Download - Case Studies

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Driving Business ArchitectureChallenge• Business architecture focuses on driving organization, governance and standard processes (including

methodology) that drive alignment between technology initiatives and the overall business strategy.

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Solution• The team kicked off with a business strategy alignment

effort. • Then the team performed an extensive requirements

analysis and information architecture effort involving the user community from conception to testing.

• The team developed a target state comprehensive user experience model, including use cases and interface design.

• This was done through interview, workshops, context inquiry and focus groups. Development of a prototype and usability analysis followed.

Impact• Organization was able to successfully implement a web

strategy that aligned with the overall business strategy.• Clear guidelines were created to drive future requirements.• A sustainable process was put in place to support changing

environment.


Minimizing Residual RiskChallenge• Chaos in US financial markets lead to a financial crisis, forcing dramatic & rapid change. Enterprise Control

Functions were loosely organized & impacted by different regulators.

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Solution• In reaction to these forces, the organization had to rapidly

identify solutions and/or processes to cope with multiple regulatory demands.

• Established a risk appetite and control strategy for the organization that is clearly defined and actionable

• Empowered ownership with risk and control accountability and management and leverage champions to expand community awareness

• Data consumption, provisioning and ownership identified• Strategic technology and supporting processes were put in

place to meet the requirements.• A control framework with a centralized hub that links rules,

policies, procedures, processes and controls was implement.

Enterprise Governance, Risk & Compliance

ComplianceRisk

managementLine of

Business

Quality Control/ Quality

Assurance

Risk Appetite Dashboards / Reporting

Incident Management

Audit

Impact• Going beyond the technology and taking a holistic approach to operational risk was critical to creating a

sustainable Strong Risk Management program


Understanding Data LineageChallenge• A large financial institution was dependent on third party vendors for clearing and servicing for their wealth

management business. The information was often delayed impacting a large part of the organization.

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Solution• Developed a comprehensive current state

analysis of the technology, people and processes that existed between these large financial organizations.

• Documented the feeds, the source systems, the owners, the transformations and the challenges/opportunities within the flow and supporting files, data and quality.

• Identify the critical path for the data to key business users in finance, risk, compliance and compensation. Analyze report usage and identify priorities and redundancies.

• Provide findings for SLA changes, appropriate communications and initiatives.

Impact• Financial institution was able to take findings and renegotiate the contract with the third party and

get more competitive SLAs that would meet business user requirements.


Managing EntitlementsChallengeThe existing environment had overly complex entitlements that were based upon severe technical limitations and arcane definitions that were meaningless to both business and technical staff. There was significant over-entitlement and poor quality of data and processes associated with mandatory entitlement reviews. Additionally, lack of a risk based approach in the management of entitlements had resulted in n a single point of failure.SolutionEntitlement management program implemented:• Targeted changes to the technical

environment to overcome limitations• Clear definition of roles and entitlements of

those roles• Simplification of those roles, profiles and IDs

so people managers understand entitlements• Process enhancements to systematically

update, add and remove entitlementsImpactCreated a simpler risk based approach to handling security handled across complex legacy environments. Eliminated the single point of failure

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Business/User

Entitlement Administration

Axis Project

Team

ProfilesRolesIDs

Definitions &Realignment

Processes & Entitlement

Management

Quality Assurance& Data Integrity

Interpret and transform

Implements

Functional Knowledge


Aggregating RiskChallenge• Demonstrate to the regulators the aggregation and detail of

the company’s counterparty exposure within 24 hours of a request.

Solution• It was determined through a cost / benefit analysis and

review of the company’s maturity level, that they would not be able to respond quickly to the required ad- hoc reporting without creating a “fire drill” and risking incorrect data.

• Therefore a permanent daily solution was implemented that would be able to meet future ad-hoc requests.

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Impact• The team pulled together company-wide detailed trade information across 7 Lines of Business, covering

20+ products from 50+ systems of record for daily processing.• Data was not being consistently calculated or reported so common definitions needed to be established.• Completeness, filter and field definitions were unique for this request, creating a new view of the data.• 200+ people across the company implemented this solution separate from the main portfolio of projects

in 4 phases over 4 months while working hand-in-hand with audit.• The solution was later integrated into the mainstream regulatory reporting.• Issues impacting other regulatory requirements were identified as a byproduct of this effort and

remediated.


Implementing Data GovernanceChallenge• There was inconsistent regulatory and financial data being delivered across the company with questionable

sourcing and quality. This data was being used for high profile regulatory and financial reporting.Solution

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• The data governance structure was put in place with accountability at all levels of the organization.

