Service-Oriented Computing for Risk/Return Management

Financial applications in the field of risk/return management demand for powerful and at the same time flexible information technology resources. These requirements seem to be highly suitable for service-oriented computing concepts. In this paper we identify promising risk/return management services and analyze the specific value proposition of service-oriented computing in this context. Taking the calculation of covariance matrices as an example we propose a model to quantify the economic value of such a service and thereby make a contribution towards understanding the business value of service-oriented computing. Moreover, our quantification model can be applied for the pricing of services and for the allocation of resources to services in a market-based environment.