed on a weighted scoring scale involving by all stakeholders
• Deep dive and further analyis of a subset of solutions, eventually leading to the choice of a solution set

We have used this approach successfully in several engagements, under a variety of business contexts, some of which are summarised here:

Security Master Management Solution Selection - Vendors analysed and invited to participate include:

• Goldensource
• Asset Control
• Cicada Systems
• Sungard FAME/ReferencePoint
• Eagle Investment Systems

Wealth Management Platform Selection - Vendors analysed and invited to participate include:

• Northstar Systems International
• OpenFinance Corporation
• xEye Corporation (now part of Odyssey)
• Albridge Solutions
• Private Client Resources
• Wealth Touch
• Advent

Technology Strategy

Implementing Information Technology in a chastened business environment is a complex endeavour that must be backed by a holistic approach to technology strategy. Our Technology Strategy services enable institutions to:

• Rationalise and standardise systems, data and processes
• Ensure optimal alignment of technology assets with the needs of the business
• Adopt industry standards (FIX, FAST, FpML, etc.) consistently

Systems Development

Anthrope have significant experience and a proven track record in the implementation of complex transactional systems that deliver high business value in tight timeframes. Our capabilities are a combination of expert project conception and management, business knowledge and technology skills. Our expertise spans technologies such as:

• Programming Languages - Java, C++, C, SQL
• Complex Event Processing - Streambase
• Messaging - Tibco Rv, Tibco EMS, JMS
• Database Platforms - Oracle, Sybase, MySQL
• In-Memory Data Stores - Oracle Berkeley DB, Oracle TimesTen
• Component Architectures - Java EE (WebLogic, JBOSS)