For the second year in a row, Windows in Financial Services is honoring ten companies – five financial firms and five vendors – that have found innovative ways to harness the strength, flexibility and reliability of Microsoft technology. Microsoft has made a $20 billion R&D investment over the past few years to fuel innovation among its products and tools in an expanding array of categories.

The ten companies honored on the following pages have embraced these technologies and applied their own varied and creative approaches to using these tools to further their growth, build on their successes and empower their employees to better serve their customer base. By deploying technology ranging from 64-bit computing to Web services, data management and business intelligence, these companies have demonstrated that in the hands of savvy and capable companies technology can be used to modernize aging infrastructures, create new efficiencies and unlock new opportunities.

Citigroup TreasuryVision:
Managing Global Liquidity and Risk

Large companies deal with many currencies, legal entities and banking relationships. Many may have hundreds or even thousands of accounts. Citigroup’s TreasuryVision is a Web-based information and analytics service that gives treasury organizations visibility and control to allow them to manage global liquidity and risk across the enterprise more effectively. The service is for sophisticated clients that are constantly challenged to minimize idle cash, ensure local liquidity and anticipate debt service requirements.

The system aggregates multi-asset (cash, investment, debt) client data from Citigroup as well as other financial institutions. It allows treasurers to view overall global cash positions on a real-time basis or break them down by region, country, financial institution or legal entity. These sophisticated data aggregation tools are integrated with analytics and reporting tools like treasury workflow tools and cash flow forecasting tools. Treasurers can forecast cash and risk position and track accounts and obligations in near real-time.

The system also automates request and approval processes and facilitates customized treasury-related reporting. Cash positions and forecasts can also be linked to a firm’s general ledger, such as SAP. So an aggregated account view can be linked to SAP’s scheduled payments, payrolls and accounts receivable to create an even more accurate automated forecast.

The solution was built using a variety of Microsoft technologies, including Microsoft Visual Studio, Windows Server 2003, Microsoft SQL Server, Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, Microsoft Operations Manager, Office, Outlook, Exchange Server and MS SQL Server Analytical Services, along with the services of a broad list of partners.

TreasuryVision helps treasurers of large corporations make more informed decisions. The combination of data aggregation and robust analytic tools to help treasurers better measure and optimize performance is unique in the industry.



Wachovia:
Redesigning Online Banking

Last winter, Wachovia launched a revamped online banking platform that allows customers to see more accounts, more easily transfer money between accounts, set up alerts, view fee detail, view debit card holds, search for information and find help. The new platform, built in partnership with Microsoft, Accenture, CheckFree Corillian and Avanade, also made it easier to execute self-service activities such as updating user profiles, ordering checks and changing addresses.

“The platform provides simpler and swifter navigation and seamless integration of various money management functions,” said Lawrence Baxter, head of Wachovia’s eCommerce division. “Our team spent countless hours talking and listening to customers to get their feedback about their online experience at Wachovia. We are confident that the information we gained from those sessions and the user-centered design approach has resulted in a top-of-the-line online banking experience for our customers.”

Starting last November, all new online banking customers began being enrolled in the new online platform. The bank then converted its 3.2 million active online customers to the new system as well.

Wachovia first announced plans to overhaul its online banking and bill pay system in 2004. Accenture and Wachovia conducted the development and testing of the platform jointly, while Corillian and Microsoft provided the system software. Avanade, the joint venture between Accenture and Microsoft, provided systems integration services. CheckFree will continue to provide Wachovia’s customers with ongoing electronic billing and payment services and the CheckFree platform will serve as the basis for a long-term partnership.

“The overall presentation to the customer is more comprehensive and integrated with other online applications such as electronic billing and payment, online brokerage and account aggregation,” said Baxter.

Wachovia will continue to offer popular online products and services such as its full suite of more than 50 different electronic and wireless alerts and the ability to view check images.

“One feature that customers will notice immediately is a more intuitive interface that will allow them to navigate quickly and seamlessly through the site to perform the task they need to complete,” said Baxter.

Since the launch, Wachovia has continually been working to add new products and services that customers can use to enhance their online experience including an enhanced message center and the completion of a full suite of e-statements for all customer accounts. Wachovia is also developing and implementing new tools to protect online accounts from fraudulent access.



