Murex Services

Murex Services
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Delta Stream

Murex Services

Murex Services from First Derivatives include implementation, development,

training and support to manage the complete application lifecycle
Completeness, accuracy and timeliness are the three tenets of robust transaction management - and it is in
trading systems such as Murex that they must be unambiguously evident. From deal capture and position
management through to transaction processing and settlement, these solutions serve as systems of record
and channels of mission critical data to multiple downstream processes. As a result their accuracy and
reliability are paramount; configurations must be accurate, interfaces robust and static data complete. Not
only must they be stable, however, they must also be agile enough to incorporate new functionality
demanded by market developments and regulatory requirements. Implementing and maintaining systems to
these high standards requires knowledge, process and pedigree. First Derivatives (FD) provides all three to
ensure your Murex implementation meets these exacting challenges.
Choosing FD to provide third party application services brings a number of advantages to clients including:
-

Consistency and reliability of experienced resources. FD has dedicated Murex consultants who provide
consistency of service and internal training programmes that maintain and replenish their skills and
expertise.
Domain and technology expertise guaranteed through an extensive capital markets training program,
which has enabled FD to establish a world-renowned reputation for delivery and quality.
Reducing total cost of ownership by optimizing solutions, minimising errors and streamlining processes
FD services are delivered with a spirit of speed and flexibility its global footprint enables it to deploy
resources world-wide at short notice and can draw upon an extensive talent pool as short term needs
arise.

FD offers a hybrid delivery model through a mix of On-shore and Near Shore services. This approach to
reducing costs coupled with the offer of fixed price engagements for qualified projects enables clients to
significantly reduce the TCO of their Murex implementations.

First Derivatives brings deep domain expertise to the delivery and management of Murex applications for
leading global financial institutions. It offers a service with longevity and accreditation: our leadership team
has forged a strong relationship with Murex over the last 20 years, our delivery team has a combined
experience of over 500 Murex projects and FD has signed a Global Relationship Agreement with Murex that
makes it an integral part of its partnership programme.

Our goal is to be the first choice provider of Murex Consultancy services

Our culture is to partner and support our clients
FDs experience of Murex is underpinned by deep domain knowledge across all aspects of the
application and across all asset classes

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Murex Services

The Murex Service

FDs Murex practice assists organisations in comprehensively and cost effectively managing their Murex
applications and environments. FD has had a long and trusted relationship with Murex. This is evidenced by
the Global Relationship Agreement that sets a framework for co-operation and collaboration between both
companies and under which members of FDs consulting team become embedded in Murexs development
centre in Paris to fully understand its systems and support procedures. This engagement illustrates Murexs
confidence in working with FD to ensure smooth implementation of its products.
FD leverages its global delivery model and long history of supporting Murex implementations to provide the
following services:

Implementing Murex
Management and Planning - a proven methodology and experience for undertaking
the complex work of implementing Murex in an optimal and timely manner.
Integration - Analysis and mapping of data , design and implementation of interfaces
Implementation - Scoping, planning, phasing, costing and delivering projects

Enhancing Murex
System Review - Benchmarking systems against industry best practice, gap analysis
and remediation recommendations
Upgrades - Services designed to ensure the complex task of upgrading is smooth,
stable and timely and meets the underlying business drivers
Performance - Identifying, implementing and monitoring performance enhancements

Managing Murex
Application Management - A range of services covering testing, releases,
performance monitoring, reporting, end-of-day processes and environments
Support - First to third line support for Murex applications, provided onsite or on a
Near Shore basis
Health Check - Identifying weaknesses, potential risks and mitigation measures

To deliver these services consistently and comprehensively FD maintains a significant resource pool of
talented Murex personnel who can assist in all aspects of implementations including integration, price feeds,
market data, position management, valuations, workflow, SWIFT, clearing, CCP, messaging and scheduled
tasks. It can provide complete project resources ranging from junior consultants at competitive rates, to
senior business/technical analysts, developers and project managers either as complete teams or as
individuals to augment existing projects.
New to the First Derivatives Third Party Vendor services is the provision of fixed-price
or capped-price development projects. In these engagements FD gathers
requirements onsite and delivers detailed design specifications and project
New Service Offering:
costing to clients for their sign off. FD then develops, tests and delivers
Fixed-price / Capped
the required functionality from its Near Shore centres. This provides
charge and Near
clients with the benefit of cost effective, fixed-price delivery coupled with
Shore Delivery
proximity that facilitates good communication, close cooperation and where
required, on-site accessibility that ensures timeliness and quality of delivery.
FD is engaged in projects across mainland financial centres in Europe, US and Asia and also in Emerging
Markets. First Derivatives can offer services on a hybrid model, either On-shore in client sites, or Near Shore
from dedicated delivery centres in Northern Ireland, North America and Asia.

