The Willow Solutions Story
Willow Solutions creates custom software applications for traders,
analysts, and investment managers. That's what we do best and no one does it better.
There are lots of custom software developers and many specialize in
Microsoft Office development but none match Willow Solutions in expertise,
breadth of experience and strength in creating desktop applications that use
and manipulate real-time data.
Risk Analysis. Portfolio Management.
Position Keeping. Valuation Models. Pricing Structure.
"Sit at my right hand - but only after 4:15pm"
When Willow was brought into a small NY hedge fund, we were there for one purpose:
to plumb the mind of the master and distribute his expertise across the organization.
The problem was that the master was not available to us during the day, not for even
one question. All interaction had to be limited to non-US market hours. Willow's
developer worked with him after hours, staying late when the client was able to,
and working productively alone when the client had fires to put out. That's the
kind of developers Willow sends out to do the job: people who can think on their
feet and have the expertise and knowledge to connect the dots and fill in the holes.
Who needs a developer that you have to painstakingly explain a hedge to? Wouldn't you
rather have a developer who already understands swaps? Swaptions? Straddles?
"Don't drown me in data; I need to know the risk now!"
Willow solved a major problem for a large New England bank. Their risk management
software was a data hog, crunching mounds of historical data. The problem was that
by the time the risk assessment was complete, the entire trading day was blown.
Willow pushed the envelope and figured out how to condense the process without
losing accuracy. By creating a smart database filler to amass the data in record time,
Willow came through with a tight, elegant solution. No one else had ever processed so
much risk data for them.
"The off-the-shelf package is fine, except..."
This is the most common request that we hear: "Can you make it just a bit different?
It would really help me out." So many off-the-shelf solutions are almost perfect but
they need a critical piece of customization. This is where Willow shines. We have years
of experience with all types of packages. If it's possible, we can do it.
Willow was brought in to a convertible arbitrage-trading desk to pull together their
pricing on hedge positions. They had software from their prime broker, but it didn't
close the loop for them: They weren't sure of the daily prices of their positions
because many securities are not traded on an official exchange or are traded so
infrequently that determining an accurate price can be difficult. Willow wrote the
piece that pulled it all together, so the portfolio manager knew the exact position
at any time, even during the busy trading day.
"Can't I just do it in Excel?"
One NY investment bank, a prime broker, brought us in to create an Excel front-end
for their hedge fund clients. The goal? Allow the hedge funds to use the bank's own
online trading system, but get their reports in Excel format so they could customize
the reports and add real-time pricing. Though the bank had its own highly-regarded
IT department, they brought in Willow for our expertise in Excel and real-time data
applications. We built an XML-based application that provides the hedge funds with
real-time pricing from Reuters, Bridge or Bloomberg combined with position information
from the bank. The result: happy clients for the bank.
Many traders and analysts do everything in Excel. If the data's not directly linked to
Excel, they just type it into Excel by hand. Excel is a tremendously flexible tool,
but the idea is to get the information without having to type things in manually.
Willow has developed many tools to bring data into Excel, manipulate it, convert it
and generally relieve the user of data issues. This allows traders and analysts to
use Excel's powerful calculation engine and analytics with market data.
Willow has been working with Excel and Microsoft since the release of Excel version 2,
nine versions ago. No company has more experience in Excel-based applications. When
Keynote Systems, a company that measures web site performance, asked Microsoft whom
they should hire to create an Excel front-end for their own custom software, Microsoft
recommended Willow. It's not surprising; Willow has been on Microsoft's Excel advisory
team for over 10 years.
"Help! We have to convert all this stuff"
Many companies find the barrier to taking advantage of new technology is the headache
of converting existing applications to the new format. New, better ways of doing
business are invented all the time, but how do you convert the existing systems
with minimal disruption? Willow has tons of experience and tools for converting,
whether it's applications, data vendors or data retrieval protocols.
For example, a common request for traders is real time market data in Excel.
One method to bring in Reuters market data is a special function called RtGet.
Recently, a new function was developed called RtUpdate, but many users weren't
taking advantage of it. RtUpdate is more stable, faster and all around better,
but some people were not converting because they already had applications built
and tested that used the old method. They were afraid to change over, afraid to
spoil the good-but-not-great app they already had. Willow wrote a conversion
utility to make the switch painless.
Lotus to Excel. Reuters to Bloomberg. Bridge DDE to Reuters DDE. Reuters DDE to RtGet.
RtGet to RtUpdate. We've done it all. (We've converted things you've probably never
heard of... do you remember Wingz?)
"Keep me in the loop, but don't strangle me with it"
When Willow was brought in to optimize a set of critical applications for a large,
multinational bank, their problem was communication. How can we keep all of the
worldwide players updated on how things are progressing, what the roadblocks are,
where things stand? Willow set up a protected intranet site so that interested
parties could access it 24 hours a day. The site listed the status and details of
each project and was updated in real time. No one was left out of the loop because
they worked on a different time schedule in a different part of the world. We also
set up a computer chat channel specifically for the project, so that users could
contact us instantly with questions.
"Spreadsheets change daily, but how do I control these changes and make sure my
spreadsheets continue to function correctly?"
Maintenance - the bane of all software. Conditions change over time and the software
needs to change with it. But how do you keep track of these changes? Willow has
developed a maintenance tool to document the changes to a workbook application,
resulting in easier archiving and updating. The tool takes the documentation hassle
out of maintenance so you have a living record of how your applications have developed over time.
"Get the fat out!"
The Achilles heel of spreadsheets: it's so easy to create quick and dirty apps
and often these apps grow and grow until they barely function ---- little pieces
are added over time and those little pieces start to stick in the throat of
your business, strangling it.
Willow helped a Boston Money Management Firm migrate their systems from a UNIX setup to Windows NT.
With our help, they took the opportunity to improve, not just convert their applications.
They wanted to integrate position keeping, performance, pricing and trading using Reuters,
Bloomberg, FactSet and proprietary data. The result: faster access to data, more accurate
information and better trading decisions. As a further result of the conversion,
hundreds of unnecessary applications were eliminated, hours of searching for data
and formatting reports were saved and control of important data was significantly improved.
"Make it happen"
We shouldn't be telling you this, but it's true: You really can have it all.
Willow is at its best when it's implementing exactly what you want. We are often hired
by end users after their own research has told them they can't have what they want
and need. They're relieved to hear that someone understands their needs and can create
an effective solution.
We are the experts on real-time data in desktop applications. We speak your language.
We understand. We get the job done, on time and on budget. Call us today at 203-777-5634
to find out how Willow can give you an edge.
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