Newry Software Firm Looks East

As the 2008 Olympics came to a close at the weekend, a Newry-based financial software development company is looking east.

It has secured a deal worth more than £300,000 with a leading global financial institution in Asia.

First Derivatives has developed a highly innovative financial management software called qAlgo, which will be adopted by the Asian operations of the financial institution who name has not been revealed because of commercial confidentiality.

The new software was developed following an £800,000 investment by First Derivatives to which Invest NI offered financial assistance totalling £227,921.

The system uses leading edge grid computing combined with vector database technology to enable financial institutions to gather and analyse complex market data quickly in order to implement major investment decisions.

The software can process a greater amount of data at higher speeds than other similar applications, reducing usage costs for the client.

Michael O'Neill, Chief Operating Officer of First Derivatives, said: "In the fast-moving financial services sector, it is essential that companies have as much information as possible on which to base investment and trading decisions.

"This requires software which can quickly and effectively gather and analyse a multitude of market data and use this to predict outcomes which, although never certain, are feasible and risk-managed.

"Our new system is the culmination of three years' development with the support of Invest NI and features speed and functionality which differentiate it from our competitors," he concluded.

(BMcC)