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Murex Services

Why FD
FD has over 16 years experience in providing consulting and support services to the Capital Markets. In that
capacity it specialises in assisting clients in implementing, supporting, upgrading, enhancing, testing and
decommissioning leading trading applications. As a result it has accumulated unparalleled experience in
working with leading technologies such as Murex, Calypso, Wall Street, kdb+ and Summit. It makes this
knowledge and expertise available to clients through its Third Party Vendor Services
FD consultants provided under the Third Party Vendor Services have skills in project development and
support work across a variety of roles which span business analysis, documentation, prototyping, testing,
day to day issue resolution, configuration, migration and development. Our consultants are highly trained
across asset classes and possess transaction knowledge and integration requirements from front office to
back office and supporting systems in the middle office.

Murex Specialists
Experience
Scalability
Costs
Near Shore
Product Innovation

Multiple Murex projects

Extensive product knowledge
Full lifeycle maintenance
Applicaion maintenance is the heart of our company
Best Practice processes
Leadership
Managed bench of highly trained consultants
Strong balance sheet
In providing these
Commitment to growth
Fixed Fee
KPIs & penalties
Flexibility
Low Cost
No Visa issues
Government backing

services FD has
gained an
exceptional
reputation for the
quality of its
deliverables and its
people

Testing
Performance
Configuration

What makes us different?

We specialize in Capital Markets and Murex
We invest in our business - FD recruits
approximately 100 graduates each year.
We invest in our people - FD has a 2 year Capital
Markets Training programme.
We invest in our clients and respond to market needs
by building Near Shore centres of excellence.
We invest in our tools - FD continues to develop its
industry standard tools to reduce implementation
timescales.
We are agile - Resources can be allocated
dynamically to meet business demand.
We reduce clients TCO through our efficiencies.

The Importance of Training

Training is at the heart of everything we undertake
at First Derivatives. For Murex services we have a
state of the art Training Facility and program
through which each one of our employees proceed.
Our project experience has shown that the
investment in training is one certain step IT
managers can take to ensure project teams
possess the skills necessary to reduce failure risk,
decrease costs, and increase project effectiveness.
FDs training platform is a web based application
which provides access to all training collateral,
FAQs Trouble Shooting guides and a forum for
Helpdesk Support questions.

FDs unique advantage within the capital markets industry is that all consultants have extensive technical
and functional knowledge of leading third-party trading platforms. This enables them to understand both
business and technical requirements alike and to engage meaningfully with traders, IT, management,
support and testing departments to quickly understand and service their needs. In the fast moving trading
environment there is little time for on-the-job training so FD invests in advance to ensure it has experts to
deal knowledgably and directly with your experts. We train our staff, you avail of their expertise.

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Murex Services

Implementing Murex
Murex is a comprehensive and complex package that requires detailed planning and alignment to underpin
organisation's business process and strategy. Implementation execution must ensure that the organisation
receives the maximum return on its investment. First Derivatives has extensive experience of implementing
Murex solutions across all asset classes and incorporating functionally from front-to-back office. As part of
its implementation service it provides expertise in managing the entire project and subject matter experts to
focus on key work streams as outlined below.

Implementation Managment planning

Scoping

Detailed Design

Functional and Technical delivery

Transition to Live

Creating and reviewing implementation plans

Creating phasing options and Roadmaps
Cost estimations and budgeting
Rosk mitigations and best practice
Global operating model design
Mapping of Business requirements
Resource profiling and planning
Migration approach
Creation and review of all functional and technical designs
Acting as design authority for overall project design and delivery
Technical architecture nd best practice
Regular project reviews and delivery status updates
Functional configuration
Technical and integration delivery
Work-stream ownership and execution (configuration, integration,
testing)
Subject matter Expertise
Go-Live Strategy
Migration execution
Go-Live planning and execution
Support Hand Holding

