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Risk Management

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Cristina McEachern
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Apps on Tap Reach New Levels with Analytics4Rent.com

Savvysoft is making its TOPS 2000 software available in a new ASP-type form.

Savvysoft, a provider of OTC derivatives software, is making its TOPS 2000 software available in a new ASP-type form. The TOPS 2000 functionality for pricing, hedging and measuring the risk of options and derivatives is now available online at Analytics4Rent.com. The site allows users to run calculations over the Internet through Savvysoft's proprietary CalcServer technology, which converts the analytical library into an Excel add-in. "We figured we could give users the best of both worlds," says Rich Tanenbaum, partner at Savvysoft. "They can have Excel running locally so it's really snappy and fast with good user response time, while the hard part--the calculations of the derivatives--is done on an Internet machine so the process is much faster." Users simply start up Excel version 5.0 or higher on their machine and enter data into their spreadsheets.

Once they are logged onto the Analytics4Rent site, the formulas that need to be calculated are sent back to the site's server and results are sent back into Excel. Users can also share information and calculations performed on the site, with user names and passwords issued to those sharing an account, although only one user can be logged on at a time.

Speed and convenience aren't the only advantage to the Analytics4Rent user. Tanenbaum also cites the lower cost of renting analytics capabilities, as well as ease of use and the ability to quickly take advantage of upgrades and new offerings.

In the next month or so, Analytics4Rent.com will be adding global market data to its site. "The advantage with the data available on the site is that the user can be sitting in Excel and doesn't have to type in their own data or have it integrated into the spreadsheet and have to manage it," explains Tanenbaum. "The user can tell us in the spreadsheet to use our data and when it goes over the Internet for the analytics the current market data is in put." Analytics4Rent is currently in the process of negotiating with vendors and setting up the data feeds, but Tanen-baum says they are talking with "the major vendors, the Reuters, Bloombergs and Bridges of the world."

The site, which went live the end of June, was first made available free of charge to users but will begin charging towards the end of the summer. Although the exact pricing plan has not been set, Tanenbaum says users will most likely be charged a few hundred dollars a month to access the 80 derivatives models available on the site. Pricing could be dependent on the number of models the user wants, or simply be a flat monthly rate for access to all of the models.

"We figure the price will be a good point for people, especially because of what is happening with FASB 133," says Tanenbaum. "We see this as a nice alternative for people who need to calculate the value of their hedges easily without having to allocate a lot of money for it." Other users that could take advantage of the Analytics4Rent site include any derivatives professionals, but Tanenbaum expects them to mainly be useful for the smaller to medium firms where they don't necessarily want or need to buy an expensive system but still need to perform the calculations on a timely basis.

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