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Delivering BusinessCritical Applications
© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This directory is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
BizTalk, C#, Microsoft, Microsoft Active Directory, NT, Offi ce, the Offi ce logo, Outlook, the Windows logo, Visual Basic, Visual Studio, Windows, and Windows Server System are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
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Contents
02 Introduction
06 Cheshire Building Society
10 Citigroup
14 Danske Bank
20 Deutsche Bank
24 Hiscox
30 Lloyd’s Register
36 Lloyds TSB
40 Principality
44 For More Information
For information about Microsoft’s experience in the fi nancial services sector, please visit:
www.microsoft.com/uk/business/fi nancialservices or e-mail the Microsoft U.K. Financial Services team at:
fsindust@microsoft.com
To access information about the Microsoft .NET Framework go to:
www.microsoft.com/net
For information on service orientation and software architectures please visit:
msdn.microsoft.com/architect
To access information about Web services please visit:
msdn.microsoft.com/webservices
For additional customer case studies please visit:
www.microsoft.com/resources/casestudies
In writing this forward it gives me great pleasure
to consider the changes of mindset as to how
systems are developed and the critical impact
on the business of technology.
At one time the term ‘business critical’ was only
applied to solutions that a fi nancial institution
felt must be available around the clock. The
only business applications that warranted
this accolade were the credit card and ATM
authorisation systems. A number of hardware
manufacturers recognised the opportunity and
developed hardware that when combined with
the appropriate software was considered fault
tolerant and delivered 99.999% availability.
However, as institutions developed an ever
increasing number of departmental solutions,
more parts of the business became totally
dependent on technology to deliver day-to-day
business processing and solutions. This increas-
ing dependency resulted in more applications
being considered business critical.
In the fast moving world that fi nancial insti-
tutions exist in, it is essential that IT supports
the business in a timely manner. Businesses are
now considered to be knowledge based, and
the knowledge needs to be shared between
customers, third parties, and staff. However,
Dermot Doherty is the Microsoft Financial Services Industry Architect focusing on the critical business issues within the fi nance sector. Dermot is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certifi ed Accountants (ACCA) and also a member of the ACCA’s Financial Services panel. Having qualifi ed in industry, Dermot moved into the fi nance sector in 1980 as a product consultant for a software company.
His experience has been gained in UK, European, and Far Eastern banks. Since the early 1990’s Dermot has spent considerable time focusing on business intelligence and mission critical solutions for banks. This has included the use of analytic and modelling techniques to develop and deliver business critical applications in a timely manner.
changing how that knowledge is shared
and the processes supporting it requires the
connection of businesses, systems, services, and
the consumers of the knowledge.
Many, if not all institutions, have a number of
disparate systems each with their own interfaces
to the outside world. For institutions to be
competitive in today’s market a consistent
single view of the customer is required across
technological and business boundaries. By
providing this single view of the customer,
brand identity is strengthened as a result of a
consistent and integrated customer experience.
It is a challenge for fi nancial institutions to
obtain a single view of their customers. The
business users require an application that can
access all the necessary back-offi ce systems
without the user being aware of this interface.
This application will be business critical as it will
need to rapidly address changes in user and
market requirements. This design concept is
referred to as service orientated architecture
(SOA).
Moreover, regulators are now demanding that
institutions react rapidly to new legislative
requirements. In many cases, these requirements
are decreed with minimal notice, and the failure
Introduction
2
“For institutions to be competitive in today’s market a consistent
single view of the customer is required across technological and
business boundaries.”
Dermot Doherty, Financial Services Industry Architect, Microsoft U.K.
3
“This challenge to develop and deliver systems rapidly and at reduced
cost with increased levels of automation within the institution is the
primary challenge facing today’s CIO.”
Dermot Doherty, Financial Services Industry Architect, Microsoft U.K.
4
to comply results in fi nancial penalties being
imposed, or lines of business closed.
This challenge to develop and deliver systems
rapidly and at reduced cost with increased
levels of automation within the institution is
the primary challenge facing today’s CIO. This
is where open standards play a pivotal role,
unlocking information held in legacy systems
and facilitating the integration of these and new
systems with minimal cost and effort.
The revolution in open standards that has
occurred during the past 5 years is around
what are termed Web services. These provide
a standard way to build an SOA, creating the
layer of ‘insulation’ that will facilitate modern
business requirements.
The use of open standards helps the consolid-
ation of existing disparate applications, and
rapid development and deployment of
solutions. An integral part of Web services is
the use of XML to represent data — making it
easier to convert and transform information
and data to create, among other things, the
single customer ‘image’.
Microsoft’s implementation of Web services can
be found in the Microsoft® .NET Framework
development toolset and product line. Anecdotal
evidence clearly indicates that applying the
.NET Framework to these business critical
challenges that I have highlighted will deliver
results by aiding the:
● Rapid development of solutions that unify
existing systems.
● The building of Web services to take an SOA
view of information.
● And the consolidation of diverse systems into
a single service infrastructure.
All of which improve business process and aid
business growth.
Read on to discover more about how enterprises
in the fi nancial services sector are using the
.NET Framework to deliver business critical
applications that have facilitated business
growth, exposed legacy systems, and delivered
new functionality and services.
5
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) in the
United Kingdom recently introduced changes to
the way in which mortgages were sold, creating
the need for a unifi ed Key Facts Illustration (KFI).
At Cheshire Building Society, the information
needed was contained in a variety of legacy sys-
tems, so the society used the Microsoft® .NET
Framework to develop a Web-based KFI to bring
it all together. Despite the signifi cant regulatory
changes, the society is now able to deliver its
mortgage calculations in half the time it would
have taken using the old systems, negating the
impact of the new regulations. The Cheshire is
now extending its use of the .NET Framework
across the business to ensure it can respond to
future regulatory changes, tough competition,
and changing consumer needs.
SituationNational and global regulatory developments
have led to a signifi cant change in the ways that
mortgages are offered in the United Kingdom.
The new legal framework has led to a change in
the way that mortgage providers carry out their
business, creating the need for a completely new
system at the Cheshire Building Society.
Paul Hunt, Interim Head of IT at the Cheshire,
says: “The FSA has been regulating mortgage
providers since November 2004 and there have
The Cheshire Unifi es Mortgage Systems to Meet Regulatory Demands
also been the changes to capital requirements
laid down in Basel II. As a result, we have had to
undertake a number of large internal projects
that needed to be completed quickly.”
The Cheshire operates in one of the most com-
petitive fi nancial services industries in the world.
Banks, building societies, and Internet providers
all vie for custom from a highly knowledgeable
customer base that expects to be able to use
an expanding number of channels to look at
mortgage options. As a result, every provider is
looking for tools that will give them an edge.
“Mortgages in the United Kingdom have be-
come commoditised; there is no longer any
money in the margin,” Hunt says. “Many cus-
tomers chase the cheapest rates and expect the
best returns, and to ensure we remain profi ta-
ble we have to look at areas where we can save
money to pass the benefi ts onto our members.”
Hunt says that the Cheshire’s branch network,
contact centre, and e-channels all operated
independently so there was no consistency of
service for customers.
Not only was this ineffi cient, it also meant the
society missed cross-selling opportunities,
because customer data held in one area of the
business was not being shared with other areas.
Cheshire Building Societywww.thecheshire.co.uk
Customer Profi leCheshire Building Society is the 11th largest society in the United Kingdom offering mortgage, savings, and insurance products to customers.
Business SituationCheshire Building Society’s mortgage operation works across a variety of legacy systems that were not fl exible enough to respond to recent regulatory changes.
SolutionThe society is using the Microsoft® .NET Framework to unify existing systems and channels to quickly and effectively meet regulatory, competitive, and consumer demands.
Benefi ts● Mortgage quotation engines reduced from
4 to 1.● Tools created in 2 not 25 days.● Rapid response to new regulations.● Build rather than buy new tools.● Improved Microsoft relationship.
6
SolutionTo meet the varied demands on its systems,
the Cheshire turned to the Microsoft .NET
Framework, an integral component of Microsoft
Windows® that provides a programming model
and runtime for Web services, Web applications,
and smart client applications.
The Cheshire has been a Microsoft customer
for around 10 years. “We have been using
Microsoft COM+ since 2000 and it seemed
logical to switch to .NET when we began to
design our new architecture,” Hunt says.
“About a year ago, we had a long look at what
we had and what we needed to achieve, and
using the .NET Framework to address the
challenges made the most sense.”
Within the Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET 2003
development system, the society decided to
develop using Microsoft Visual Basic® .NET
2003 as opposed to Microsoft Visual C#®.
The technology team felt it would be easier to
migrate existing Microsoft Visual Basic version
6.0 tools to its direct successor.
Initial work has been done on the society’s core
mortgage systems, reducing the number of
mortgage quotation engines from 4 to 1. This
has been done using Web services to integrate
with existing systems and Microsoft ASP.NET
to provide a Web interface to the information.
“There are a number of legacy systems it has to
work with, because we frankly cannot afford to
get rid of our entire infrastructure at once, but
the .NET Framework is coping well,” says Hunt.
The Cheshire is also using CBI.NET, HP’s
Collaborative Business Infrastructure, which is
based on Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2004. It lets
users within the society exchange information
across the business more effectively. “Until now,
CBI.NET has been mainly used in the manufac-
turing industry, so we are leading the way in this
industry,” says Hunt.
Microsoft is working closely with the organis-
ation on its Branch of the Future project, which
will create innovative tools for staff to help
customers. Hunt says: “Queue-buster staff at
our branch in Manchester are already using
technology such as Microsoft Windows XP
Tablet PC Edition.”
Ultimately, the aim is to create a technology
architecture that ensures staff do not have to
think about the applications they use. They
can simply deal with a customer and a business
process. “We want to create a fully integrated
front end,” says Hunt. “We have achieved it with
Business Critical Benefi ts
The Cheshire Building Society needed to mod- ernise its IT to respond to increasing competition and rapid regulatory change. The society wanted to save money, streamline its core systems, and improve customer service so as to retain market share. A major worry was the lack of consistency across different channels when customers were seeking mortgage quotations.
The key to solving this business critical challenge was found in the Microsoft® .NET Framework, Web Services, and Microsoft ASP.NET. The Cheshire has now reduced the number of mortgage quotation engines from 4 to 1, giving the society peace of mind and much better control over its core services to customers.
Among the other key benefi ts from this solution are:● Less re-keying of information and information
delivered quickly to the customer.● Passbook reader developed in 2 not 25 days.● Development done in-house at low cost.● Stronger relationship with Microsoft through
a long-term partnership.
7
“ Microsoft did not offer an enterprise platform a decade ago, but it
has upped the ante over the last 5 years in terms of security, scalability,
and stability. Microsoft is a technology company that wants to work
with us to see how we use their technology as a business.”
Paul Hunt, Interim Head of IT, Cheshire Building Society
“The less re-keying of information there is, the
fewer mistakes there are and the quicker the
customer gets the information they need.”
There has also been an improvement in
robustness. While the 4 quote engines had a
good history of reliability, Hunt says, operating
with only 1 means that there is less potential for
breakdowns and maintenance can be carried
out more quickly.
Developing the mortgage application using the
.NET Framework has also yielded productivity
benefi ts in other areas of the business, as code
can be re-used. “When we went into the new
Insurance: Code of Business (ICOB) regulations,
we used the same approach, meaning that we
only had to write information once. There have
been lots of examples where we have been able
to reuse information,” he says.
Passbook Reader Developed
in 2 Not 25 Days
The time taken to introduce new tools has been
drastically reduced. A new reader for the society’s
passbooks was designed and implemented using
the .NET Framework in just 2 developer days as
opposed to the estimated 20-30 developer days
it would previously have taken. Hunt admits
that this may be an extreme example of the
potential time savings, but suggests that as more
systems and integration layers are developed the
Cheshire will enjoy exponential savings across
the business.
Reducing time to market for new tools will have
signifi cant implications for further improvements
in the organisation’s service and ultimately the
rates it offers members. “We are undergoing
a signifi cant drive to ensure we treat each
customer as an individual,” Hunt says. “The
fi nancial services industry has not been good at
this in the past and we think we have an edge
because we are using the .NET Framework to
connect the different parts of the business.
“In the U.K. for the last 5 years, competition has
been so fi erce. To thrive, we have to be better at
relationships and cross-selling, and developing
more projects with the .NET Framework will help
us do this.”