In the Implementation Management Planning phase FD develops technology roadmaps, implementation

plans and phasing approaches along with cost estimations, resource profiling and budgets to assist clients in
making the right choices when implementing Murex.
Through the Scoping workstream the initial business requirements are mapped by FDs Murex specialists
using an Application Operating Model to complement the MxPress methodology of the vendor to deliver the
Murex Implementation. The Application Operating Model (AOM) definition seeks to document existing
processes and workflows of the as-is business-operating model, and develop a new business model built
around Murex.
Detailed Design then follows which includes the creation and review of all functional and technical designs,
whilst acting as a design authority for overall project delivery. At this stage technical architecture is reviewed
and best practice discussed. The integration of Murex with other systems within the organisation must
consider both the technical design and functional analysis needs. Functional analysis includes an end to end
business process, mapping of business objectives including trades, market operations and static data,
communication protocols and input and output formats. The Integration Architecture Design covers the
component architecture including Murex, Middleware and other applications where Murex workflows are
drawn up.
Functional and Technical delivery takes up the next stage of the implementation process, and includes a
number of steps including functional configuration, technical and integration delivery, work stream ownership
and execution, all performed by FDs subject matter experts. The workstream also includes workflow and
data mart development, and additional Murex configuration (exchange workflow, MxML exchange, additional
UDFs and pre-trade rules). During the implementation consideration is given to testing; FD uses a multiiteration testing process to perform the System & Integration activities. FD promotes the use of test
scenarios that represent typical business performance so that the application is stressed under these varying
scenarios using a variety of performance, load, stress and user response time testing techniques. The final
step sees FD Murex specialists develop the Transition to Live and a Go-Live strategy.

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Murex Services

Enhancing Murex
Once in production an application often diverges from its implementation footprint through a change in
business direction or additional maintenance demands. FD consultants wealth of experience makes them
uniquely placed to undertake a System Review for our clients; this establishes four key principles:
1. The applications ability to support the current business needs
2. To identify weaknesses and identify potential enhancements to the system
3. To identify potential risks and issue-mitigation approaches
4. To review whether future proofing has been incorporated so future upgrades, and additional
functionality can be introduced efficiently and effectively with minimal disruption to business
Where minor product enhancements are required First Derivatives consultants have considerable
experience of extending the scope and reach of the Murex application with product enhancements. Clients
often seek to extend Murex either through increased usage, for instance new entities, or through increased
functionality, product coverage or improvements to operational controls like workflow configuration, report
production or changes to batches. First Derivatives provides specialist project teams, with the appropriate
mix of skills, that are tailored to client requirements and whose familiarisation with the product enables swift
development times and fast delivery.

Service Provided
Detailed regression test plans
Thorough testing over several logical
days test cycle
Monitoring and prioritising of all bugs
Management of risks and issues list
Vendor management and liaison
UAT support and assistance
Training for new functionality

Client Benefits
Risk and dependencies can be removed by branching
and parallelisation of development
Reduces task delivery timeframes
Removes the need to cross-specialise - First
Derivatives already has the application skills and
experience,
Targeted resource - specific focus on project,
reducing client FTE

Upgrades
The evolution of both clients business needs and the development of the application by the vendor results in
an upgrade requirement; Murex has a specific upgrade policy that requires a client to move to a new binary
every 12-18 months.
The driver for the upgrade can be the result of many differing factors and this driver will influence the
upgrade scope and approach; FD is experienced in guiding our clients to the most appropriate path that is
best suited to their business needs. In our experience the approach can be categorised in to the following:

An upgrade may often be viewed as an expensive necessity; if it is driven by technology the business often
cannot see the value, and if it is driven by business change then technology may recoil from changing the
current harmonious state.

