Dow Jones Telerate Has Once Again Reshuffled Its Top Management

Dow Jones Telerate has once again reshuffled its top management, this time uniting development of transactional products and data distribution platforms under one organization. However, the combination of those efforts does not mean the vendor will undertake development of a unified platform -- not yet, anyway.

DJ/Telerate last month handed international marketing executive vice president Henry Becher responsibility for both the Minex foreign exchange order-matching system and Telerate Trading Room Products (TTRP) development groups.

The consolidation of control over the platforms is part of a larger shift in DJ/Telerate's corporate structure that brings international marketing and development into a single group led by Becher -- and, in the process, nearly doubles the number of direct reports to him.

As part of the reshuffle, DJ/Telerate transferred technology head Charles Brady to Princeton, assigning him oversight of a special project. Previously, Brady oversaw development of Minex, TTRP and Telerate's so-called Basis project -- an effort to build a UNIX-based delivery platform capable of supporting Telerate's core products. As Brady made the move to special projects, his direct reports were pulled under Becher's sway.

According to Becher, Telerate currently maintains "several UNIX development efforts." He says that Telerate has chosen to manage the efforts separately in order to get the products to market as quickly as possible.

However, that approach may change in time. Becher says that Telerate may ultimately decide to pool its UNIX development resources and offer the market a more unified UNIX delivery platform for Telerate's transactional and analytic products.

Which is not to say that Telerate isn't paying at least some attention to platform-sharing. Becher says that various groups throughout Telerate, in the Americas and other regions, have projects underway using TTRP's API to develop more narrowly focused products that would run on TTRP's UNIX-based platform. Such products include line handlers for data feeds specific to a certain regions, as well as charting and analytical services.

The recent reorganization adds DJ/Telerate's vice president and business manager Ken Herts to Becher's group. Herts was previously a direct report of Telerate president Carl Valenti. In his new role, he adds the title of deputy for technical services. Meanwhile, in his capacity as vice president and business manager of information services, Herts also retains dotted-line reporting to Valenti.

Reporting to Herts is director of platforms John Sui. Sui covers Telerate's foreign exchange order-matching system venture with Minex -- to which Telerate devotes no development resources. Sui also oversees development of the Dealmaker conversational dealing system, which will be a revamped version of the struggling TTS (The Trading Service). Sui will also head Basis development.

Also reporting to Becher is Chuck Barnes, who retains oversight of TTRP data distribution infrastructure development. TTRP, the former FX Development Corp., has been managed by Bernie Flightman since early this year (TST, Feb. 8), when FXD/TTRP lost its head, president Dennis Rohan (TST, Jan. 25). Development will continue to be centered at FXD/TTRP's Palo Alto, Calif., facilities. Barnes previously reported to Brady.

As the dust from the latest reorg settles, the new Dow Jones Telerate finds itself essentially split between Becher and Julian Childs, executive vice president, regions.

Says Becher: "We've brought together two groups now -- development and marketing -- that should do a much better job than if they were separate. The idea is to move forward more quickly with development efforts." Or as a Dow Jones spokesperson puts it: "This is all about getting products to market."

The changes reflect a recognition by senior Dow Jones officials that Telerate must deliver new products and services more quickly to remain competitive.

The reorg also backs off on one of the key innovations of last year's great DJ/Telerate restructuring, in which technology -- including product development -- and news- gathering were lumped together in a then-new central resources group (Inside Market Data, April 13, 1992). While the vendor saw economies of scale in establishing that group, it apparently did not then see that the arrangement would also isolate technical staff from those who interact with the market.

Among the other changes which sources say Becher has effected is a return to Toronto for Telerate's so-called Quote Distribution System development, which had been slated to move to Harborside. Singapore-based development was effectively shut down late last year and its responsibilities shifted to Harborside, say sources.