• Put in place policy that requires metadata to be established and key data elements to be consistently defined across systems.

• Identify approved provisioning points and technology feeds that need to comply with provisioning architecture.

• Established standards (e.g., data quality) and measured businesses using variance from the standard in a dashboard.

• Created a central governing organization with line of business liaisons that ensured ongoing support.

Impact• Data management policy implemented across the fortune

500 financial institution.• Guidelines enabled more effective merger / acquisitions.

Making consistent data available across the business and providing guidelines and standards on where to obtain itMeasuring and reporting against data quality standards, performing root cause analysis and remediation.

Maintaining standard system characteristics and element definitions (data dictionary mapped to common business language).Ensuring impacted data is destroyed in accordance with records retention schedule.

Communicating the status of compliance with the policy.

Multi-generational plan for achieving compliance with the policy.

Creating or utilizing structures and routines to ensure policy compliance.

Policy Requirements


Creating an Advice and Planning Strategy

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ChallengeA large financial company was trying to hone their strategy for Advice and Planning and develop an offering that appeals to existing and prospective customers through a variety of delivery channels. Solution• The team assessed the customer

landscape looking at service, and relevance.

• Key demographic, customer capabilities and required features were identified based on the service requirements.

• Information was socialized and then leveraged for process innovation and product selection / design for these customer offerings.

• Customer interactions were adapted to appeal to the different profiles.Impact• Advice and planning strategy was designed to appeal to the spectrum of customers in ways that were the most

effective.


Developing End State Vision

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ChallengeA leading provider of private student lending and securitization sought to reassess their existing short- and medium-term Strategic Plans - and two stalled reenginnering efforts - in light of a fuller understanding of their strategic context.Solution• Defined the "Big Picture" of the

multi-Customer, Channel, and Competitive Landscape in which they operated.

• Highlighted the need for Customer Segmentation by value proposition to improve profitability, product and channel offering targeting, and competitive position.

• Reenergized stalled Reengineering efforts by refocusing on strategic, prioritized needs of the business model and technical architecture.

• Highlighted need for Scenario Analysis to proactively identify and address competitive threats, as well as those posed by demographic, legal, regulatory, channel, and other trends.

Impact• Integrated and comprehensive view of the strategic context informed the enterprise's End State Vision and

drove new focus for "in-flight" reengineering efforts.


Defining Global Customer Strategy

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ChallengeThe organization had a large portion of their sales and assets coming out of Asia, but their technology and operations still reflected a North America-centric approach. The team needed to come to consensus on the customer, their needs and how to alter their existing processes and technology to support the change in direction.Solution• Engage stakeholders in a series of Innovative Working Sessions to drive through understanding the customer,

building consensus on the global strategy and mapping the business model.• Subsequent sessions focused on driving out the initiatives to support the global strategy, prioritizing, planning

and making a case for action.Impact• Changes were implemented across the value chain to impact more effective support for the Asian population

of portfolio managers, traders and customers.

Asia Pacific Markets Open (Apr 12)

US Time 5 AM7 PM

US Market Open (Apr 12)

Asia Pacific Next Day Starts (Apr 13)

Asia Pacific Markets Open (Apr 13)

7 PM10 AM12 AM 9 AM 4 PM

US Market

Asia Pacific Market

Asia Pacific Trading

Corporate Actions

US Day Starts (Apr 12)

12 AM

US Next Day Starts (Apr

13)

Asia Pacific Trading & Confirmations (Apr 12)

FX Trading (Apr 12)

Potential Program Trading (Apr 12)

12 PM

Next Day Corp Actions (Apr 13) Available

Tokyo Time 7 PM9AM 9 AM12 AM2 PM 11 PM 6 AM 2 PM2 AM

April 12th

April 13th

Potential problem area


Provisioning a Portfolio of ProjectsChallengeAs part of the goal to improve the quality of the information that drove decision making, a provisioning strategy needed to be defined and implemented.Solution• Build consensus around a data

provisioning strategy and implement as part of the data management accounting policies.

• Socialize the provisioning approach across all lines of business and functions.• There was not an existing set of charters that include end to end responsibility for provisioning of data so the

team needed to assess the 117+ existing project charters for potential provisioning impact and then revise as needed.

• Overall assumptions that maintaining existing provisioning capabilities will satisfy target requirements is challenged by need to integrate new product and international data across LOB and enterprise systems

Impact• Provisioning strategy, controls and supporting processes are now all an integral part of the operations.• The transparency of the data lineage and quality of the data has improved due to increased accountability and

ownership.

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