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Murex Services
The vast majority of effort, over 55%, of an upgrade is expended in regression testing and reconciliation. FD
has developed tools to improve the timescales and costs for an upgrade Delta Rec is available to our
teams to use during an upgrade to execute automated testing against our pre-defined test libraries
In conjunction with client and vendor, FD can propose an approach that accommodates the scale and
complexity of the upgrade. Where clients are moving between Murex versions (e.g. MxG 2.11 to Mx3), FD
would discuss aligning with the FEM methodology that Murex proposes as the approach for the upgrade, or
whether an alternative approach that FD follows would be more appropriate.
As important as enhancing systems with new functionality is the ability to enhance their performance. FDs
Murex practice offers a well defined process for identifying, implementing and monitoring performance
enhancements. They include the ability to improve batch performance, interactive performance and to
ultimately reduce interface latency. These performance and stability improvements are equally valid for
Trade Flows, Market Data Flows and Payment Flows. The approach in each case follows the steps outlined
below:
1. Mobilise the system, here FD will identify and understand the performance goals for the clients
individual Murex system and define the scope of the system. Test environments are prepared and
tools and techniques identified to test and analyse over all Murex performance. KPIs will be defined
to determine what should be measured to understand Murex performance.
2. Benchmarks, to identify how murex performs under test (in test environment) vs production. KPIs
will be captured and a mixture of vendor and FD tools used to capture performance related data. To
follow this benchmarking, we will:
3. Analyse results against particular KPIs and make relevant changes to the application and system
configurations. Results will also be analysed against theoretical hardware capacity i.e. where and
what hardware is constricting the performance of Murex.
4. Provide Recommendations to the client on what was identified and the new benefits you can gain.
FD will identify quick wins and how they can be delivered, and provide suggestions on what to do
next. As with the above, in order to future proof Murex performance, FD Murex specialists perform a
number of steps to get to the recommendations stage. These are similar to the steps carried out to
improve performance, the key difference here is that Data Volumes are bulked up, in terms of what
size and shape the Murex database will be in the future and what hardware requirements are
required to handle the increased data sets.

Step 1:Foundations
Infrastructure
Architecture and Environment
Documentation
Step 2: Configurations
Known and repeating issues
Batch Management
Reporting
Step 3: Processes
Intraday processes
End of Day processes
Procedures
Step 4: Perceptions
User Perceptions
Support Perceptions
Step 5: Conclusions
Initial findings
Quick Wins
Reccommended next stpes

We will identify:
Strengths and weaknesses in the foundations of your Murex system and its
architectural context
Coverage and accuracy of your existing documentation

We will identify
Causes for known and repeating issues and how to address them
How to best manage the batch to maximise stability & efficency
How to optimise reporting soit focusses on reports that are used

We will identify:
Areas for Improvement or timesaving in Intraday processes
Areas for Improvement or timesaving in EOD processes
Areas for Improvement or timesaving in procedures

We will identify:
The good, the bad and the ugly perceptions from business users
The views of the people who monitor and maintain the system

We will present back to you:

What we have identified and he new beneftis you can realise
Quick wins: What are they and how you can deliver them
Our suggestions for what to do next

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Murex Services

Managing Murex
As financial institutions strive to reduce the Total Cost of Ownership of vendor packages the outsourcing of
non-core functions to external specialists has become an increasingly popular strategic decision. For that
reason FD has developed a suite of services for the management of Murex environments
Environmental
Managing production, staging, QA, housekeeping,
performance tuning, test and support environments as
appropriate. Refreshing environments from production
data, maintaining correct production baseline
configurations, maintaining forward schedules of
environment usage and working closely with in-house
System Administrators and DBAs.
Reporting
All aspects of report development are supported from
data sourced from any leading DB, such as Oracle,
Sybase and XML file. Development supported upon many
applications, such as Actuate, Crystal Reports, Microsoft
Reporting Services, or Java. Report delivery may be via a
HTML, email, file transfer, PDF, Excel or text file.
Technical
A wide range of services are provided to maintain
application performance and continuity of services. Whilst
ensuring production issues are addressed, this service
pro-actively investigates and performs DB and volume
trends analysis to anticipate and resolve potential
volume-related constraints.
Test & release
Undertaking functional, non-functional (performance
testing, volume testing, stress testing, penetration testing
and release procedure testing), and regression testing of
releases of all types including integration testing. FD
provide both test strategies and appropriate test facilities.

Management of Production, QA and

Development Environments

Maintenance/Management of Environments
Ancillary to Production

Preparation of Test Environments

Backing-up and Archiving
Support and Performance Management

New Datamart and Report Installation

Improve the Existing Datamart Architecture
M-Report to Datamart Migration
Performance Enhancement

Technical Release Management

Performance Monitoring
Interface building
Trend analysis and sizing
Business Continuity and High Availability

Test Management including test coverage,

test strategy, defect management and test
automation
Release Management including planning,
release validation against business
requirements and metrics

EOD
Providing day-to-day technical and functional support of the
clients EOD and batch management. FD has a proven track
record in deploying and running 24*7 call centres across
multiple global locations. FD provides operational assurance
including start-of-day, intra-day and end-of-day checks, and use
of auto-monitoring tools.