GAFRI:
A Streamlined, Standardized Infrastructure, Poised for Growth

Great American Financial Resources Inc. (GAFRI), a subsidiary of American Financial Group, has $12 billion in assets and $1 billion in annual premiums. When the company began to feel that the inflexibility of some of its mainframe applications might hinder its future growth, it started to plan for change, and not just a quick fix, but a major IT transformation.

The company set a goal of having an annual return on capital of 12 percent. Microsoft, together with HP and Microsoft Technology Centers, customized a solution that replaced the mainframe while meeting that goal. In addition, the number of major systems was reduced from 63 to 22 and those systems are now on a standardized architecture. IT spend was reduced from $35 million to $17 million and the policy processing fee was reduced from $45 to $21 per policy. Now, rather than having a system that might impede future growth, the new scalable infrastructure will enable 50 percent growth with minimal IT investment.

In addition to the mainframe migration, GAFRI now has a new data warehouse, has deployed Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and is deploying BizTalk and SharePoint Server for compliance.

The restructuring has resulted in straight-through business processes around new claims and improved customer performance. The new system can provide a clearer picture of leading indicators and give the company a better ability to predict profit drivers. The system also facilitates more proactive management of agents and policy-holders.

With IT costs that have been cut in half, GAFRI is better positioned to grow and acquire new businesses and rapidly integrate blocks of business into the company. It has improved its ability to get products to market and to deliver IT solutions to internal and external customers.



NASDAQ:
Real-Time Quotes

Every trade that is processed in the NASDAQ marketplace goes through NASDAQ’s Market Data Dissemination System (MDDS), and MDDS keeps the official daily record of all trades. NASDAQ market participants access the system for trade summary, risk management, broker clearing and related needs. Because this information is needed in real-time, it has to be supported by high-performance, highly-available, enterprise-ready technology that has the agility to enable internal developers to quickly react to customer needs.

In retiring an aging mainframe environment, Microsoft created MDDS with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 running on the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition operating system. The system runs on two 4-node Dell PowerEdge 6850 clusters.

MDDS receives direct feeds from NASDAQ’s trade reporting system and collects the data, storing it in SQL Server 2005. It is then available in real-time for queries by market participants, including those using the NASDAQ Workstation, a Web-based tool that connects to NASDAQ trading systems.

To support MDDS, SQL Server 2005 handles approximately 5,000 transactions per second at market open. The system also simultaneously handles about 100,000 queries a day using the SQL Server 2005 “Snapshot Isolation” feature – a feature that allows real-time queries against the data without slowing the database.

NASDAQ identified Snapshot Isolation as a key benefit early on. Snapshot Isolation works by allowing multiple users to view data concurrently without “locking” other users out of it. It uses a temporary database that holds updated data for each transaction.

Meanwhile, the system is cutting costs in comparison to the Tandem Enscribe system that it replaced.

The SQL Server 2005 development tools have also cut developers’ time in creating and customizing new solutions in part through simplified testing and debugging. A recent project that would have been “exceedingly difficult” with the old system took just three or four days.



First American Title Insurance Co.:
A 64-Bit Web-Based Title and Escrow System

By the late 1990s, First American Title Insurance Company had more than 50 different title and escrow systems running on a number of different platforms. Having so many different systems was costly, slowed reaction times and required a lot of manual intervention for reporting. To address these challenges, the company developed First American Software Technology (FAST), an integrated title and escrow system that would replace all 50 separate title and escrow systems with a Web-based centrally managed solution.

When FAST completed its rollout, its central database ran on a server running Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server operating system, Internet Information Services (IIS) version 5.0 and Microsoft SQL Server 2000. The 32-bit server had 32 Intel Xeon processors and 32 GB of RAM.

The company’s continued growth quickly put CPU utilization at more than 80 percent. The company upgraded FAST to Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition (64-bit) and IIS 6.0 running on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition. The solution is hosted on an HP Integrity Superdome with 32 Intel Itanium 64-bit processors.

“During peak hours, we have some 12,000 concurrent users,” said Sue Brinks, the company’s vice president of application development, but performance is no longer a problem.

