Thoughtware Worldwide’s clients use these fact-based research reports to help their end customers reap additional value from their investments. Using our proprietary research database and our extensive network of industry leaders, we:

• Advise our clients and their customers on industry-standard best practices
• Help these companies seek opportunities to increase and elevate awareness of the business value achieved
• Determine the best approach for new or additional purchase justifications
• Identify opportunities for our clients to create additional value by using our proprietary, prescriptive guidance database.

Here's how we measure success:

Thoughtware Worldwide also provided prescriptive guidance on the value still to come from further automation of GE’s payments value chain.

In 2004, GE Corporate Treasury (a unit of General Electric Company, a diversified technology, media and financial services company) was, like most large multi-nationals, wrestling with multiple banking relationships and connections to execute their cash-management strategies.

GE Corporate Treasury’s information technology group was maintaining multiple systems across 200 banks in more than 30 countries. The limitations of a disparate, fragmented and constrained technology infrastructure impeded GE’s ability to execute the millions of payments it makes each year to its customers and suppliers.

Optimizing this daunting task required a new, industry-leading solution. GE evaluated its banks’ own systems and was ultimately introduced to the SWIFTNet C2B solution.

Thoughtware Worldwide’s study findings showed an impressive 406% Return-on-Investment for GE after implementing the SWIFTNet C2B solution, The study found that the increased reliability, security, and controllership of SWIFTNet allowed GE to free up IT and business resources for more value-added activities, creating opportunities for GE to optimize its working capital for greater financial efficiency.

GE Corporate Treasury used the study to drive further consolidation, centralization and cash pooling. Leveraging Thoughtware Worldwide’s findings, GE and SWIFT are now identifying additional opportunities to collaborate and further optimize GE Treasury management.

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SWIFT and Arcelor Corporate Treasury
Thoughtware Worldwide, LLC, completed a study that measured the value achieved by Arcelor Corporate Treasury unit after implementing the SWIFTNet Corporate-to-Bank (C2B) solution from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication.

Thoughtware Worldwide also provided prescriptive guidance on the value still to come from further automation of  Arcelor's cash aggregation and reporting.

In 2002, Arcelor Corporate Treasury recognized a fundamental need to streamline its infrastructure to achieve greater visibility into cash receipts. The Arcelor Treasury was spending significant time in maintaining multiple systems and connection points (ETEBAC 3,5, ISABEL, proprietary bank system, fax, telephone, Internet) each with totally different characteristics (i.e., processes, data quality, availability, timeliness, security level). Additionally, Arcelor was spending an inordinate amount of time and money on maintaining Security protocols for the various connections, which were not consistent and required a growing level of resource commitment. Moreover, any expansion process proved to be tedious. New links with banks were difficult to implement, both in terms of time and cost. Finally, Arcelor Treasury had a Disaster Recovery (DR) plan per geographic location. Testing and maintaining each location’s DR plan was both costly and time consuming. It was impossible to plan for the infinite combinations of bank availability.

Thoughtware Worldwide’s study findings showed an impressive 605% Return-on-Investment for Arcelor after implementing the SWIFTNet C2B solution, The study found that the increased reliability, security, and efficiency of SWIFTNet allowed Arcelor to increase exceptions management  activities, simplify IT security levels  and optimized their working capital through better cash pooling.

Arcelor Corporate Treasury used the study to drive further consolidation, centralization and cash pooling. Leveraging Thoughtware Worldwide’s findings, Arcelor and SWIFT are now identifying additional opportunities to collaborate and further optimize Arcelor Treasury management.

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Hewlett Packard and Helvetia Patria Versicherungen
Thoughtware Worldwide, LLC, completed a study that shows Helvetia Patria (HPV) has achieved significant financial and strategic benefits from their investment in HP Consulting & Integration services and technologies. In collaborating with HP, HPV found a true partner that enabled the organization to leverage on a number of significant synergies.

