| System Title |
Broker Client Information System - LIS |
| Client |
One of America's best-known broker/analysts. |
| Business Goal |
This broker's approach to investing is to have
all of his customers invest in a list of about ten, carefully-researched, stocks. This
system provides the account executive with a view of a customer's portfolio versus the
model portfolio and helps the account executive increase the customer's portfolio. |
| Complications |
The broker's previous system was UNIX-based.
The unit was moving to to a new firm and the new system had to be developed and in
production in under sixty days. The old data had known inconsistencies and required
scrubbing. Some of the data that would be needed was on the mainframe and bridges needed
to be created. In addition, the Compliance department demanded data integrity and
validation. Handling the needs of a user with a vision impairment was an extra challenge. |
| Our Approach |
We identified the most critical functions of
the system and developed them first, along with data conversion routines. These were ready
for the first day of trading. Then other, less critical functions were implemented. |
| Technologies Used |
Visual Basic 3.0 along with a Jet Engine 2.5
database was chosen, since the broker's workstation was Windows for Workgroups. This is
now being upgraded to VB 5.0 on an NT 4.0 platform. Data is read from a Sybase database
using ODBC. |
| User Base |
A high-power group of 5-10 brokers and their
assistants. |
| Applicability of
Techniques |
Any telephone sales representative. |
| System Description |
The brokers and their assistants have a
program on their desktops to provide rapid access to customer information. The interface
allows the broker to quickly determine the customer's returns, what stocks they should buy
next, where they should take profits, and which positions they should liquidate. In
addition, sales assistants use data importing, maintenance and reporting programs. |
 (Click the
image to see the screen shot full size.) |
