decalog, a leading international supplier of front-and middle-office investment management software, announced today that its IDEE Trader and IDEE Compliance modules have been licensed by First Quadrant, one of the largest quantitative asset managers in the world. First Quadrant is using IDEE Trader to automate trades for all of its products, which are technically-driven, complex offerings that follow specific quantitative investment disciplines. As the firm's trades are generated by computer programs, rather than by portfolio managers, decalog's IDEE Trader will be used to automate the trade order management process. The firm will use IDEE Compliance to quickly and accurately evaluate complex client portfolio guidelines. "We have a substantial body of code that we have to maintain ourselves because all of our portfolio management is done by computer programs," explains Lloyd Cole, chief information officer and director of First Quadrant. "We're continually evolving our product mix, so it's our desire to identify quality partners to work with us to cover parts of what we do. We much prefer to work with those partners and use their code rather than ours." First Quadrant will implement both IDEE modules in its Pasadena and London offices. IDEE Trader, which will replace Merrin, will be implemented within the year. "IDEE Trader already provides a very complete solution. In fact, it will meet several needs that we haven't been able to satisfy with our current software," Cole notes. Cole expects that IDEE Compliance will be implemented in phases over the next 15-18 months as First Quadrant builds interfaces, defines rules using decalog's rules editor, and sets up appropriate data feeds. "This was a compliance-driven evaluation. We became interested in decalog because of the functional completeness of the compliance server. From a technical standpoint, the performance of decalog's compliance server is critical for us. We must evaluate a large number of complex compliance rules which interact with each other, and do it in a small enough amount of time that traders don't see the compliance checking function as an obstacle to their work. The design of decalog's compliance server makes it very well- suited for this. In essence, it loads the compliance server and all the data that it needs into memory and keeps it memory resident, which allows IDEE to evaluate a large number of rules in an acceptably short time," Cole says. First Quadrant assigned six of its 15 top-quality programmers, who regularly build and maintain the firm's portfolio management software, to conduct an in-depth technical evaluation of decalog's IDEE. "The next layer of the evaluation involved the design-how easy it would be for us to implement the interfaces- and, finally, the overall coherence of decalog's product and its own ability to maintain and enhance its product over time. decalog scored very well in all of these areas." Cole says. First Quadrant will be running IDEE on a combination of Sun Solaris and Windows NT servers with Windows NT desktop. "Technically it's a very good fit," Cole notes. "So there is no real need for us to change the technologies we use in order to implement decalog's applications." "To have a sophisticated leader such as First Quadrant choose IDEE as an extension of its technology, is a testament to IDEE's robust design," says Lisa Church, decalog's Vice President of North American Sales, Worldwide Marketing, and New Business Development. "We're happy to provide First Quadrant and others with the product that best supports their complex businesses." About First Quadrant First Quadrant, founded in 1988, is one of the largest quantitative asset managers in the world. They concentrate on "big picture" issues that have a significant impact on overall fund performance, such as asset allocation and equity style management. First Quadrant has over 50 clients, with over $27 billion in assets and overlays invested using their investment strategies. Their business plan emphasizes large, multi-faceted client relationships, and steady growth. They are affiliated with Affiliated Managers Group (AMG), a Boston-based private holding company that invests in investment management firms. For more information on First Quadrant, visit http://www.firstquadrant.com. About decalog decalog, a subsidiary of Oshap Technologies, Ltd. (Nasdaq: OSHSF), is a leading provider of front- and middle-office software products for straight-through processing of investment management activities at global asset management firms, banks, and brokerages. Its suite of products, IDEE, is a group of multi- tiered client/server applications that offers global organizations a streamlined, distributed investment management process. IDEE covers a complete range of investment instruments, including equities, bonds, options, futures, swaps, repos and money market instruments, as well as stock lending and borrowing. The product's modules can be used independently to accommodate the needs of a few users, and are integrated to be used as a full suite across a firm's enterprise. IDEE Manager allows portfolio managers to analyze and evaluate complex portfolios, IDEE Compliance ensures that trades adhere to compliance rules both before and after they're made, IDEE Trader allows equity, fixed income, and cash and currency traders manage workflow by minimizing points of failure in manual order processing, and IDEE Performance allows the portfolio manager to monitor the performance of portfolios and identify specific sectors, industries, or securities. IDEE uses relational database technology and operates under UNIX or Windows NT. For more information regarding decalog, contact Vivian Shpigler at 212-284-8000, or visit the Company's Web site at http://www.decalog.com. ots Original Text Service: decalog Internet: http://www.newsaktuell.de Contact: Vivian Shpigler of decalog, 212-284-8011, vivian@decalog.com Web site: http://www.decalog.com