At ALMIS® International we have been developing our software solutions continuously for over a quarter of a century. In 2019 the pace of our development activity has moved up a gear, in particular with two key developments which will both reach launch in Q3/Q4:-

• Our new regulatory reporting system, Front Office +^®: Regulatory Reporting
• Our dedicated bank data platform, Middle office +^®

Roadmap

These two key developments flow from some of the most fundamental elements of our ongoing product development strategy:-

• Maintenance of our offering on a modern platform
• Scalability
• Regulatory compliance
• Automation

Front Office + : Regulatory Reporting

Available for early adopters from September 2019 (roll-out the rest of our clients from October) FO+: RR is the brand-new system in which all new regulatory taxonomies will be developed. In addition to the functionality of our existing regulatory reporting module, FO+: RR will support multiple taxonomies simultaneously, will allow viewing the contents of XBRL files, will work faster, and operates on a dedicated SQL database. Clients will be invited to participate in an introductory webinar in early October. After release, FO+: RR will be developed to support a wider range of regulatory returns (incl. BoE statistical).

View more on Front Office +: Regulatory Reporting here.

Middle Office +

After sustained effort over several years, through specification, design, development and testing, we are excited to bring the first truly dedicated bank data platform to the market. Built upon a new data model developed specifically for modern bank balance sheet management, MO+ offers various benefits including:-

• Greater flexibility for Extract, Transform and Load into MO+
• Extended data validations
• Dashboards to view data position
• Flexible Data Grids to review and cleanse data
• Enhanced audit log
• Transformation/Calculation functionality
• Enables data analytics on extended MO+ data

View more on Middle Office + here.

Conclusion

The roll out of these key new developments of course comes at the same time as various other major developments for ALMIS^®/Cobalt^® clients this year, including the roll out of our New ALMIS^® Hosted platform. This is all part of our determination to offer clients the best comprehensive offering of ALM and related solutions in the domestic market.   

Introduction

The ALMIS^® Hosted platform, offered in partnership with Microsoft Azure, has been available to clients for several years. A significant proportion of our client base is now on ALMIS^® Hosted, with uptake increasing steadily. Another well-established trend is the increased focus on information security, driven in part by heightened regulatory focus.  We have therefore conducted a review of our Hosted offering, with an emphasis on security and resiliency. The outcome of the review is an upgrade to the ALMIS^® Hosted platform which is now available to existing hosting clients, roll out starting w/c 19 August 2019 and is expected to complete in Q4 2019.

New/refreshed objectives 

The basic benefits remain unchanged: matters such as infrastructure, software installation, server maintenance become our responsibility, leaving our client’s IT resource to concentrate on other business activities. In developing the new platform, we are delivering various additional benefits, in particular several new security features: SSL encryptions for data-in-transit, BitLocker encryptions for data-at-rest, market leading AI-powered Endpoint protection with synchronised heartbeat, malware scanning, file and boot record protection, exploit protections and active adversary mitigations.

Technical spec 

Using the fastest CPU and storage currently available on Azure, the new platform can deliver material improvement in computational speed and file handling. A detailed technical specification can be made available on request.

Cost considerations 

The new platform has been designed to be fully scalable, to meet clients’ changing requirements. The pricing model, based primarily on user count, reflects this scalable approach. Full details are available on request.

Conclusion 

Compliance is constantly uppermost in the thinking at ALMIS® International, and we regard this upgrade as an essential step in that context. The roll out of course comes at the same time as various other major developments for ALMIS^®/Cobalt^® clients this year, not least MO+^® and FO+: RR^®. This is all part of our determination to offer clients the best comprehensive offering of ALM and related solutions in the domestic market.