Clients
Orchard Group members have developed systems for clients from the Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 lists.
Here are some systems we have delivered in the last decade.
A major UK clearing bank
purchased an off-the-shelf FX trading system that turned out adequate for trading spot but not forward. Traders decided to model requirements in a prototype rather than write a new specification.
The prototype was written in APL and, as well as modelling requirements, proved an effective interim solution. The prototype started with 12 seats and volumes of 400 deals a day; but with the improved trading tool, volumes rose and began to stress the system.
The team rebuilt and extended the system to a networked front-office treasury management system, which was implemented as 4xtra. Measuring trading volumes later, one banker estimated around 3% of daily global FX trading at that time was passing through 4xtra.
A UK-based world airline
gathers its revenue and operating costs round the world on Excel spreadsheets. These are mapped into 3-D arrays in a Dyalog analysis-&-reporting system. An administrator uses this to prepare spreadsheets for the next reporting cycle.
London Bullion Market Association
A tiny same-day tactical solution pulls posted prices from LBMA’s exchange-linked spreadsheets to its web pages.
A major UK life office
Administering pension policy surrenders is dauntingly complex, involves multiple legacy computer systems, and is subject to rapidly-evolving regulations and legislation.
We were able to collapse the conventional development cycle, working directly with end users, and, for hundreds of clerks, cut the average processing time from an hour to ten minutes. Our first users were online in less time than was estimated for the analysis phase of standard development.
Software Development as a Collaborative Writing Process by Brian Bussell (Director of Pensions, Norwich Union Life) & Stephen Taylor (Lambent Technology) presented at XP2006.
