Telekurs (USA) In Beta With New Front-End; Valordata Browser

STAMFORD, CONN: Telekurs is once again focusing on the American marketplace with its new Valordata Browser, a browser-based front-end to its extensive database of corporate actions data.

Valordata Browser, which has already been released into the European market, will be sold both as a separate product and integrated into Telekurs existing FinVest and FinXS products.

The product, which was demonstrated at this year's SIA Show in New York as the Securities Browser (IMD, June 29), is about to go into beta at three sites in the US and is slated for release by the end of this year. Since its launch in Europe last July, the Valordata Browser has three sites signed up in London and several in Switzerland, Telekurs' home market.

Telekurs, which is owned by a consortium of Swiss banks, realizes that it has to grow in order to avoid tying its future to the ever-consolidating Swiss domestic market. Currently 97 per cent of the company's revenues come from Europe, according to MDI: The Market Data Industry, published by Waters Information Services, publisher of Inside Market Data.

But rather than pursuing a strategy of becoming a global full-service information provider, which the company tried in the late 1980's, Telekurs wants to utilize its existing strengths in niche areas within the global market. As such, Telekurs is not aiming to compete with the major vendors, but is aiming these new products at specific users. These include portfolio managers, research analysts and back office security administrators.

Telekurs currently has two main products: Finvest and FinXS. Finvest is a workstation product that includes pricing, charting and news as well as corporate actions data and was introduced as a replacement for Telekurs original Investdata terminal. FinXS is a web-based version of Finvest.

Access to the corporate action data, however, was still only available through an Investdata window within both these products. The Valordata Browser, therefore, represents a final step in Telekurs' aim to replace Investdata terminals, although the company will continue to support existing users.

Telekurs now plans to integrate the Valordata Browser into both products to offer customers easier access to the corporate actions data. Where Investdata required users to learn proprietary coding to access the data, the Valordata Browser provides customers with drop down menus and point and click functionality for navigation.

Access to the Valordata Browser is via an IP-based connection to Telekurs host site, based in Stamford, Conn.

The company also plans to release the third version of its Valordata Feed in the US by the end of this year. The first version, released in 1996, contained fundamental data only. The second version added dividends information in 1997. The third version of VDF offers the full range of fundamental and corporate actions data. VDF includes among its customers SBC Warburg Dillon Read in London.

The feed will require customers to install a server at the client-site and will populate the client's database with daily updates via a dial up or FTP connection. This service, similar to Bloomberg's Data License, will be sold as an enterprise-wide license.

Both the Valordata Browser and Valordata Feed are powered by Telekurs Financial Information Database (FIDB). This database, which has been developed over the past two years, is populated with replicated data from Telekurs main database in Geneva, Switzerland as well as with locally collected data. The FIDB, built with the help of consulting firm Ecofin, uses a data model, which essentially labels the various data types and provides links to other data elements for faster retrieval of data.

The project to create the FIDB began after the management buyout of Telekurs original US arm in 1995. The buyout, led by Ken Marlin, formed Telesphere, which later became part of Bridge Information Systems. "The spin-off allowed us to get rid of our legacy infrastructure and start off on a clean slate," says Barry Raskin, president of Telekurs (USA), the data collection entity that was left after the buyout. As such, the new database is Unix-based and runs on IBM RS/6000 servers.

The Valordata Browser allows customers to search the corporate actions and end-of-day valuation pricing database by such things as company name, sector, instrument type and dividend levels. Users can also perform conditional searches and can drill down to access more detailed information about a particular element. The database contains information on over one million instruments such as equities, bonds, warrants, options, futures and indicies. Ratings are also carried from companies including Moody's Investor Services, Standard & Poor's Rating Services and Fitch IBCA.

Integrated into the FIDB is Telekurs' Global Securities Register, which maps different symbology/identifiers. It includes the ISID Plus product, developed with Standard & Poor's, as well as identifiers for futures and options instruments.