Case Study #2

Client

This client, an investment advisory company with $61.9 billion in assets, provides their clients with a broad range of investment products. They provide services and strategies using the highest caliber investment expertise, supported by outstanding personal service.

Client Business Need

This client wanted to deliver on a commitment made to their customers to provide on-line, secure, self-service access to specific and varied analytic account information.

The Challenge/Opportunity

Their “business as usual” process was time consuming and cumbersome. Customer reports took 2-3 days to complete and cost from $400-$600 each. Data from their legacy transactional system was extremely difficult to access as it was very susceptible to disruption. Once the data was located it had to be manually modified to produce a report that could be sent to the customer. There were clearance and security issues with allowing outside access to data and no way to make that data real time.

Software Forces Solution

Software Forces:

Transformed a manual, single threaded reports system into an on-line, self-service, client based information server

Designed a set of custom COM objects that made report writing possible by addressing the security problems inherent to the legacy transactional system that was in place

Developed real-time, dynamic parameters to make selecting appropriate account information easy for the end user

Provided customers anytime access to on-line, on-time, secure account information and analytic tools

Developed custom function tools to address specific business needs such as calculating the last day of business in a report

Client Benefits

Partnering with Software Forces has allowed the client to deliver on a pressing commitment to provide secure, on-line, self-service account information to their customers. This higher level of service allows them to justify their fee schedules. The client was amazed at Software Forces’ ability to bring all the pieces together and to provide real business answers. Our solutions oriented approach provided a system that runs smoothly and elegantly to this day. This client sees us as a “business partner” not just another consulting firm.

Key Technologies Utilized

COM/COM+/MTS, XML, INFORMIX, SQL SERVER, TEXT, ACCESS, EXCEL, SINGLE SIGN-ON, PORTAL, SIEBEL, CRYSTAL REPORTS, SEAGATE INFO, CRYSTAL ENTERPRISE