Building an enterprise-level application
One-click data-processing
Auto-generating Excel audit files
Clark Capital Management Group (CCMG) partners with financial advisors to deliver investment strategies with a full range of investor goals: growth, income, and capital preservation.
The need for outside IT support arose in early 2015 as John Clark, CCMG's Portfolio Manager, was in charge of building an enterprise-level Option Management application that would be able to:
- Be used by multiple team members, with varying authorization levels
- Manage thousands of option positions over hundreds of individual accounts in various option programs the firm administers
- Allocate and report block option trades from various trade platforms and to individual accounts across multiple custodians
Given that option symbols—unlike their underlying equity symbols, are not standardized—there would be a level of programming complexity that is extraordinarily challenging.
System of work
From beta level program design and troubleshooting to final deployment, the development process was highly efficient. After having been given a deep brief into what our solution should bring to the firm, we could work independently and streamline the process of our cooperation by “delivery checkpoints“—the agile work organization proved to be the best system to bring results on time and budget.
Data-collecting and evaluation
We created an easy-to-use tool that fits into a broader operational system. Collecting and evaluating data became fully automated and provides CCMG employees with:
- The possibility of filtering data by several customized requirements
- Clear auto-created reports turned into a solid base for making investment management decisions
- Auto-generated alerts which notice employees with possible investment risks and opportunities
- One-tool solution for data-validation, data-controlling, and error-detection
Without the application, more and more manpower would have been needed to administer the program. This would have led to the elimination of the program’s scalability, thereby reducing operating margins. On the contrary, we came up with a simple-to-use, yet complex tool, so the investment professionals can fully focus on their discipline, instead of having to copy-paste data within Excel sheets.
Keeping the program sustainable thanks to our design and programming work has proven to be an important part of growing trade volumes and the expanding number of accounts that can be administered.
