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Merrill Picks Fiserv's Checkfree |
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Merrill Lynch has selected CheckFree Frontier 2.0TM as its strategic
reconciliation platform. After an evaluation process, Merrill Lynch chose the
Fiserv solution based on specific performance benchmarking results and
demonstrations of its ability to further mitigate potential operational risk,
minimize support costs and provide a seamless migration from Merrill Lynch’s
existing platform.
“With
transaction volumes increasing rapidly, Merrill Lynch wanted a viable
reconciliation solution that could scale to accommodate growth,” said Mark
Cappell, senior vice president and general manager, Operational Risk Management,
CheckFree, now part of Fiserv. “Through a successful proof-of-concept, CheckFree
Frontier demonstrated the flexibility to accommodate fluctuations and growth in
transaction volumes. Our solution performed identical tasks at least ten times
faster than previously, while giving Merrill Lynch the ability to support
multiple lines of business across many sites. We are also confident that by
further automating the reconciliation process, we will help Merrill Lynch to
minimize costs, focus on exceptions more quickly and provide better transparency
to meet compliance requirements, such as Sarbanes-Oxley, Basel II and similar
standards.”
CheckFree
Transfer ManagerTM, a module of CheckFree Frontier, will also be used
as part of the implementation to enable Merrill Lynch to seamlessly migrate from
its current system to CheckFree Frontier. The module is a business rules
transfer and system consolidation tool that is designed to significantly reduce
the human intervention required to transition business rules and administrative
configurations to a new production environment. By using an audited change
control process that addresses the separation of duties required for regulatory
compliance, CheckFree Transfer Manager is expected to enable Merrill Lynch to
protect their sensitive financial data and ensure integrity of controls
throughout the migration process.
“CheckFree
proved that they had the capabilities and project methodology to seamlessly
migrate our existing solution to CheckFree Frontier and support our exponential
business growth. Through this implementation, we will be able to consolidate our
reconciliation instances significantly, in line with our defined business areas,
and increase our efficiency and minimize the system operating costs typically
associated with the middle and back office. With a more accurate view of
information across the enterprise, we can ensure better management and
transparency across offices in different locations, while enhancing our ability
to serve our clients,” said Andrew McKibben, Change & Support Services – GMI
Services Technology, Merrill Lynch.
This
implementation builds upon CheckFree’s existing 12-year business relationship
with Merrill Lynch and Fiserv’s long standing relationship with Merrill Lynch as
well.
The
multi-currency, multi-instrument CheckFree Frontier implementation is being
deployed globally with regional hubs. The solution currently accommodates
requirements for up to 600 simultaneous users and more than 1,000 read-only
users – while also providing a platform for future growth. The implementation
commenced with the reconciliation of cash flows for a key business area which
went live in December 2007, and will move to other prioritized business areas
before the end of 2008. As part of the implementation, CheckFree provided
ongoing consulting and training surrounding the
migration.
CheckFree’s
Applied Operational IntelligenceSM approach helps clients drive
profitability and performance by combining innovative software, proven expertise
and business intelligence. The Applied Operational Intelligence approach is
expressly designed to manage risk and efficiency, while leveraging business
intelligence to achieve measureable return on
investment.
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