First Quadrant Licenses decalog's IDEE Trader and IDEE

Compliance / Quant Shop Sees decalog as its Technology 'Partner' BOSTON (PROTEXT) - decalog, a leading international supplierof front-and middle-office investment management software,announced today that its IDEE Trader and IDEE Compliance moduleshave been licensed by First Quadrant, one of the largestquantitative asset managers in the world. First Quadrant is using IDEE Trader to automate trades for allof its products, which are technically-driven, complex offeringsthat follow specific quantitative investment disciplines. As thefirm's trades are generated by computer programs, rather than byportfolio managers, decalog's IDEE Trader will be used toautomate the trade order management process. The firm will useIDEE Compliance to quickly and accurately evaluate complex clientportfolio guidelines. "We have a substantial body of code that we have to maintainourselves because all of our portfolio management is done bycomputer programs," explains Lloyd Cole, chief informationofficer and director of First Quadrant. "We're continuallyevolving our product mix, so it's our desire to identify qualitypartners to work with us to cover parts of what we do. We muchprefer to work with those partners and use their code rather thanours." First Quadrant will implement both IDEE modules in itsPasadena and London offices. IDEE Trader, which will replaceMerrin, will be implemented within the year. "IDEE Trader alreadyprovides a very complete solution. In fact, it will meet severalneeds that we haven't been able to satisfy with our currentsoftware," Cole notes. Cole expects that IDEE Compliance will beimplemented in phases over the next 15-18 months as FirstQuadrant builds interfaces, defines rules using decalog's ruleseditor, and sets up appropriate data feeds. "This was a compliance-driven evaluation. We became interestedin decalog because of the functional completeness of thecompliance server. From a technical standpoint, the performanceof decalog's compliance server is critical for us. We mustevaluate a large number of complex compliance rules whichinteract with each other, and do it in a small enough amount oftime that traders don't see the compliance checking function asan obstacle to their work. The design of decalog's complianceserver makes it very well- suited for this. In essence, it loadsthe compliance server and all the data that it needs into memoryand keeps it memory resident, which allows IDEE to evaluate alarge 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 managementsoftware, to conduct an in-depth technical evaluation ofdecalog's IDEE. "The next layer of the evaluation involved thedesign-how easy it would be for us to implement the interfaces-and, finally, the overall coherence of decalog's product and itsown 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 SunSolaris and Windows NT servers with Windows NT desktop."Technically it's a very good fit," Cole notes. "So there is noreal need for us to change the technologies we use in order toimplement decalog's applications." "To have a sophisticated leader such as First Quadrant chooseIDEE as an extension of its technology, is a testament to IDEE'srobust design," says Lisa Church, decalog's Vice President ofNorth American Sales, Worldwide Marketing, and New BusinessDevelopment. "We're happy to provide First Quadrant and otherswith the product that best supports their complex businesses." About First Quadrant First Quadrant, founded in 1988, is one of the largestquantitative asset managers in the world. They concentrate on"big picture" issues that have a significant impact on overallfund performance, such as asset allocation and equity stylemanagement. First Quadrant has over 50 clients, with over $27billion in assets and overlays invested using their investmentstrategies. Their business plan emphasizes large, multi-facetedclient relationships, and steady growth. They are affiliated withAffiliated Managers Group (AMG), a Boston-based private holdingcompany that invests in investment management firms. For moreinformation on First Quadrant, visithttp://www.firstquadrant.com. About decalog decalog, a subsidiary of Oshap Technologies, Ltd. (Nasdaq:OSHSF), is a leading provider of front- and middle-officesoftware products for straight-through processing of investmentmanagement 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 globalorganizations a streamlined, distributed investment managementprocess. IDEE covers a complete range of investment instruments,including equities, bonds, options, futures, swaps, repos andmoney market instruments, as well as stock lending and borrowing.The product's modules can be used independently to accommodatethe needs of a few users, and are integrated to be used as a fullsuite across a firm's enterprise. IDEE Manager allows portfoliomanagers to analyze and evaluate complex portfolios, IDEECompliance ensures that trades adhere to compliance rules bothbefore and after they're made, IDEE Trader allows equity, fixedincome, and cash and currency traders manage workflow byminimizing points of failure in manual order processing, and IDEEPerformance allows the portfolio manager to monitor theperformance of portfolios and identify specific sectors,industries, or securities. IDEE uses relational database technology and operates underUNIX or Windows NT. For more information regarding decalog, contact VivianShpigler at 212-284-8000, or visit the Company's Web site athttp://www.decalog.com. ots Original Text Service: decalogInternet: http://www.newsaktuell.de Contact: Vivian Shpigler ofdecalog, 212-284-8011, vivian@decalog.com Web site:http://www.decalog.com

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