Alignment Systems
Software and consultancy services for asset managers and hedge funds
Custom Excel Development
We have worked on numerous challenging projects to push the envelope of functionality for Excel. Some examples are listed below.
| Spreadsheet Functionality | Problem or Requirement | Solution |
| Middle Office allocation of block trades to sub-accounts using Japan specific rounding requirements (discrete lot rounding, one - yen-difference) | Spreadsheet was written several years ago by a contractor who had left the company. The code was not documented and very hard to follow. | Comprehensive analysis of the functionality in the spreadsheet followed by full documentation of the code and hand over to a new in-house developer to pick up the maintenance burden for the code. |
| Portfolio model of a pension fun | Code was written in XLM modules by a Fund Manager who was unwilling to get involved in any enhancements. | Rewrite to modern VBA. |
| Portfolio model of investment portfolio with extensive derivative mathematics | Too slow | Analysis of the choke points followed by documentation and code redesign and replacement. |
| Investment portfolio record keeping | Unwieldy and difficult to train new users and support existing users. | Forensic analysis of the functionality followed by full documentation in the form of a Windows standard help file, complete with screen shots and wizards to allow users to help themselves rather than place support calls. |
| Vendor relationship tracking | Spreadsheet was originally designed to work for one vendor relationship tracking one product support relationship. Over time the number of users and relationships tracked had grown extensively and the spreadsheet was starting to creak under the load. | Design of a simple Access based database application to store the information to allow for transactional integrity, greater data volume and reporting using Crystal Reports. In this project Excel was completely replaced. |
| Interface to Quantitative Analytics package S Plus | Requirement to link Excel to S Plus for portfolio optimisation | Design and build of generic wrapper code for Excel to communicate with S Plus. |
| Interface from Excel to FidessaNet | Automation of booking process | Design and build of spreadsheet to communicate with FidessaNet via the APAS authentication layer |
| Transition Management Business Build Out | Provide tools for new Transition Management business | Design and build of spreadsheets to calculate net transition trades required for "many-to-many" transition management for equity, fixed income and balanced funds. |
| Replacement of DDE interface routines with RTD | Decision made to replace use of DDE with RTD | Design and build of tools to analyse spreadsheets for use of DDE equations and to automate their replacement with RTD equations. |
Forensic Excel Analysis
Do you have a large number of spreadsheets, some of which are used for mission critical business processes, where they are out of development control? Multiple versions of the same spreadsheet, with subtle differences for different business units? Some spreadsheets that work, but no-one knows how? Some spreadsheets with VBA code and others with XLM macro code dating back to Excel version 4?
You are not alone. This is the typical situation faced by many financial institutions. There is a way out of this with the Forensic Excel Analysis service. We have extensive experience of receiving old spreadsheets and rejuvenating them where possible and rewriting or replacing entirely where that is appropriate
Version Experience
We have experience with the following versions of Excel:
| Version | Typical Experience in years |
| Excel 95 | 2 |
| Excel 97 | 7 |
| Excel 2000 | 4 |
| Excel 2002 / XP | 3 |
| Excel 2003 | 2 |
| Excel 2007 | 3 months |
Excel Newsgroups Contributions
If any of this sounds familiar to you then the Custom Excel Development / Forensic Excel Analysis services of Alignment Systems can help. For more information send an email to enquire@alignment-systems.com.