Application Tuning
Application tuning involves analysing the performance of
the Murex application and its interfaces from different
angles and then implementing methodologies to improve
the overall system. Application tuning projects are also
aimed at pinpointing bottlenecks and building monitoring
tools. These activities help to identify and resolve latency
issues on time, before they impact trading.
Performance testing
The performance testing provided by First Derivatives is
crucial in determining the scalability of your application
and the ability cope under excessive loads, such as
those experienced during high market volatility.

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Operations Processing
Batch Management and Monitoring
EOD Optimization and Performance
Improvement

Creating a Tailored Application Tuning

Plan
In-depth Performance Analysis
Maximising of Hardware Performance
Analysing Performance Bottlenecks
Application Tuning and Monitoring Tools

Regular Performance Testing (monthly,

quarterly) & recommended changes
Load Testing
Stress Testing

Murex Services
Support Services
Functional support is a crucial component of our service from first line support through to third level liaison
with the vendor and offers the following

Functional support available up to 24x7 for

all user categories
Issue resolution through established
prioritisation rules and response
requirements
Specialist assistance for the business,
assessment and explanation of vendor
functionality, training and education for users
Close liaison with Murex to maximise the
resources available to us
Introduction, testing and release of new
functionality, including small enhancements

Overseeing and supporting the integrity of

the Business Operating Model
General consultancy and advice on system
adaptability for new products
Provision of fast-track new product capability
Streamlining of business processes within
the system
Small enhancements implementation
EOD Handover
Monitoring, assisting and streamlining the
business process and workflow

Governance and transparency around support is achieved though well defined procedures for issue tracking,
issues categorisation, agreed response time and escalation procedures via a dedicated service desk that
provides a single point of contact for customers.
A system Health Check can be designed to meet a number of objectives and used to assess the
implementation against a number of objectives including original design requirements, current business
needs and market best practice.
A roadmap towards a stable system by reviewing instability issues against business needs
Weaknesses and potential enhancements to the requirements for the system
Potential risks and issue-mitigation approaches before any major system enhancements or
upgrade
Health Check Steps
Planning and Preparation: This stage involves data gathering in advance of
an onsite deployment of our Health Check Team.
Analysis: This stage involves Technical and Functional Reviews of all
aspects of the implementation onsite with our Client
Production of Health Check Report: This stage focuses on delivering the
outcome of the Health Check Analysis and preparing the report for delivery to
our Client with hotspots, impacts and recommendations and prioritisation of
post activities

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Benefits

Improve efficiency
and reduced costs,
Increase the life of
your existing
software
Improve the stability
of your solution

Murex Services

Case Studies
Background: As a new European body the client required an application to support its business.
The client selected Murex for their trade capture and risk management stream. As a greenfield site
this implementation had the challenges of short timeframe, the need to meet regulatory requirements
and a client that had limited experience in implementing complex applications.
Drivers: The need for expertise and methodology in the scoping and design of the key process
elements of the implementation. The client executed non-traditional financial business that required
the application to be flexible and therefore needed guidance on how to best implement the product.
FD was asked to coordinate the internal and external staff to produce a coherent project team.
What we did:
Benefits:
Following the system selection we were
An implementation of Murex that is
engaged to manage the project and
tailored to the clients specific business
provide Murex expertise during the
needs; this is not simply an out of the box
implementation.
solution.
Part of our role was to manage the Murex
Provides a framework that enables the
resources and ensure the deliveries of all
business to be scalable and flexible in
schedules were met.
meeting new market and regulatory
We facilitated the design and analysis
demands.
workshops providing the business
A low maintenance implementation that
balance to the Murex MxPress
can be supported by a minimal team.
methodology.
Access to expertise and personnel in the
Key areas were staffed by FD including
initial scoping and design phases on how
the project manager lead BA on the front
to best implement the system for some
office and back office workstream.
non-standard requirements.