Making the Cheshire More Responsive
Using the .NET Framework, the Cheshire is
confi dent that it will be able to respond quickly
to changes in the ways consumers access its
services. “While wireless access protocol did not
take off in the way that was expected, there is
a possibility that demand for its successors will
grow, albeit with less ambitious tools initially,”
the mortgage tools, but now we want to extend
those benefi ts across our entire operation.”
Benefi tsMortage Quotation Engines Reduced
from 4 to 1
The use of the .NET Framework has helped the
society to reduce the number of mortgage
quotation engines from 4 to 1 by creating a
Web-based KFI.
The new mortgage system uses Web services
based on data contained on a Microsoft SQL
ServerTM 2000 database. According to Hunt, the
data is currently held in a variety of places and
the Web service has to run through them all,
but as the existing systems are consolidated the
society will achieve further signifi cant improve-
ments in response time.
“Before last year’s changes, there was no regulat-
ory requirement for KFIs,” says Hunt. “Without
the new system developed using the .NET
Framework, it would have taken twice as long
to create a KFI and updating them after a rate
change would have been much more diffi cult.”
The benefi ts extend beyond the society itself.
“Our intermediaries can also access KFIs, so it is
signifi cantly more effi cient for them,” he says.
8
“ Customers chase the cheapest rates and expect the best returns, and
to ensure we remain profi table we have to look at areas where we can
save money to pass the benefi ts on to our members.”
Paul Hunt, Interim Head of IT, Cheshire Building Society
Hunt says. “The .NET Framework gives us the
ability to offer such services to our customers at
a minimal cost in terms of development time.”
It is the small touches that may well build
demand. “It is still early days, but we are
developing a method of sending out photos
with house price details from our estate agency
so potential buyers can have as much informa-
tion on their mobile phones as possible before
going to see a house,” he says. “Customers now
expect services like this as standard and a better
experience of our estate agency may translate
to more mortgage applications.”
Low-Cost In-House Development
Yields Results
The .NET Framework has also changed the
balance in the perennial build or buy debate.
Hunt adds: “By using the .NET Framework it
has become much easier to design our own
tools and we can begin to look at increasing the
services we offer as a result.
“For example, in the past, we would have bought
a system to bring together the mortgage
quotation engines, because to build a platform
would have meant hiring a team of consultants
and freelance system engineers,” he says. “But
with Microsoft technology we have been able
to do the work effectively in-house and create a
system that sets us apart from our competitors.”
Improved Relationship with Microsoft
“Microsoft has always been responsive day
to day, but now we are working together on
longer term business needs,” says Hunt. “Wider
use of the .NET Framework has really changed
the nature of our relationship from support to
strategic.”
This is not simply the result of the interesting
tools that Cheshire is developing. Hunt says there
has also been change in the Microsoft approach.
“Microsoft did not offer an enterprise platform a
decade ago, but it has upped the ante over the
last 5 years in terms of security, scalability, and
stability,” he adds. “Microsoft is a technology
company that wants to work with us to see how
we use their technology as a business.
“As we move forward, we are now constantly try-
ing to think of new uses for the .NET Framework,
as it is signifi cantly more fl exible than the way
we used to approach development,” he says. “We
want to make it easy for our staff to use technol-
ogy to support their working processes, rather
than trying to get them to change their working
practices when we introduce a new system.”
9
HP is a leading global provider of products, solutions, and services to consumers and businesses. The company’s offerings span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services, and imaging and printing.
For more information about HP products and services visit the Web site at:www.hp.com
Using the Microsoft® .NET Framework, Citigroup
created a Web-based information delivery
system for access by employees around the
world. The information delivery framework is
highly confi gurable and offers an unprecedented
degree of agility and responsiveness for
corporate clients, giving Citigroup a business
advantage over the competition.
SituationCitigroup is the largest fi nancial services group
in the world, offering a diverse array of corporate
and personal fi nancial products and the greatest
distribution capacity of any fi nancial fi rm globally.
In 2005, Citigroup generated U.S.$83.6 billion of
revenue and produced U.S.$24.6 billion in net
income to shareholders.
Citigroup offers a range of sophisticated services
to global customers within its Global Corporate
and Investment Banking (CIB) group. Its corporate
and investment banking services depend on the
delivery of accurate, actionable information
to global account teams. Information types
are rich and diverse — market data, video,
news, and equity research. Integrating this
information, making it globally accessible in
real time, and combining information delivery
with collaboration tools would give Citigroup a
competitive advantage.
Citigroup Creates Integrated, Scalable, Secure, and Targeted Information Delivery Infrastructure for Worldwide User Base
CIB’s vision was a browser-based ‘smart’ infor-
mation delivery infrastructure that would provide
investment bankers with targeted, relevant,
personalised, and actionable information. This
would help them to make better, faster decisions,
and to transform the mechanics of global
account team collaboration within Citigroup
and between Citigroup and its customers.
Paul Galant, Managing Director and Global Head
of eCommerce and Market Data Strategy at CIB,
approached Microsoft and said: “Help me build
a highly scalable, secure, and fully personalised
distribution environment for proprietary and
third-party content. The content we need to get
at exists in every fl avour of technology ever sold
on the globe; we have the information but need
a master key to unlock it.”
SolutionIn addition to factors affecting all businesses
today, Citigroup’s size and history create some
unique challenges. Citigroup has grown through
a series of high-profi le mergers and acquisitions.
Content needed by bankers is currently accessed
from a variety of sources and technology types,
including video content, streaming market
data, breaking news, credit information, and
printed research. There was a need to tap into
Citigroup’s proprietary content and to integrate
Citigroupwww.citigroup.com
Customer Profi leCitigroup is the largest fi nancial services group in the world, with more than 120 million customers in more than 100 countries.
Business SituationCitigroup wanted to provide a Web-based delivery platform to distribute targeted and highly personalised information in every fl avour of technology, to its worldwide work- force in the corporate and investment bank.
SolutionUsing Microsoft® .NET-connected software, Citigroup created a Microsoft ASP.NET Web application that built highly customisable Web pages targeted for individual employees.
Benefi ts● Increased business agility and responsiveness.● Increased scalability.● Extensible content retrieval design, to
support new and existing document formats.
10
third-party content from research, news,
and market data providers including Reuters,
Thomson, Bloomberg, and Dow Jones.
Coupled with these business requirements,
Citigroup also required that the new system be:
● Highly scalable to support the extensive cus-
tomer base. In a preliminary attempt to build
an automated solution using non-Microsoft
technologies, the system could scale only to
30 users per server. This prototype system
was dismissed because Citigroup required a
system that could scale up to support 50,000
concurrent users.
● Easy to deploy to the Citigroup workforce
operating in more than 100 countries. A
Web-based system was the preferred option,
because this would have ‘zero touch’ on user
workstations. Such a system would be globally
accessible for the intended user community.
● Easy to use, highly confi gurable, and
‘personalisable’ in real time. The system must
make it easy for bankers to prepare person-
alised portfolios, share new information, and
customise the appearance of information to
their individual needs. Furthermore, the user
interface must be state-of-the-art in terms of
drag-and-drop and resizing functionality, and
visually compelling to increase the ‘stickiness’
of the site.
ASP.NET and Web Services:
The Ideal Combination
In November 2001, Galant approached Microsoft
for a solution to meet Citigroup’s requirements.
A joint development team was assembled, led
by Erik Saltwell from Microsoft Services and Dan
Woodman from the Microsoft .NET Solutions
Architecture team. The team also included
Microsoft consultants and Citigroup developers,
with close collaboration and industry input from
Reuters, Thomson, and Factiva.
The development team had a variety of
skills — including Microsoft C++ development
system, Java, and Microsoft Visual Basic®
development system — but many members had
no prior experience with the Microsoft .NET
Framework, the Microsoft C#® development
tool, or other .NET-compatible languages.
The new system was given the name CitiVision.
The development team decided that the
system would be based on an ASP.NET Web
application hosted on Microsoft Internet
Information Services (IIS), the Web server built
into Microsoft Windows® 2000 Server. Microsoft
ASP.NET and Microsoft IIS were chosen over
other Web server technologies, because of their
superior performance, scalability, and security
capabilities.
“The content we need to get at exists in every fl avour of technology
ever sold on the globe; we have the information but need a master
key to unlock it.”
Paul Galant, Managing Director and Global Head of eCommerce and Market Data Strategy, CIB
Business Critical Benefi ts
Citigroup wanted a browser-based ‘smart’ information delivery infrastructure to give its investment banking team worldwide access to targeted, relevant, and actionable critical information. This would help them make better, faster decisions, and improve collaboration within Citigroup, and between the investment bankers and their customers.
Working with Citigroup, Microsoft® Services recommended basing the CitiVision application on an ASP.NET Web application hosted on Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS), the Web server built into Microsoft Windows® 2000 Server. It used the Microsoft .NET Framework to develop the solution.
Among the major benefi ts from this solution are:● Savings from replacement of bankers’
dedicated terminals.● Customised dashboards for each corporate
customer.● Immediate access to high-value information
previously in separate systems.● Ability to share real-time information with
customers.
11
The CitiVision Information Framework includes
Web Parts to display content such as market
data, company profi les, and live-streaming
video.
Benefi tsCitiVision provides account teams with
immediate access to high-value information
that previously existed in separate, hard-to-ac-
cess systems. When CitiVision is rolled out to
its global workforce, this will enable bankers to
share information with clients in real time, with
all the attendant business benefi ts and agility
that this entails.
Responsiveness
“Quick response time to user requests is one of
our biggest goals, and CitiVision clearly helps us
to accomplish this,” says Dan Gilman, Director
and Head of eCommerce in the Investment
Banking Division at Citigroup.
CitiVision has generated a high level of user
excitement and acceptance. Real dollar savings
already have been achieved through the
replacement of bankers’ dedicated market
data terminals; CitiVision delivers the same
information to the banker’s desktop computer.
This has enabled easier integration with
Microsoft Offi ce and the Microsoft Offi ce
“ Developing the CitiVision Information Framework was essentially a
one-off effort. Now that we have CitiVision in place, we can leverage it.
We can concentrate on developing new content for our users. We’re
in the business of banking; we let Microsoft build the highways.”
Gary Greenwald, Managing Director, Global Relationship Bank, Citigroup
Outlook® 2003 messaging and collaboration
client. With CitiVision, users can download
content to e-mail messages or Microsoft Offi ce
Excel® spreadsheet software with a single
click, and there are Web Parts that integrate
the Outlook calendar with CitiVision. This level
of integration makes it easy for users to share
important content with other users in real time.
The Microsoft .NET Framework also proved
capable of addressing the complex and fi ne-
grained security, privacy, logging, and access
control issues central to the delivery of sensitive,
high-value fi nancial information.
Flexibility
In addition to the predefi ned dashboards
provided as part of the CitiVision Information
Framework, bankers can develop individually
customised dashboards for each corporate client
or portfolio of customers. These customised
dashboards are known as ‘channels’ and contain
Web Parts specially chosen and confi gured by
the banker for a customer.
The CitiVision Information Framework provides
a Content Gallery that contains more than 250
prewritten Web Parts. Web Parts can be dragged
from the gallery onto the channel, all within
the normal browser user interface. Custom
Proof of Concept
The Microsoft consultants and team members
from Citigroup spent 3 weeks on the Microsoft
campus, developing a working prototype
for the new system based on the Microsoft
.NET Framework. During this time, the team
defi ned a full object-oriented framework for
the CitiVision application to address all the
functional and non-functional requirements in
the new system.
Solution Architecture
Building on existing insight into the needs
and working practices of bankers and their
customers, the development team completed
development of the CitiVision Information
Framework in 3 months. The entire solution was
deployed within 6 months.
At the heart of the CitiVision Information
Framework is an ASP.NET Web application that
generates Web pages for display in the browser.
The Web pages contain sophisticated HTML
mark up that defi nes the appearance of the
Web page within the browser.
The Web pages comprise a collection of Web
Parts contained in a digital dashboard. A Web
Part is a reusable component that contains
Web-based content such as XML, HTML, or script.
12
dashboards are saved on a Microsoft SQL
ServerTM 2000 database at the Web server and
can be instantly accessed by corporate team
members anywhere.
This degree of fl exibility and customisation
within a browser environment greatly enriches
the usefulness and extensibility of the CitiVision
application.
Agility and Confi gurability
CitiVision provides tremendous agility and
confi gurability. As a proof of concept, Citigroup
built a collection of new dashboards for a
particular market sector. “Using the Microsoft
portal tools, we were able to reorganise the menu
structure and create over 40 new channels in
under 3 hours,” says Gilman.
