Crux Preps New Data Access, Wrangling Tools; Aids MSCI Delivery

Crux Informatics, which processes and formats traditional and alternative datasets to make them easier for consumers to use, is rolling out new tools to help financial firms identify and understand datasets, and to enable users and data providers to slice and dice datasets so that they better meet clients’ needs.

Within the next month or so, Crux will roll out version 2.0 of its Discover tool, which assigns and exposes metadata about a dataset, making it easier for users to understand what the data contains and whether it will be valuable to them. The vendor rolled out version 1.0 of Discover earlier this year to a group of pilot clients for evaluation, and—after incorporating their feedback—will make version 2.0 available to all clients in the coming weeks.

“As we ingest and curate any dataset, we gather metadata about the data, such as what asset classes it covers, how much history it contains, and data dictionaries. We go through all of that, store it, and present that metadata to customers in a consistent way. We homogenize it so it’s easy for them to get their heads around what it is and what it does as quickly as possible, so it will be easy for them to use and extract value from,” says Crux CEO Philip Brittan (pictured).

“We also add some of our own metadata on top—for example, we give each dataset a unique identifier, the Crux Delivery Unit, or CDU, which is like a catalogue number—and our data curation team also applies a taxonomy that makes it easy for clients to search for datasets, as well as operational metadata, which serves like a tracking number on a FedEx box,” Brittan says. “Discover has a user interface and API that exposes that metadata in a consistent way. So a customer can see information about what data they are licensed to use, and information about what other datasets are available to them.”

Feedback already incorporated into version 2.0 includes deeper levels of curation and tweaks to the layout of the UI display. In the future, Brittan says Crux will add new functionality that will allow users to specify the types of data they are interested in, and to be alerted when a dataset meeting those criteria becomes available via Crux. The vendor also plans to implement a more sophisticated search tool to deliver more precise results when users search for specific data types.

The vendor has also just started building out a suite of tools dubbed Crux Wrangle, which will allow clients—both among end-users and data providers—to adjust and repackage datasets according to their needs. For example, a portfolio manager client may subscribe to data on the Russell 3000 index, but wants to pre-filter that to only receive the data specifically relating to stocks in their portfolio.

“We received a lot of requests from consumers to be able to manipulate the data for their individual requirements,” Brittan says. “This is something we always planned to do, and we have a long pipeline of requests.”

Wrangle will be equally applicable to data providers. For example, Brittan says, an alternative data provider may include company names in its dataset, but may not identify them using stock tickers, so Wrangle can help apply tickers to a dataset. Or a provider with a single large dataset looking to expand its addressable market could segment that dataset by, say, geography or instrument type, to create smaller data products for different audiences.

“You can create different entitlement buckets, and voila! You have five different products,” he says.

Delivering MSCI Models

Wrangle will benefit content partners that use Crux to get data to customers in new formats, such as MSCI. MSCI is the latest vendor to sign up for Crux’s Deliver service, to help the index and risk tools provider respond quickly to client demands and scale delivery of its risk models.

Crux has spent this year accelerating the addition of access to new data sources and ramping up commercial growth. In some cases, Crux begins working with a vendor’s data at the behest of end-user clients. But other times, a data provider will approach the vendor to help it reach new goals. These might be startup data businesses, Brittan says, or could be well-established companies like MSCI that already have a large installed client base.

“MSCI was looking to modernize its delivery infrastructure … and achieve greater scale as it expands its business and client base,” he says. “So we gave MSCI immediate new capabilities, more scale, and the ability to wire up more clients in the way they are asking for in this modern era.”

The index and risk software vendor had existing clients asking for the ability to utilize data in different formats, but also recognized that a more accessible delivery option could open up more channels for its data to serve new clients and new use cases within existing clients.

“Traditionally, clients license a risk model from us, and we deliver that via an FTP file. Then the client has to onboard that FTP file, which may be in a format that doesn’t allow the data to be used by other teams at the client firm,” says Mark Carver, managing director and global head of equity factors at MSCI. “Working with Crux solves the speed to market and data management challenge, and helps our clients focus on their core business.”

Making MSCI’s Barra risk model data easier to access means it is easier for firms to embed the data more tightly into their processes. “Our primary objective is to build the best models and have the best-quality data. And if we were building custom delivery solutions for every client, that work would take us away from those aims,” Carver says. “We don’t want delivery to be an impediment to clients using our content.”

Carver spent 20 years working at consumer firms—including BlackRock and Fidelity Investments—before joining MSCI in 2017, so he knows the challenges of onboarding datasets firsthand. “The challenge of managing that data and allowing different parts of your organization to access it … takes time, money, and data scientists,” he says.