First American Title Insurance Company is enjoying many benefits since upgrading to the 64-bit solution. For one, the company enjoys increased business agility, because with all its data in one place it is able to provide business decision makers with consistent, accurate and up-to-date information on the company’s performance.

“Executives can make better and faster business decisions because the data that they require is immediately available – and in a consistent format across all offices and regions,” said Larry Godec, vice president and CIO for the company.

Consolidating 50 systems into one significantly decreased IT costs. System administration and software upgrades are now done in one location and are immediately available to users across the country. Cost savings came in many other areas as well, such as consolidating Web servers.

Most importantly, front-office employees have become more productive. The new system allows them to spend more time focusing on clients and generating new business.


Misys Opics Plus:
Treasury and Capital Markets Innovation

At the Securities Industry Association conference in New York earlier this summer, Misys demonstrated Misys Opics Plus, a next-generation service-oriented smart client release of the company’s market leading Misys Opics system. Powered by .NET, Misys Opics Plus is a comprehensive treasury and capital markets solution designed to offer users the ability to process a wide range of cross-asset financial instruments seamlessly from front office to the back.

The new system offers significantly enhanced performance, and has a new tiered architecture that will allow companies to run tasks in parallel. After benchmarking tests at Microsoft Labs in Redmond, WA, one Opics user reported that some Opics processes showed a fourfold improvement, enabling greatly increased transaction volumes. Improvements in reliability and scalability were also demonstrated in benchmark tests.

Misys Opics Plus handles vanilla and complex derivatives, fixed income, and equity and treasury trades all from a single platform. Its open and highly flexible system ensures full scalability. The move to .NET and open-system capabilities and Web service standards will allow Misys Opics Plus to integrate well with other partners and technologies.

Other key highlights of the improved service include a new intuitive user interface designed to offer improved levels of flexibility and adaptability, a customizable desktop that can be tailored to the preferences of both individuals and groups of users and an open architectural framework that keeps the smart client separate from the core Misys Opics Plus processing, allowing easy substitution of an alternative user interface.  

David Stewart, Opics product manager with Misys Banking Systems, noted that the .NET architecture will offer benefits to clients who are rationalizing their operations in today’s more stringent regulatory climate.

“The move to Misys Opics Plus and the .NET environment means that our customers can support their businesses’ growing needs whilst streamlining their operations and reducing their operating costs,” he said.


Blue Frog Solutions:
Insurance Innovation

Blue Frog Solutions’ Affirm for Annuities is a compliance and order management system that uses industry standards to automate the often complicated compliance requirements in the annuities industry. The system integrates a carrier’s complex product rules with a distributor’s compliance processing to generate compliant transactions. Compliant annuity applications are electronically submitted to carriers for processing after successfully passing the distributor’s required supervisory reviews.

As an order management system, Affirm gives users complete control of the annuity process including functions for new business, subsequent payments, riders and features, fund allocation, order funding, commissions, order routing and more. By simplifying processes with industry standards and automation, the system advances straight-through processing in the annuities space and makes it easier for producers to sell more, while at the same time ensuring that all processes are compliant.

Blue Frog designed Affirm in cooperation with its carrier and distributor partners. As a result, the system gives carriers the ability to easily support their distributor needs with accurate and timely product information, and gives distributors complete control over their suitability and compliance functions and rules.

Affirm is built on Blue Frog Solutions’ Microsoft-based ADMServer Framework, a software development framework that manages data for insurance services. Like Affirm, ADMServer is standards-based, using ACORD XMLife standards to create a rich Meta Data environment that defines and creates databases, data translation and systems communication.

“Our architecture is open and standards-based and it’s driven with a focus on managing the changing regulatory compliance requirements,” said Brad Levine, CEO of Blue Frog Solutions.


ClusterSeven:
Spreadsheet Management Innovation

ClusterSeven recognized that because of widespread familiarity with Excel and the cost and speed pressures that many companies face, Excel spreadsheets are often used for business-critical operations within large organizations. The company has developed technology for better analyzing and auditing Excel data that helps users reduce risks in using Excel in an enterprise setting.

