Engineering the institutional record beneath the workflow.
Financial workflows become difficult when sources use different identities, periods, units, and definitions. Markets IQ resolves that problem before application logic is allowed to depend on the data.
Between the source environment and everything built on it.
Markets IQ works between the source environment and the analytics or applications that consume it. We inventory the records, define the entities and relationships, preserve the source artifacts, design the mappings, and establish the controls that release data into calculation and workflow engines.
One path from source record to controlled output.
Each layer carries its own responsibility and its own control point. The table beneath the diagram describes the same structure in text.
| Layer | Responsibility | Control point |
|---|---|---|
| Source environment | Supplies operational and documentary records | Source inventory, ownership, effective date |
| Ingestion and evidence gateway | Captures data and preserves source artifacts | File identity, extraction status, ingestion event |
| Reference institutional record | Establishes shared business identities and definitions | Mapping approval, dictionary, units, periods |
| Validation and control gates | Tests integrity before calculation | Reconciliation, exception, reviewer disposition |
| Domain engines | Apply workflow rules and methodologies | Frozen input, parameter version, run record |
| Workflow and outputs | Presents results to authorized institutional users | Review state, approval, output version, source linkage |
| Controls across the path | Maintains control across the full path | Access, segregation, lineage, retention, change control |
Architecture components shared across domains.
These components remain engineering capabilities applied within an engagement.
Source and Document Gateway
Captures files, exports, documents, feeds, and manual submissions while preserving source identity.
Reference Institutional Data Model
Defines entities, identifiers, relationships, classifications, periods, currencies, units, and effective dates.
Mapping and Identity Resolution
Translates local records into shared identities and routes uncertain matches for review.
Validation and Reconciliation
Applies structural checks, business rules, source tie-outs, completeness tests, and exception handling.
Calculation and Scenario Control
Versions formulas, rule sets, assumptions, effective dates, input snapshots, and run outputs.
Workflow and Decision Control
Records roles, reviews, overrides, conditions, approvals, and decision states.
Lineage and Evidence
Links calculated outputs to source records, transformations, rules, assumptions, and reviewer actions.
Controlled Integration and Output
Produces structured exports, reporting datasets, committee materials, and authority evidence packages.
Five stages, applied to every mandate.
Workflow definition
Establish the decision or output, the users who act on it, the source environment, the review obligation, and the boundaries of automated calculation.
Architecture design
Define the reference model, ingestion paths, identity rules, transformations, validation gates, exception states, and output contracts before interface work begins.
Implementation
Build domain logic against versioned data and calculation contracts. Preserve original source values and expose the distinction between reported facts, derived values, and analyst judgment.
Verification
Reconcile to source, test failure modes, inspect access paths, reproduce calculation runs, and confirm that output records retain their supporting evidence.
Controlled operation
Maintain versioned mappings, rules, parameters, releases, and workflow states under the responsibilities defined for the engagement.
What the discipline costs, and what it returns.
A reference model increases mapping work during intake. It pays for that effort by making later comparison and reconciliation meaningful. Preserving source differences creates more explicit exceptions. It also prevents a convenient mapping from erasing a real conflict. Freezing run inputs uses additional storage and control records. It makes period comparison and reperformance technically possible.
Defined scope, led by the firm.
Markets IQ defines and leads the architecture, engineering scope, quality review, and client delivery. Specialist engineering capacity and infrastructure providers may support a client-approved scope. Markets IQ licenses systems it engineers and operates. Detailed responsibilities and controls are defined for each engagement.
Examine Worked Examples →Start with the workflow that matters.
Describe the decision or output, the information behind it, and the review obligation it carries.