SAN FRANCISCO - Wells Capital Management, a registered investment adviser and wholly owned subsidiary of Wells Fargo Bank, tapped Advent Software Inc. to provide portfolio, trade order, client management and Internet programs.
Wells Capital actively manages approximately $40 billion in separate institutional accounts as well as mutual and commingled funds.
Advent will supply Wells Capital Management with Axys portfolio management software; Moxy, a trading and order management system; WebView, an Internet reporting service; Rex, an Internet reconciliation service and software; and Qube, a client management solution.
"Advent offers an integrated solution that will allow us to provide the best possible service for our clients," said Mari Casas, chief operating officer of Wells Capital.
Money manager Investment Counselors of Maryland, Baltimore, also selected Axys, Moxy and Qube for use in its offices.
"Advent's advanced technologies make it an excellent solution for us," Steve Scott, president and a principal for Investment Counselors of Maryland, said in a prepared statement.
'Thumbs up' to enhancements
to StyleAdvisor
ZEPHYR COVE, Nev. - The enhancements Zephyr Associates Inc. has made to its StyleAdvisor are getting good reviews from at least one user.
Zephyr added a graphics generation feature to the investment style analysis program.
Karin Tafaro, a portfolio analyst with mutual fund company The Vanguard Group, Malvern, Pa., said she has found the new feature very useful.
Called GrafixGENERATOR, it automates StyleAdvisor graphic presentations, such as charts and tables, in reports created in Microsoft's Office 95 or 97 software.
"You can organize things a lot better" with GrafixGENERATOR, said Ms. Tafaro, who has been using StyleAdvisor for a long time and GrafixGENERATOR for two months.
With StyleAdvisor, graphics can be embedded in reports and saved in a software folder and updated automatically for specified time periods, she said.
Officials with Zephyr Associates said the graphic automation feature means a huge time saving for money managers, consultants and pension officers who use the returns-based style analysis product. GrafixGENERATOR automatically includes newly downloaded performance data to update graphics.
GrafixGENERATOR works within Word 95 and 97 and Excel and Power Point 97. The generator includes a graphic previewing feature. It is free to current StyleAdvisor institutional clients.
CMS to release
workstation soon
LOS ANGELES - INSITE, Capital Management Sciences' real-time integrated workstation electronic information service, is scheduled for release at the end of the first quarter. Features of the workstation are on display at www.dbcms.com.
Also, Laurie Adami has been promoted to chief operating officer of CMS, a major provider of fixed-income portfolio analytical software to institutional investors.
Her position is a new one. She will be responsible for managing BondEdge, BondVU and INSITE.
Ms. Adami has been executive vice president at CMS.
New features brought
to POSIT system
NEW YORK - Investment Technology Group has announced POSIT 4, a technological enhancement to POSIT, the firm's electronic stock crossing system.
POSIT 4 adds dynamic substitution and real-time control features to the system. POSIT is an intraday trade-matching system that allows institutional investors to confidentially cross stocks electronically at low commission cost and with no market impact.
Dynamic substitution allows investors to substitute another security if the preferred security is not readily available. Real-time control allows POSIT 4 users to control virtually any dimension of their portfolios such as expected return as well as risk and yield. For more information, call ITG's David Cushin at (212) 444-6200.
Thomson, Plexus link up
on transaction data
BOSTON - Some money managers now automatically can send quarterly transaction and decision data electronically to Plexus Group for analysis.
Thomson Investment Software, Boston, announced a software link between its TradeView and Plexus' Alpha Capture Service.
TradeView is an order management system for buy-side portfolio managers and traders. It is designed to eliminate paper trade tickets, reduce errors, decrease redundancies and enhance productivity.
The Alpha Capture Service of Santa Monica, Calif.-based Plexus provides quarterly analysis of a money manager's investing process. It traces equity investments between research, portfolio management, trading and broker use.
Users of Alpha Capture receive quarterly analytical reviews and on-site consultations for improving performance. For more information, contact Carole Springer at Thomson at (617) 856-2777.
