Choosing OMS

«OMS» or Order Management System is an application developed to execute orders in the fastest and the most efficient way. Order execution is not the only purpose of an OMS, of course, but the most important one. While a lot of worthy OMSs operate in the market, none of them fits all possible requirements hundred- per- cent. What issues should be taken into consideration when a person takes a decision on buying an OMS? This article recounts about that in particular.

Firstly, the range of functionality must be designated. Should an OMS receive orders from the trader’s workstation and route them for execution only, or the main priority is to control asset management and the streaming Level II quotes? Will the installed service meet the case or the OMS user interface is necessary? Will advanced reporting and sophisticated order routing bring to multiple exchanges? As a matter of fact, a lot of other options can be comprised in an OMS.

Technology approach represents a major item as well. The following questions arise: What programming languages are used to develop an application? What operation system and hardware should be used to run an application? Not «NET/Java» or «Windows/Linux» holywars, but the total cost of ownership is meant here. OMS is to be built by means of solid mainstream technologies.

Why is reliability important? Reliability is important because customers are of great consequence. Functioning of the reliable OMS meets the customer`s requirements, instead of annoying traders and back-end users. In the worst case scenario a trader will turn to a competitor if he is not in a position to place orders on a daily basis. Company reputation is very closely related to the reliability of the OMS you make use of in the trading system.

How many orders per second is OMS up to support? Is it an average number for a day session or for peek usage? Due to the fact that the number of users is constantly growing, system capacity assumes importance progressively.

Price. One can buy a simple OMS without any offered support at dozens thousand dollars or, another way, chuck away millions on the most functional and customizable system with 7/24 customer support. The vendor who offers wide price range must be tracked down. It means that the OMS that he uses is based on the module principle and can be easily extended by adding modules in days to come.

And the last point that needs to be considered is the supplier whose main task is to provide high quality applications and services, together with a professional domain specific approach for software development. He should focus on long-term partnership with customers and have vast experience in financial services. The way a vendor cooperates with clients and solves problems is the key to the OMS successful functioning.