Implementation Planning
CHALLENGE
A securities brokerage needed to expand the availability of identification numbers both
for accounts and for securities. Due to intelligence imbedded within the numbers that were
used by over 1,000 programs and occurred in over 10,000 files corporate-wide, management
decided to accomplish the expansion by converting the format of the numbers without
changing their size. Maintaining the corporate computer applications, however, were 8
systems development departments that, except for computer files that they shared or passed
among themselves, were defensively independent. The conversion was considered by
corporate management to have the highest priority of all systems initiatives at that time.
SERVICE
An MCS consultant was assigned to work with an in-house manager to develop a
project plan for the securities part of the conversion and to act as liaison with the non-systems
operations areas of the brokerage. A project plan was developed to effectively coordinate
inter-departmental conversions while recognizing individual department independence and
permitting a continual rolling-in of the converted formats.
RESULTS
The security number conversion project was successfully completed on schedule,
within budget and set a new standard for cooperation among the systems departments.
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