For business, the company’s solution provides a dashboard that constantly monitors spreadsheet data and identifies changes between one copy of a spreadsheet and the next. Changes are broadcast to the business through Web pages, giving businesses quick enterprise views into their spreadsheet data. ClusterSeven can also automatically capture spreadsheet activity and allow data to be compressed, stored and reassembled for spreadsheet use in different ways.

The solution can help the IT department by providing structured capture of all important spreadsheet information that can be integrated with other applications and databases. This is critical because previously, with many users storing data in spreadsheets outside the central enterprise information architecture, it was harder to access and report data stored in spreadsheets, and companies were vulnerable to lost data when an employee who stored data on spreadsheets left the company. Also, ClusterSeven can monitor the maturity of functionality within spreadsheets and highlight spreadsheet applications ready for migration into central applications.

Key benefits of the solution come in the areas of compliance and financial control. ClusterSeven provides a detailed audit trail of spreadsheets, including a change history, exception-based alerts tied to key performance indicators and measures of user activity. This auditability is essential for compliance officers, and it also eliminates risks in the use of spreadsheets by financial controllers.

ClusterSeven is built entirely on Microsoft technology and can be implemented quickly without disruption.


Getronics:
Retail Banking Systems Innovation

In June, Getronics launched an all-in-one service for the financial services sector called the Managed Branch. Through Managed Branch, with no up-front costs and a single monthly fee calculated according to branch size, banks can get all the technology and IT services needed to operate a branch.

The key innovation to the new solution is DBX, or Dynamic Branch eXperience technology, which enables Getronics to set up and support bank branches faster at lower cost. DBX transforms the distributed branch environment and uses the Internet to minimize the need for servers at each branch. Managed Branch consolidates services into a single server at the branch, allowing directory and authentication services, file and print services and application hosts and Internet security to reside on one server. This approach allows branches to be set up quickly and consistently, and managed centrally and remotely.

DBX uses a hardened branch appliance from Network Engines to deliver services securely into the branch. IT can be shipped from factory to branch and remotely configured by Getronics to suit a particular branch’s requirements. Getronics leveraged the Microsoft Windows platform as the technology foundation for Managed Branch.

Getronics has added its own RDX or Rapid Deployment eXperience technology into the solution, so that a branch can be set up anywhere, quickly and remotely without the need for onsite labor. To keep branch infrastructure and assets up-to-date, Getronics added components to allow the solution to self-heal and update itself to the current binaries and patch levels when they become available.

“Managed Branch is a logical extension of the services Getronics has delivered to its banking clients for years,” explained Jean-Paul Adans, SVP Financial Services Industry Practice at Getronics. “With Managed Branch, we do practically everything – except select the location and choose the staff.”


TAP Solutions:
Data Management Innovation:

TAP Solutions’ flagship TAPMaster market and reference data management platform makes all of a company’s vendor data available in a single, standard, open environment. Built on Microsoft technology, TAPMaster uses industry standards to facilitate managing and deploying market and reference data throughout the enterprise.  

The system first automates the acquisition of external vendor data and internal proprietary data. Using XML, it standardizes raw data content into a cross-asset relational database. Then it uses standard protocols and technologies to deploy and distribute data to any new or legacy application. With standard, open interfaces, the solution makes it easy to reuse data content and avoid having to establish the data architecture. Its open view of the data environment makes it easier to track usage and cut data purchasing costs. The database is always ready to support a variety of historical data searches.

Two releases this year took the platform even further. In February, the company released TAPMaster on Demand, a Web services add-on module to TAPMaster that connects people and applications to the securities data they need. Whereas with TAPMaster, a client’s data was always available in an open environment, its proprietary non-standard systems and software may not have always been able to access it. TAPMaster on Demand removes that barrier allowing even proprietary applications to connect for direct and real-time data. Data is accessible in real-time, and in read-only versions so that administrators need not worry about data security.

Then in June, the company launched TAPMaster Publisher, an add-on module to the TAPMaster data management platform that provides real-time detection and notification of changes to reference data. Publisher runs continuously, reading incoming streams of vendor data as it arrives at the client site. It detects changes from previous values, and publishes those changes via XML to the applications and users that need them.

With these two add-ons the TAPMaster market and reference data platform is enhanced by the ability to access data in real-time from proprietary applications and by its ability to not only detect changes in data automatically but also provide automatic notification.