Windows in Financial Services Developer Awards 2009

When profit margins start to shrink, companies are tempted to dramatically decrease their IT budgets, with strategic IT development often suffering the worst of the cuts. But some companies this year are refusing to wait out the downturn, following a maxim that perhaps Ralph Waldo Emerson articulated best: “This time like all times is a very good one if we but know what to do with it.” More companies than expected actually do: they are working to make themselves leaner and nimbler, more able to respond to the changes around the corner they don’t yet see. And there are a few among that select group who stand out in their efforts. They are the five winners of this year’s Windows in Financial Services Developer Awards, chosen among their peers for their effective strategic thinking, for tapping the best of the new technology and then integrating, extending it, and tailoring it to support critical business needs. “Even in this challenging market, innovation in financial services is critical,” says Joseph Cleaver, Microsoft Platform Strategy Advisor. “The WFS award winners leveraged the Microsoft platform to continue providing value to their customers while differentiating themselves from their competitors and leading in the industry.” The awards this year will be presented at Microsoft’s Seventh Annual Microsoft Enterprise Developer and Industry Solutions Conference in New York on May 5.

Enterprise Search

BANK OF AMERICA

With the No. 1 most-trafficked financial services Web site in the world, Bank of America needed an enterprise search engine that met customers’ needs for contextually relevant search results, uploaded updated information to the search engine almost immediately and had low maintenance costs. In December 2008, the bank launched a new search application on bankofamerica.com using FAST ESP. It began a second installation February 2009. Bank of America chose FAST ESP because it provided a framework and a foundation that the bank could build upon. “FAST ESP provides flexibility and allows us to cater to our customers’ needs,” says Ed Dauginas, senior VP, eProducts, Bank of America. The bank deployed a combination of out-of-the-box technologies along with customizations that were built both by FAST and Bank of America developers. The project occurred over several iterations and followed a rigorous development plan and testing cycles. “We also integrated with a number of other applications to provide a holistic customer search experience,” Dauginas says. Although still early, the company has seen improvements in a number of areas specifically in customer satisfaction using the application. And further improvements are expected, with the goal being to provide customers with relevant answers to their questions and better navigation to products and services. As far as next steps, the bank will “continue to enhance the customer experience by reviewing analytics and make tuning and relevancy changes on an ongoing effort,” he says.  

Silverlight Framework and Web 2.0 Wealth Management

MERRILL LYNCH

Silverlight. With its Silverlight Framework, Merrill Lynch set out to accomplish rich data visualization that was also highly reusable. The primary power of Silverlight is a programming model that enables Rich Internet Applications (RIA) using a powerful declarative paradigm (XAML) as well as an imperative model (C##). “With this combination, we were able to develop a framework/pattern that enables data visualization for hierarchical data-relationships,” says Kumar Vadaparty, first VP, Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management Technology. For example, if there are multiple categories of data, this can be shown in a data-driven manner using our framework. Once a specific category is chosen, further hierarchical subdivisions can be similarly navigated. Additionally, grouping and filtering can be accomplished at any given level. This pattern/framework was used in an in-house system that manages MSI products dropped into our release pipeline. However, the framework itself is re-usable wherever such hierarchical collaborations are needed.

Web 2.0 Wealth Management. To provide a high performing, rich and highly interactive online solution for its wealth management clients, Merrill Lynch deployed its online wealth management solution in October 2008. It chose Ajax.NET. Built on .NET 3.5 with Web services and UI components with asynchronous updates, wealth management online provides the next-generation experience to its clients. “It proved to be extremely successful,” says Suresh Nair, head, Architecture & Technology Strategy, Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management Technology. It took nine months to complete the platform’s architecture including development and deployment. Although it is still early on, so far the solution is proving stable and flexible. It is “fully brandable and customizable, and it provides integrated views,” says Nair. Other benefits expected in the future include rich client interaction, low maintenance, high performance and the ability to quickly turn on new channels. 

