The best solution to this new regulatory environment is one that does so with a minimal impact on regular business processes.

A manual of policies and procedures is no longer going to be enough to satisfy regulators that you're doing all that you can to manage risk and prevent fraud. The SEC will be expecting you to keep detailed records of any and all communications in and out of the firm, including emails, conference calls, and meetings. In addition, hedge funds will have to comply with more stringent e-discovery requirements, producing copies of emails both for random sampling and detailed investigations.

What is needed to comply with this more rigid regulatory environment is a means to track and archive all communications, in a manner that cannot be tampered with and can be made accessible to regulators and compliance officers as needed. Deploying Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) and Microsoft Exchange Hosted Archive gives your firm the most sophisticated tools to meet the expected stringent compliance, e-disovery and regulatory requirements.

Overseen personally by Cloud 9's trained technicians, these software solutions make it possible to comply with existing and new regulations without significantly changing how you do business.

Details About The Solution

“We at the SEC are committed to pulling back the curtain on hedge fund operations and taking a close look at their activity. We are developing a variety of initiatives to do that involving greater specialization and expertise, improved technological tools to track and analyze trading, better coordination among regulators and law enforcement, new legislative initiatives, and other means to address these areas.” - Chairman Schapiro, NASD

In this environment of closer scrutiny, being able to provide the necessary information to investigators as a requirement for doing business. Deploying Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) and Microsoft Exchange Hosted Archive (EHA) gives your firm the most sophisticated tools to meet the expected stringent compliance, e-discovery and regulatory requirements. BPOS provides the tools you need to collaborate in a secure environment, while EHA creates an archive that is searchable and tamper-proof, showing that your firm's information management is above reproach.

Cloud 9 Technologies is positioned to solve this problem

Thanks to cloud computing technology, backup and archiving solutions can be literally anywhere in the world. Cloud 9 Technologies is located in Manhattan, and the fact that we're nearby gives us some advantages.

• Need to migrate your data? We will pick it up at your office rather than trusting your sensitive information to a shipping company our courier.
• Connection problems? We can send a technician to look at the wiring and determine what's wrong.
• Internet provider not up to snuff? Our knowledge of local ISPs and their capabilities will enable us to recommend one that fits your needs.

With over thirty years of experience in providing technical advice to financial services companies, we understand which products work best within the industry, and which are just fluff. We never recommend technology for its own sake – we only offer solutions to problems that your business has.

Microsoft BPOS

• Reliable, corporate-wide email: secure, filtered, virus- and spam-free e-mail that is accessible through Microsoft Outlook with all its rich functionality.
• Shared documents: secure and convenient access to documents from any location via SharePoint Portal Server.
• Online meetings: desktop to desktop video conferencing with Live Meeting minimize the logistics of organizing face-to-face discussions.
• Instant messaging: real time, integrated instant communication within the firm facilitated by Office Communicator

Microsoft Exchange Hosted Archive Solution

• Centralized, easily accessible, multi-functioning FINRA /SEC compliant mail repository.
• E-Discovery functionality for fast identification and retrieval of e-mail for investigative purposes.
• SEC sampling reports, configurable should you require more sophisticated reporting than the standard SEC % Reports.
• “Client/attorney privilege” mail can be marked for exclusion from the store, as allowed under SEC rules.
• Allows CCO to track given trades.

Hedge funds can use this as a platform for even more stringent tracking. A system such as i-Trade could also be deployed to accurately document trades. Telephone recording equipment may also be installed, as a record of conversations can be used to strengthen the firm's compliance standards.

Microsoft'd Promise

“With respect to any books and records maintained or preserved on behalf of the Company by Exchange Hosted Services, the undersigned hereby undertakes to furnish promptly to any regulatory or self-regulatory authority having jurisdiction over the member, broker or dealer, upon reasonable request, such information as is deemed necessary by such regulatory or self-regulatory authority having jurisdiction over the member, broker or dealer to download information kept on the member’s, broker's or dealer's electronic storage media and maintained by EHS to any medium acceptable under Rule 17a-4. Furthermore, the undersigned hereby undertakes to take reasonable steps to provide access to information contained on the broker's or dealer's electronic storage media maintained by EHS on behalf of the member, broker or dealer, including, as appropriate, arrangements for the downloading of any record required to be maintained and preserved by the member, broker or dealer, which EHS has contracted to maintain, pursuant to Rules 17a-3 and 17a-4 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 in a format acceptable to the staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("Commission") or its designee. Such arrangements will provide specifically that in the event of a failure on the part of a member, broker or dealer to download the record into a readable format and after reasonable notice to the member, broker or dealer, upon being provided with the appropriate electronic storage medium, the undersigned will undertake to do so, as the Commission's staff or its designee may request.”