SCOPE AND FEASIBILITY STUDIES FOR AN ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS MONITORING TOOL
Background & Challenges
In order to strengthen oversight of operations and transactions, our client wanted to implement a tool capable of monitoring communications among certain stakeholders (traders, sales staff, etc.). One key objective was to detect attempts at collusion or practices that violate the internal policies established for these roles.
This tool was designed to handle both written communications (such as emails and instant messages) and voice communications (such as phone calls).
This tool was designed to handle communications for various countries and different business lines within the corporate banking division.
In this context, our client sought support during the project’s planning and scoping phases, specifically to explore potential options, estimate project and recurring costs, and conduct proof-of-concept (POC) tests with software vendors that might be able to meet their needs.
The challenges of the project were as follows:
- Identifying the various vendors that can provide viable solutions for this project,
- An examination of the available options
- Option 1: Use a commercial solution that covers both electronic and voice communications.
- Option 2: Use different market solutions for different types or channels of communication.
- Option 3: Using various modules (commercial or open-source) integrated into an in-house solution.
- The ability to estimate project costs and recurring costs over a long period of time (up to 10 years), taking into account the estimated time required to implement the tool and the gradual rollout across different areas.
In fact, a significant portion of recurring costs is related to infrastructure and certain licensing fees, which depend on the volume of data processed.
Solution
For the project launch, it was decided to focus on voice communications, which had the greatest impact in terms of analytical complexity and resource requirements.
Furthermore, the number of vendors offering solutions for this type of communication was much smaller, and their solutions had not yet been thoroughly tested by the market.
Initially, we helped the client identify potential vendors in this market and then organized proof-of-concept tests in collaboration with these vendors and the relevant business representatives and decision-makers.
Next, we estimated the expected costs for the project phases and recurring costs—in collaboration with the software vendors, procurement teams, and business units—to explore various scaling scenarios.
At the same time, we have therefore drawn up a tentative roadmap for implementation and the production launch.
The option of an in-house tool was not among the top choices at the start of the project, but the anticipated costs of an external solution led us to give this option more serious consideration.
We therefore expanded the study to include thisthird option and conducted a proof of concept in collaboration with the client’s IT teams, who had been identified as the most capable of designing and implementing such a tool.
Once the chosen solution was identified, we defined the project roadmap and established the governance structure.
Actions taken and deliverables produced as part of the assignment:
- Definition of the POC comparison criteria and scoring rules,
- Obtaining or creating the necessary test sets,
- Development of a scoring grid and a questionnaire for publishers,
- Organizing the setup of environments,
- Coordinating the visits of teams from various publishers (at different times while ensuring a consistent environment),
- Analysis of the results obtained (detection) and coordination of scoring by the various stakeholders involved (procurement, IT security, etc.),
- In-depth discussions with publishers or internal IT teams to explain and understand the results,
- Presentation of results,
- Development of a roadmap, cost estimates based on various scenarios,
- Preparation and facilitation of steering committee meetings; meeting minutes.
Skills and expertise our firm has been able to provide:
- understanding the needs and challenges of our stakeholders, in order to define evaluation criteria for proof-of-concepts and to obtain or simulate communications that allow us to compare the various solutions.
- ability to coordinate the on-site visits of various vendors and provide them with the necessary environments and resources (as the POC phase must be conducted at the client’s site),
- technical skills to gain a solid understanding of how the tools work and the results they produce, and to challenge the software vendors,
- experience in managing projects to implement new tools,
- the ability to model various scenarios and estimate their impacts in terms of volume, number of users, and consequently costs.
Benefits for the customer:
The wide range of criteria considered by the POC made it possible to identify the vendors best suited to our client’s needs and to effectively assess the suitability and maturity of each tool under consideration.
Our ability to estimate long-term costs while maintaining a detailed approach has helped minimize the impact of overly broad estimates and provided us with credible projections.
These projections allowed us to assess the merits of an in-house solution, which we were able to evaluate with the same rigor and independence as external solutions.
This approach enabled our client to select the most suitable solution and to define a roadmap for the implementation and rollout of this tool, while identifying and anticipating risks throughout the various phases of the project.
Quanteam’s expertise makes all the difference
- A team with expertise in both business challenges and the necessary technical skills,
- Proven experience in defining and managing projects,
- The ability to take the initiative while integrating into existing organizations.
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