Office Startup & Trading Floor – Kepler Equities
“It was a pleasure working with the Eden team. The project came in under budget and we are extremely happy with the quality of the work. Job well done!”
- Hector Santiago, COO
The Client
Kepler Equities, a subsidiary of the Icelandic banking group Landsbanki, is a leading force in European Equity Brokerage. The firm specializes in providing research, advice, and trading for institutional investors and has recently begun to develop its activities in Asset Management and Corporate Brokerage as well.
Kepler Equities has nearly 60 analysts covering 430 companies and maintains a distribution force of 95 sales traders. The firm maintains its headquarters in Paris with additional offices in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Madrid, Milan, Zurich, and New York. Their local insight and European scale allow them to maintain deep contacts with large international investors as well as small and medium sized organizations.
The Challenge
Kepler Equities New York office was moving to a new location and required an IT infrastructure be designed and built from the existing empty space to a fully operational Trading Floor. The primary design goal was that the new system architecture be consistent with the firm's European operations, yet
managed and supported locally. It was imperative that the office move occur with no interruption to business-as-usual operations yet also take into account the upgrade of several of the firm's major business applications. The IT project team would be required to manage most of the other IT related vendors, work on a flexible schedule, and adjust to the constraints of tight construction timelines.
Eden Technologies’ Solution
Eden Technologies worked with Kepler Equities and their European IT staff, their contracted architectural firm, general contractor, and other vendors to plan and build-out the new office from bare walls to fully operational Trading Floor. Eden Technologies' system architects collaborated with the European IT team in the design of three isolated networks required for the new site. Eden Technologies managed the procurement, imaging, and setup of all server, network, and desktop equipment and provided onsite support during the move. After completion of the implementation project Eden Technologies provided a complete managed service solution to Kepler Equities which includes remote monitoring and maintenance of all systems, on-site user support, and assistance with strategic IT planning.
Key Accomplishments
- The office transitioned with zero end user down-time.
- The new IT infrastructure was fully integrated with the Paris/European environment.
- All applications were upgraded simultaneously during the transition weekend
- The IT build-out was completed under budget.
- All systems continue to be pro-actively maintained by Eden Technologies' managed service team.
