Syntegra today announced the successful completion of a project to provide Merrill Lynch, one of the world’s leading financial services companies, with voice trading technology for 1,400 voice trading positions in its new, state-of-the-art, London trading room infrastructure. The project is valued at 17m plus. Trading at the new Merrill Lynch Financial Centre (MLFC), based in the City of London, began in July 2001, when the first 300 equities traders were moved to the new site. A further 1,100 traders, Capital Markets personnel and other staff were transferred during the course of the last six months, with the final 200 users successfully moved across in December 2001. The Syntegra ITS infrastructure implemented at Merrill Lynch London – already the largest single ITS deployment in the world – can easily be expanded in the future to support over 2,500 trading positions.
“Merrill Lynch has a long history of working with Syntegra globally. In undertaking the building of our new London trading room, we were keen to work with a trusted partner who is not only at the cutting-edge of technology, but also understands our needs and has proven experience of projects of this size,” says Steve Gillam, head of Network Services for Merrill Lynch Europe plc. “In addition to providing the best technical solution, Syntegra’s ability to act as a one-stop-shop has helped the whole project run smoothly. The expertise of the Syntegra team – working in close partnership with our own staff – ensured the seamless integration of the various technology components employed on the floor.”
The new MLFC trading floor in London has been equipped with ITS Release 13, the latest version of Syntegra’s well-established ITS platform, designed to bring fast, flexible and reliable voice communications to the trading room. To ensure a completely integrated system, Syntegra worked closely with other parts of BT Group, which provided Merrill Lynch’s European voice dealer network and also with Speakerbus, Thales Contact Solutions, CTI Data Solutions and Nortel Networks – who provided the intercom, voice recording, call management and PBX equipment respectively. The project marks the largest installations of Speakerbus and Thales systems worldwide, and is also one of the largest Nortel Meridian PBX sites.
Merrill Lynch has also implemented Syntegra’s ITSlink, an open interface which allows CTI applications to be incorporated into a trading room’s communications system.
“Syntegra has welcomed the opportunity to work with Merrill Lynch on such an exciting project. By working in close partnership with Merrill Lynch, along with Speakerbus, Nortel Networks, Thales and CTI Data Solutions, we have been able to deliver a technological infrastructure capable of meeting and exceeding the pressures of trading in today’s rapidly-changing market place. Our combined solution will ensure that MLFC in London is at the fore-front of trading in the 21st century,” says Rod MacDonald, director, trading systems at Syntegra.