Citigroup’s Corporate and Investment Bank
has started a CitiVision rollout program in
Europe, and the aim is to support more than
10,000 employees globally. An ambitious 2-year
engineering plan is in place to further develop
the application to support wireless devices,
document management, and workfl ow.
The new application will be based on Web
services, the .NET Framework, and the Microsoft
.NET Compact Framework.
Using .NET-connected software, CitiVision
integrates diverse information from any kind
of Web server platform and makes it available
to a global user base in real time. By delivering
this information using a highly customisable
Web interface, Citigroup investment bankers
can make better, faster decisions.
Gary Greenwald, Managing Director in the
Global Relationship Bank at Citigroup, says:
“Developing the CitiVision Information
Framework was essentially a one-off effort.
Now that we have CitiVision in place, we can
leverage it. We can concentrate on developing
new content for our users. We’re in the business
of banking; we let Microsoft build the highways.”
13
Danske Bank has developed a set of XML Web
services that take advantage of the strengths
of multiple environments. The bank’s fi rst Web
service, a stock-quote service, is expected to
generate signifi cant cost savings for the bank
by routing customer quote requests to a Web
server rather than the mainframe. Built using
the Microsoft® .NET Framework, Danske Bank’s
Web services can be reconfi gured and repack-
aged to meet the needs of diverse customers
and partners, at little incremental cost and
no additional security risk. These services
transform the bank’s IT department from a cost
centre to a centre for strategic advantage and
make it possible to use existing assets to reach
new markets.
SituationAs the largest commercial bank in Denmark,
Danske Bank serves roughly 40% of the Danish
corporate and retail markets, along with
maintaining a signifi cant presence in other
Scandinavian countries. The bank has multiple
brands, each of which serves a particular
customer profi le or geographic region.
The Danske Bank brand, for example, serves an
upscale audience in Denmark, consisting mainly
of private sector companies and their employees.
Another domestic brand, BG, is aimed at more
Danish Bank Uses Web Services to Generate New Revenue Sources Using Existing Assets
highly-educated professionals and public
employees. There is a mainstream Norwegian
brand, Focus Bank, as well as a high-end Swedish
bank called OEB. In addition, the company
sells mortgages under a different brand name,
and insurance and pension plans under yet
another name. Each brand has its own set of
products, channels, and customer preferences,
which translate into a unique set of technical
requirements. For Danske Bank’s IT department,
it was a challenge to support such a diversity
of needs.
10 years ago, the bank realised that it could
establish a major competitive advantage by
consolidating its diverse systems into a single
technology infrastructure. By building a single
infrastructure, the company could take advantage
of its existing technology assets, most of which
were on the mainframe, and repurpose them
for use across many brands, markets, and
channels. This ‘one bank, one system’ IT strategy
would lower IT costs by enhancing effi ciency
and reducing redundancies, while giving the
bank the agility that it needed to react quickly
to market changes and customer needs.
Starting in 1998, Danske Bank began con-
structing a services infrastructure that helped
its 1,200 developers to work together across
Danske Bankwww.danskebank.com
Customer Profi leDanske Bank serves roughly 40% of the Danish corporate and retail markets, and has a signifi cant presence in other Scandinavian countries. The bank has multiple brands, each serving a particular customer profi le or geographic region.
Business SituationDanske Bank sought to establish a cost advantage over competitors by consolidating diverse systems into a single services infrastructure.
SolutionUsing the Microsoft® .NET Framework, Danske Bank was able to expose its mainframe functionality as Web services, and reuse this functionality across a range of brands and customer audiences.
Benefi ts● New sources of customer revenue, with no
additional security risks. ● Reuse of existing mainframe functionality,
to serve a broad range of customer needs and to change easily as needs change.
● Deeper links with partners, integrating applications easily to offer a single, seamless customer experience.
● IT department savings.
14
several platforms, including Java 2 Platform
Enterprise Edition (J2EE), IBM mainframe, and
the Microsoft Windows® operating system.
While integration across these environments
was possible, it was also painful, requiring
developers to write much of the low-level
‘plumbing’ code themselves. And while the
mainframe consolidation could service the
bank’s internal users effectively, it was too
expensive a resource to make available to
external customers.
SolutionWhile Danske Bank was expanding its own
services infrastructure, Microsoft announced
the .NET Framework that connects people,
information, systems, and devices.
The .NET Framework connects a range of
personal and business technologies, helping
users to access important information
whenever and wherever it is needed. Built on
Web service standards, .NET means both new
and existing applications connect with software
and services across environments, applications,
and programming languages.
The .NET Framework would assist Danske Bank
in exposing its internal processes to its partners
and customers in a standardised manner, and
to more easily gain the benefi ts of reuse and
consolidation of its internal applications.
“The one thing we were missing to get the
most out of our ‘one bank, one system’ strategy
was the ability to extend the benefi ts to our
customers and partners,” says Danske Bank
Chief Technology Offi cer (CTO) Peter Schleidt.
“The .NET Framework helps us do that.”
The result would be to open new sources of
customer revenue and to establish deeper and
tighter links with the bank’s partners, all without
incurring substantial new costs or additional
security risks.
Web Service Provides Broad Reach
The fi rst Web service that Danske Bank chose to
make available to customers using Web services
standards was a quote service for stock prices.
This Customer Quote Web Service, rolled out to
customers in November 2002, was built to help
one of Denmark’s largest newspapers, Politiken,
to access quotes from the bank’s mainframe
and make them available to customers for free.
“This service allows us to expose our brand to
a broad reach of our target customers, offering
them a valuable service rather than just a
banner advertisement,” says Klaus Frandsen,
Deputy Head of Market Development for the
domestic bank brands. “Development costs
“ The one thing we were missing to get the most out of our ‘one bank,
one system’ strategy was the ability to extend the benefi ts to our
customers and partners.”
Peter Schleidt, Chief Technology Offi cer, Danske Bank
Business Critical Benefi ts
Microsoft® software and the low cost of entry of Web services based on the Microsoft .NET Framework helped Danske Bank to develop new sources of revenue using its existing IT assets. The bank’s IT department is no longer just a cost centre, but a source of strategic power in meeting the needs of diverse customers and partners.
The fi rst Web service was rolled out in 2002 as a quote service for stock exchange prices and was an immediate success. Other services have followed with the bank’s developers using the .NET Framework and Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET development system.
Danske Bank has achieved the following competitive advantages:● An IT infrastructure that is extending the
bank’s market reach.● Proprietary services are extendable to
customers in weeks not months.● Greater business agility through a ‘one bank,
one system’ IT strategy.● Services that other banks can repackage
under their own brand.
15
The Web service uses the content-based routing
capability of the .NET Framework to interpret
who originated the request for a quote. If the
request comes from Politiken, the Web service
checks the low-cost cache storage on the
Web server for the latest update, which could
be as much as 15 minutes old — an entirely
acceptable solution. If a top-tier trading partner
is requesting the update, the request is routed
directly to the mainframe, because real-time
access is critical for these select customers.
With the standards-based security framework
supported by the .NET Framework, the bank
can preserve its rigorous security safeguards
and integrate them tightly with the new service.
Because the Customer Quote Web Service was
assembled from component services exposed
from the bank’s mainframe, those components
are now available for reuse in other information-
request services that the bank wants to offer to
other customer segments.
“Eventually, we expect that all the customer
account status and fi nancial information
capabilities we now have on our mainframe
will become Web services for either internal
or customer access,” says Frandsen. “We have
identifi ed over 100 candidates already.”
“ With the .NET Framework, we’ve applied our tagline to our computing
resources, helping each system to do what it does best and thereby
distributing costs in the most effi cient way.”
Peter Schleidt, Chief Technology Offi cer, Danske Bank
Benefi tsCreates Market Exposure and New
Revenue Opportunities
With its fi rst customer Web service, Danske
Bank has exposed its brand name to the entire
audience of Politiken readers — exactly the mass-
market audience that its BG Bank brand wants
to reach. The bank achieved this broad exposure
to a key market without paying for advertising,
while both development costs and incremental
costs to generate the stock quotes are minimal.
The stock quote service is free to Politiken
readers, but additional services will bring new
revenue streams to the bank. The components
that make up the stock quote service can be
reassembled and repackaged to offer a currency
quote service, a currency-trading service, and
many other similar Web services that will further
extend the bank’s market reach and create new
opportunities for customer revenue.
Improve Effi ciency and Lower IT Costs
Using the .NET Framework, Danske Bank
combined its expensive mainframe resources
with lower-cost commodity hardware resulting
in signifi cant cost savings. “Our bank’s tagline is
‘Do what you do best; that’s what we’re doing,’”
says Schleidt. “With the .NET Framework, we’ve
applied our tagline to our computing resources,
helping each system to do what it does best
were minimal, and we’re not charged for
advertising since we provide value to Politiken’s
customers. So it becomes a form of low-cost
marketing for us.”
The benefi ts fl ow both ways in the partnership
between Danske Bank and Politiken. The news-
paper used to link directly to the European
stock exchange, but that meant customers
left their site and often didn’t return. With
the standards-based architecture of the .NET
Framework, however, integration between the
bank’s mainframe stock updates and the news-
paper’s online presence is seamless, creating the
customer experience that Politiken desires.
Caching Yields Signifi cant Cost Savings
Before the .NET Framework became available,
such a service would have been impossible
because it would require each quote request
to access the bank’s mainframe, a prohibitively
expensive solution. With the .NET Framework,
Danske Bank was able to expose the mainframe’s
stock and currency updates as a Web service
and cache them on a low-cost Web server,
reducing costly mainframe access to once every
15 minutes rather than potentially hundreds of
times a minute. According to Schleidt, the cost
savings of using cached data amounts to roughly
5% of the bank’s IT operating budget.
16
and thereby distributing costs in the most
effi cient way.” Without this effi cient distribution
of computing resources, Danske Bank could not
have offered stock and currency quote services,
because mainframe access for hundreds of
customers would have been prohibitively
expensive.
Integrates with Partners for a Seamless
Customer Experience
Partnering with a leading Danish newspaper,
Danske Bank presents its retail banking brand
as an integrated part of the newspaper’s online
presence. With Web services, partners can
agree on who retains control of the customer
experience while presenting a single, seamless
look to the customer. Partner integration can
follow the logic of the business relationship
rather than being held captive by technical
limitations.
“The .NET Framework creates a common
technical language with partners,” says Ebbe
Larsen of Danske Bank, who leads the Politiken
project. “We used to have to reinvent the
technical wheel with every new business
alliance. Now with the .NET Framework, we’ve
eliminated the need to negotiate at a technical
level, and we can focus on the business issues
instead.”
Defi nes Your Own Security Requirements
Security is an important element of any
fi nancial service and is especially critical for
online transactions. Danske Bank, like most
organisations, has its own unique security
requirements and has implemented its own
security model for Web transactions. “The
beauty of the .NET Framework,” says Larsen,
“is that it provides a standards-based security
framework that helps partners to create their
own defi nition of a secure ‘handshake’ within
that framework.” In this case, Danske Bank uses
digital signatures from its mainframe application
and passes them through the .NET-connected
security framework to an approved recipient on
the other end.
How the Transformation Was Done
The fi rst step that Danske Bank took in
transforming mainframe applications into a
set of widely reusable Web components was to
convert mainframe functionality from a pro-
prietary format into standards-based output,
in this case to simple object access protocol
(SOAP)-based messages. Once converted, these
components are usable in any Web service,
deliverable to any location or platform, and
viewable on any device.
Once Danske Bank made its collection of
fi nancial service components available as Web
services, a process that took only a few days,
developers then assembled these components
into a loosely-coupled application that
eventually became the quote service. The loose
coupling was achieved by linking components
with messages and routing instructions that
would call the appropriate component when
it needed to be used, regardless of where it
resides. The Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET
development system made the assembly easy
and helped developers to orchestrate the
interactions between components in less than
a week.
Content-based routing instructions in Visual
Studio .NET make it possible for the quote
service to interpret whether a Politiken reader
or a tier-one customer is requesting a quote,
and to route the request as appropriate to
either the mainframe or the lower-cost Web
server. The unique routing capability, available
only through the .NET Framework, means
developers can differentiate among user
identities and dictate precise instructions based
on those identities. This ability is critical in a
message-based Web application, because of
the diversity of users, devices, and locations
that the application serves. Because all devices
17
(including the cache storage for less-frequent
quote updates, the mainframe, and the request-
or’s browser) understand the XML-based SOAP
messages, this common language means all
systems can participate in the loosely-coupled
application.
