CLIENT
A leading capital management company based out of Texas
OBJECTIVE
This client is one of the well known capital management firms in US. Its range of services includes Asset Management, Brokerage, Hedge funds and other investments.
The client’s existing legacy data management system did not allow for easy or efficient data access. The data once entered and stored by one unit could not be viewed or reused by any other units in the organization. The client wanted a more accessible and comprehensive view of its customer portfolio – a 360-degree viewing ability which would enable it to create and capitalize on increased sales opportunities with new clients and up-sell/ cross-sell opportunities with existing clients. This involved an enterprise-wide initiative and the client needed to re-engineer the existing customer data from the legacy application to a new application. The aim was to use this new IT architecture to expand existing customer relationships as well as be in a position to provide better service to new customers.
KEY CHALLENGES
The relevant data was stored in multiple outdated customer repositories that did not allow visibility to customers in other units. The client’s legacy system included more than 600 application interfaces and the challenge was to manage so many interfaces and simultaneously streamline the migration process. Apart from typical data quality issues, the existing system was also dependent on several other RFC programs and applications in the distributed environment. This posed added complexity to the migration exercise.
OUR SOLUTION
Our team developed and evaluated 9 technical options to address the migration of more than 600 application interfaces. After further evaluation, the most suitable option was selected in a joint exercise with the client.
Touchstone project team devised a comprehensive implementation road-map which addressed issues such as cost estimates and milestones for the interface migration and technical analysis of the chosen solution. In the first release, data from one of the major legacy customer repositories was synchronized and migrated to the new enterprise instance. The team also developed several small applications that operated on top of the enterprise instance and its components. The first release was completely developed and managed by Touchstone technology consulting team before handing over the charge to client’s internal team of developers.
RESULTS ACHIEVED
- The client’s enterprise-wide IT objective of gaining an adaptable, central 360-degree view of customer data was achieved and the client was able to switch flawlessly from legacy application to the newer new seamlessly integrated platform
- The benefits of the new system were quick to manifest across the enterprise and resulted in far greater responsiveness to business changes
- This initiative also enabled the client to explore more revenue-generating and revenue-planning opportunities, such as up-selling/ cross-selling, improved targeted focused marketing and account based market
- Based on the enhanced effectiveness and ease-of-use of the new system, the client has been able to significantly reduce its time to market of new products