Meltdown Monday does not appear to have impaired the fortunes of bullish Micrognosis International, the Control-Data owned supplier of dealing room switching systems: the UK arm of the company has just established new headquarters on the top two floors of London’s Centre Point, providing both limitless dizzy heights of success punning potential, and 12,000 square feet for combining its sales and marketing base with additional research and development facilities. The new offices also provide panoramic views of the City of London, where – according to Micrognosis – Trade, the brand name of the company’s digital and video switching system, is now one of the major information sources for dealers. Essentially, the system rids the dealer’s desk of techno clutter – often amounting to eight screens and keyboards – and allows access to Reuters, Telerate and other financial information sources through a single Qwerty keyboard and multi-function workstation – either a Sun or a DEC MicroVAX. At this level, Trade acts as a data filter: information sources are fed on to a proprietary Digital Distribution System based in the Micrognosis computer centre, and are accessed by the dealer through a 40-channel menu card; once the dealer has selected the desired channel, the system switches a video image of the information service on to the dealer’s monitor. Trade also allows financial wizards to perform complex data analysis and manipulation, and develop their own edge-creating applications: the system can be used to detect market opportunities – firm favourites being arbitrage discrepancies – and perform calculations which require a real time updated environment. Worldwide, Micrognosis’ customers include Citibank, Shearson Lehman, Standard Chartered Bank, Nippon Credit Bank and Union Bank of Switzerland; the company’s headquarters are in Danbury, Connecticut.
