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TOKOPEN
ELIMINATES THE PAPER TRAIL AT BLUEBAY ASSET MANAGEMENT
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Using TokOpen to eliminate paper trail
Serving Tokairo's TokOpen document management
and workflow system has helped BlueBay Asset Management -
www.bluebayinvest.com
- eliminate the former manual paper trail process for the
confirmation of credit defaults swaps (CDS) and improved its
ability to manage outstanding confirmations helping the streamlining
of the whole settlement process.
Key reasons for BlueBay's selection of
the system was TokOpen's demonstrable flexibility, ruggedness,
ease of use and perceived excellent value for money. With
its initial implementation now completed, BlueBay are poised
to roll it out across the company to other parts of their
business. The system was supplied and implemented by Tokairo
reseller Toshiba TEC Imaging Systems.
BlueBay Asset Management Limited is a specialist
manager of fixed income credit funds. Based in London with
an office in Tokyo, the company provides investment management
services to institutions and high net worth individuals seeking
exposure to the rapidly growing asset class of fixed income
credit. It currently employs 93 people, including 38 investment
professionals, and manages over US4$ billion across its range
of specialist credit products encompassing both long-only
and long/short mandates.
"Our
business is managing long-only and long/short funds spread
across investment grade, emerging markets and high yield sectors,"
says BlueBay IT director Simon Lumsdon. "These comprise
bonds, loans and credit default swaps (CDS) which allow us
to buy or sell protection. The issue that had become critical
for us was the rapidly growing paper trail that the sale of
CDS product requires us to satisfy as part of the confirmations
process".
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"Previously, this was handled
manually. Documents typically comprised spreadsheets
and had to be stored in traditional paper filing
cabinets. With over 100 transactions a day, the
sheer volume of paper was becoming a problem -
not just in terms of printing and storage, but
in accessing and distributing them internally".
"There was also the potential
for documents to be mislaid, all of which would
consume extra resource to resolve. Essentially,
the manual process just didn't allow us to manage
our business as effectively as we wanted".
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| Functionality
"We had a clear idea of the kind
of document management and workflow functionality that
we needed - and considered a number of alternative options.
First of all we looked at developing a bespoke system,
and although it offered the advantage of being totally
dedicated to our specialist business, there were issues
of flexibility and cost".
"A bespoke solution would have
been considerably more expensive to implement than a
proprietary one. TokOpen had demonstrable flexibility,
was rugged and had a reputation for reliability and
was easy to use with a familiar look-and-feel. It had
an impressive user base and was also significantly cheaper,"
says Lumsdon.
"Initially, we had them in for
a workshop session where the product was demonstrated
and completed a pilot dummy run. It worked. It also
addressed our complex workflow requirements that called
for secure management of the complex lifecycle stages
of the credit swap process - typically half a dozen
stages".
"At the end of the day, we wanted
an authorised signatory to sign-off the confirmations
and securely hold the record to which we would have
easy access in future. We also needed to integrate the
document management functionality with our existing
trading system so that we could feed in the trades from
our portfolio system and back into the trading system.
The integration was complex and challenging".
Improved reporting
"For example, managing a large
number of attributes, structuring folders to maintain
confirm history - and generally making it work smoothly
without glitches in day to day use. TokOpen's inherent
flexibility allowed us to do everything we wanted to
achieve. It also provided the necessary level of security
to enable us to meet our compliance obligations, and
significantly improved our ability to report on outstanding
contracts".
Typical documents include confirmations,
timesheets, payment instructions, trade tickets and
a variety of miscellaneous forms used in day-to-day
business operations. Documents are manually indexed
and there is one folder per deal. BueBay can have up
to 10 deals a day with an average of seven or eight
documents per deal.
Currently, BlueBay have 20 TokOpen named users. Other
elements used by the company include TokOpen Sorting
Office, TokOpen Web which allows access to the system
for authorised users via any standard Web browser, and
TokOpen Fax.
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"Dealing with brokers across the world, we have
to meet international standards. In our case, to the
satisfaction of the Interbank Swaps and Derivatives
Association (ISDA) - www.isda.org. TokOpen allows
us to do this easily and elegantly," says Lumsdon.
"The benefits include streamlined workflow processes
that give us a surer, more informed grip on our business,
easy electronic capture of workflow details for credit
defaults, improved ability to manage outstanding confirms,
streamlined settlement transactions - and the flexibility
to leverage the technology through future use in other
parts the company's activities. It is an economic
solution that is excellent value for money".
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Powerful and comprehensive
TokOpen is a powerful and comprehensive archiving
and document solution that goes far beyond the conventional
capture and storage of documents. It centrally manages the
flow of documents through a user's organisation, maintaining
constant document and user security by controlling who can
have access to which documents and files. There is extremely
tight control of file and document editing - yet immediate
on-line access to those who are authorised - all under a highly
disciplined central control regime.
A UK-based company, Tokairo distributes its
solutions internationally through a network of resellers.
For example, in the US, TokOpen users include the Georgia
Bureau of Investigation (handling 4,000 plus fingerprint and
arrest records daily), Texas Government (capture and management
of over 22 Tb of document data).
Tokairo is one of the world's leading document
management/workflow solutions developers. With offices in
the US and the UK, the company delivers robust and reliable
DM solutions through an international network of partners,
including manufacturers, specialist software houses and resellers
who embed TokOpen into their own product portfolios.
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Tokairo Ltd
Tokairo House, Copperhouse Court, Caldecotte, Milton
Keynes, MK7 8NL, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1908 366 388 | Fax:
+44 (0) 1908 367 700 | E-mail:
info@tokairo.com
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© Copyright 2004 Tokairo
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