“In the past, we would have had to convince
a partner such as Politiken to use our propri-
etary technology in its systems to achieve this
type of integration,” says Claus Torp Jensen,
Chief Architect at the bank. “Now we simply
ask partners to use the common business-to-
business Web integration standards, which
helps both parties to expose their internal assets
in a secure and low-cost fashion and to make
them available to all business partners, not just
to us. The excellent Microsoft tools and low
cost of entry make .NET-based Web services a
natural choice.”
Before the .NET Framework, Danske Bank devel-
opers would have had to build the plumbing
needed to send or interpret messages between
different systems, transform those messages
to different environments, monitor and trace
delivery, help enforce security, and perform
many other such low-level functions necessary
for proper functioning of an application. This
plumbing is built into the .NET Framework, and
Visual Studio .NET, and makes the developer’s
experience so transparent that the developer
doesn’t even need to know what the underlying
environments are.
While security is not critical to the stock quote
service, it certainly will be when Danske Bank
implements fi nancial transaction-based
services. Says Jensen: “It was important for us
to have a standard carrier of security tokens
and also a ‘plug point’ where we could plug in
an interpreter for our own security mechanism.
The .NET Framework provided both.”
This dual provision helped Danske Bank to
maintain its existing digital signature security
system for mainframe applications, a trusted
system that the bank has used for many years.
With the .NET Framework, the bank simply
passes the secure signatures by wrapping them
in a SOAP message and lets the application
infrastructure on either end verify signature
validity using its own proprietary code. “The
.NET Framework security technologies help us
to establish a security gateway that transforms
any type of security into a simple identity token,
independent of business data, helping us to
control security more tightly,” says Jensen.
Next Steps
While today’s customer quote service is focused
on extending market reach, Danske Bank has
its sights on several new revenue opportunities
that Web services make possible. The next step
will be to integrate fi nancial information and
transactional services from the bank’s mainframe
with related business services from partners.
Some will carry a Danske Bank brand, while
others will be offered through the partner’s
customer portal. Either way, seamless integration
will make these services part of a single, holistic
customer experience.
“Today,” says Frandsen, “lots of what corporate
customers buy from banks is commoditised.
As soon as you can offer something unique to a
customer, something that works well with their
own systems, that’s a competitive advantage.
A lasting one. Only large banks with a strong
edge in IT and a head start in Web services
can do that.”
The fi rst partner solution that Danske Bank
planned was to integrate its cash management
and currency trading services with a corporate
enterprise resource planning system. “The pos-
sibilities are endless,” Frandsen says. “Treasury
management systems integrated with currency
trading. Human resource systems integrated
“With the .NET Framework, we’ve extended our reach to our
customers and partners, and integrated our processes across
multiple business lines, making our IT strategy a central part
of our company’s business strategy.”
Claus Torp Jensen, Chief Architect, Danske Bank
18
with pension management. Fleet management
systems integrated with lease management.
There’s no reason we couldn’t work with all
of them.”
Danske Bank also is looking at making a
collection of services available as a ‘fi nancial
toolbox’ that other banks could repackage and
offer under their own brand. “Once a few large
banks have established their presence with Web
services, smaller banks will fi nd it more cost
effective to rebrand our reusable services than
to build their own,” says Frandsen. “This too is a
lucrative revenue opportunity for us.”
Danske Bank has built a foundational technology
infrastructure that is delivering value to an
important new set of target customers and
extending the bank’s market reach. In the
future, this infrastructure will provide new
opportunities for revenue generation and for
differentiated service offerings, under Danske
Bank brands, or through integration with
business partners.
With the .NET Framework and Web services, the
bank can build a set of components that can be
reused and reconfi gured repeatedly to expose
its vast store of mainframe-based computing
assets to a range of customers and partners.
Because of the standards-based design, the
bank has been able to harness the unique
strengths of many technology environments
and combine them into a single services
architecture that makes the most effi cient use
of computing resources. The Visual Studio .NET
development system has made the transition
to this new architecture smooth and easy,
and development times have been drastically
reduced. The bank can take any existing
service that is available in its proprietary service
architecture and make it available to customers
within weeks.
“When we decided 4 years ago to implement
a services infrastructure, it was clear to us that
we could greatly improve our cost effi ciency
by using every asset we had, both technical
and personnel,” says Jensen. “With the .NET
Framework, we’ve extended our reach to our
customers and partners, and integrated our
processes across multiple business lines, making
our IT strategy a central part of our company’s
business strategy. By implementing Web services
deeply within our company’s infrastructure,
we’re able to reap the full benefi ts of this
exciting new technology.”
19
Deutsche Bank is using an online recruitment
and management system to recruit more than
1,000 full time and intern graduates, and MBAs
every year. Recruiters in the U.K., Europe, United
States, and Asia are sifting through applications
from more than 80,000 students worldwide,
booking interviews, and recording feedback
and results around the clock. This is of strategic
importance as more than 50% of employees
working for Deutsche Bank are not based in
Germany, and work across several time zones.
The system — Konetic — was designed by
Kprime, a leading U.K. IT provider, and is based
on the Microsoft® .NET Framework, Microsoft
Visual Studio®.NET, and XML Web services.
The system connects businesses, customers,
systems, and services.
SituationWith assets of almost €1tn (U.S.$1.2tn) and
over 97,000 employees, Deutsche Bank offers
fi nancial services in over 70 countries. It ranks
among the leaders in asset management,
capital markets, corporate fi nance, custody,
cash management, and private banking.
The bank is organised in 2 customer-oriented
groups — Corporate and Investment Bank (CIB)
plus Private Clients and Asset Management
(PCAM). Key to the bank’s success is its com-
Deutsche Bank Manages Global Graduate Recruitment Online
mitment to customer service, products,
innovation, and technology. As a knowledge-
based business, fi nding and recruiting the best
talent from universities and business schools
is of strategic importance. Approximately 100
company recruiters worldwide manage this
process, supported by line managers actively
involved in the selection process.
Applicants can apply for a large number of
vacancies across different business units and
multiple regional offi ces, so recruiters need to
share information on candidates globally and
track over 80,000 different applications.
Dr Paul Worthy, CEO of Kprime, says: “In today’s
marketplace, organisations may be recruiting
fewer graduates but receiving more appli-
cations. They need a tool to attract and identify
key candidates effectively and cost-effi ciently.”
SolutionKprime is a forward-thinking, U.K.-based soft-
ware company that demonstrates leadership
through its engineers and managers, many
of whom have MScs and PhDs. The company
designed, built, and delivered Konetic, a human
capital management (HCM) system using the
.NET Framework, Visual Studio .NET, Microsoft
Windows® 2000, Microsoft SQL ServerTM 2000,
XML, and Web services.
Deutsche Bankwww.db.com
Customer Profi leDeutsche Bank is a global investment bank and ranks among the leaders in asset management, capital markets, corporate fi nance, custody, cash management, and private banking.
Business SituationIn today’s marketplace, organisations may be recruiting fewer graduates but receiving more applications. They need a tool to attract and identify key candidates effectively and cost-effi ciently.
SolutionDeutsche Bank is using an online recruitment and management system to recruit more than 1,000 full time and intern graduates and MBAs every year. The solution is based on the Microsoft® .NET Framework, Microsoft Visual Studio®.NET, and XML Web services. This helps developers to create applications from new and existing code, regardless of environment, programming language or object model.
Benefi ts● Web pages with interview results are updated
in real time. Rapid design, test, and build of code through reusable objects.
● Handles more than 80,000 applications from candidates in 9 countries, 24x7.
● Scalable, open architecture with the fl exibility to cope with surges of 100,000 applications and more during recruitment campaigns.
● Concurrent access by over 250 line managers, recruiters, and potential hires.
20
Worthy says: “IT managers are free to allocate
human resources as they think fi t because
developers can use the languages they are
most familiar with. The .NET Framework
helps developers to use different languages
at different places in the platform. We used
Microsoft Visual C#® development tool in the
middle layer and Microsoft ASP.NET in the front
layer, for example, but there are 25 languages
supported.”
The .NET Framework helps developers to
build Web-based applications, smart client
applications, and XML Web services appli-
cations over a network using standard protocols
such as simple object access protocol (SOAP)
and hyper text transfer protocol (HTTP). It offers
standards-based interoperability, modular
and reusable code, and multi-language
connections.
All recruitment information is stored in the
SQL Server 2000 database. The Konetic system
enables recruiters to access, view, and analyse
over 100,000 applications in a familiar in-box
view from a Web browser.
Konetic helps recruiters to sift through
applications from more than 80,000 students
worldwide, book interviews, and record
feedback and outcomes. Adam Wright, Account
and Project Manager for Deutsche Bank at
Kprime, says: “Prior to .NET, we would have
created the application using standard Web
forms, which would have had to query the
server before returning an answer. It would have
been very slow and cumbersome. But the Web
services-based application dynamically updates
pages in real time, which is vital to recruiters
searching for the candidates’ interview results.”
Recruiters can search more than 100,000
concurrent applications to fi nd key candidates
and arrange interview dates. During the
campus recruitment project, they scheduled
more than 1,300 candidate interviews in
multiple locations. This was of strategic
importance to Deutsche Bank.
The system offers rich, interactive user interfaces
with a familiar look-and-feel. Worthy says: “The
.NET Framework helped us to develop a system
that looks like a desktop application. This is
vital for people using it for 8 or 9 hours a day.
The solution took just 9 weeks from signing the
deal to launching the system in 5 regions. This
speed of development offers a huge commercial
advantage to companies wanting to get to
market fast.”
“ In today’s marketplace, organisations may be recruiting fewer
graduates but receiving more applications. They need a tool to
attract and identify key candidates effectively and cost-effi ciently.”
Dr Paul Worthy, CEO, Kprime.
Business Critical Benefi ts
Deutsche Bank recruits more than 1,000 top graduates and MBAs every year. It needed an automated and cost-effective system to help identify the right candidates from more than 80,000 different applications.
The bank deployed Konetic, a human capital management system, using the Microsoft® .NET Framework, Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET, Microsoft Windows® 2000 Server, XML, and Web services.
Deutsche Bank is gaining several key benefi ts from the system:● Fast time to market with the application rolled
out worldwide in 9 weeks.● Flexibility to develop multi-language versions
of the system.● Manages large volumes of graduate
applications.● Robust development environment with
familiar Microsoft technologies.
21
Since developing the solution for Deutsche
Bank, Kprime has been invited to customise and
implement it at a large international law fi rm.
The system can be deployed in-house or as a
remotely managed solution in any market sector.
Benefi ts Scalable Architecture
Recruiters in 9 countries routinely handle more
than 80,000 applications from candidates
all over the world, around the clock, but the
system has the fl exibility to cope with surges in
demand during recruitment campaigns.
Wright says: “Konetic has demonstrated that
it has the fl exibility to cope with large volumes
of applications from diverse sets of candidates.
But each individual applicant has a tailored and
personalised application console to provide
them with a very rich experience during the
recruitment process.”
Optimised and Auto-Generated Code
Worthy says: “We worked rapidly because of
the pre-built libraries of code available within
the .NET Framework. The code covers 80% of
commonly used coding requests and code can
be reused in an application or new service.”
“ Microsoft Visual Studio and .NET give us a fast but robust development
environment and real commercial advantage. We can deliver solutions
tailored to our customers’ exact requirements at a fraction of the cost
of previous technologies.”
Dr Paul Worthy, CEO, Kprime .
Ease of Development, Deployment,
and Maintenance
Wright says: “Visual Studio.NET is a true
development environment. The server
environment (Microsoft Windows 2000 and
Microsoft SQL Server) were linked by the
common language runtime. This means we can
use different languages at different places in
the environment.”
Worthy agrees: “The key strength of Visual
Studio .NET is that developers can use any of
the 25 languages supported. This means they
can use the tools they are most comfortable
with rather than being shoe-horned into having
to learn new languages at speed.”
Jeremy Holland, Head of Development, led
Kprime’s implementation for Deutsche Bank.
The .NET Framework and Visual Studio .NET
development system impressed him. He says:
“The .NET Framework was invaluable in helping
us to complete a signifi cant implementation
on time and to budget.
“The robustness of the platform, comple-
mented by the rich depth of available functions,
meant that the timeframe between design and
release was reduced enormously. Visual Studio
.NET helped us to rapidly develop bespoke
toolsets for speeding up the development
process.”
