Lind-Waldock & Company
A Synergy of Systems Integration and Development

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onShore feels strongly that it is our close relationships with development providers that is the secret to continuing success. Our relationship with one long-term client, Lind-Waldock & Company (the world’s largest discount futures brokerage) is an ideal example.

onShore's Network Integration team has supported Lind Waldock’s Marketing department since 1993, gathering trust with each success. We quickly expanded to perform Systems Integration services for several other departments within Lind-Waldock, including Accounting and Systems. In addition, our development partner began creating custom solutions for marketing and other departments, including prototypes for future projects. To date, onShore has delivered complete, comprehensive, key solutions that have reinforced Lind-Waldock’s lead in the industry. The most recent accomplishments are outlined below.

Secure Online Order Entry
Lind-Waldock's DOS-based trading application, Lind-Online, has been extended to include encrypted transactions over the Internet, with a GUI currently being proposed. onShore became involved with Lind-Online when we were asked to develop a demonstration version and installer for it in 1995. When Lind-Waldock began thinking about its next generation of trading software, onShore was there to participate in the development of the needs analysis. onShore was then hired to develop a GUI prototype for the new application.

The GUI prototype is a core component of onShore’s development partner’s methodology, who utilizes a suite of prototyping tools that greatly reduces creation time. Using these tools, we developed a fully-interactive simulation of the next-generation secure online order entry application in a very short period of time. With this prototype, Lind-Waldock was able to distribute the look and feel and garner valuable user feedback before a single line of code was written. Then, in response to the trading community’s interest in Internet-based trading, Lind-Waldock began exploring strategies for retro-fitting its Lind-Online application to accommodate secure, encrypted online order entry over the Internet. Once again, onShore devised an elegant solution to the problem which involved integrating off-the-shelf components, where available, with custom code. This is a powerful case in point for the necessity of mastering both Systems Integration and Development in order to provide a comprehensive solution.

Firewall and Security Policy
The network age has made an enormous impact on Lind-Waldock’s business of commodity trading, forcing electronic security to the top of the priority list. Lind-Waldock had created many business partnerships which called for Wide Area Network (WAN) connectivity between partners. With critical business services exposed to another company's network, security became one order of magnitude more critical to their business. In addition, there was the fact that Lind-Waldock and many of its partners were thereby opening up their networks to the Internet: a hole in any of the individual network security system put everyone on the WAN at risk. The IS department needed to develop an all-inclusive Security Policy that would steer Lind-Waldock into the network age.

onShore was there to analyze the issues, talk about the future and devise a plan. Both the Network Integration and Development teams were essential to the formulation of the plan, as Lind-Waldock has several custom applications running on a mix of systems. Each application and system is critical to consider in any security policy. What resulted was a comprehensive examination of the network with corrective suggestions and future guidelines including documentation for staff and clients. onShore later provided several services relating to the plan, including installation of the Firewall, messaging servers, a complete Intranet solution, and web server. Now Lind-Waldock's administrators have tremendous control over their network, a policy for maintenance and growth and cutting edge services that are solidly in place and operational.

Web Site
onShore has also provided a considerable amount of work on the Lind-Waldock web site, developing it from a promotional site hosted by onShore into a true web service that was eventually brought in-house. Working with the Marketing department, we modified our custom web log analysis software to present the information that the Marketing department required in order to respond to visitor's trends.

Shortly after initial deployment, onShore developed a section of the web site that would integrate with a chart generation service and manage a pay-per-chart subscription service. Our development team was there to complement the Systems Integration team when custom development was required, like making the service a profit center with credit card ordering and complex usage logging.

Later, Lind-Waldock received permission to broadcast audio over the Internet from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. onShore's Network Integration team sold, configured, installed and continues to maintain this popular live Internet broadcast, eventually bringing it in-house, complete with configuration and training.