Background: European financial institution identified the need to support business growth and to
improve both the range and efficiency of services through a new business and operational model. This
would primarily address issues around operational risk and processing inefficiencies. It was further
determined that a buy not build solution would form the IT component. After a vendor selection
process, Murex was chosen as a long-term front to back solution.
Drivers: A comprehensive review of the Murex system was necessary to confirm that the system
would work as intended and go live in a smooth and low risk manner. It was also necessary to review
the existing processes to confirm their completeness. The client was unable to determine the optimal
approach to supporting the application and required experienced assistance and direction.
What we did:
Benefits:
Determined the Murex entitys readiness
Produced a Production Readiness report
for production.
detailing.
Outlined a smooth Go-Live and after-care
Elimination and remediation of inefficient
period by confirming & advising on the
or incomplete processes.
Transition To Live approach and support
RAG based hot-spot dashboard
model.
highlighting areas of critical concern.
Identified weaknesses and potential
Gap analysis between the requirements
enhancements for specific requirements
and delivered system.
Identified potential risks and issues with
Capacity planning / future proofing to
accompanying mitigation approaches
ensure the business can respond swiftly
during the implementation phase.
to market and regulatory demands.
Ensured future proofing had been
Validation of design documentation.
incorporated, to ensure subsequent
Recommendations and mitigations.
upgrades and additional functionality could
Evaluated the effectiveness of the project
be introduced efficiently and effectively with
in terms of planning and delivering.
minimal disruption to business.

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Murex Services

Case Studies
Background: The bank was seeking to exploit new revenue streams arising from becoming able to
trade new products. The bank was also finding it increasingly difficult and costly to keep pace with the
increasing richness of regulatory requirements. Therefore the bank initiated a Systems Transformation
Programme to provide the new platforms required to trade in the new products, and reduce the costs
and complexities of compliance.
Drivers:
Specialist assistance with the programmes evaluation phase:
Current state analysis and target state definition
Independent assistance/advice on the vendor selection for a front to middle office
system
Subject Matter Expertise for analysis / validation / insight into key areas of the
programme, such as Enterprise Data Management, Finance and Back Office
Outsourcing
Creation of a business case to justify release of the funding to implement the future vision defined in
the evaluation phase activities above.
What we did:
Benefits:
Our team worked with the client to enrich
The client benefited from the FD teams
their current state analysis and formalise
experience; helping to ensure an
the requirements that had hitherto been
appropriate and achievable target state,
captured.
which was delivered within a tight timeframe.
Our team used these requirements as the
The client also benefited from access to
basis for a quantitative scoring of the
FDs pool of SME knowledge; being
vendors systems, supported and enriched
available on-demand the client was able to
by qualitative feedback from the business
keep the cost of the engagement to a
and our own experience.
minimum while retaining access to the skills
Combining the requirements with the
and insights needed to ensure the analysis
findings from the reviews by our SMEs, our
and resulting business case was of the
team worked with the client to build an
requisite quality.
appropriate and achievable target state
The client was able to exploit FDs deep
model for the bank's system architecture
Murex and Calypso knowledge to ensure a
and high-level processes.
thorough vendor selection process.
Our team also provided due diligence
reviews of the banks outsourcing plans for
Settlements processing.
Background: The bank had recently undertaken a global technology review, which identified Murex
as a strategic platform. This new technology strategy required the existing instances of Murex v2.11 to
be upgraded and consolidated in to a single instance of the latest version of Murex 3.1 across multiple
asset classes including interest rate, credit and equity derivatives.
Drivers:
A specialist advisor to: assist in producing the business case that would underpin the upgrade and
consolidation work, ascertain the effort and skills required and produce a high-level plan for the work
and to assist the bank in its conversations with Murex.
What we did:
Benefits:
Analysed the current state of project
A sound business case for the work,
proposal.
produced by independent experts.
Generated a framework for the "business
Reducing the required spend on external
proposal."
project resources through getting an early
Performed an initial scoping and costing
view of the size of the undertaking, which
exercise to allow the client to understand
gave the bank time to adapt and increase its
the resources required to undertake the
capability before starting on the work.
work.
Support in discussions with Murex
Established the future resource
themselves, exploiting FDs relationships
requirements, accompanied by a selection
and improving the efficiency of the Murexof people who can undertake the work
Bank collaboration.
(minimising resourcing risk once the project
is approved.)

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Murex Services

Case Studies
Background: The client is using a 20 year old legacy system to support FX, heavily interfaced into
the banks core systems. The client had attempted to mobilise the selection and deployment of a
vendor based replacement but has been unsuccessful a number of times over the last 5 years. The
client did not have the expertise to mobilise, design and integrate, identifying Murex specific risks,
issues and processes.
Drivers:
To provide expertise in the scoping and initial design of the key process elements of the replacement
project. The client had been unable to develop a successful program of work due to a lack of
experience and expertise. They required assistance in planning and a selection of key resources to
augment the existing staff during the pre-project feasibility phase.
What we did:
Benefits:
The content of the feasibility study was
The gap analysis was seen as a critical
derived from a short gap analysis
checklist to ensure that the feasibility stage
performed onsite across the complete
would deliver a platform to drastically reduce
business unit.
the risk of proceeding with a full scale
The gap analysis highlighted key areas of
purchase and implementation.
weakness to address prior to a full
During the feasibility phase a complete
implementation.
working test Murex was setup, allowing
These areas were addressed by producing
testing of the key risk areas in a series of
a feasibility study designed to close all the
Proof Of Concepts.
gaps.
As part of the POCs the major interfaces
Key areas were staffed by FD including the
into core bank systems were prototyped
management of the proof of concepts, the
using base Murex technology.
generation of an in house full function test
Murex and the production of prototype
interfaces.

