Case Study

The London Stock Exchange

The London Stock Exchange has seen phenomenal growth in revenue in recent years, even overtaking The New York Stock Exchange in terms of the value of equity raised (IPOs). Contributing to this success has been the LSE's commitment to and investments in technology, such as introducing new systems which can handle much higher volumes and react much faster to electronic requests, leading to a virtuous circle where less latency results in increased volumes, due to the automated nature of electronic trades.

Not so long ago, the LSE was in the spotlight due to several takeover bids. It has managed to stay independent thus far due to excellent results partly achieved by improved efficiencies. The LSE uses Microsoft technologies extensively, including Microsoft Dynamics GP as the core of their back office system. M4 Systems has assisted the LSE over the past few years to streamline their business processes, helping to improve efficiency by assisting with optimally configuring Dynamics GP and by advising on the use of the many automation features available in the system.

As at October 2006 the LSE went live with a recurring contract billing system developed by M4 Systems for Dynamics GP which will further significantly improve efficiency by automating much of the billing processes related to the numerous information services offered by the LSE. LSE was one of two companies in the whole UK to be on the Dynamics GP Version 10.0 TAP scheme, giving early feedback to Microsoft technical and sales teams on their experience of the new software.