FT-IT and FT Telecoms - Complete forward schedule
Updated: March 13 2002

Here are synopses for the next few months, and summaries of later issues of the FT-IT Review and FT Telecoms, with an updated list of contributors and correspondents. Please note: this is the only document we release which gives writers' names, where they have been decided.

The FT-IT Review and the FT Telecoms supplements are published on a regular twice-a-month format, appearing on the first and third Wednesday of each month. FT-IT takes up three of every four slots. FT Telecoms will take up the fourth slot (i.e. the third Wednesday of alternate months).

NB: The inclusion of an article in the synopsis does not necessarily guarantee the article will appear in the newspaper, because of occasional space constraints. The associated web sites, www.ft.com/ftit and www.ft.com/fttelecoms, are published on the same day as the newspaper version and carry the full list.

FTIT: April 3

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Background information and suggestions for articles or themes that have not yet been assigned to individual writers should be sent, by e-mail only please, to itsurveys@ft.com where they will be considered by Andrew Baxter, FT-IT editor. Please do not use individual e-mail addresses, fax numbers or post.

Once articles have been assigned, please send information directly to the writers concerned, but PLEASE THINK BEFORE YOU SEND - SPAM IS AN IRRITATION. All the writers are on e-mail, please see list of freelance writers at the end. (FT staff writers are all on firstname.surname@ft.com) Information should arrive six weeks ahead of publication.

PICTURES, ILLUSTRATIONS:
Pictures, illustrations and charts can also be sent to itsurveys@ft.com - as JPEGs, PDFs etc.

1. Cover story - IT in retailing
Online retailing may hog most of the limelight but - for all the hype - still accounts for only 1-2 per cent of retailing as a whole. For IT vendors, the offline world of brick-and-mortar retailing still provides a much bigger market, and despite the current preoccupations with security and fighting the recession, in-store innovation is still being pursued hungrily by the big retailers and department stores. Here we look at some of the latest customer-facing developments, unveiled at the recent National Retailers Federation annual event in the US (which tends to take the lead in this area of IT). Examples include digital receipts - electronic receipts send from store to customer to provide an online record for future reference/service warranties etc (the first installations are now appearing involving US retailers targeting small businesses). Another innovation is interactive kiosks for everything from paying bills in corner shops to encoding stored value magnetic stripe cards, along with portable checkouts (on wheels) and more queue-busting developments. How soon will such innovations become a regular feature of the retailing scene, and what else is in the pipeline? Penelope Ody

2-9. Main theme: trading room and stock exchange IT systems

2. Overview
Both the IT and the business process 'infrastructure' of the financial trading markets look set for massive upheaval in the next couple of years with implications for front office, mid-office and back office processes. Players on the buy and sell side of the finance markets will need to take account of electronic trading, "straight-through processing" (STP, see next article) and "T+1". T+1 relates to the declaration by the US Securities Investment Association (SIA) that, by June 2005, all securities trades be complete in 24 hours (i.e. trade-day plus one, compared with the current T+3). Although this is a US move, it has worldwide implications - all trading platforms are going to need the equivalent of a Y2K upgrade. The SIA believes the cost of the change will be around $8bn, but that $2.7bn a year can be saved as a result. However, there are concerns about whether T+1 is desirable or, indeed, possible. The deadline has already shifted a year - supposedly because of the Sept 11 tragedy, but the first revised systems will start testing at the end of the year. Philip Manchester

3. Straight through processing (STP)
STP - the automated passage of a securities trade from execution to settlement without manual intervention - is something of a 'holy grail' for securities trading, particularly cross-border. The need for STP is made all the more important by the planned move of the US and Canada in June 2005 to 'T+1'. Both the Global STP Association (GSTPA) - through the Axion4gstp consortium, which includes the SWIFT payments messaging network and IBM - and its rival Omgeo (a partnership of software developer Thomson Financial and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation) are developing special STP software. Axion4gstp's Transaction Flow Monitor and Omgeo's Central Trade Manager allow all parties to a trade to monitor and manipulate data about it, as it progresses from execution to settlement. US analyst Meridien Research believes it will be five to ten years before the securities market operates as a straight-through process, but that cost benefits will be realised along the way to STP. Will STP play a significant role in reducing the industry's overall expenses, or is it just an expensive development that will be difficult to implement? Alan Stewart

4. Standardisation issues
The standardisation of data is one of the keys to making both STP and T+1 viable. There are several initiatives based on XML under way (MDDL for market data, FIX for transactions and FPL for derivatives) but, against a cultural background of non-collaboration, will these standards be adopted and will they do the job? Philip Manchester

5. Collaborative trading platforms
The frantic merger and acquisition activity of the past few years, creating global companies with distributed offices and trading centres, is creating enormous challenges to business and IT managers striving to deliver consistent information and service standards across the enterprise. In addition, customers and trading partners are using multiple channels to communicate, leading to increasingly complex communication environments. This has spurred the development of collaborative trading platforms, such as Syntegra's ITS Myriad system. This offers the ability to connect clients, colleagues and trading partners - allowing customers to communicate with the enterprise through any channel, such as voice, web, instant messaging, email, mobile or video, on any device, in any location. Alan Stewart