Princeton adds clients
for PAM software
PARSIPPANY, N.J. - The MainStay Funds licensed Princeton Financial Systems' PAM for Mutual Funds investment management software. MainStay will use PAM for fund accounting and daily net asset value reporting of its 43 mutual funds.
Four other companies have licensed PAM for Mortgages. They are McMorgan and Co., San Francisco; The Financial Corporation of Illinois, Rolling Meadows, Ill.; MSI Insurance Co., Arden Hills, Minn.; and Provident Mutual, Berwyn, Pa.
For further information contact Gordon Gacek at Princeton Financial Systems, Princeton, N.J., at [email protected] or (609) 987-2400.
SS&C seeks to acquire
Shepro Braun Systems
BLOOMFIELD, Conn. - SS&C Technologies Inc. signed a non-binding letter of intent to acquire Shepro Braun Systems Inc., Chicago, as part of SS&C's investment in straight-through electronic processing.
The ability to link real-time trading straight through to risk analysis, compliance checking, accounting and regulatory reporting "is arguably the single most pressing issue facing today's institutional investors," said Bill Stone, SS&C's chief executive.
"The addition of the Shepro suite of products and the talent in the Shepro organization will further enhance SS&C's leading position in straight through processing," said Mr. Stone in a prepared statement.
Shepro Braun is a software development and consulting firm. It provides information systems and technology integration to the investment management and financial services marketplace.
SS&C is a provider of high-end portfolio accounting and investment management software.
RiskWatch 3.0 software
installed at AIG
NEW YORK - American International Group Inc. is installing RiskWatch 3.0 global risk management software to measure market and credit risk.
RiskWatch 3.0 is a product of Algorithmics Inc., Toronto, a maker of financial risk management software. The software provides risk coverage for bonds, equities, commodities, foreign exchange, money markets and derivatives.
RiskWatch, according to Algorithmics, uses compression technology to provide a fast method of performing Monte Carlo simulations to enable intraday value-at-risk calculations. The product also offers open integration with other software products.
"AIG expects the Algorithmics software will integrate well with our own risk management systems and help us measure and report aggregate risk at the global as well as the subsidiary level," said Chuck Lucas, AIG's director of market risk management, in a prepared statement.
For further information, call Marianne Kupina at Algorithmics at (416) 703-0898.
IRRC environmental profiles
out on CD-ROM
WASHINGTON - The Investor Responsibility Research Center has released its Corporate Environmental Profiles Director on CD-ROM software. Users of the software can search the complete text.
The CD-ROM provides six years of environmental performance trend data on 1,500 U.S. companies, and detailed environmental profiles for companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index.
Profiles include quantitative environmental performance data and measures, and qualitative environmental management system policies and practices information.
The IRRC also has a new version, 3.0, of Portfolio $creener software. It permits users to create their own definitions of corporate responsibility through selection of issues. It has data on 1,500 companies. For more information, contact John McMahon at (202) 833-0700.
PORTIA, TradeView units
to merge at Thomson
BOSTON - Thomson Investment Software is merging its TradeView order management and trade execution software and PORTIA portfolio management software divisions.
In the announcement, Thomson executives said the move comes from an increasing commitment to software integration. Thomson is expanding the TradeView division to accelerate new products.
The announcement said the merged divisions will support the entire trading and portfolio management process.
Thomson also announced it is beta testing its portfolio management and accounting software, PARAGON Release 3.0. The 32-bit software works with Windows 95 and NT operating systems.
PARAGON 3.0's Object Database Management Group compliant data dictionary allows users flexibility in management and presentation of data. PARAGON can work with any open database connectivity compliant application, including report writers. General release of PARAGON 3.0 is expected early this year. For further information contact David Eaton at (617) 856-2252.
Program helps firms
fill out RFPs
AMHERST, N.J. - Pragmatech Software has announced software that helps respond to requests for proposals.
The software reads and interprets questions from a prospect's RFP and presents the user with appropriate answers, which are then formatted and inserted into proposals. The 32-bit application, called The RFP Machine, runs under Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0. Single copy price is $1,195. Demonstration disks are available by calling (800) 401-9580.