In 2000, Helvetia Patria Versicherungen (HPV) recognized a fundamental need to conduct business differently. Historically, HPV operated regionally in an autonomous fashion, but HPV saw an opportunity to move away from these regional silos, to centralize and collaborate across the organization. Given HPV’s large geographic footprint (different languages, cultures, and business practices), HPV envisioned a centralized Internet-based platform (the eBusiness Center) as a way to bring people together while leveraging technology to standardize and open new distribution channels. Additionally, HPV wanted to expand data sharing and process automation, while maintaining strict data security. HPV saw the eBusiness Center as a way to improve consistency and high-touch quality service, its core differentiators. Given the magnitude of investment, HPV was concerned that any decision could lock them into obsolete technology and become a barrier to future opportunities.

Thoughtware Worldwide’s study findings showed an impressive 201% Return-on-Investment for HPV after implementing the industry leading e-insurance solution, The study found that the expanded partnerships, lower transaction costs and enhanced development and maintenance created synergies between HPV's disparate subsidiaries.

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IBM and the Belgian Ministry of Finance
 

In 2002, BMoF realized it was time to do things differently. Facing an ever increasing backlog of tax reclaims, fragmented across multiple tax regions and with limited visibility into the process, resolution or citizen communication, BMoF knew there had to be a better, more efficient way. The physical aspect alone of creating and moving citizen files through the process made it quite difficult for BMoF to track — file location, status, resolution or volume of claims. This ever increasing problem was further complicated by new legislation and restructuring (“Copernicus Project”) mandating that the taxpayer be placed in the center of the process. Historically, BMoF had been a very decentralized organization, which resulted in the unique treatment of each case by location, constantly ‘reinventing the wheel’ without the
benefit of organizational learnings. This required BMoF to rethink their process and approach, causing them to develop a holistic, innovative solution, whereby BMoF could ‘digitize’ its workflow; thus increasing visibility, transparency and accountability along the entire end-to-end process. 

In searching for a solution, BMoF turned to IBM, a proven partner used elsewhere within the ministry and its partner, Getronics, to develop a complete integrated solution for tax administration. Working with IBM and Getronics, BMoF outlined a detailed step-by-step process, looking at how to remove bottlenecks, improve business processes and the underlying activities by integrating content with other applications. BMoF’s strategy was to pilot the solution in two regions and then roll it out across the country. With the IBM solution, BMoF is now better able to manage the complete information lifecycle, eliminating double coding, while collecting new statistics that allows BMoF to manage claims as a group. This new approach presents BMoF with opportunities to learn from claim filings, creating better alignment between legislation and compliance and meeting the needs of the citizens.

Thoughtware Worldwide’s study findings showed an impressive 173% Return-on-Investment for BMoF after implementing the IBM  solution, The study found that the improved claims processing, lower operational  costs and increased its visibility to better align the interests law and compliance.

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Hewlett Packard and the University of Utah Health Sciences Center  (UUHSC)
 

I

UUHSC handles more than 900,000 outpatient visits and 23,000 inpatient admissions each year.  While its programs are considered leading-edge, like most of its counterparts in the healthcare industry, IT has been struggling to keep up with demand.  As UUHSC brought in more systems to support patient care, they were rapidly running out of data center space, power, and cooling capacity.  Faced with a possible $7 million data center expansion, UUHSC began an investigation to shift its investments from more servers and their accompanying environmental costs to a consolidated environment that would reduce costs and allow UUHSC to focus on enhancing patient care. 

 In outlining their goals, containing rising data center and server costs was at the top of UUHSC’s list.  UUHSC sought to gain insight into their network, add capabilities without adding servers to accommodate growth needs, and provide 99.999% uptime for mission-critical applications, on a 24x7 basis.  UUHSC conducted a thorough analysis which considered the leading IT vendors as consolidation partners.  HP was selected for its ability to provide: technology that reduces risk, remote management capabilities, reliability with a proven track record; and its BladeSystem servers for their more efficient power and cooling consumption.

Partnering with HP, UUHSC virtualized to achieve a 15:1 server consolidation—50% higher than originally expected.  The organization has achieved significant cost savings by increasing efficiency and utilization of resources and controlling data center growth.  Power and cooling consumption has been reduced with 25% fewer physical servers, and remote management capability is enabling UUHSC to quickly identify and manage server issues as they arise.  With a clearly defined procedure for virtualization, UUHSC can now continue to add the capacity they need to support patient care and growth.  

