PIC users now benefit from automated decision support and streamlined trade order management on a single, consolidated platform.

PIC has become one of the largest fixed income and money market investment managers in Africa, with approximately USD$100 billion in assets under management. The implementation, delivered on-time and on-budget, supported the government agency's strategy of retaining market leadership by streamlining trading activities and significantly enhancing portfolio modeling and management capabilities.

"Our role is to invest funds on behalf of public sector clients - based on investment mandates set by each client and approved by the Financial Services Board (FSB)," said Leon Smit, General Manager of Fixed Income and Dealing, PIC. "Our portfolio managers and traders now know they can meet clients' varied demands with a more sophisticated approach. For example, instead of manual spreadsheets, portfolio managers have a common technology for modeling money market portfolios against local indices -including the Bond Exchange Association of South Africa All Bond Index (ALBI) and short-term fixed interest benchmarks (STeFI). We now have a solid foundation for fixed income modeling and trading to build upon."

According to Precious Chikwata, PIC's Project Manager, Charles River's deep understanding of PIC's business and operational needs ensured an extremely well-run project that exceeded expectations. "Besides implementing the system on-time and on-budget, Charles River's experts customized on-site training based on our unique requirements - advanced portfolio modeling capabilities and South Africa's fixed income and money market instruments."

"We develop solutions in line with local buy-side needs," said Jon Steward, Managing Director-EMEA, Charles River Development. "Our proven system gives clients like PIC the technology and control to support South Africa-specific instruments, handle fixed income pricing, and create 'what-if' scenarios."