Worthy agrees: “Visual Studio and the .NET
Framework gives us a fast but robust develop-
ment environment and real commercial
advantage. We can deliver solutions tailored
to our customers’ exact requirements at a
fraction of the cost of previous technologies.”
The solution has the openness and fl exibility to
develop multi-language versions. Worthy says:
“We already offered candidates the opportunity
to ask questions and receive answers in
Japanese, although the system does not have
full Japanese language functionality yet.”
22
23
London-based Hiscox Insurance Company has
a century-long history of underwriting rare
and diffi cult-to-insure items. The company’s
activities cover a diverse range of products,
from bloodstock to satellites, meaning that
its claims process is rarely straightforward. It
wanted to increase the fl exibility of its responses
to insurance claims and ensure it surpassed
regulatory expectations.
To achieve this, Hiscox created a new claims
management system (CMS) using the Microsoft®
.NET Framework. The new CMS replaced the
paper-based claims process, letting experts
electronically attach notes on losses and
relevant secondary data such as photos of dam-
age, rather than storing and archiving reams of
paper. Using the .NET Framework, the company
has signifi cantly accelerated claims processing,
reduced running costs, and passed on these
benefi ts to customers and shareholders.
SituationHiscox is a London-based specialist insurance
group with roots going back 100 years. The
fi rm insures a variety of specialist products such
as race horses, fi lm productions, and works of
art. The complexity of these items means that
honouring claims can be an intricate process.
The company covers retail, specifi cally high-net-
Hiscox Transforms Claims Management ProcessWith Automated Systems
worth for individuals, as well as Lloyd’s business
insurance specialist technical operations such as
the launching of satellites.
In early 2002, most claims were still processed
manually and a great deal of paper was being
passed to various business areas before a claim
could be honoured. Given the nature of the
products being insured, Hiscox recognised
the need to improve its speed of response to
claims, many of which were unique and of
exceptionally high value. Paying claims quickly
is good business sense, because it proves the
company’s reliability, but it has to be done in a
way that ensures the validity of a claim and does
not compromise the business nor the insurer’s
regulatory responsibilities.
Creating a more effi cient CMS would also reduce
the administrative costs of archiving. In a paper-
based system, hard copies of relevant faxes and
fax receipts had to be archived and the cost
of managing and maintaining such in-depth
records was more expensive. It also took up to
a day to locate or retrieve a document. Many
of these were stored in the company’s branch
offi ce in Colchester, 50 miles to the north-east
of London. This added to the time taken to
answer queries.
Hiscoxwww.hiscox.com
Customer Profi leHiscox Group offers specialist insurance services to high net worth individuals and corporates.
Business SituationDespite the diversity of the group, there were effi ciencies that could be enjoyed by accelerating the claims process and reducing the cost and ineffi ciencies associated with paper-based claims processing.
SolutionHiscox used a range of Microsoft® tools to create an electronic claims management system, signifi cantly speeding up the claims process.
Benefi ts● Scalable solution.● Deliver business intelligence.● Compliance and ease of audit.● Improved customer service.● Integration across systems.
24
At the same time, the company recognised
that it could signifi cantly reduce costs and
ineffi ciencies by bringing together the claims
management processes of subsidiaries: Hiscox
Insurance Company, the U.K. retail insurance
division, and Hiscox Syndicate 33, the Lloyd’s
underwriters. While both worked in very different
ways and in different markets, the claims man-
agement process was similar and as a result
could be unifi ed, bringing signifi cant potential
for economies of scale.
Meanwhile, the Basel II capital adequacy
requirements had meant that the business
needed to manage its reserves effectively to
ensure compliance. Hiscox recognised that it
could meet its commitments more effectively
using technology.
Adam Rushin, U.K. and Europe Operations
Director at Hiscox in London, says: “Managing
claims is fundamental to what we do. If the
system does not work then we cannot honour
claims our customers make.
“This is more than an inconvenience for them,
it would undermine the whole purpose of
insuring. As a result, we have to be completely
confi dent in any solution that we use.”
It was becoming clear that standing still was
not an option. “Claimants now take for granted
the speed of service in industries such as banking
and expect us to be equally responsive in our
business,” says Rushin.
SolutionTraditionally, the insurance industry has not
been an early adopter of technology, but
Hiscox recognised that automating the claims
management process had the potential to
improve working practices and unify claims
management within the company’s subsidiaries.
“We wanted to implement a business process
that reduced business costs and provided effec-
tive cash management, while still focusing on
improved customer service, to further support
our image in the marketplace,” says Rushin.
“Delivering improvements in how we manage
working capital was key, particularly because of
the changes since Basel II.
“We needed to improve the claims management
processes so that a broker can track a claim all
the way online,” he says. “We also wanted loss
adjustors to be able to enter details into the
system directly so there was no re-keying of
information, and then add notes and fi les such
as videos and photos.
“ Claimants now take for granted the speed of service in industries such
as banking and expect us to be equally responsive in our business.”
Adam Rushin, U.K. and Europe Operations Director, Hiscox
Business Critical Benefi ts
London-based Hiscox needed to automate its claims management process. The specialist underwriting fi rm seized the opportunity to reduce costs and improve effi ciencies, while also ensuring easier compliance with new regulations.
Hiscox used the Microsoft® .NET Framework to deliver a new claims management system (CMS), Microsoft ASP.NET for the Web-based user interface, Microsoft SQL ServerTM 2000 database, and Microsoft Windows ServerTM 2003, part of Microsoft Windows Server SystemTM integrated server software. The technology integrated easily with Hiscox’s other business systems.
The range of benefi ts extended to Hiscox included:● New tools and services rolled out more
quickly.● Better use of critical data and improved
claims management.● Automated audit trail for compliance.● Claimants reimbursed in 24 hours.● Re-keying of information eliminated.
25
forward signifi cantly outweighed any perceived
risk, and it has repeatedly proved itself.”
CMS Is Built on a Variety of Microsoft
Technologies:
● Microsoft SQL ServerTM 2000 is used to store
claims information, including copies of the
original policy.
● ASP.NET is used to generate the Web-based
user interface.
● The whole system runs on Microsoft Windows
ServerTM 2003, which includes the core
infrastructure for running and delivering
applications using Microsoft Internet Security
and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2000.
It has drastically reduced the amount of paper
within the claims process, letting the group
consolidate the claims management process
across the organisation, save administration
costs, and deliver a signifi cant improvement in
the quality of service customers enjoy.
“Using SQL Server 2000 in a true relational
model lets us maximise the use of data,” says
Rayner. “It lets us use a lot of data that we did
not previously have access to, which adds
signifi cant value to the process.”
“ While the .NET Framework was new to the industry in 2002,
we were confi dent that it would provide exactly what we needed
because it was based on a mature language and was quicker
and more fl exible than alternatives.”
Gary Rayner, Senior Project Manager, Hiscox
CMS Was Delivered in 4 Phases:
● The fi rst phase put 4 products on the system.
It took 12 months for this phase to go live,
making sure that the business was clear what
was being delivered and testing it extensively.
● Phase 2 took around 4 months and extended
the functionality of the CMS as well as adding
a further 16 products to the system.
● Phase 3 saw a similar number of products
added over 5 months. General access for
brokers and assessors also went live as part
of this phase.
● The fi nal phase, which was introduced in
mid-2005, added localised tools to ensure
that it can be used in Hiscox subsidiary offi ces
in the Netherlands, France, Germany, and the
Channel Islands, as well as adding support for
4 totally new insurance products.
Benefi tsScalable Solution
Working in the .NET Framework has meant
that the CMS is highly effi cient, but also has
the capacity to support the fi rm’s creation of
more high-volume products. “The system has
a signifi cant capacity, so we have the freedom
to expand the range of products we offer if we
choose,” says Rayner. “In the past, technology
has constrained our capacity for development,
but this is no longer the case.”
“Finally, they needed to track the claim through
the complete process.”
The fi rm spent 6 months looking at off-the-shelf
options before going out to tender to create
a bespoke system. Gary Rayner, Senior Project
Manager, Hiscox, says: “We looked in the
market to see what systems were out there, but
we came to the conclusion that this was not
an effective route to take. Buying off-the-shelf
would have given us savings in the short term,
but we felt that it would have cost too much to
tailor a system to make it fi t our requirements.”
Hiscox has had a 5-year relationship with
independent service provider Bytes Technology,
to which it turned to deliver the new CMS. The
company recommended that Hiscox use the
.NET Framework, an integral component of
Microsoft Windows® that provides a program-
ming model and runtime for Web services, Web
applications, and smart client applications.
“While the .NET Framework was new to the
industry in 2002, we were confi dent that it
would provide exactly what we needed because
it was based on a mature language and was
quicker and more fl exible than alternatives,”
says Rayner. “The strategic decision to move
26
Rayner says that the .NET Framework also
helped the company to deliver new tools and
services far more speedily, because systems
move from the design to the live phase very
quickly. “From previous experience, the testing
and release phase is a lot easier and more
fl exible,” he adds. “New releases of the system
can be done in an hour, and this brings the
budget down signifi cantly.”
Improved Expert Profi ling
The system also lets Hiscox improve the service
it provides by rating experts according to their
expertise. The breakage or loss of an insured
item is a diffi cult time, but using a CMS based
on the .NET Framework has ensured that Hiscox
offers an expert response to individual cases.
“CMS lets us rate our experts, so we know exactly
what their strengths are. This gives us an extra
level of transparency so we can see who should
be assigned to a case,” says Rushin.
Delivers Business Intelligence
Using the .NET Framework has let Hiscox
access data that has signifi cantly benefi ted the
business. Peter McLoughlin, London-based
claims underwriter at Hiscox, says: “The CMS
has exposed a lot of data that we did not know
we had, and done it in such a way that we can
quickly take advantage of it. We are now able to
monitor the speed of claims and the effective-
ness of our products, helping us to become a
more streamlined organisation.”
McLoughlin says benefi ts include:
● Automation of claims movement alerting.
● Transparency and access to information
without the need to rely on IT support.
● Information regarding the time taken to
process claims.
● What claims are in the pipeline.
● How individual experts are rated.
Taken together this has signifi cantly improved
the company’s understanding of how it
manages claims activity.
Compliance and Ease of Audit
The CMS also helps Hiscox stand out when
it comes to audit and compliance, because it
automatically records all the details of a claim,
its progress, and relevant notes.
“The CMS gives us central control over every-
thing we do,” says McLoughlin. “Every e-mail
message sent regarding a claim is automatically
fi led with the case and can be found easily in
seconds. With the previous system, physical fi les
could be stored either in London or Colchester,
so it took signifi cantly longer to answer a query.
“We were recently audited by a broking
company. We gave them access to the CMS and
they sat in the offi ce for 4 hours, after which
they left with all the information they needed,”
he adds. “The important thing to note is that
during those 4 hours, they did not have to ask
any questions, they could fi nd everything they
needed, and we could carry on with our work.
“Another benefi t is at a far lower level. With
the CMS, anyone with access can get to the
information they need. Even if the person
directly involved with a specifi c case is on
holiday when a query comes up, there is no
need to go into their offi ce, work through their
fi les or turn on the computer. The CMS provides
all the information required without having to
interrupt daily activities.”
Improved Customer Service
The system is designed to recognise claims
that are reasonable and ensure that claimants
are reimbursed within 24 hours. This has
signifi cantly reduced the paperwork and
administration time needed for a standard
claim, and lets the claims team concentrate on
more in-depth work.
“We can now make retail payments on the
day of the claim,” says Rayner. “The system can
27
create a cheque or BACS payment automatically
if the claim falls within a set of predefi ned
criteria. Rather than retaining a team of fully
trained lawyers to look over every claim, most
can be looked after by administrative staff and
only escalated in exceptional circumstances.”
“Before the CMS was introduced, we processed
around 800 claims per annum per person,” says
McLoughlin. “We now process more than 1,000.
At the same time we have reduced the amount
of claims that we outsource, from about 50%
of the business that we deal with to about
20%.” Rushin adds: “By automating many of
the simple administrative tasks, our teams can
focus on tasks that require their experience and
knowledge, and use their brains to make a real
difference in each transaction.”
Integration Across Systems
The CMS is integrated very deeply with other
systems at Hiscox. Says Rayner: “It is integrated
across a variety of systems, which previously
did not communicate, so we can be far more
structured and organised. It has also minimised
re-keying of information, so the potential for
mistakes is reduced.”