6. US electronic communication networks
The first fully electronic stock exchange, Archipelago Exchange plans to go live next month with the goal of capturing one in every five NYSE and Nasdaq-listed stock trades within two years. A joint venture between upstart electronic share trading platform Archipelago and august West Coast stock and options exchange, the Pacific Stock Exchange, it will compete directly with the NYSE. Its rival, Island ECN, has also applied to become an exchange. The New York-based upstart bills itself as a democratising force in stock trading, providing a convenient platform for small investors (through online discount brokers) to buy and sell shares. How serious a force in stock trading can these exchanges become, and how will they overcome the technological and other hurdles to achieve their ambitions? Stephen Phillips

7. Online share trading systems
A review of recent developments in the software tools and features being used by online brokerages such as E-Trade, Charles Schwab etc. In the early days of online brokerages, many of the systems were developed in house, but now much more is available from specialist vendors. Companies such as B4Utrade, for example, licence and customise their technology for other companies which wish to provide a real-time trading toolset to their retail customers or investment professionals. This is on top of the streaming quotes, news, and analysis and charting tools that investors have come to expect from online trading sites. Doug Cameron (doug.cameron@ft.com)

8. Wireless share trading
A recent report from Meridien Research says forward-looking financial institutions can use wireless payments as a competitive weapon. To take advantage of emerging technologies, institutions should expect to make investments in integrating wireless payments into their suite of products to provide a robust wireless banking experience and increase their capabilities as consumer demands increase, it says. "Consumer expectations of wireless banking and trading services are high, and providing payment capabilities will be a necessary component of a successful wireless deployment," says the research house. It is early days for both wireless banking and trading, but so far it looks as if more has been achieved on the banking side. How real are the prospects for wireless securities trading, and what impact will the latest developments in mobile telephony (such as 3G and GPRS) and in the wireless PDA market have? Neil McCartney

9. Open source and Linux
Trading systems and exchanges rely heavily on Unix for its power and reliability. So far, though, most Unix systems have been based around proprietary versions of the operating system. Linux, and open source development, offers significant cost savings for financial IT and there is evidence that systems managers are warming to the platform. But can Linux make the transition from web servers to the trading floor? Stephen Pritchard

10. Profile - Van Der Moolen
Founded in 1892 as a 'hoekman' (specialist or jobber) on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, today Van Der Moolen is active as a 'specialist' and/or 'market maker' on the important equity and options exchanges in the US and Europe. As an 'all systems trader', Van der Moolen is active in different time zones on exchange floors and electronic trading systems. Doug Cameron

11a/b/c. Further case studies/interviews (space permitting)

Second theme: web personalisation

12. Overview
For many website operators, 2002 is intended to be year for achieving a return on their investments. One potentially important way to do this is web personalisation. From the point of view of the website, this is an aspect of successful customer relationship management - improving the online relationship between the site and the individual user by making it possible for the web experience to be personalised to his or her preferences. But there are many ways to achieve this. The site operator can record and analyse the customer's profile, using technology that can track the "clickstream" and preferences to suggest what each individual is likely to want. Alternatively, the individual user can tell the website about his or her profile - an approach that some users may be happier with for privacy reasons. Both approaches have their pros and cons, and offer the ability to turn the internet from a blunt instrument based on banner ads for all into a targeted marketing tool. Even now, many marketers still run their online campaigns believing they live unconnected from their target audience. Edwin Colyer

13. Technology
A review of some of the web personalisation software and techniques currently available, and examples of usage. IT vendors such as Vignette, for example, offer personalisation functions, while other innovations have emerged from elsewhere. For example, Profero, the UK-based online marketing agency, has developed software that allows it to record the behaviour of users on its clients' site and gather information in real time. It can immediately response to end-user behaviour and alter displayed banner ads or campaigns, even adjust the linked page of a click through ad to personalise/optimise the experience. Search engine companies have also been active in this field. Verity, for example, uses profiles and behaviour logging to create personal, dynamic web pages that "point" users to appropriate and relevant web pages on company sites, such as products that they are likely to buy. Edwin Colyer

14. Mobile web personalisation
We're used to cookies clogging our computers and online profiles that shunt "appropriate ads" our way. But what about when we are surfing on the move? A look at the potential for the combination of personal profiles and location based technologies to send you the right marketing message not only at the right time, but in the right place too. Edwin Colyer

15. Sector study: retail & private banking
Web personalisation has quickly become important in retail and private banking, as financial institutions are keen to make the most of their internet investments. It started with internet banks, but is now standard across the board. Vendors such as Broadvision and Chordiant boasts many banks among their clients. Paul Talacko

16. Case study: MyCalifornia
The state of California's MyCalifornia internet portal has harnessed web personalization to set anew standard in electronic government. Introduced last year, the site allows residents of America's largest state to register their vehicles online, keep tabs on their tax refund status, download business regulatory information even apply for fishing and hunting permits. The state government reckons the online service will save more than $300m a year on transaction costs. In a departure for the public sector, the web site borrows personalization techniques used by online retailers such as Amazon.com. Users can create a personal home page by specifying their interests to zero in on the information they want. Information is also served up to users based on their profile. Stephen Phillips

Regular features

17. News update - Geoff Nairn

18. View from the top
Stephen Kelly, recently appointed CEO of Chordiant, the California-based CRM company. CRM is a market dominated by large software companies like Siebel, PeopleSoft, Oracle and SAP but Chordiant is now challenging them strongly. Fiona Harvey

Simply click on a a link to read a synopsis.