Astor Wells is an IT solutions provider to medium to large clients  We listen to you, understand your business as well as you do, and then either buy or build software that exceeds your expectations.

With over twenty years of experience in IT, there is nothing that we cannot handle.  From enormous databases to a checkbox on mobile app, we have done it all.

System Analysis

is a general methodology to understand a system, its individual elements, and the interaction between those elements.  Modern computer systems can be extremely complicated.  Without a good understanding of the system, making changes to software can result in unexpected consequences.  System Analysis is to software development what an architect’s blueprints are to construction.

• Process engineering
• Reverse engineering
• Performance enhancements
• Business Resiliency and Continuity
• Current State Analysis
• Feasibility/Stakeholder Analysis
• Scope and Impact Statements
• Business Requirements catalog
• Functional Specification
• Technical Specifications
• Quality Assurance Planning
• User Experience (UX) design

Prototypes are essential for stakeholders to see their final product and provide a model for developers. Better than simple drawings and wireframes we can prototype designs faster programmers can code. See live prototypes of our original designs below.

Project Management

is essential to keep the software development process on track and on budget.  It involves periodic validation of progress and reporting progress to management.  Unlike construction of, say a bridge, software is intangible and progress cannot be easily seen.  It is the job of a skilled project manager to provide visibility to the development process so that obstacles and roadblocks can be detected and resolved as quickly as possible.

• Program Management
• Project planning
• Task Analysis (resource & time)
• Gantt charts with critical path
• Six Sigma
• SDLC
• Agile
• Unified Process

Operations

is to run the systems that you have in place.  Effective management of your operations means more than keeping the lights on, it means preventative maintenance, resolving issues, and making incremental improvements to increase efficiency and uptime.  This lowers your total cost of ownership.

• Change Management
• Release Management
• Defect Management
• Efficiency & TCO

Subject Matter Expertise

Our staff hails from the financial services industry where speed and reliability makes the difference between a profits or losses.  Redundancy, disaster recovery, business continuity have been essential objectives of the banking and brokerage business for decades.  Technology best practices in finance can be effectively utilized for any industry application.  These are some of the verticals that we have expertise in:

• Trading of equities, fixed income, and commodities
• Execution and order management (EMS/OMS) systems
• Asset Management
• Risk Management
• Collateral Management
• Retail Brokerage
• Energy Infrastructure

Clients

These are some of the clients that we have served:

• OppenheimerFunds - risk management, data lineage
• Morgan Stanley - trading, resource management, web based client-server, system migration
• Credit Suisse - collateral management, fixed income portfolio management
• JP Morgan - broker-dealer trading systems, project management, system conversion
• Con Edison/Columbia University - machine learning, energy infrastructure planning
• ConvergeEX Group - trading, execution management, messaging, regulatory reporting
• Bank of America - fixed income system migration