CA Asset Management combines ILOG CPLEX and ILOG JRules together to improve decision making and enhance the quality of its investment advice, thereby improving customer service and creating a unique competitive differentiator for the firm.

CA Asset Management portfolio managers rely upon ILOG JRules to ensure that incoming market information from various sources is compliant with data quality standards and regulations. Additional agility is gained from the real- time use of ILOG JRules to monitor merger and acquisition data, changes in stock values and other critical information, enabling real-time updates to CA Asset Management's reference data systems.

Another key benefit of using ILOG JRules is that it enables the monitoring of service levels delivered by the Market Data providers. CA Asset Management can accurately determine when the quality of data received does not meet contractual compliance standards, and re-query the providers.

"Since changes in the market are dynamic, we wanted an advanced business rule management system that would allow us to monitor large volumes of data and update our reference system in real time to meet our STP (Straight Through Processing) objectives to streamline processes and create greater efficiencies," said David Bellaiche, IT Project Director, CA Asset Management. "ILOG JRules enables us to maintain a central reference data system whereby the information is shared across multiple applications. Furthermore, we chose JRules because of its business language and ease of use in terms of managing rules make it accessible to our business users."

Once the data has been qualified by ILOG JRules, it is passed along to a complementary application relying on ILOG optimization technology. Using ILOG CPLEX, CA Asset Management determines the optimum portfolio configuration based on predefined investment guidelines, or benchmarks, creating tax- efficient portfolios while meeting customers' investment goals, and risk profile. CPLEX reduces the "tracking error" between benchmarks and a tailored portfolio, which ensures the highest quality investment recommendations. The software also allows account managers to comply automatically with specific client requests, such as asset allocation, as well as regulations, further personalizing CA Asset Management's offerings.

ILOG has consistently built on its history of product innovation to make ILOG JRules the industry's leading business rule software. For the second year in a row, ILOG has been named to the leader quadrant of Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Business Rule Engines. ILOG's BRMS provides a competitive advantage for many strategic business applications. Compliance solutions powered by ILOG JRules monitor high volumes of data in real time, enabling the immediate detection and reporting of faulty or fraudulent information. For business process management, ILOG JRules enables the effective management of the complex, dynamic rules that can number in the thousands for a discrete business process, maximizing business agility. Customers of the award-winning ILOG JRules include many of the leading investment banks, asset management and mutual fund firms that rank among Fortune's Global 500.

Widely used by investment management firms, ILOG CPLEX is used to optimize asset allocation, rebalance portfolios to meet customers' investment goals and risk tolerance, match assets in buy orders against similar assets in sell orders for trade crossing, and maximize in-kind transfers with minimal market trades.