FMC Reorganizes and Redevelops Products for an E-World

Practice what you preach is a fitting adage in the New Economy and no company is doing a finer job than Financial Models Company. FMC, a provider of front- to back-office investment management solutions, has just completed a company reorganization that included absorbing its Internet software consulting division into the whole of the firm and implementing an internal eCRM package so it can provide global clients with 24-hour support access. FMC is also in the process of porting all of its software over to a new Web-based, Windows NT platform, code-named "Sparta," whereby clients will access their trading, portfolio analytics, accounting and other systems via a standard Web browser.

The remnants of SRG Software, which FMC acquired in March of 1999 and renamed FMC Software Consulting, have been completely dispersed throughout the firm. The division had been charged with developing Web sites for FMC clients, but Jim Colvin, executive vice president, explains that as the company focuses more on the Internet, it was necessary to distribute that talent throughout all of its product divisions.

"What we've been able to do with the Software Consulting group is use those resources to accelerate our Web development," Colvin explains. "Because we believe the future of the firm is tied to the Web is precisely the reason we want to make sure that expertise is disseminated throughout the entire organization."

From the fruits of FMC SC emerged the "Sparta" platform. Currently, FMC Model-a portfolio modeling system-and FMC Trade have already been ported over to the new platform, and FMC Net, the company's electronic trade network, is being beta tested with the new architecture. Colvin claims that all of FMC's systems will be on the Sparta architecture by year's end. A key component of Sparta's success is an XML data transfer that will allow each FMC module to import and export data from the others in a seamless fashion.

"With the XML data transfer, when a transaction gets entered into one system, it will be automatically piped into other systems," Colvin says. "This is absolutely necessary in the world of STP. You don't want to rely on somebody to run a process that extracts data. It all has to happen instantaneously."

The firm is also gearing up to release E-Pages, a version of a client-reporting system that "prints" to the Web, rather than to paper. Colvin points out that many of FMC's clients have the desire to offer their clients Web-based access to their accounts, but have little time and energy to deal with the development of a site. E-Pages offers them an out-of-the-box solution that is hosted by FMC but branded with the money management firm's logo. As a result, investors never realize they are moving from the money manager's proprietary site to the FMC-hosted data mart.

No one more than FMC realizes the benefits of a networked world. As such, the company has also converted all its internal systems over to a corporate intranet so that all employees have access to the same information at the same time. The vendor has installed Clientele, a CRM product by Epicor, which allows its sales and support staff to manage clients on a global basis.

Colvin says, "We're in the process of opening an operation in Australia so that we can offer support in other time zones, so organizations that are looking for 24-hour support can actually get it."