A segment of business benefiting from the convenience of low cost connectivity of the Web is the securities business for brokerage houses. DotEx International, the Mumbai based JV of NSE and i-Flex, provides a Web-based platform, DotExPlaza.com, for investors and the broker community. But DotEx has attempted to go a level higher in terms of customer satisfaction through a different ASP business model.

"We are a branded aggregated ASP. We are a customer fulfilment company and don't consider ourselves to be a technology company," points out V Srinivasan, CEO of DotEx.

And what's that mouthful supposed to mean? The answer can be explained by looking at the benefits the company extends to its customers. DotEx Plaza is a marketplace focussed on building e-trading between investors and small to medium brokerage houses, while linking up with clearing banks and depositories. Currently DotEx is linked to the National Stock Exchange for execution of trades.

Since DotEx aggregates trades from multiple brokers, depositories and banks in one interface, allowing investors to view multiple relationships conveniently, Srinivasan believes the term 'aggregated ASP' is justified. An investor placing an order with a broker through DotEx is issued an order reference number. The order is then subjected to risk management checks at the investor and broker level. If the order satisfies these checks it is forwarded to NSE through a secure leased line, using the identification of the broker.

An early sign-up at DotEx was Reflection Investment, a Chennai based broker catering to retail investors. According to Vijay Sambrani of Reflection, signing up at DotEx made sense because the cost of building an online trading Web site became prohibitive at their current scale of operations. Add to this a back-end application to manage trades and the whole idea of investing in a Web site was technologically and financially intimidating. Hence an ASP platform made sense and probably does to brokers of his size.

ZDNetIndia.com