Software vendor PolarLake has launched a reference data distribution application for sell-side and buy-side customers, custodians and fund administration firms.
The company says PolarLake RDD offers a faster delivery time; a purpose-built solution to tackle the complexity of reference data distribution; support for third party vendor systems and messaging protocols such as GoldenSource, LatentZero, Charles River, Swift, and FpML; and lower resource requirements, allowing staff to concentrate on the business problem, not the technology. PolarLake RDD has already been deployed at a global fund manager, where the vendor claims it has resulted in the distribution of “golden copy” reference data to multiple downstream systems in 75% less time, while using 80% less
resources than traditional data integration solutions, which require custom coding and complex line drawing
“According to Tower Group, one third of a typical Reference Data management project is spent on data distribution,” says PolarLake CEO John Randles. “Our experience with PolarLake RDD was that less than 5% of the overall project time was spent on data distribution. This has helped our client to deliver at lower cost and risk, with faster time to market.”
Matthew Nelson, a senior analyst with TowerGroup says his firm collected survey data in late 2005 which found participants
thought roughly one third of the effort of a data management project was associated with the distribution of the data. “However, we believe that number may be too low,” he says. “Failure to understand and prepare for the data needs of downstream applications will doom a data management project from the start.”
Larry Tabb of the Tabb Group adds that, while studies continually point towards increased enterprise data management (EDM), reality does not reflect demand. “A major reason behind this, we believe, is the complexity and cost of integrating firms’ downstream technologies,” he says. “More efficient and effective data distribution tools would place EDM within reach for a wider array of firms helping them finally benefit from consistent and clean enterprise data at a cost-effective price.”
“Time-to-market is a critical element in sustaining the support of senior management and business users for any IT project,” adds Tim Lind, SVP at GoldenSource Corporation. “While we are experts in managing data quality, we look for skilled partners to manage the transformation and distribution of content into the unique set of business applications found within our customers. There is no question that this “last mile” of integration is a key component in the time necessary to deploy an EDM solution.”
According to Mike Gilpin, VP Research Director at Forrester Research, “the PolarLake product is an especially good fit for financial services companies with complex service data distribution needs. PolarLake’s Data Distribution Suite has been used as a reference data hub feeding data from multiple incompatible sources to dozens of downstream systems, each one needing a different data format.”