In the beginning...

Alphametrics was set up in 1984 as sister companies on the two sides of the Atlantic, by Francis Cripps and Terry Ward in Cambridge and by Charles Renfro in Philadelphia. The two companies began by building an economic database and modelling system, which has been implemented widely across North America and Europe. Since then, Alphametrics has extended its global reach in terms of both its customer base and presence, with offices in Brussels and South-East Asia as well as in the US and the UK. It has also diversified its activities, with Alphametrics Corporation in the US specialising in economic data systems and modeling solutions, Alphametrics Ltd, in economic consultancy and Alphametrics Financial Systems, in financial and business software applications.

At the end of the 80's Alphametrics produced FXAT, a treasury system for a large Japanese bank. Originally in DOS, the system has been ported several times over the years and now runs on Windows and utilises the latest component-based architecture. Coverage and usage of the system has grown too, and now the product is heavily in use at 15 banks in Japan and 20 internationally. We continue to enjoy a very good relationship with our customers, who are driving the continued development of FXAT.

A product is born...

In the summer of 2003 we made the decision to embark on a new project outside of the familiar banking and economic consultancy sectors. We had been looking at reporting products on the market for a number of years and felt that with the experience gained from our previous projects we could produce something quite different and innovative. Rather excited at the prospect, we then spent the rest of 2003 and the first half of 2004 producing prototypes and meeting with contacts to discuss possible direction.

By the summer of 2004 we had scoped the product and begun the technical design phase. A name was given to the new product -- DART, or Data Analysis and Report Tool. DART was to be entirely browser-based and written in the latest technology. Key design criteria was that the system had to be easy to use, yet have powerful data manipulation and publication facilities. Much design effort was put into making the configuration screens as simple as possible, with a rule that DART should automatically default and work out as much for the user as possible. To this end, our report design screen only has one place where you configure the font!

Summer 2005, and we had a first version, but no target market! We then shifted focus and conducted market research to see which sectors in the UK would benefit from a product like DART. After a brief foray into the market research sector itself, we found ourselves talking to Local Authorities and it quickly became apparent there were various reporting needs we could help satisfy.

Public sector here we come...

In summer 2006 we started looking for two pilot sites within the public sector and we were delighted when Mansfield District Council and Hertsmere Borough Council signed up. We were immediately engaged in providing reporting solutions for both customers with our first contact centre solution being developed at Mansfield and some critical HR reports for Hertsmere. We then followed up with a contact centre solution for Hertsmere, whilst Mansfield used the system to hook up their asset inventory information and extend their reporting to cover requests and official complaint reports from their CRM.

Early 2007, and we had signed a contract with Broxtowe Borough Council to supply contact centre and revenue and benefits reporting. The contact centre solution built upon our existing experience at Hertsmere and Mansfield with the provision of real-time dashboards and additional quality and efficiency reports. The solution went live in March along with the launch of Broxtowe's new contact centre.

During this time, we were engaged by a Cisco supplier to Local Authorities with the aim of installing DART to produce sales margin reports for their sales and accounts departments. This solution went live during June and is now in regular use.

As of today, we find ourselves in the middle of a project to deliver consolidated and remapped crime statistics from various sources at Hertsmere Borough Council to Hertfordshire County Council's MIDAS team. We are also beginning development of a project at Broxtowe to provide ad-hoc reporting from a popular Rev & Bens and Housing system for their Benefits and Housing departments. It's incredibly exciting that both Hertsmere and Broxtowe have now chosen DART as their corporate-wide reporting system and we hope to help them with many more projects in the future.

We are looking to embark on the next stage of our journey, to take the solutions we have developed working alongside our existing customers to new authorities. We would very much like to hear from you if you work in the public sector and are interested in the work we have been doing with other authorities.


Contact us

Product enquiries
For all general enquiries please contact our main office:
Email: sales@alphametrics.co.uk
Switchboard: 01763 242277

Technical Support
Email: dartsupport@alphametrics.co.uk
Web: Online query form

Postal Address
Alphametrics Financial Systems Ltd.
Heath House
Princes Mews
Royston
SG8 9RT
UK
Fax: 01763 250077

Alphametrics Financial Systems Ltd, Limited Company Registration Number 04683659