Using the .NET Framework, the CMS integrates
with a variety of systems including Insure 90
for fi nancial processing, Magic Eurobase, which
holds syndicate policy information, document
management system Hummingbird DocsOpen,
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 communi-
cation and collaboration server, and SQL
Server 2000.
“Because of the way that it is designed, team
leaders can keep control of their teams author-
ity levels automatically, which means that they
can proactively approach problems. Rather than
having to check over paperwork on a Friday
afternoon, we can be notifi ed immediately if
someone exceeds their authority; it is instantly
fl agged up and we can address the situation,”
says McLoughlin.
Rayner believes the fl exible nature of the
.NET Framework has delivered a variety of
benefi ts to the business. “Working with the .NET
Framework means we can amend the system
quickly and with minimal downtime as new
business needs become clear,” he says.
“We have been very impressed with how
the system has integrated with our existing
products and how it lets us take advantage of
data that we could not previously use.”
“ By automating many of the simple administrative tasks, our teams
can focus on tasks that require their experience and knowledge,
and use their brains to make a real difference in each transaction.”
Adam Rushin, U.K. and Europe Operations Director, Hiscox
28
29
Lloyd’s Register has existed since 1760, provid-
ing independent risk assessment and mitigation
services. Its 5,500 staff, 40% of whom are
classifi ed as mobile, operate out of 234 offi ces
in 120 countries in Europe, the Middle East,
Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The non-profi t-
distributing organisation took the decision to
consolidate its diverse IT architecture 3 years
ago, choosing the Microsoft® environment over
alternatives such as Linux.
The previous architecture included more than
100 data centres running a mixture of Microsoft
Windows NT® version 4.0, Enterprise Edition,
and versions 3 and 4 of Novell NetWare. In
addition, the IT division supported more than
62 different PC types globally.
It also moved from HP OpenMail to Microsoft
Exchange 2000 Server, and consolidated
76 Unix servers down to 56 Exchange 2000
Servers; a further reduction to 20 is expected
when Lloyd’s Register completes the move
to Exchange Server 2003 shortly. As a result,
IT operating spend at Lloyd’s Register has
dropped by more than 30%. The company is
now looking to develop more and more appli-
cations using the Microsoft .NET Framework,
particularly to bolster its support for mobile
staff.
Lloyd’s Register Cuts IT Spend by A Third
SituationLloyd’s Register has offered risk assessment and
mitigation services for nearly 250 years. Having
begun its life examining and classifying the
sea-worthiness of merchant ships, its opera-
tions have since expanded into management
systems, land-based industries, and oil and gas.
Lloyd’s Register’s IT infrastructure has evolved
sporadically. Stephen Hand, Group IT Director,
Lloyd’s Register, says: “In terms of technology,
this was a very fragmented organisation, with
each country operating as an independent unit.
Resources were spent on overlapping systems,
and information fl ow was restricted. We needed
to create a global infrastructure.”
Daniel King, Head of Architecture, Lloyd’s
Register, says: “We had data centres in 100 of
the 234 offi ces. This meant it was not easy to
get data from one system to another. The IT
department supported 62 different models of
desktop and laptop, and so support was taking
far more of our time than it should have.”
Savings are fundamental to any business, but
the risk assessment arm of Lloyd’s Register has
a wider responsibility. The company registers
fl eets of ships and has a global remit to ensure
that safety standards are maintained, classifying
Lloyd’s Registerwww.lr.org
Customer Profi leLloyd’s Register provides safety certifi cation for a range of marine and land-based infrastructure globally.
Business SituationThe IT approach had evolved rather than been designed, with each of the company’s 120 national offi ces operating independent IT strategies.
SolutionLloyd’s Register used a range of Microsoft® tools to introduce a unifi ed IT strategy across its entire global operation, signifi cantly reducing costs in the process.
Benefi ts● Global IT spend down to 4%.● 75% reduction in servers.● Improved information sharing.● Supporting mobile working.● Rapid response to change.
30
shipping, oil platforms, and physical infrastruc-
ture according to safety levels. “This is not just
about the bottom line; this is using IT to carry
out our mission to ensure lives are safe both at
sea and on land,” says Hand.
“The compliance responsibilities mean that
we are often the regulator as much as the
regulated, and so we have to ensure that the
tools we operate with are very effective, and
that we have the best possible information,”
he says.
The fragmented legacy architecture made it
diffi cult to extract risk assessment information
where it was needed. An assessor often had
information, which could be useful to a
colleague in making a decision, but because
the information was stored locally on a laptop,
rather than automatically in a global data
centre, decisions were being slowed down.
“When the information is needed to ensure
the safety of an activity, the speed with which it
is circulated around the business is of funda-
mental importance to a company’s fi nancial
viability, and the safety of its employees,” says
Hand. “When there are obstacles to the rapid
dissemination of that information, it adds
unnecessary costs and puts the business at risk.”
This also jeopardised the overall reputation of
the organisation. Hand says: “We have the right
to ban ships from sailing if we believe safety
levels are not up to standard, so we cannot be
commercially infl uenced in any way. Equally,
the decision to stop a ship from sailing can have
serious implications for the company that owns
it. That company has the right to expect that we
are working with the best available tools and
have all the relevant risk assessment informa-
tion at our fi ngertips.”
SolutionLloyd’s Register needed a system that could
support its entire portfolio of business, including
maritime, land-based, and management services
operations. The organisation was also looking
for a system that could support its increasingly
mobile workforce and help the business
respond quickly to future regulatory changes.
“We were fairly agnostic about which environ-
ment we took, we simply wanted to make the
right decision,” says King. “Unix appears to lack
a roadmap for the future. We expected Linux
to be signifi cantly cheaper, but not only was
this not the case, because of the tier approach
that we took, it is actually not as versatile as the
Microsoft offerings.”
“We had data centres in 100 of the 234 offi ces. This meant it was
not easy to get data from one system to another. The IT department
supported 62 different models of desktop and laptop, and so support
was taking far more of our time than it should have.”
Daniel King, Head of Architecture, Lloyd’s Register
Business Critical Benefi ts
Lloyd’s Register, the highly-respected provider of safety certifi cates for marine and land-based customers, wanted to standardise its IT archi - tecture, which included more than 100 data centres running on disparate operating and e-mail messaging systems. It also needed to reduce the cost of its IT operations.
Lloyd’s Register evaluated various alternatives including Linux. It chose an integrated Microsoft® stack including Microsoft Windows ServerTM 2003 with Active Directory® directory service, Windows® XP, and Microsoft Offi ce Professional Enterprise Edition 2003. As a result, IT costs have been cut by a third over 3 years.
Among the key benefi ts from the standardisation are:● Consolidation of servers from 76 to 20.● IT costs reduced by a third with pressure
relieved on help desk.● Flag state information changed in seconds
not days.● Supports an increased move towards
mobile working.
31
King says that because Lloyd’s Register was
receiving educational pricing for Windows, the
capital cost of procurement was comparable
to Linux. “Therefore, we only had to review the
cost of ownership of each and its suitability
to host the applications we currently run and
want to run in the future. Cost of ownership in
2002 came out at around 25 to 30% more using
Linux compared to Windows Server 2003, and
crucially it did not offer the fl exibility to host our
adaptive infrastructure approach.”
The project to unify the technology began in
April 2002, with migration to Active Directory®
directory service completed in October the
same year. Rollout of Windows® XP and
Microsoft Offi ce Professional Enterprise Edition
2003 was completed in June 2003, while the
rollout of Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server took
place between January 2003 and 2004.
“The current project is upgrading from
Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server to Microsoft
Exchange Server 2003 to ensure that we can
take advantage of the extensive mobile options
in the latest iteration,” says King. “Exchange
Server 2003 will publish all of our data to the
Web, so it can be accessed directly. At this
point, there is a lot of information being stored
locally on individual computers. The integrated
“ As a result of introducing a unifi ed Microsoft strategy, IT operating
spend has dropped by between 30 and 35% annually over the last
3 years. This not only brings savings to the business, it also adds
to our overall credibility.”
Stephen Hand, Group IT Director, Lloyd’s Register
use of Exchange Server 2003, the 2003 release
of Microsoft Offi ce, and Microsoft Offi ce
InfoPathTM 2003 will deliver a lot of new tools
for our users.
“We have so many data assets, we need
to ensure they are managed and archived
effectively, and Exchange Server 2003 will help
us achieve this. Future legislation is likely to
demand that we have greater access to it, but
the point is to ensure that our staff has access to
what they need to make the right decisions.”
All of the 5,500 users at Lloyd’s Register are
now running Microsoft Offi ce XP Professional
on the desktop and are using a standard range
of hardware provided by HP. Capgemini has
been the outsource partner and has brought its
extensive experience in major re-architecture
projects to bear at Lloyd’s Register.
The company is also using Microsoft Internet
Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004
alongside a selection of third-party vendors to
ensure that security is as effective as possible,
and has been working with Microsoft and
Capgemini to boost its Web services using
Microsoft Identity Integration Server (MIIS)
2003.
The consolidation within the data centre took
an adaptive infrastructure approach, and it was
this that exposed the potential lack of versatility
in Linux, suggests King. Where previously there
had been a point-based approach to hosting
applications on the infrastructure, with a server
being brought in specifi cally for an application,
Lloyd’s Register now defi nes applications
by specifi c patterns, such as 2-tier, 3-tier, or
n-tier server. As a result, the company can now
provision each application tier against sets
of infrastructure that are shared across many
applications.
“Our feasibility studies compared Linux, Unix,
and Microsoft Windows ServerTM 2003 to de-
termine which environment would be best for
supporting this methodology,” says King. “We
found that Windows Server 2003 presented the
most fl exible approach. With it, we can provi-
sion database tiers based on both Microsoft
SQL ServerTM 2000 Enterprise Edition and
Oracle, our corporate standard database plat-
form. We can host both .NET and J2EE appli-
cations, we can utilise existing hardware, and
we can consolidate this as we wish on a rolling
basis. Windows Server 2003 offered us the most
cost effective approach and was more fl exible
than Linux in this respect.”
32
“The new systems will give us better integration
with third parties in the industry,” says King.
“We are also looking to provide managed
digital internal identity as well as enterprise
active management tools. They will provide us
with a better idea of who is using the systems
and services and ensure that we are integrated
all the way through the service. We can now
get an around-the-clock view of who is using
the service.”
Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 is being
used to provide a string of alerting and
trouble-shooting tools. Active Directory is
being extended into the data centre, which is
in the process of being outsourced. Moving
forward, Lloyd’s Register remains committed
to Microsoft products and is in the process of
making bespoke developments in the Microsoft
.NET Framework, an integral component of
Microsoft Windows that provides a program-
ming model and runtime for Web services, Web
applications, and smart client applications.
“We want to build more business support
systems and let our staff drill down further
and get more information, more easily, and
in a more integrated fashion,” says Hand.
“A high proportion of our staff do not work
from an offi ce, so it is imperative that they
have constant access to tools tailored to their
specifi c requirements.”
Benefi tsIT Costs Reduced by One Third
As a result of the work to unify the structure,
and the reduction in servers and licences, Hand
estimates that IT costs have dropped by more
than a third.
“As a result of introducing a unifi ed Microsoft
strategy, IT spend has dropped by between 30
and 35% over the last 3 years,” says Hand. “This
not only brings savings to the business, it also
brings us credibility to keep moving forward.”
The new architecture has helped Lloyd’s Register
continue to assert its relevance in the modern
global economy. Rather than simply being
another regulatory hurdle to companies trying
to carry out their business, the company now
offers a signifi cant collection of information,
which can be used to support decision making.
The benefi ts have also been felt by Lloyd’s
Register’s IT call-centre staff. “Since the new
infrastructure has been put in, the help desk has
seen a signifi cant reduction in the numbers of
calls it receives,” says King. “The types of call are
also changing. People are no longer asking
how to get one system to interact with another,
they are now far more proactive, making sug-
gestions for tools, which will help the business
move forward.”
Number of Servers Reduced from 76 to 20
Lloyd’s Register has realised signifi cant savings
in the number of servers it needs to operate
and maintain. This has reduced the amount
of downtime when information is no longer
available and opened up different collections of
data to one another, bringing the potential for
the company to create more tools.
“Moving to a unifi ed Microsoft architecture has
reduced the servers we run from 76 to 54,” says
King. “Once Exchange Server 2003 is in place,
we will only have to operate 20 servers globally.
