Investec Brings Applications to the Web

Investec Ernst & Company, the North American arm of the Investec Group, an international banking group based in Johannesburg, South Africa, is rolling out its new DeskTec system.

Investec Ernst & Company, the North American arm of the Investec Group, an international banking group based in Johannesburg, South Africa, is rolling out its new DeskTec system. The platform provides correspondent clearing and prime brokerage clients with easy access to Investec Ernst applications via either the Internet or a leased line connection. Through DeskTec, clients can enter orders, manage orders, view account information and access news and quotes. In the future, Investec Ernst plans to expand the offerings to include an options execution platform, as well as research tools.

“DeskTec is basically a delivery mechanism, a way for us to provide our clients with access to all the applications and services they need, regardless of their computing platform,” says John Murabito, senior vice president and chief information officer at Investec Ernst & Co. He adds that DeskTec is a way for Investec Ernst to level the playing field and deliver the same applications to any type of client, whether large or small. Investec Ernst plans to roll out the system to its 120 correspondent clearing clients and 100 prime broker clients within the next six months.

“The significance is that clients can access the system without necessarily having a leased line connection to us, which is more costly,” notes Murabito, explaining that the DeskTec platform is hosted on Investec Ernst’s Web site and is accessed through a user name and password. DeskTec replaces the Ernst Paperless Solution, “a product that we were charging more money for in the past but didn’t offer nearly as many functions,” says Murabito.

The DeskTec solution will facilitate “total electronic processing and straight-through processing for all clients from the point of order entry all the way through to the back-end reporting,” explains Murabito. Another feature of the DeskTec platform is StoreNet, a storage application containing reports, client statements and confirmations available for retrieval and searching. DeskTec is licensed on a monthly basis.