In The News

"New Model Army"

from RISK Magazine , August 1998

By Nicholas Dunbar, Technical Editor

This article examines the emergence of third party analytics suppliers such as Savvysoft. It demonstrates how Savvysoft and other suppliers are carving a niche in the derivatives software market, and illustrates how vendors are increasingly gaining acceptance even at first-tier investment banks. Rich Tanenbaum, founder of Savvysoft is quoted explaining: "Even in the first-tier banks, there are so many needs in the organization - either because they are strapped for resources to solve the problem themselves, or an independent control area needs it. We find there is a continual resource problem, when the people at the desk are waiting forever for something. The in-house guys have a full plate already. So, buying from the outside can solve that problem, as you can have the necessary analytics instantly."

The article also looks at how open systems in conjunction with more exotic OTC derivatives are leading end users to purchase third-party add-ins from vendors such as Savvysoft. Rich Tanenbaum is quoted as saying: "The key word is interoperability, that is, the need for large systems and add-in software to run together. We have been campaigning for quite a number of years to get (the big suppliers) to make systems more interoperable. Perhaps it is because there are more sophisticated structures around that they realize they need the add-in vendors."