We will be able to run multiple applications
over single servers, a feature of Exchange Server
2003, so we can continue to consolidate our
hardware as we grow.”
Coupled with this, King points out that Lloyd’s
Register benefi ts from cost effective develop-
ment skills by using Microsoft. In the main,
the company buys best-of-breed systems for
its activities, only bringing in developers for
very specifi c line-of-business activities. In this
situation Unix-based skills, including Linux
33
developers, are signifi cantly more expensive
than Microsoft.
“It costs 8 times more to run a Unix server than
Windows XP Professional, because the cost of
Unix skills is signifi cantly higher,” he says.
Flag State Information Changed in Seconds
The company’s integrated global data centre
reduces processing time and ensures that
Lloyd’s Register complies with any possible
new regulations that could be introduced.
By ensuring that data is easily available across
the business, it benefi ts from having the most
up-to-date information when decisions are
being made. It also means data is not collected
twice and changes in information are easier
to track.
InfoPath 2003 plays a role here. David Knott,
Chief Technology Offi cer, Lloyd’s Register, says:
“On the marine side, we operate on behalf of
fl ag states. Changing a ship from one fl ag to
another is very complex and used to involve
changing a lot of information manually. We are
using InfoPath 2003, because it lets us apply
rules and keep the look and feel of a Microsoft
Word document, but makes it simple to convert
information on a ship from 1 fl ag to another.
Where it formerly took several days to change
and process a ship’s registration, with InfoPath
2003 it takes seconds.”
Supporting Mobile Working in
Risk Assessment
The nature of Lloyd’s Register’s work has meant
that the drive towards supporting mobile
working by Microsoft and its partners has been
welcomed. Moving to Exchange Server 2003
lets the company make the most of the tools
that are currently available and puts it in a
position to make the most of new ones as
they arrive.
“One of the next projects is to introduce Voice
over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to the working
processes, which should also save us a signifi -
cant amount of money given the amount of
international calls that we make,” says King.
“The benefi ts that being mobile can bring
to the organisation will be signifi cant. The
hardware and services that we are putting
into place will help us move towards an
integrated VoIP infrastructure. As the technol-
ogy becomes more commoditised we will
look to offer more tools.”
Rapid Response to Change
Hand says that the integrated Microsoft
approach lets Lloyd’s Register respond quickly
and effectively to the rapid pace of change in
the industry. “Using Microsoft means that we
simply remove the IT risk, which is consider-
able,” he adds. “We are pushing so much
change and we are fi nding we can optimise
the business processes and support them far
more effectively with the technology that
Microsoft provides.
“Rather than recognising a need and then
having a hiatus as a system is designed and
installed, by which time the business need has
changed, we can recognise and respond to a
need very quickly. Creating an environment
where this is possible while reducing costs by a
third at the same time is very satisfactory.”
The benefi ts of the consolidation work are now
being felt across the business. “The aim of the
overall programme of work was to bring down
IT spending globally to a threshold of 4% of
revenue, from a previous fi gure in excess of 6%,”
says King. “This is now starting to be realised,
and global IT consolidation has been a primary
contributor to this.”
“ We are using InfoPath 2003, because it lets us apply rules and keep
the look and feel of a Microsoft Word document, but makes it simple
to convert information on a ship from one fl ag to another.”
David Knott, Chief Technology Offi cer, Lloyd’s Register
34
35
Capgemini is one of the world’s top fi ve providers of IT solutions and services and a Microsoft® Gold Certifi ed Partner. Founded in 1967, Capgemini provides consulting, technology, and outsourcing services. With headquarters in Paris, the company is one of the world’s leading IT services and consulting companies. For more information about Capgemini products and services visit the Web site at:www.capgemini.com
Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance, an asset-based
lending specialist, offers lending based on all of
a client’s assets, including the value of receivables
and stock held. Its existing technology provided
the functionality users wanted, including a
dashboard of a customer’s position and the
ability to drill down for information, but was
technically very prescriptive and reaching the
limits of its capabilities.
Added to this, replacement parts for the
physical infrastructure were increasingly diffi cult
to fi nd, and the environment itself is likely to
become unsupported in the medium term.
After examining all of the options available,
the company turned to the Microsoft® .NET
Framework to build a new system that offers the
same functionality with superior scalability and
robustness.
SituationLloyds TSB Commercial Finance, part of the
U.K. Lloyds TSB Group, had been using its Client
Account and Management System (CLAS) for its
range of discounted lending activities for over
a decade. The system, based on a Wang server,
was robust, and for some years there had been
no need for signifi cant redesigns or additions
from a user’s point of view.
Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance Introduces New Technology Architecture
CLAS is deeply embedded into the company’s
working practices and manages daily
information from 2,500 customers. “Invoice
discounting accounts for around 50% of our
profi ts, and CLAS is used for everything to do
with that part of the business,” says Paul Jenkins,
Project Manager at Lloyds TSB Commercial
Finance.
“On top of this, it runs the other lending asset
classes that we offer, and monitors collateral
and information that we need to ascertain daily
lending levels.
“Customers provide CLAS with daily information,
which lets them know exactly how much they
can borrow against their assets,” he says. “It also
operates the risk management process, verifi es
the debt, and monitors the top 5 debtors to
ensure that risk is safely distributed.”
While the software may have been robust
and its functionality appreciated within the
user base, a number of problems had arisen.
Of immediate concern was a recent hardware
failure, which highlighted the increasing
diffi culty of obtaining replacement parts.
The understanding that Getronics, the company
that took-over Wang support in the mid-1990’s,
Lloyds TSBwww.lloydstsb.com
Customer Profi leLloyds TSB Commercial Finance is one of the largest providers of asset-based lending in the United Kingdom, offering services across a range of asset classes.
Business SituationAlthough its architecture was popular with customers, regulation, consolidation, and business growth were imposing stresses and strain.
SolutionThe company is using the Microsoft® .NET Framework to emulate the functionality of its current platform, ensuring it retains the tools users appreciate, while adding fl exibility and scalability.
Benefi ts● New system without disruption.● Improved navigation.● Enhanced development capability.● Improved regulatory response.● Removed constraints to growth.
36
was likely to stop supporting the technology
was also a key factor in the decision to change.
Basel II Requirements
Meanwhile, the introduction of the Basel II
regulations required that the company had
a fl exible method of mining data. “We have
to provide better tools for risk management
as a result of Basel II,” says Jenkins. “We were
beginning to have to make compromises in
usability because of CLAS’ lack of fl exibility.”
The industry is also changing. “As the industry
has evolved, specialist organisations have
sprung up, which lend against specifi c asset
classes,” says Jenkins. “Alex Lawrie Factors, Cash
Friday, Lloyds TSB Asset Finance, and Lloyds TSB
Commercial Finance were brought together
as a single organisation because Lloyds TSB
wanted a company that could lend a complete
package to business customers that ranged in
size from £10,000 to £160 million (U.S. $18,032
to U.S. $288.6 million).”
Jenkins says that further specialist businesses
could be added to the organisation, bringing
additional asset classes into the system. The
closed nature of CLAS makes it diffi cult to cater
for new products.
Having systems capable of catering for global
growth was also a challenge because of CLAS’
rigid nature. “This has led to re-keying of data
from incompatible systems, an inherently error
prone activity,” says Jenkins.
SolutionHaving made the decision to develop CLASii,
the second generation of CLAS, Lloyds TSB
Commercial Finance undertook an in-depth
examination of the development options avail-
able. It was decided to use the .NET Framework,
an integral component of Microsoft Windows®
that provides a programming model and
runtime for Web services, Web applications,
and smart client applications.
“We looked at the market and saw that we had 3
alternatives,” says Guy Hurrell, Business Systems
Manager, Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance. “We
could develop a new system from scratch, which
would cost a great deal of money, take a long
time, and risk losing the functionality that CLAS
currently provides. Alternatively, we could buy
a system off the shelf, but the cost of customisa-
tion would have been prohibitive.
“In the end, we decided that CLAS’ functionality
is known and liked, so there was no need to
change the core functionality.”
“We have to provide better tools for risk management as a result of
Basel II. We were beginning to have to make compromises in usability
because of CLAS’ lack of fl exibility.”
Paul Jenkins, Project Manager, Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance
Business Critical Benefi ts
Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance made a virtue out of necessity by upgrading its IT architecture. It needed to provide better tools for risk management and support compliance with the Basel II Capital Accord. It also wanted to accommodate global growth in its business.
The solution involved creating a new version of its existing proprietary software using the Microsoft® .NET Framework. The new risk management system is being built around Microsoft SQL ServerTM 2000, which provides the data management infrastructure for Microsoft Windows Server SystemTM integrated server software.
Among the major benefi ts for the business are:● Increased fl exibility, functionality, and
continuity of data.● No change in current working practices for
staff.● Greater customer satisfaction through more
effi cient service.● Delivers the foundation for further expansion
of the business.
37
alongside the Microsoft Visual Basic® .NET 2003
development system.
CLASii is being delivered in 4 segments, each
being individually load tested for performance.
“There are certain implications of the old
system in the way that we were using it,” says
Hurrell. “We want to ensure that we are not
emulating any data bottlenecks, so we are
carefully testing each phase of the project.”
Benefi tsIncreased Flexibility and Functionality
Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance undertook an
extensive examination of the market before
deciding to redevelop CLAS within the .NET
Framework.
“Developing the system this way means that
we get the best of both worlds: CLASii will
be a familiar system that our users will be able
to work with on day one, but in the long term
the business will enjoy signifi cant benefi ts
from its increased fl exibility and functionality,”
says Hurrell.
“The current Wang system and CLAS appli-
cation are managed entirely in-house,” he adds.
“One of the key benefi ts to us is that develop-
ment resource is more readily available in the
“ The key to this project is that it gives us greater fl exibility
and capacity at a lower cost than the alternatives.”
Guy Hurrell, Business Systems Manager, Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance
Microsoft environment, so we are able to make
more signifi cant enhancements as the business
requires. As a result, the business will be able
to capitalise on opportunities that it could not
have taken advantage of in the past.”
Complete New System Without Disruption
One of the key benefi ts of CLASii is that
there will be no change to tried and tested
day-to-day working practices. “Customers will
not notice a difference during the transition to
CLASii, because our managers will have access
to exactly the same tools,” says Hurrell. “We will
be doing this without interruption to customer
facing activities.”
Easier Navigation
While the company’s customers should not
notice any change in service, there will be
instant operational improvements when the
new version goes live.
“It will be signifi cantly easier to navigate,”
says Hurrell. “If a customer contacts our client
service teams and wants information in CLAS,
a manager has to shut what they were doing
and then start from scratch after the customer
is satisfi ed.”
The project to deliver CLASii started in October
2004. Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance is work-
ing with U.S.-based Voyager Systems, an inde-
pendent software vendor that has experience
of similar migrations with competitor platforms.
Because Voyager is a relative newcomer to
the .NET Framework, Lloyds TSB Commercial
Finance also asked Microsoft to play a role in
the development path.
“One of the key problems that we have had
with trying to emulate the original CLAS is
that its age means that there is limited early
documentation to explain how some of the
functions were created,” says Hurrell. “As
a result, we have had to work closely with
Voyager and Microsoft to make sure that
CLASii does not lose any of CLAS’ functionality.
“CLAS does a lot of different things. Users
tend to focus on the top level information that
supports their day-to-day activities, but there is
a lot of data that has to be automatically mined
to populate that top level, and users also have
to be able to drill down when they need to.”
The new system is being built around Microsoft
SQL ServerTM 2000, which provides the data
management and analysis infrastructure for
Windows Server System. This is being used
38
With the new iteration, the manager can
simply minimise a Window, start a second
version of CLASii, give the customer the
information they want, and then carry on
what they were doing originally. It is a simple
thing, but given the depth of information that
the managers have to mine, it should save a
signifi cant amount of time.”
Business Growth
Using the .NET Framework, Lloyds TSB
Commercial Finance is satisfi ed that its infra-
structure will be in a good position to support
future growth. “We are trying to grow the busi-
ness, and the old system was being stretched,”
says Hurrell. “Everything is going to continue
to expand and we are confi dent that we are not
moving to a technology environment that will
stop being supported in the near term.
“We believe that CLASii will help us to react
to changes in expectations, and if enhance-
ments are needed, we will be able to do the
majority of them internally and they will be
delivered quickly.”