Background: The client wanted to be first to market in providing a new FX clearing service but did not
have a platform in place to support it. The client selected Murex as the basis for providing this high
performance FX management platform for all locations. The client had did not have the capacity,
experience or expertise to design, manage and deliver the project without assistance.
Drivers:
A trusted partner to provide Murex specific experience in mobilising the project and delivering all
integration components. Assistance with project management and detailed design of the Murex
implementation, guidance on best practices associated with the technical and functional aspects of the
project and the design and build of the numerous interfaces between Murex and existing systems.
What we did:
Benefits:
Worked with the client to select and
Effective project support by on-site subject
mobilise the project team, and helped them
matter experts, this not only enhanced the
to establish the governance framework for
project but also benefited the clients team
the project, identifying Murex specific risks,
through training and knowledge sharing.
issues and assumptions.
Reduced time, cost and risk of delivery as a
Managed the functional and technical
result of our teams prior experience of
requirements, scoping and detailed design
working with Murex and building interfaces
of many of the key elements of the project
to it.
including:
Established vendor relationship, sharing our
Global Operating Model
close relationship with Murex with our client.
Integration (trade, market data, risk
Long-term and stable relationship with client.
and scheduling)
Datamart
Reporting
Environment management
Worked alongside Murex (who were
responsible for delivering and configuring
the new Murex platform) to build the
requisite interfaces to existing systems.
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Murex Services

Near Shore Services

FD offers additional cost benefits to its clients by providing its services on a Near Shore as well as on-site
basis. All our services, from vendor systems management and software development to infrastructure
monitoring and legal and compliance, can be delivered from our high quality service centres where robust
technical infrastructures guarantee the required high levels of security, access control and resilience.
A compelling feature of the FDs Near Shore approach is its operation from strategically located service
centres in Europe, North America and Asia that enables us to offer our Near Shore service on a worldwide
basis. The physical proximity affords swift, ad-hoc, on-site deployment of resources where required for
specific tasks or projects while the cultural alignment it facilitates ensures the communication process is as
streamlined and efficient as possible a critical component of any partnership engagement. This approach
therefore provides the client with all the cost benefits of adopting a near shore model while still retaining the
advantages of close contact, common time-zone and mobility for face-to-face interaction of on-shore or onsite arrangements as required.
Cost

Capability

Capacity

Low cost service model

Reduced recruitment, training and management overhead
Eliminate costs associated with office space, training, hiring, reviews, holiday
cover, sick leave, career management
Our regional locations ensure a low cost base, guarantee resources in the
same time zone and eliminate communication issues. In addition, our staff can
be on site within 5 hours when required
Highly skilled multi disciplined resources
Lawyers and legal professionals who understand the markets and technology
and who can assist not only in the interpretation of data and documentation but
also in its sourcing and reporting
Avail of industry best practices, procedures and service efficiencies
Proven Infrastructure
On-demand capacity giving the ability to ramp-up and ramp-down resources as
required
Follow-the-Sun support model across worldwide near shore centres
Dedicated recruitment and training programmes to ensure continuity
Provision for Pandemic and other disruptive events

Our resources have the elasticity to respond to changes in demand. We provide staff that are highly trained
in multiple disciplines and have first-hand expertise on client sites across a variety of projects, systems and
assets so that a wealth of knowledge and experience is brought to bear on each assignment. On the
infrastructure side, comprehensive Disaster Recovery and Continuity of Business provisioning ensures
resilience and robustness of service.
VPNs over dedicated bandwidth provide highly secure and resilient access. Segregated areas with
dedicated and monitored access points enforce physical security while intrusion detection and vulnerability
tests provide protection against host and network attacks. Clustering and failover configurations along with
Business Continuity Plans ensure resilience and high availability.
To further help clients manage their costs FD offers an embassy model approach to service provision that
enables them to select segregation levels appropriate to their level of risk: Gold level offers complete
physical and logical separation including dedicated network, phone and power in a standalone facility, Silver
offers logical separation within shared facilities while Bronze is appropriate for non-data sensitive related
services where segregation is not a priority.

