A few years after it was founded in 2000, Lupus alpha was processing upwards of 2,000 trades per day and the front office solution in place at the time could simply not cope. Many trades were made with error-prone manual processes such as spreadsheet-based calculations, making it difficult to get a timely and accurate overview of positions, cash balances and similar metrics, as well as introducing a high level of operational risk. Additionally, the unrelenting wave of regulation and other legal requirements also strained IT resources to their limits, with the company lacking appropriate data synchronization between the front and back office.
The inability to attain growth objectives, scale with increased trading volumes, and maintain regulatory compliance made Lupus alpha realize it had to reassess its investment management system (IMS) infrastructure solution.
Automation and accuracy were key elements of the new solution
The core criteria in Lupus alpha’s IMS system selection process included:
- The ability to handle all regulatory and legal requirements imposed in Lupus alpha’s markets
- To the greatest degree possible, eliminate spreadsheets from front office processes
- The ability to scale trading volumes
- Straight-through processing (STP) from trading to booking in one solution
Lupus alpha looked at a series of options, including best-of-breed solutions, and decided on SimCorp Dimension’s integrated solution. Both front and back office stakeholders agreed that an integrated solution was the best fit for Lupus alpha’s needs, and that the Front Office Suite and IBOR in particular would help the company grow. As Matthias Biedenkapp, Former Managing Partner at Lupus alpha puts it, “Accurate data is crucial and we now have one version of the truth throughout the solution, something that best-of-breed systems cannot provide.”
Lupus alpha needed a flexible front office solution that could satisfy client demands. SimCorp’s integrated front-to-back solution, supported by an IBOR, gives Lupus alpha access to accurate, real-time data to support their clients and their investment decision-making.