Topaz Technology Expanding its Footprint Amid Growth
Early in the new year, I had a chance to catch up with Jo Finnigan and Justin Howat of Topaz Technology. Topaz continues to grow and add new customers, with three new clients in the last few months and a very full opportunities pipeline, they told me. At this stage in the vendor’s growth and evolution, adding customers willing to co-develop is important and helps to speed up the software’s functional expansion. Indeed, in recent months, Topaz has used this mechanism along with considerable internal R&D investment, to add significant functionality in areas like LNG, metals derivatives and risk management, more complete portfolio management, and P&L explain enhancements. This has meant that Topaz is now more than an advanced risk analytics solution but has the middle office capabilities, required by many risk managers, of their CTRM solutions as well as portfolio management, they said. “We are more than a risk analytics tool now,” Justin explained. “We provide the functionality not well served by E/CTRM solutions in areas like close of day calculations and reporting including P&L and intra-day valuation.”
Recently, Topaz has increasingly been involved in CTRM replacement and supplementation projects, they said. For example, it has recently been implemented to augment a large legacy CTRM. But as Topaz grows and gains more customers, it is increasingly becoming a full derivatives management solution as well as a risk management platform across derivatives and physical. “We are, for example, the system of record for a UK-based derivatives trader,” I was informed. This has of course resulted in some staffing growth and the company has added people to help cope with the interest and growth. However, it also works with partners on larger opportunities to gain more leverage.
As with most relatively new entrants into commodities trading and risk management software, Topaz is built with the latest technologies and can be deployed in the cloud or on site. Using OpenAPI and gRPC API tooling, it can be rapidly integrated into an ecosystem of solutions or to augment a legacy solution with more advanced risk analytics and other functions. It features real-time processing, good performance and a more modern UI for ease of use. We do expect Topaz to continue to grow as it offers advanced risk management and other analytics that have been somewhat lacking in commodities and are of increasing interest to trading firms.
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