IPC says technicians at its global solutions and operations centers (GSOCs) in New York, London and Sydney coordinate service delivery for banks and brokerages around the world in a 24x7 'follow-the-sun' model.

Lance Boxer, IPC's CEO, says the service is designed to resolve any issues with lines and equipment before a trader would discover them: "Typically a trader notices a problem, calls the communications team over, and an urgent resolution process ensues. Instead, we monitor the equipment and the lines 24/7 and resolve issues immediately and often remotely."

Every morning before the trading day commences, AFM performs a 'morning health check', monitoring trading desks, line cards, power supplies and carrier access lines and sending customers a detailed systems report. Any problems identified are assigned for resolution and recurring symptoms are reviewed to ensure trading operations continue without interruption.

Tullett Liberty, the UK-based global brokerage firm, implemented AFM throughout its London operation six months ago. "AFM has significantly improved the quality of service we provide to our brokers. For example, problems with equipment or circuits that occur overnight and would historically only have been detected once trading had started are now picked up and often re-solved before the day begins," says Geoff Chapman, chief information officer. "If an outage does occur, we can immediately understand its cause, impact on the trading room and what needs to be done to rectify the problem."

The launch comes as IPC posted a net loss for the first quarter of fiscal 2004 of $1.8 million compared to a net loss of $0.2 million in the equivalent year-ago period. Revenue for the first quarter was $60.2 million, up from $48.4 million in Q1 2002. This includes approximately $7.2 million from the new IPC Network Services division formed from the acquisition of Gains International, as well as increases of approximately $2.9 million and $1.6 million in Trading Systems and ITS respectively.