While it is unusual to emulate an existing
system in a new environment, Hurrell is satisfi ed
with the approach taken and the progress
made. “The key to this project is that it gives us
greater fl exibility and capacity at a lower cost
than the alternatives,” he says. “This market
is constantly changing and the creation of an
environment that will let us respond to these
changes without losing any functionality helps
us to take advantage of business opportunities
as they present themselves.”
39
New regulations in the mortgage and insurance
industries in the U.K. had a signifi cant effect on
Principality, the largest building society in Wales.
Rather than simply ensuring compliance, the
organisation seized the opportunity to extend
technology across the business and deliver a
host of new online services to customers and
introducing brokers. Using the Microsoft®
.NET Framework, Principality estimates that the
falling cost of technology meant the completely
redesigned system was delivered at 1999
prices, despite the rising cost of specialists and
infl ation. As a result of the project, Principality
became compliant with the CP186 regulations
on deadline, and is now completely self-suffi -
cient in terms of technology updates, helping it
to respond quickly and effectively to regulatory
and customer expectations.
SituationPrincipality has served its members with
mortgage, saving, and insurance services for
over 140 years. The Financial Services Authority
(FSA) in the U.K. introduced regulatory changes
to the mortgage industry at the end of 2004,
enforcing signifi cant amendments to the way
that data is collected and held.
John Williams, Director of IT at Principality, says:
“The CP186 regulations change the way that
Principality Seizes Technology Opportunity in New Mortgage Regulations
mortgages are sold, and the way that we
store and provide information to customers.
There is now a very prescriptive way in which
information must be gathered which has had
a massive impact on the technology that we
use. Similar changes have subsequently affected
our insurance operations.”
As a result of the new regulations, mortgage
customers and their providers now have to fi ll
in a Key Facts Indicator and an Initial Disclosure
Document, which together take signifi cant time
to complete. “The changes are fundamental to
the way that the whole industry does business,
and it was imperative that we were compliant
with the regulations on the fi rst day that they
went live,” says Williams.
The society’s current mortgage delivery system
was effective in the old regulatory environment,
but the introduction of the new regulations
meant that the system needed to be fundamen-
tally reworked.
It was not only customer-facing activities that
were affected. Williams says up to 16 distinct
departments had to amend working practices
as a result of CP186. This meant that the new
system had to take a large number of different
opinions and expectations into account.
Principalitywww.principality.co.uk
Customer Profi lePrincipality is the largest building society in Wales, offering mortgage, insurance, and saving services to a variety of customers.
Business SituationMortgage and insurance regulatory changes require a new approach to the collection and presentation of customer information, creating a need for a new technology infrastructure at Principality.
SolutionUsing the Microsoft® .NET Framework the society met new regulatory requirements while at the same time extending the reach of its technology into new areas of the business.
Benefi ts● Regulatory compliance on time.● Realistic development cost.● Self-suffi ciency.● Improved customer experience.
40
At the same time, Principality recognised it
needed to improve customer service and
product choice, build a unifi ed e-commerce
offering for branches, introducers, and custom-
ers; and also augment its customer relationship
management tools to stay ahead in a fi ercely
competitive industry.
“Principality’s technology only supported the
branch channel,” says Williams. “There was no
technology supporting the e-channel, which
was basically brochure-ware, the call centre,
or the intermediaries, who sell more than half
of the society’s mortgages, but were still
communicating with the society using paper.”
Because of these diverse infl uences, Principality
took the opportunity to signifi cantly scale up its
technology offerings and ensure that it could
respond effectively to any future customer or
regulatory demands.
SolutionGiven the extensive nature of the project,
Principality chose to examine both in-house
and off-the-shelf solutions. The fact, however,
that the CP186 regulations were only in the
process of being introduced, tipped the balance
in favour of working in-house rather than
buying off-the-shelf.
“We looked at the vendor offerings and tested
3 of them, but there were 2 key reasons that
we came to the conclusion it would be better
to build our own,” says Williams. “Firstly, the
vendors had to customise their systems to make
them compliant, so there was no guarantee that
they could work any faster than we could.
“Secondly, they had to support a queue of our
competitors, who also had to have the systems
in place on the same day, which would stretch
the vendor’s support network,” he says.
“Coupled with this, taking an off-the-shelf ap-
proach would simply have introduced a system
with few differences from our competitors’, and
we felt this was a good opportunity to mark
ourselves out from the crowd. We decided that
the quickest and most economical approach
would be to build a system ourselves.”
Principality turned to the .NET Framework, an
integral component of Microsoft Windows®
that provides a programming model and
runtime for Web services, Web applications,
and smart client applications. The society chose
to work with independent service provider CGI.
Williams says this was a good match because
the Microsoft partner’s eBIC e-commerce
framework was highly intuitive and adaptable
to the evolving environment, while CGI was
“ Using the Microsoft .NET Framework, we have met regulatory
changes and signifi cantly enhanced our customer experience.
This has been a complex process, but we have delivered the
system on time and can move forward with confi dence.”
John Williams, Director of IT, Principality
Business Critical Benefi ts
As the largest building society in Wales, Principality has a well-earned reputation for excellence in fi nancial services. The society used the challenge of meeting a major compliance deadline by transforming some of its critical processes, especially the technology supporting its e-channel.
Cost was also an issue. Principality used the Microsoft® .NET Framework to deliver a host of new online services to customers, introducers, and brokers. It was not only customer facing activities that needed reworking. Up to 16 departments needed to change their working practices because of regulatory change.
The .NET Framework helped Principality meet its targets in the following ways:● Compliance with the CP186 regulations
achieved on time.● Redevelopment within 20% of budget despite
the complexity of the project.● Cost savings of 50% by using in-house IT team
instead of outside consultants.● Improved service to key customers and
greater consistency in service.
41
Benefi tsRegulatory Compliance Achieved On Time
The most important element of the project
was that it was delivered on time, ensuring
Principality was compliant with the new
regulations. “It would have been signifi cantly
more diffi cult to do the work had we not used
the latest .NET technology; it would have taken
more resources and the end result would not
have been as good,” says Williams.
“There was no option but to deliver this project
on time, but to have done so while staying
reasonably close to the original budget is very
satisfying. It is clear that the .NET Framework is
a big step forward from a development point
of view.”
Redevelopment Within 20% of Budget
The project was unusual because by its nature
it lacked clear guidelines, but Williams feels
that the costs were realistic given the changing
environment it was introduced into. “We
were faced with a project that was diffi cult to
quantify, involved a vast swathe of the business,
and had little in the way of clarity of delivery.
We did not know how the new regulations
would work in practice, which departments
would need to be involved as the project and
the environment evolved, and when we could
“ Taking an off-the-shelf approach would simply have introduced
a system with few differences from our competitors, and we felt
this was a good opportunity to mark ourselves out from the crowd.
We decided that the quickest and most economical approach
would be to build the system ourselves.”
John Williams, Director of IT, Principality
actually draw a line and say this is the limit of
its remit,” he says.
“As a result, it is diffi cult to ascertain how much
cheaper this approach was, but there are 3
factors which would make taking a vendor ap-
proach more expensive. Firstly, there is the cost
of customisation that a vendor would have had
to make. Secondly, there is the time factor as it
tried to make multiple organisations compliant
with a single delivery day. Finally, there are the
numerous amendments we had to make to the
project as it evolved.”
Williams has experience of redesigning an
entire architecture, having led a similar project
at a different organisation in the same space.
He suggests that the cost of developing the
system using the .NET Framework came out
comparable with the cost of a similar project in
1999: the falling costs of technology negating
infl ation and the rising costs of developers.
“We were within 20% of the budget that we
originally put to the board, which is impressive
given that the project was so big and the core
functionality had to be live from a regulatory
point of view on a specifi c day,” he says.
keen to gain experience applying eBIC to the
.NET Framework.
The solution was built around Microsoft SQL
ServerTM 2000, the Microsoft Visual Basic®
.NET 2003 development system, and the .NET
Framework. Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2004
orchestrated the interfaces between legacy
and new Web services to integrate with Unisys
mainframe systems.
“The technology has come on a long way, and
BizTalk Server 2004 is a huge leap forward,” says
Williams. “We hope that Microsoft will continue
developing it from an architecture point of view
because this is a very good technology. The
ultimate hope is that we will move away from
writing code and in future simply defi ne a proc-
ess and the code will be written automatically
into the .NET Framework. The current versions
of the .NET Framework and BizTalk Server 2004
are steps along that path.
“Visual Studio .NET is also a signifi cant improve-
ment,” he says. “The design tools and the
debugging processes are signifi cantly better.
People actually enjoy developing in
this environment.”
42
Development Costs Drop 50%
As a result of adopting the .NET Framework,
Principality can manage updates to its system
internally. “The combination of .NET and
eBIC gives us very fast development times,”
says Williams. “We have brought the whole IT
operation in house because we have developed
the skills we need in the long term.
“All developers were trained in both eBIC and
the .NET Framework, and SQL Server 2000
database skills were also brought in,” Williams
says. “Because the development was done
jointly with CGI, our people learned about the
applications architecture and how the objects
were designed and built. We also had our own
business analysts being mentored by CGI during
the project.”
As a result of the new skills, Williams estimates
that there will be signifi cant cost savings for the
business, because the cost of using in-house
developers is 50% lower than consultants.
The benefi ts are already being felt. In January
2005, Principality managed the fi rst system
update completely independently, even though
it included signifi cant changes to bring it into
line with the FSA’s new insurance regulations.
“The pace of change is likely to be less frenetic
over the next few months, but even at its height
we could manage the work internally,” says
Williams.
Improved Customer Experience
Taking the opportunity of the regulatory
changes to improve the customer experience
has meant that Principality customers are now
benefi ting from a consistency of service that
they did not enjoy previously.
With the .NET Framework in place, Principality
can offer its members and customers products
that are better suited to their needs as soon
as they become apparent. There are currently
over 4,000 different mortgages available to
the British consumer, and making sure that
the society can respond quickly and fl exibly
to changing demands is a signifi cant boost.
“As a result, Microsoft has been very interested
in working with us. We now have a lot more
common ground that we can build on,” says
Williams.
“Using the .NET Framework, we have met
regulatory changes and signifi cantly enhanced
our customer experience,” he adds. “This has
been an extraordinarily complex process, but
we have delivered the system on time and are
in a position to move forward confi dently.”
43
44
Through the use of innovative software,
Microsoft seeks to help banks, capital markets,
and insurance organisations get more from
existing technology investments to better align
with the way technology works and the way
businesses need to run.
Microsoft is committed to delivering tech-
nology solutions that help improve customer,
employee, and operations experience today
while building capacity for continued inno-
vation tomorrow.
44
For More Information
Contents
02 Introduction
06 Cheshire Building Society
10 Citigroup
14 Danske Bank
20 Deutsche Bank
24 Hiscox
30 Lloyd’s Register
36 Lloyds TSB
40 Principality
44 For More Information
For information about Microsoft’s experience in the fi nancial services sector, please visit:
www.microsoft.com/uk/business/fi nancialservices or e-mail the Microsoft U.K. Financial Services team at:
fsindust@microsoft.com
To access information about the Microsoft .NET Framework go to:
www.microsoft.com/net
For information on service orientation and software architectures please visit:
msdn.microsoft.com/architect
To access information about Web services please visit:
msdn.microsoft.com/webservices
For additional customer case studies please visit:
www.microsoft.com/resources/casestudies
Delivering BusinessCritical Applications
© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This directory is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
BizTalk, C#, Microsoft, Microsoft Active Directory, NT, Offi ce, the Offi ce logo, Outlook, the Windows logo, Visual Basic, Visual Studio, Windows, and Windows Server System are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
All information contained within this directory is provided by third parties, and Microsoft does not assume any responsibility whatsoever for any such information. Without limiting the foregoing, Microsoft does not represent or warrant that the information contained in this directory is accurate, complete, or appropriate. Information in this directory about a third party or a third party’s products or services does not indicate that Microsoft endorses such third party or its products or services, or that Microsoft has any relationship with such third party. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Microsoft disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fi tness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement. To the maximum extent permitted by law, in no event shall Microsoft be liable for any special, incidental, direct, indirect, or consequential damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of profi ts, business interruption, loss of information, or any other pecuniary loss). In any case, Microsoft’s entire liability shall be limited to the amount you actually paid to Microsoft for the use of this directory. Use of this directory and the information contained herein is at your sole risk. To the extent the term ‘partner’ is used in this directory or in any related documentation, it is used in an informal and descriptive sense, and does not indicate the existence of a legal partnership between Microsoft and any other entity.
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