LAB 49 is the Financial Services Division of Corpus INC. It creates advanced custom software applications for global financial institutions using leading edge technologies to deliver “market critical applications.” LAB49’s focus reflects the focus of its clients, the major global financial institutions: algorithmic trading applications; real time risk management; next generation trade and order management systems; applications for the continuing evolution in market, credit and operational risk management.

While LAB 49 is headquartered in New York, it has offices in Bangalore and London. LAB 49 sees much of the lead in development of advanced software applications for financial institutions being driven in London while New York as a financial centre can suffer from a perceived excess in transaction and compliance costs and risks arising from the US legal, governance and financial regulatory regimes. Equally important for a developer of advanced software applications, London has both the financial institutions and technology providers located within the same geographic area. New York may be the major US financial centre but the US West Coast remains the centre of innovative, advanced software creation.

Physical proximity to the client continues to be an important element in the client relationship for an agile and innovative service provider. As a result LAB 49 clients have control over the scope and priorities of the project. The Bangalore office is not an outsourcing service provider but an extension part of the corporate enterprise, as it is a location benefiting from a pool of skills, talents, and front office Wall Street experience.

LAB49 presents itself as a boutique organisation in cultural terms—in some ways reminiscent of a partnership culture. All recruitment is direct or through recommendation. No recruitment is conducted through agencies or headhunters. Collaborative, innovative, results focused culture is achieved through the deployment of “experienced, intelligent and personable professionals as well as flexible and agile delivery methodologies.” LAB 49’s delivery model seeks to directly satisfy the line-of-businesses within global financial institutions and encompasses the cultural style of the enterprise:

Lab 49’s specific service offerings include:

• Strategic Technology Planning and Architecture
• Iterative Project Execution
• Data Visualisation
• Business Intelligence through OLAP, Data Mining and Warehousing
  

No preferred vendor relationships exist.

Global financial institutions are subject to business and challenges and pressures in areas where LAB 49’s delivery model can respond due to its own experience and competencies.

Competitive pressures
Uppermost are probably “latency issues” which are increasing through the growth in algorithmic trading and competition amongst exchanges. Additional pressures on the quality and speed of data arise from the innovation in exotic instruments. They initially provide high revenue margins but, at the same time, they present complexity challenges in terms of support from an administrative, operational, risk and technical perspective, even before they develop into volume flow-based trading products. Grid computing and the combination of algorithmic programming with an understanding of CGC/VM programming help to address the latency challenges. While information challenges respond to “smart client generation” and advanced data visualisation, complexity issues are resolved through Agile and XP-based development.

Regulatory pressures
These revolve around continuous change in terms of new regulation, which increases the frequency and flexibility of reporting requirements and generates workflow issues.

Reporting issues are addressed through increased use of OLAP, cubes and forward looking schema designs. Agile/XP–based development methodologies address constant change with the deployment of adaptable SOA-based architecture.

Technology pressures
Systems have been built for flexibility or performance but rarely for both. Legacy systems are increasingly hard to support with a diminishing skills pool and the velocity of change shortens the technology cycle.

Through geographic proximity to clients “development takes place with a keen understanding of the client environment.” Modular programming and application of language inter-operability seek to address the faster technology cycles. Legacy issues are met though borrowing rather than building and an increased use of open-source development frameworks. LAB 49’s methodology

Frequent delivery
Initially, the focus is on delivering the applications to support the most important and/or complex business issue. The delivery process is lightweight—each month there is a delivery of usable production quality software so that end user feedback may be obtained for quick refinement of the solution.

Adaptiveness
Responsiveness to changes in business and market priorities through their iterative development process.

Advanced engineering
Leading-edge technology is applied to engineer innovative solutions. Advanced software engineering is applied with the use of domain-specific architectural best practice.

Risk management
In addition to the expected quality control features, there is a culture of accountability, through real time transparent discussion and review of issues, risks and dependencies.

LAB 49 appreciates that global financial institutions have to respond with immediacy and agility to the velocity of change in financial markets if they are to retain their competitive position. Agility and innovation are necessary and LAB49 is positioned to do this in ways to which the internal technology service providers are not as yet equipped. Can they adapt or will enterprises like LAB 49 assume this role?