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Murex Services

Murex Tools
FD has developed a suite of tools for managing Vendor applications and their environments to enable better
support, swifter implementation and improved application performance. They are based on many man-years
of hands-on implementations, system migrations and upgrades, as well as operational support services that
FD provides. The same tools are now available to its clients offering them consolidated visibility and control
over multiple applications.
Monitoring dashboards provide summary status views on
servers, processes and engines with drilldown to view errors
and their causes. They enable managers and support staff to
view engine status, processing bottlenecks and overdue tasks.
Additional performance monitoring capabilities enable
developers and test managers to profile the effect of system
and configuration changes and to access capacity thresholds
and degradation levels

Delta Rec is an automated reconciliation and regression testing tool for

data across multiple systems. It operates on a high performance kdb+
database where an XML mapping defines the data, fields, format and rules
for testing and comparing results. Delta Rec is ideal for migrations and
upgrades. Results are presented in Dashboards and reports enabling
users to view summaries, drilldown into causes and monitor trends. When
Combined with Test tools for loading trades and advancing them through
their trade lifecycle it enable swifter and more accurate regression testing

Configuration management A utility to model, view and

track configuration settings and enable their import, export and
amendment in a controlled audited manner. Using tools in this
way removes human error by automating the creation and
deployment of upgrade scripts. The utility can be extended to
cover additional file types and system settings that define and
control other aspects of the solution

Murex tools make system implementation and support more efficient and effective. Monitoring is
continuous and thorough. Its results are instant and informed helping to ensure that potential errors are
forewarned and their effects forestalled. Testing is enhanced by automation that facilitates increased and
repeated test coverage without incurring additional cost. Configuration can be centralised, managed and
controlled
Murex tools provide answers to difficult questions posed by managers, auditors, and users:

Are all your systems currently running? Are you confident they will continue to run efficiently? Can I
look at the status of other in-house applications as well?
Is our backup configuration the same as the production one? Could you prove it to internal audit?
Did the upgrade you are proposing pass all test cases? Show me the results. How is performance
going to be affected?
Is your test coverage adequate? Can you increase it without incurring additional testing costs?
We need to reassign some roles. Can you assure me the new permissions can be applied
accurately and consistently - across all our environments?
We need to test under real life conditions can we do a parallel run?
Using Murex tools the answer to all the above is Yes
Murex tools: Visibility, Control, Automation.

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Murex Services

First Derivatives Corporate

First Derivatives plc (FD) is a leading provider of software solutions and consulting services to the capital
markets industry. Founded in 1996, FD occupies a niche market position in terms of deep domain
knowledge and technical expertise. Headquartered in Ireland, FD has a global presence with offices across
EMEA, the Americas and Asia Pacific.

Publically held company on London Stock Exchange (LSE FDP.L)

Headquartered in Newry, Co. Down, N Ireland
1000+ employees worldwide

Consulting Services

Multi Vendor Services Calypso, Murex, Wall Street, Summit, Opics

Legal, Regulatory and Compliance
Data Management
Software Development
Big Data and Data Science

Big Data Solutions

Delta Flow/Delta Flow+ Foreign Exchange Trading

Delta Algo Low latency trading strategies and execution
Delta Surveillance For Regulators, Exchange and Brokers
Delta Data Factory Market and Reference Data Management
Delta Stream High Volume data capture, analysis and distribution
... powered by kdb+ and other Big Data technologies

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Murex Services

Delta Suite
Delta is a powerful Big Data platform, offering capabilities in reference data management, market data
management, CEP, algorithmic and high-frequency trading, FX trading, treasury risk management and
exchange management surveillance.
Deployed in some of the worlds largest banks, exchanges and hedge funds, Delta applications are designed
for Volume and Velocity low-latency, high-throughput applications delivered as a hosted service or
deployed locally.

FD provides a range of brochures on its products and services. For more information please contact us via
our website or the numbers below

Contact Us
New York +1 (212) 447-6700
Europe +44 (28) 302 52242
Asia-Pacific +61 2 9477 0200
info@firstderivatives.com
www.firstderivatives.com
This information is subject to change without
notice and is offered for information purposes only.

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