Resolver solves spreadsheet quagmire

What do you get when you combine an electronic-circuit designer turned accountant with an equity analyst turned fund manager, both of whom like to dabble in programming? You get a small London-based technology company called Resolver Systems Ltd., which wants to take the world beyond ubiquitous, yet sometimes overwhelming, computer spreadsheets. Its Resolver One application is a "mash-up" — that is, it combines the technology of a spreadsheet program with the power and flexibility of the programming language known as Python. Resolver allows users to build models similar to a spreadsheet. But unlike with a spreadsheet, they are able to see the Python code that their model represents. That code can then be used to create even-more-complex models. The application has been available commercially for the past three months, said Robert Smithson, co-founder of Resolver Systems. He is also an asset manager with London-based Taube Hodson Stonex Partners LLP, an independent-fund-management partnership with $22 billion in assets.
A chance discussion a couple years ago between Mr. Smithson and Patrick Kemmis led to the formation of Resolver Systems. During that conversation, both men complained about their reliance on spreadsheets for carrying out large and complex calculations. "Why not combine the spreadsheet with some simple programming for building complex computer models?" they asked themselves, according to Mr. Smithson. "My background is originally in [information technology], then in finance," Mr. Kemmis said. "Throughout, I've dealt with many varieties of spreadsheets," he added. "Always, I thought the problem with them, as well as macros, [visual basic for applications], etc., is that none of them really works well with each other, and ultimately, that leaves it up to a programmer to keep it all in check." Mr. Smithson offered a real-world example from his fund management company's use of Resolver One. He explained that the firm had traditionally monitored its 40 mutual funds using spreadsheets that had to be updated manually with current pricing. Then they tried to extend the spreadsheet with coding to get updated pricing information automatically. "But even then, we weren't able to drill into the data to any depth," Mr. Smithson said. Only after employing the programming features of Resolver One were they able to attain a more interactive and automated back-and-forth with the captured data. "What was really amazing was that I, a non-programmer, was able to do this with a half day's work," Mr. Smithson said. "I was looking for something like Resolver for ages," wrote Marco Kotrotsos, a developer and consultant to web applications and software startups in Almere Stad, Netherlands, in an instant-message exchange with InvestmentNews. "It's direct, hands-on and works both ways from [spread]sheet to code and code to [spread]sheet." In its current state, less technically inclined advisers may find the application intimidating, Mr. Kotrotsos wrote. But advisers who are more tech savvy would probably find it compelling, he added. "I know most financial advisers are whizzes with VBA, but Python is at another level ... though not that hard to learn if you know what you are doing — and it is pretty powerful," Mr. Kotrotsos wrote. He's used the application in several ways. One example was in creating a "quotation framework" for a financial institute — a task for which he otherwise would have been forced to employ Excel. "The problem with using Excel is that it's not meant for code generation, but Resolver's Python-based back end gives you more options, such as getting specs from multiple sources for generating insurance quotes," Mr. Kotrotsos wrote. He explained that the framework he had to build required a lot of pieces of information, such as name, age, address, insurance type, salary and more. These would go into one column, "display rules" into a second and then "validation rules" into a third. "From those three pieces of specification, I let Resolver generate source code," Mr. Kotrotsos wrote. "Since source code is just plain text, you get 100.000 lines of code by just creating one single line of template code — and have Resolver create the rest automatically based on the specifications in those columns." "You're not going to be an expert after a day of using Resolver," Mr. Smithson said. "You won't be an expert in Excel either after a day — but after an hour or two, you will be able to do useful work." A non-commercial version of the Resolver One software can be downloaded for free. There is also an open-source, unsupported version of the software available for $200. A fully commercial license for the Financial Edition, which includes full support, all Python libraries and other resources, costs $500 per month per user. For more information, including tutorials showing Resolver in action, visit the company website at resolversystems.com. E-mail Davis Janowski at djanowski@investmentnews.com.