SwiftTrade - Information Builders

solutions in action
by DAVID BAUM
photography by COREY MIHALIUK
iWay Software
SwiftTrade Builds Dynamic
WebFOCUS and iWay
W
hen regulatory changes revolutionized the business of day-trading in April of 2001, SwiftTrade President Peter Beck
smoothly transitioned his firm into proprietary trading, a new type of enterprise in which a contract trader works on a single corporate account, reducing the individual account costs that were the demise of day-trading practices. As a result of this seamless transition, coupled with SwiftTrade’s
indomitable entrepreneurial spirit, the company has experienced steady
growth in the last few years, even as many other brokers floundered. PROFIT Magazine identified SwiftTrade as
the second-fastest growing Canadian
company in 2004.
In order to sustain this rapid growth
and keep the company on track,
SwiftTrade sought a business intelligence (BI) solution with the power
and flexibility to manage a rapidly
expanding network of traders at more
than 70 offices around the world.
“We needed a more effective system not only for reporting, but for organizing our back-office operations,” says SwiftTrade IT Director Sharief
Zaman. “Our business has grown from 20 branches two years ago to more
than 70 branches today, with an additional 125 planned in the near future. All
of this growth motivated us to build a more effective system for delivering
information to every member of our organization.”
Zaman focused on efficiency and effectiveness when choosing a business
intelligence solution. In an industry where every second of the workday is
precious, he knew SwiftTrade’s traders would insist on nothing short of accurate, real-time information—delivered dynamically when they needed it.
After considering market-leading BI tools from Information Builders,
Business Objects, Cognos and Microsoft, he worked with Beck to select
Real-Time
Intelligence Helps
Traders Stay Ahead
of Bull Market
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I N F O R M AT I O N B U I L D E R S M A G A Z I N E
SNAPSHOT
Organization: Based in Toronto,
SwiftTrade (www.swifttrade.com) is a
proprietary trading firm operating in the
North American, European and Asian
markets.
The Challenge: Make vast amounts
of operational data, from invoicing to
branch-wide trading statistics,
dynamically available to the right
people at the right time.
The Strategy: Create a reporting portal
that automatically delivers information
based on each users’ role and security
clearances; incorporate individual and
branch-level detail into an overarching
company website; enable all members of
the organization to access the information they need, whenever they need it.
The Results: SwiftTrade has timely information to motivate traders, manage back
office operations, and run a fast moving
financial services business
Information Builders Solution:
WebFOCUS, iWay
Reporting System with
SwiftTrade,
President,
Peter Beck
S w i ft Tr a d e
continued from
previous page
Information Builders’ WebFOCUS operational business
intelligence environment and iWay data integration tools.
Zaman was impressed with the technology, and Beck
liked the attractive pricing structure—not to mention the
“can do” attitude of the vendor.
“Information Builders was willing to work with us to
share their knowledge at a reasonable cost,” Zaman
recalls. “In our company, when we make a decision, we do
things quickly, and Information Builders seemed the most
able to move at our speed.”
Building a New Kind of Portfolio
Since choosing WebFOCUS to handle SwiftTrade’s business
intelligence and information-delivery needs, Zaman and his
team have begun several new projects, with the goal of
specific data levels, depending on their user authorization
profiles,” Chung explains. “Ultimately, we plan to use
WebFOCUS User Administration Services to refine this
architecture even further.”
Trading Up
Once the basic database and security infrastructure was in
place, the team created a reporting portal using the
WebFOCUS BI Dashboard that features about a dozen
standard reports such as branch enumeration figures, daily
and historical profit and loss reports, settlement reports,
account reconciliation reports, invoicing reports and payment reports, along with a comprehensive bird’s eye view
of the entire company from the head-office perspective.
These reports are delivered to the dashboard via the
WebFOCUS Reporting Server, which accesses Microsoft
SQL Server data via the iWay SQL Server Adapter.
Within about six months, the field team assisted
“We needed a more effective
system not only for reporting,
but for organizing our back-office
operations. Our business has
grown from 20 branches two
years ago to more than
70 branches today, with an
additional 125 planned
in the near future.”
- Sharief Zaman,
Director of IT,
Swift Trade Business Process
Management team
boosting productivity at every level of the organization.
To get the BI initiatives off the ground, SwiftTrade
worked with Information Builders’ field team to integrate
the new software technology into SwiftTrade’s existing
environment. Benson Chung and other developers on
SwiftTrade’s Business Process Management team dove in
head first to learn the technology.
