Five weeks. That`s all Dimension Data had to ensure Merrill Lynch SA, the local operation of the global financial management company, had the right platform required to meet the Johannesburg Securities Exchange`s (JSE) deadline to start testing for the switchover to its new SETS trading system.
While procuring the high-end Sun servers, Dimension Data provided loan equipment to enable Merrill Lynch SA to start testing its new, customised software platform based on the royal blue`s fidessa trading platform utilised by Merrill Lynch`s international offices.
"It was a hair-raising period," says Don Naisby, head of IT at Merrill Lynch SA. "The rand was plummeting and the powerful Sun servers we required were on long lead times and just could not be bought off-the-shelf. But, because Dimension Data shared our pain and went more than the extra mile for us, the project was successful, coming in on time and within budget - around R2.3 million.
"Now we are truly in a position to leverage the platform and derive real business benefits from it," he adds.
In April 2001, the London Stock Exchange plc (LSE) and the JSE Securities Exchange South Africa (JSE) announced the signing of heads of terms, representing a new development between two international exchanges.
The deal comprised the provision of core technology services by the LSE to the JSE and aimed to achieve easier access to each other`s markets for both member firms and issuers. The cut over date was set as 13 May 2002 and effectively spelt the end for the JSE`s six-year-old JET (Johannesburg Equities Trading) system. The deal enables the JSE to provide its member firms with a leading-edge trading platform capable of meeting its objective of significantly growing its markets over the future.
The JSE SETS system offers a number of potential strategic benefits, most notably a revised trading model to bring it in line with global best practice. Buy and sell orders entered in SA but are actually matched in London, all within a fraction of a second.
Future benefits could include remote membership and changes to the dual listing opportunities for SA companies, by making it possible for SA companies to list and gain admission to the LSE as part of their listing process with the JSE.
Merrill Lynch SA used the SETS implementation as the basis from which to upgrade its entire trading system to bring it in line with its global parent.
According to Dave Endersen, general manager, Open Systems Business Unit at Dimension Data, due to the business critical nature of the fidessa trading platform, Merrill Lynch required a high availability solution that guaranteed maximum uptime. Simply put, they couldn`t afford to be unable to trade.
"The Sun solution offered the necessary resilience and we complemented this with a Veritas data management solution, to provide fully redundant systems architecture and storage array.
"Timescales were extremely tight: there wasn`t much time between our receiving the order and Merrill Lynch having to start testing the platform to ensure no glitches by the time of the switch over. In the interim, while we waited for Merrill Lynch`s systems to be delivered, we loaned them some of our own systems so that they could at least start solution development and their rigorous testing programme in advance of taking delivery of their actual systems.
"After Merrill Lynch SA`s equipment was delivered, it took us about a week to implement and stress test the solution. In the end we made it in time for the big switch over on 13 May, but probably more relevant is the fact that it`s been working well ever since and our client believes we added real value in the process," Endersen concludes.
Share
Dimension Data Holdings plc (LSE: DDT) is a leading global technology services company. It specialises in providing IT solutions that enable businesses to operate seamlessly across application networks (the result of the convergence of two previous separate areas of IT: application integration and network infrastructure.) The group`s ability to offer expertise in networking, application integration and global managed services makes it uniquely positioned to deliver the IT solutions required by businesses to connect devices, information, applications, business processes, people and organisations.
Dimension Data, founded in 1983, had revenues of $2.5 billion in 2001 and operates in 30+ countries with over 9 500 employees.
Editorial contacts