Pendragon Fund Management Platform

Pendragon, a prestigious fund management company based in London, developed a client-facing website that provided investors with secure access to their financial positions and net worth. The site also served as a content management system for Pendragon employees to update content and post critical information. Chris Williams was the main developer, and I was brought in as an additional resource to help enhance and optimize the system.

Key Features and Functionality

I contributed to the design and development of the site, focusing on performance, security, and usability. Some of the functionality I implemented included:

• Investor Access and Performance Reporting: Investors could securely log in to review fund performance, download detailed reports, and view customized graphs.
• File Management and Secure Downloads: I enabled the firm to upload documents for investor download, integrating user administration with a secure FTP server for SFTP access.
• Data Transformation and Reporting: I transformed legacy data for reporting purposes, generating graphs and downloadable Excel files, which provided investors with clear and actionable insights.
• Content Management for Compliance: I built features that allowed specified employees to edit site content directly, with all changes archived and logged to meet compliance standards.

Ongoing Development and Enhancements

The project had several active development threads, including:

• Pre-Release Review Site: A new "review" site was developed, enabling fund data to be reviewed, adjusted (such as minor changes to decimal places), and signed off before going live. This replaced the legacy review process.
• Intranet for Custom Reporting: I helped build a separate intranet site to leverage report data for creating custom, in-house reports. These could be shared selectively with investors and were securely isolated from the public-facing site.
• Transition from Legacy Systems: A significant focus was placed on removing the dependency on the legacy database, streamlining the data sourcing process.
• Archiving and Compliance: I worked on integrating an archiving solution that replaced the previous backup-based compliance system, making historical data easily accessible for review without needing to restore database versions.

Challenges and Workflow

Meeting evolving client requirements and deadlines was challenging, especially with ongoing demands for new features. Chris Williams managed the allocation of resources, typically working three days a week on the project. I was brought in to accelerate development, and together we made significant progress despite the tight timelines.

Technical Overview

The platform ran on a Tomcat server hosted on a Windows Server 2003 environment, with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 for data management. It was delivered securely over SSL, with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript handling layout and interactivity. The architecture used Java, JSP, Servlets, JBoss, and a structured backend for data integrity and system performance. The site was also designed with customization in mind, allowing for future expansions, such as mobile compatibility and user-selectable themes, though interest in these features waned over time.

This project allowed me to apply my skills to improve and expand a critical financial platform, ensuring Pendragon’s clients had a top-tier experience while the company maintained compliance and flexibility in a dynamic financial landscape.