IDC Customers To Receive In-House Data, Applications

Interactive Data Corp. of Lexington, Mass. has introduced its first database product designed to run on a customer's in-house computer.

IDC's MarketPlus consists of securities data and updates, applications and a relational database management system that resides on a client's IBM or DEC computer. An SQL-like interface known as relational data access distributes MarketPlus data and applications to workstations.

Tools provided by IDC allow workstation users to perform screening and analysis, create reports and transfer data to Lotus Development Corp.'s 1-2-3 and other PC-based software.

IDC delivers a customized database to financial institutions on magnetic tapes and remotely transfers it to disc storage. Updates can be transmitted to customers over a dedicated line or dial-up service using IBM's 2780/3780 communications protocol.

IDC receives tick data throughout the trading day. The information is cleaned and adjusted before it is sent to financial institutions after the exchange closes. Marketplus can provide updates 24 hours a day as exchanges around the globe end their trading day.

MarketPlus has been installed at two large New York securities firms to support their international operations, says Fred Holahan, director of IDC's in-house computing group.

G. Randolph Bevis, senior vice president of IDC, says MarketPlus was developed in response to demand from customers that want more control over their data and more predictable costs. Brokers, banks and institutional investors would rather run proprietary analytics in-house than in a time-sharing environment, Bevis says.

IDC executives acknowledge that competitors such as Gregg Corp. have beat them to the market with an in-house service. But they say MarketPlus offers more functionality than competing products by providing international data and a RDMBS.

In addition to managing public data in-house, MarketPlus allows customers to merge private and public data. A Eurobond dealer can override fixed-income quotes provided by IDC and replace them with in-house prices. The local data override feature allows the customer to act as database administrator, Holahan says.

The cost of MarketPlus ranges between $75,000 and $400,000, depending on the configuration of the service.

IDC's business has traditionally been to supply financial institutions with historical price data that is updated at the end of the trading day. However, Bevis says IDC has been approached to provide datafeeds to ticker plants and may enter the real-time quote business.