First, they transferred operational data from a Sybase
database on a Sun Solaris platform to a Microsoft SQL
Server database on a cost-effective Intel platform, which
consists of Dell blade servers running Microsoft Windows
2003 operating system. Then they established a security
architecture that governs each user’s ability to access certain “layers” of information based on their roles, positions
and security clearances. “Users can drill up or down to
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I N F O R M AT I O N B U I L D E R S M A G A Z I N E
SwiftTrade in transitioning the WebFOCUS technology into
SwiftTrade’s hands. “Information Builders’ field team was
quite knowledgeable with the product,” says Zaman. “They
helped us customize the software to fit our specific needs.”
Since then, SwiftTrade’s Business Process
Management team has been able to handle new BI
development projects on its own. “With the Sybase environment, we used to have to get programmers involved
to create or modify reports, and it was much more
tedious than it is right now,” continues Zaman. “These
new BI tools are fairly easy to use—everyone picked
things up quickly—and we’ve seen a successful skillstransfer from the consultants to our in-house team. We
are definitely moving at a pace dynamic enough to meet
our company’s needs.”
With the new WebFOCUS reporting infrastructure now
in place, trading information that was formerly stored in proprietary back-office applications is accessible via a reporting
database that is continually refreshed with current data. “We
can now isolate the information that’s pertinent to just one
individual trader, or to one branch, or to the entire firm,
depending on what we’re looking for,” says Zaman.
In an industry that is continually monitored by government regulators, SwiftTrade needs to make sure that its
traders adhere to compliance rules at all times. To meet
this need, SwiftTrade leverages WebFOCUS to produce
internal regulatory reports for the head office as well.
Investing in the Future
Already, WebFOCUS has proven to be an effective way
for SwiftTrade to manage its back-office operations.
Information Builders’ applications have also given the
company a new means of inspiring their traders and
“These real-time reports from WebFOCUS are ideal
because traders don’t like waiting around or wasting time
looking for things. Now we can put the information right
in front of them and use the system to recognize outstanding traders. It is a great motivational tool.”
Maintaining trader motivation will undoubtedly help
sustain the rapid growth of this unique business. Zaman
estimates there are currently 1,500 active users of
WebFOCUS, and he projects this number will rise to
10,000 WebFOCUS users within the next year or two.
Chung is confident that the security and reporting frameworks they have created will scale with ease. Additionally,
thanks to Information Builders’ affordable licensing
terms and thin-client deployment model, this surge of BI
activity won’t break the bank. End users only need a standard Web browser to access the reporting portal, and
there is no charge for self-service users (which refers to
people who simply access WebFOCUS data rather than
“These real-time reports from
WebFOCUS are ideal because
traders don’t like waiting around
or wasting time looking for
things. Now we can put the
information right in front of
them and use the system to
recognize outstanding traders.
It is a great motivational tool.”
- Benson Chung,
developer Swift Trade
Business Process
Management team
rewarding their hard work. Chung is currently creating a
Book of Records using a trigger-based system that automatically updates the reporting database whenever designated revenue and trading milestones are reached.
Additionally, using WebFOCUS technology, he has created several dynamic reports to motivate trader performance. For example, the Top 5 Traders report reveals which
traders are bringing in the most revenue, while the Top 5
Branches ranking system encourages healthy competition
among offices. These daily ranking systems, along with a
cumulative Book of Records report, continually acquaint
each trader, manager, and executive with the company’s
progress in this fast-paced, constantly changing industry.
“Our traders use this information to measure their
progress toward their career goals,” Chung explains.
w w w. i n f o r m a t i o n b u i l d e r s . c o m /m a g a z i n e
create new reports).
SwiftTrade’s investment in WebFOCUS as a flexible
means of organizing back-office operations, providing the
right information to those who need it, and motivating
employees and traders, will help usher in a new age of
prosperous growth. The flexibility, reliability, and effectiveness of Information Builders’ technology will continue to
be a stable asset for this prolific financial services company.
“We are growing so fast, we can’t always predict what is
coming at us,” admits Zaman. “In the IT world, we have to
take things day-by-day. That’s why having flexible technology is so important. Information Builders has been very
accommodating to our needs and proactive in their resolutions. They have really gone the extra mile for us.”
SPRING/SUMMER 2007
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