JHC is continually investing in the development and enhancement of FIGARO to provide new and improved functionality and performance.  FIGARO is a truly market-leading solution, which allows our clients to remain competitive in their market and protect their investment in technology.  The automated interface with Cofunds further enhances the FIGARO offering, and provides time and cost savings for clients in the handling of funds transactions within their client portfolios.  FIGARO is a fully integrated STP solution and is unrivalled in its depth and richness of functionality and process automation.  Leading stock broking and wealth management firms deploy FIGARO as their core integrated front to back solution for equity and funds trading.

Peter Murphy, Head of Figaro Product Development says: “The ability to be able to offer direct messaging links to Cofunds is great news to our clients as it gives them immediate access to an extensive range of funds available in the UK, as well as saving our clients time and money.  We are also pleased to support our clients who have introduced automated portfolio management, to create rebalancing with straight through processing for both equity and funds trading”

Matthew Ferman, Head of Institutional Product Development at Cofunds said: “A large number of our existing and prospective client base use the Figaro system, which is why we’ve identified this as a key strategic partnership to offer straight through processing. We’ve developed seamless data integration, providing Figaro users with an ‘out of the box’ solution to their fund administration problems.

The JHC Product Director and Managing Partner for Newcastle, Peter Murphy said, “JHC has had a presence in the North East since 1998 and we are pleased to be able to make Newcastle a key focus of our expansion plans. This move shows our commitment to the area and the quality of the available workforce.  This is a substantial number of positions being created by a well-respected international software company, whose solutions are used by over 30 clients.”

At the time our Delphi and Java applications used IBM’s Advanced Program to Program Communication (APPC) protocol and accessed this using Microsoft’s Host Integration server (HIS).

With support for APPC being uncertain in the future, coupled with issues with HIS itself, a project was inaugurated to completely remove APPC and HIS from JHC’s architecture.

Ian Haines, Chief Technical Officer for JHC says “By making use of IBM’s new RPG Open Access technology we have ensured that we have not only a more robust and efficient product, but one that will be supported for some time to come. RPG Open Access allows us to develop programs to communicate directly to our Stream Servers over TCP/IP. Using Open Access has the big advantage that we will not need to rewrite our existing RPG programs thus reducing any risks associated with it.”

For more particulars of the challenge Andrew will be undertaking and full details of the cause he is doing it all for, please visit his page on the Charles Stanley website by clicking here.

JHC’s Figaro was nominated in several categories and was the winner of the “Best Retail Settlement System” award for a third consecutive year.

John Blackman, Managing Director of JHC said:

“To be nominated in so many categories and for Figaro to be so successful is testament to the comprehensive nature of our product and the high regard in which it is held.”

Commenting on the Awards, Stephen Pinner, Managing Director of Goodacre said:

“The importance of these Awards has increased significantly over the past few years. System providers to City firms only seem to attract attention when things go wrong. Without them however, business would grind to a halt. All investment companies now are absolutely dependent on technology. The role that system providers play should not be under estimated and these Awards highlight companies and individuals exceptional performance during the past year.

The nominated firms for the Awards have put in a great deal of work to meet the requirements of a very demanding customer base. All nominees are to be congratulated in reaching the GoodAccredited standard. The Award winners themselves have done exceptionally well for the judges to recognise the outstanding performance of their products and services.”

Managing Director, John Blackman says “We had to change location to enable us to implement our growth plans for the future. The fact that we have been able to move to such a prestigious development so close to where we were before is a bonus as we enjoy the location and our staff will not have to make drastic changes getting to and from work”.

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Steve D’Souza, Head of Figaro Sales said “The PAM awards are the highest regarded recognition of service and performance in the Wealth Management world. Figaro, as the most comprehensive solution for Wealth Managers, has a natural relationship with PAM and we are happy to be involved with their most preestigious event”

Steve is pictured below on the left along with  Jamie Black of Sarasin and Partners, Rupert Robinson of Schroders Private Banking and Alexander Armstrong who was the Master of Ceremonies for the evening.

Stephen Pinner, Managing Director, Goodacre UK commented “We have received over 75 applications from companies keen to have their products considered for accreditation this year. We are delighted that this new standard is sought after as it will provide an easy way to identify those services valued by clients.”

John Blackman, Managing Director, JHC said “To be one of the first firms to receive this accreditation is further proof that FIGARO meets the high levels of expectancy required by our customers.  We believe that the GoodAccreditation standard is an integral standard that all suppliers in our area will want to attain and it’s pleasing to be amongst the first recipients