Migration of the OST chain to the banking software at Société Générale
Background & Challenges
In 2017, Société Générale (SG) sought to transition the management of its OST chain from various internal tools to a solution based on Tata Consultancy Services’ (TCS) Bancs software package. SG had several objectives for this project:
- Standardization of customer notifications using a single format in accordance with industry best practices
- Mitigation of operational risks
- Increase in net banking income (NBI) through the integration of this product for new customers
- Reduction in operating costs
From TCS’s perspective, the goal was both to onboard a new client and to upgrade its Bancs platform so that it could handle Bloomberg data feeds (CANS) for the first time, thereby enabling the company to offer this functionality to other clients in the future.
The project is complex both from a functional standpoint—primarily due to the specific requirements of each country (or even each custodian) regarding how to manage OSTs—and from an organizational standpoint, involving IT, reference data, business, vendor, and offshore teams spread across three time zones (Europe, the Americas, Asia), and finally from a scheduling perspective, as the onboarding of new clients depended on the success of this project.
In this context, SG has engaged Quanteam to lead this project in place of the current project manager. The project manager’s role would be to:
- Manage the project
- Facilitate coordination among teams
- Update the schedule and budgets
- Ensuring secure deliveries
- Follow up through various meetings (OpCo, Sponsor Co, Steerco, etc.)
Solution
Based on our experience with similar business process transformation projects, we followed these steps:
- Schedule Update
Resuming the project required prioritizing and reevaluating requirements in order to establish a realistic schedule that could be shared with all stakeholders.
- Organizational Changes
Implementing a RACI matrix was the first step toward reorganizing the various stakeholders and ensuring that everyone would work toward the same goal.
- Focus on Delivering Value
After consulting with the sponsor, it was decided to adopt a highly frequent iterative release schedule (at least weekly) in order to deliver maximum value to users and customers.
- Management through a dedicated comitology procedure
A biweekly OPCO meeting was established for each geographic region. For CO sponsors, meetings were held weekly at the height of the challenges and then reduced to biweekly thereafter. Steerco meetings were held monthly.
We had weekly meetings with the editor.
Finally, we were in daily contact with the development team and the business analysts.
- Test automation
As deliveries progressed, it became crucial to implement automated tests to ensure the reliability of new versions. This project was divided between the Publisher team and the internal team focused on EAI.
- Training
Before each new feature is rolled out or released, training sessions—with or without the developer—have been organized to ensure that users are comfortable with it.
Benefits for the customer:
After reassessing the project schedule and milestones, the priority became delivering value to the client through regular releases. An “ultra-agile” approach was quickly implemented. For example, the average number of releases over the two-year project was 1.5 per week, including a vendor release every three weeks for the Bancs software package.
After several months of intense discussions, the organizational structure was refined so that all stakeholders could work toward the same goal.
After two years, 80% of the scope of the first phase had been completed, and the new client was successfully onboarded. The remaining 20% is expected to be completed within the next four months, at which point the service will be made available to other clients.
With our support, the client was able to deliver the project, onboard its new client, and begin securing notifications for its existing clients.
In the coming years, revenue is therefore expected to increase and risks to this business are expected to decrease. Revenue growth is expected to be delayed by at least one year due to the project backlog and the completion of migration for other clients.
Quanteam’s expertise makes all the difference
- Extensive experience in project management
- Proven experience with migration projects
- Experience with complex projects involving multiple stakeholders and publishers
- A well-defined and proven comitology process
News
from our experts
Do you have a project to submit?
Let's meet
