Microsoft has teamed with India's HCL Technologies to release a range of tools that use Excel Services to manage business-critical spreadsheets by holding them on servers to improve control and data consistency.
The launch follows a nine month joint research project and pilot implementations at three large banks.
Microsoft Excel is widely deployed in the capital markets sector for critical applications such as pricing and risk management, says HCL Technologies. The Excel Services offering uses Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, which was launched in November last year, to allow users to manipulate centrally-stored spreadsheets using a Web browser.
Microsoft says the tools are designed to alleviate the regulatory burden on financial institutions by ensuring greater control and clarity on data, informing risk reporting, derivatives processing, performance measurement and collateral management.
The vendor also says that to help simplify the complexity of linked workbooks Excel can now support more than 16,000 columns and one million rows.
James Burns, CTO, financial services, Microsoft UK, says: "Excel Services is now redefining the way that financial services companies build solutions and manage their compliance requirements, making like easier for the industry."