Interfacing Application 

TRANSUNION

TransUnion needed a sophisticated international decisioning product that was easy-to-use for its target audience of business analysts. The architecture needed to support various processes and workflows; be scalable; be easily integrated with the Microsoft Integrated Development Environment; and be manageable in diverse international regions. The entire system infrastructure would also need to be supported and maintained by personnel with only general IT skills and knowledge. To meet those requirements, TransUnion developed DecisionCentre, a complete Microsoft .NET, SQL Server Web-based solution. The Workflow Foundation provided support for the workflow as well as other custom activities. The Windows Communication Foundation helped make it available as a Web service portal, giving it the ability to access external data sources in a uniform manner. The Windows Presentation Foundation was used to develop a rich state-of-the-art thick client with click-once deployment. The .NET 3.5 along with Enterprise Library 4.0 architecture provided a strong architectural infrastructure. The SQL Server database provided a strong scalable backend for database storage and reports. Actual deployment of the software took only a couple of days with training taking less than weeks. “Customers are very happy with the modern, easy-to-use and intuitive user interface,” says Alka Mahendrakar, director of customer architecture, ADS, TransUnion. “The performance also is very satisfactory.” The most important feature of the system is the ease of configuration and the ability of a business user to make changes without the help of a developer. “This helps tremendously with the time-to-market of business process solutions and maintenance of it,” says Mahendrakar. The application was deployed in South Africa in October 2008, India December 2008 and Mexico March 2009. Canada and Hong Kong are slated for later in the year.  

Central Plan Scheme Monitoring System 

CONTROLLER GENERAL OF ACCOUNTS, INDIA, and STATE BANK OF INDIA

The Central Plan Scheme Monitoring System (CPSMS) is aimed at providing a common platform for monitoring of Government of India’s Central Plan Schemes. These 1250 Plan schemes are implemented by the Central Government Ministries in the priority social sector and are aimed at millions of beneficiaries across the country. The office of the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) as the apex public sector financial management organization of the country conceptualized the Project, building on its expertise in designing and implementing IT based Accounting and MIS systems. This Project being implemented by the CGA is an attempt to bring about greater transparency and accountability in the usage of public funds. The State Bank of India as the largest public sector bank and their experience in designing MIS for some of the Plan Schemes has been assisting the office of the CGA in developing the application. CPSMS has been developed in an incremental manner and as a solution ensures scalability and universality. The Project chose Windows 2008 Server with IIS 7.0, Visual Studio 2008 .NET 3.5SP1, and SQL Server 2008 as well as Microsoft BI and Web tools. This is reflective of the challenges associated with dealing with heterogeneous databases and application environment. CPSMS will lead to a more effective monitoring under these schemes and is capable of tracking the fund flow to the lowest implementation level. The CGA / SBI application that has been developed is flexible enough to cater to the reporting and MIS requirements of the different stakeholders in the process. The implementation process has been very challenging, given the diversity in the design of the plan schemes, the sheer numbers of implementing agencies / beneficiaries and its interface with the banking network. It can have a universal appeal as a unique attempt at tracking social sector spending. 

Integrated Platform

CREDIT SUISSE U.S.

In order to support the growth of Credit Suisse Alternative Investments businesses and manage risk across these businesses, the legacy of independent platforms that had been designed for specific businesses did not provide the required agility to the business as a whole. At the same time, to comprehensively manage risk while growing assets under management, Credit Suisse Alternative Investments needed a single view of investments across all its lines of business (LOB). Its solution was the Credit Suisse AIONE(tm) platform, a single, comprehensive platform that supports a range of alternative investments businesses. To serve the Funds of Hedge Funds business, Credit Suisse leveraged the AIONE platform to launch GlobeArc(tm), which provides integrated front, middle and back office functions. GlobeArc integrates highly structured hedge funds data to drive the entire lifecycle, from due diligence through position management, performance reporting, and electronic trading of hedge fund and fund of funds positions. Starting with a Common Data Model driven by business functions (e.g., portfolio management, trading, due diligence) for multiple LOB, including Funds of Funds, has been the key to the AIONE platform’s success, eliminating redundant development and support costs, and freeing up resources to more quickly bring new initiatives to market. The single common data model, driven by business requirements, underpins the versatility of the platform. For example, for the operational data store, AIONE uses a normalized transactional model, whereas for the data warehouse, it uses a dimensional model, and for information interchange internally and externally, it uses XML, FIX and other standard protocols. Besides spanning all LOB, the platform created a single repository for instruments, portfolios, positions and performance. It builds on a common set of base services, including framework services (admin, logging, auditing, exception handling, configuration and monitoring); security (authentication and authorization); and business logic engines. The AIONE platform also includes data services, including operational data, reporting data, data interchange, and ETL, and supports integration with third party vendor systems. The platform is built on homogeneous integrated Microsoft toolset including SQL Server for operational data store and data warehouse, MS.NET Windows Communication Foundation, Windows Presentation Foundation as application services and components, Workflow Foundation for business process management, and SharePoint as the portal and application container. The AIONE platform, which now supports 20+ different LOB, “provides complete agility in incorporating new businesses, strong control and risk management, and a lower total cost of ownership,” says Subhra Bose, Global CTO for Credit Suisse Alternative Investments.