Enabling Business Expansions
West Broadway Partners, Inc. (WBP), a New York-based hedge fund firm that focuses on merger and event driven arbitrage as well as Japanese convertible bond arbitrage, uses a specialized database application to organize large amounts of information used in the investment decision-making process. The arbitrage database provides the investment team with a significant competitive advantage when evaluating the tremendous volume of mergers, acquisitions and other corporate transactions. The system greatly enhances the investment team's ability to find and organize information into a coherent and focused risk/reward profile for each deal. It can be easily searched and reviewed by all analysts and enables the investment team to track, monitor, and select deals with the appropriate risk/reward profiles.

Until recently, WBP used an application that was developed using Microsoft Access. This system provided acceptable support to a limited number of users, but the Company had experienced substantial growth, and in order to accommodate the needs of a growing user base, and to add additional needed functionality, WBP needed a new, scalable system.

Enter Exeter Group
WBP called on the Exeter Group to build a custom arbitrage information system that could scale to meet demand and could provide employees with easy access to required information whether in the office or on the road. Additionally, the system had to be flexible, easy-to-maintain, and utilize a technology infrastructure that would be easy to support and grow.

A successful design required a thorough understanding of WBP's complex and growing operation. Exeter Group performed a complete systems and business analysis prior to the technical design phase of the project. Then, Exeter's team worked with WBP's executives to develop a technical recommendation and an implementation strategy.

In order to enable WBP to take advantage of the new system as quickly as possible, Exeter and WBP deployed it in two phases. The first phase provided all essential functions, including the database design, automatic downloading of position information, position reporting, and data entry forms. The second phase provided the remaining features including additional reports, interfaces with real-time spreadsheets, and the ability to archive deals and positions. The new system - called ARB Base for short - was implemented in under six months and was built using the latest Microsoft technologies.

The Result
Exeter delivered a Web enabled solution in an aggressive timeframe and exceeded WBP's requirements. The finished product effectively supports WBP's business processes from start to finish and WBP has gained significant competitive advantage as a result of the up project.

"The delivered solution surpassed our expectations and we have experienced substantial systems and productivity improvements as a result," says Dwight Eyrick managing partner at WBP. "It provides a user-friendly environment for traders and researchers to track all aspects of a given market position. We anticipate a 15% increase in profitability due to the new solution."