A global financial services leader was seeking a solution that would better support the business goals of the Retirement Online Division.  Retirement Online is an extremely customer-sensitive and highly dynamic segment of their portfolio.  While becoming more flexible, they desired a move away from proprietary tools and implementations towards more open standards. They lacked the enterprise application architecture to support a flexible business environment. Their existing systems were built as stove-pipe applications using Advantage:Gen.  It was the opinion of the client that the division would be better served by converting the Advantage:Gen systems due to concerns regarding architectural elements of scalability, availability, flexibility, and adaptability. J.P Morgan partnered with QAT Global to provide and transform the client’s existing stovepipe applications to an open-standards-based platform and architecture that would support Retirement Plan Services’ ever-changing business environment.

Business Drivers & Challenges

The financial institution lacked the enterprise application architecture to support a flexible business environment. Their existing systems were built as stove-pipe applications using Advantage:Gen.  It was the opinion of the client that the division would be better served by converting the Advantage:Gen systems due to concerns regarding architectural elements of scalability, availability, flexibility, and adaptability.

Goal: Provide and transform the Retirement Plan Services Division existing stove-pipe applications to an open standards-based platform and architecture that can support the Retirement Plan Services business environment.

Capabilities Sought:  An enterprise application architecture to support business and transformation services to the new enterprise architecture without work stoppage or outage to the core business systems being transformed.

The client partnered with QAT Global to provide and transform the client’s existing stovepipe applications to an open-standards-based platform and architecture that would support Retirement Plan Services’ ever-changing business environment.

QAT Global’s Approach

QAT Global developed an enterprise application architecture to support business and transformation services from Advantage:Gen to the new enterprise architecture without work stoppage or outage to the core business systems being transformed. QAT Global provided the client with a solution that entailed the development of a J2EE-based SOA enterprise application architecture that was platformed on IBM’s WebSphere Application Server 5.1.  In addition, a co-existence strategy of using Advantage:Gen in the new SOA was implemented to guarantee business continuity until the transformation was complete. Through leveraging our assets we were able to provide offsite project management, architectural consulting, design services, programming services, and SOA transformation expertise. These disciplines and technologies have included:

• Services Architecture & SOA Design
• Reuse of Components
• J2EE Design & Coding
• Reuse & Transformation of Existing Technologies
• WASD and WAS Expertise
• Rational Unified Process Expertise

Value Provided

This solution is allowing Retirement Plan Services to support ever-changing business goals and move away from proprietary tools and implementations. Additionally, the transition to open standards-based application architecture and implementation (J2EE-based SOA) was of high priority to the client. This is allowing the customer to stay at the forefront in the retirement assessment management business by providing totally customizable retirement portfolio solutions.