CHALLENGE:
The client is a financial services company specializing in OTC derivatives, helping counterparties protect their margins and manage volatility. Its customers are often mid-size and underserved, and include the producers, processors, and end users of virtually every major traded commodity.
They astutely recognized it needed a solution to optimize the pricing of customer hedging strategies to better serve their customers.
The brokerage sought a technology partner with deep domain knowledge to create a roadmap that acknowledged the project’s budget and large scale. After learning the depth of Connamara’s experience in capital markets and how our team approaches complex projects with an eye toward time and budget, the client awarded Connamara with the contract to implement its solution.
SOLUTION:
Connamara proposed a six week analysis and discovery project to be staffed with a managing partner, a senior engineer, and a senior business analyst. The project had the following concrete deliverables:
- A prioritized list of features and user stories to describe the project plan required to build the solution
- A list of use cases
- An implementation roadmap for a phased release schedule
- A list of technology recommendations for the solution
- A system diagram showing the recommended architecture of the solution for all client products, while maintaining compatibility with the business lines of the client’s affiliates
- An estimate of the capacity, scalability, and availability for the recommended platform
- A time and cost estimate to implement the platform
Following analysis and discovery, Connamara applied its proven Connamara Agile project management and implementation techniques to deliver the specified solution. Having these metrics consistently reported to the client allows them to manage project delivery expectations and internal upstream reporting.
Connamara further promotes project status transparency by providing standardized project reporting through regular reporting of the team velocity, remaining points, calculated delivery date, hours billed, and budget expended/remaining. With these metrics consistently reported, the client is able to manage project delivery expectations and internal upstream reporting.
RESULT:
The solution was rolled out into production and provided immediate, measurable value. By reducing costs, the new platform provided an immediate return on investment for the client. The platform is a major success and adoption by the firm’s brokers has been incredible, with 100% of the firm’s OTC swap business now on the new system.
The client has continued expanding and enhancing the solution by engaging Connamara to implement new features and devise a roadmap for future releases. The subsequent releases have broadened the market coverage and product offerings, providing even more value.
The initial release, including a project discovery phase, took 18 weeks, and subsequent releases followed at an eight week cadence.
