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BMO Bank of Montreal Slices Costs, Time With Web-Based Reporting
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
Applicable Industries
- Finance & Insurance
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
Use Cases
- Process Control & Optimization
- Real-Time Location System (RTLS)
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
- System Integration
The Challenge
The Bank of Montreal was facing a challenge where business analysts and managers were spending a significant amount of their time going through paper reports to collect and rekey information. The bank needed a solution that would provide managers with more timely data and better access to information. The bank was exploring ways to deliver information to managers electronically, but all of the proposed solutions had high price tags. The bank's Monthly Progress Monitor was a mainframe system that generated reports from branches across Canada. The finance department would review the numbers at the end of each month and about 10 days later, thick paper reports with balance sheets, income statements, and other reports would start to roll off the printer. Performance data for each branch would be mailed or couriered to the branch manager, while district managers would try to cull data from bundles of reports for further analysis and comparison. Those results would be available 15-20 days after the end of the previous month and often required managers to manually input data from paper reports into spreadsheets or call bank headquarters to get additional information that wasn’t in their reports.
About The Customer
BMO Financial Group is a major financial institution that serves clients across Canada and in the United States. The bank operates through its Canadian retail arm BMO Bank of Montreal, BMO Nesbitt Burns, and Harris Bank. The bank offers a wide range of financial services to its customers, including personal and commercial banking, wealth management, and investment banking services. The bank has a large network of branches across Canada and a significant presence in the United States. The bank is committed to providing its customers with the best possible banking experience, which includes providing timely and accurate financial information to its managers and business analysts.
The Solution
The bank developed a Web-based system that can deliver reports over the bank’s intranet at lower cost and greater speed. The system, known as Web Monthly Progress Monitor (WebMPM), was prototyped in two weeks and put into production a week later. The system was built using WebFOCUS from Information Builders, which allowed the bank to reuse existing code written for the bank’s mainframe in Information Builders’ FOCUS fourth-generation programming language. WebFOCUS also has the ability to directly access dozens of different mainframe databases, which cut out an entire, complex layer of data management and coding, further streamlining development. The system runs on a UNIX server with direct mainframe access. The bank is now exploring opportunities to use the system to enter certain types of data.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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