As a result of the HP consolidation solution, UUHSC is realizing its patient care goals with a lower cost, virtualized server environment that increases efficiency, controls data center costs and allows room for growth and investments in innovation.  The results show a 346% ROI in three years.

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IdenTrust and the Intesa Sanpaolo 

Banca Intesa and Sanpaolo IMI officially merged on January 1, 2007 to become one banking group, Intesa Sanpaolo. This combined entity is now the undisputed leader among banks in Italy and ranks among the top banking groups in all of Europe. With a network of more than 6,100 branches and 1200 abroad, Intesa Sanpaolo has a market capitalization of approximately € 68 billion and an average market share of more than 20% in all business sectors, including retail, corporate and wealth management. The Intesa Sanpaolo group offers its services to about 10.7 million customers in Italy and 7.2 million abroad.

Intesa Sanpaolo aims to be a leader in corporate banking for both Large and Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) clients and to be a proactive player in the evolution of Italian Banking and Italian society. The group invests in innovation to deliver benefits for all its customers by providing secure, streamlined, high-value services.

An Innovator and Early Adopter of Digital Signatures
Intesa Sanpaolo was one of the pioneering banks in Italy to adhere to the IdenTrust platform back in 2001, inspired by the promise of added value and efficiency using Digital Signatures as an enabler to the bank’s applications for online banking. Intesa Sanpaolo aims to facilitate strong security and authentication in a simple streamlined fashion for its corporate customers, thereby earning a reputation as an innovator offering all the latest functionality to its customers—both in-country and cross-border. Intesa Sanpaolo aims to be a recognized leader in efficiency and high value-add solutions, promoting widespread use of digital credentials as a means to ensure trusted commerce in a highly efficient fashion with strong authentication and audit trails.

With the IdenTrust Digital Signature solution, Intesa Sanpaolo is positioned to deliver a range of high-value benefits to its Corporate and SME clients.

Intesa Sanpaolo, by using IdenTrust services with its consolidated infrastructure, will achieve a more flexible, cost-effective identity authentication capability that will enhance its growth and profitability opportunities translating into an impressive financial Return On Investment (ROI) of 223% in five years.

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Founded in 1727, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is one of the world’s leading financial services groups. RBS is the fifth largest bank in the world, and by market capitalisation is the second largest bank in the UK and Europe, and the seventh largest bank in the United States. In March 2000, The Royal Bank of Scotland Group completed the acquisition of NatWest in a £21 billion deal that was the largest take-over in British banking history. In 2005 RBS reported net income of £25.6 billion and an operating profit of £8.3 billion. The company employs a workforce of 137,000 people worldwide.

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Growing Business Challenges—In search of a single process
When Fortis customers, like Ethias—the second largest insurer in Belgium, are multi-banked or their business moves beyond domestic borders, frequently they require a new approach that is standards-based to improve interactions and data exchange between customers and their banking partners. While Fortis strives to meet the needs of its customers, its proprietary systems could only address Fortis’ piece of the equation, leaving customers like Ethias to address the various formats, IT systems and processes for each financial institution. This lack of standards, connectivity and dynamic information exchange oftentimes constrains a customer’s ability to obtain timely information and visibility into their business operations—not to mention the ability to optimise their business performance. The problem was not Fortis’ solutions, but the fact that they were only part of the overall equation—no matter how good Fortis’ solution was, it did not provide a complete solution, with a single process, channel and standard that could enable its customers’ goals of Straight Through Processing (STP).

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Thoughtware Worldwide, LLC, completed a study that measured the value achieved by Unique Vacations, Inc., (UVI) worldwide representative of Sandals and Beaches Caribbean resorts after implementing the Adobe ColdFusion solution as cornerstone of its Booking Agent solution, its dynamic internet sales and marketing tool.

In 2000, UVI made the decision to replace its static websites which were originally developed using a myriad of open source, functionally specific tools—including PHP.  Envisioning a dynamic, internet sales and marketing portal, UVI’s goal was to sell vacation packages the same way online as it did over the telephone, but without time restrictions or delays caused by mailing out brochures.  UVI also wanted to increase the booking options and add-on features— like air travel and spa treatments. 

In early 2001, UVI turned to Adobe ColdFusion which was easy to learn, and required fewer lines of code resulting in the development, testing and launch of UVI’s Booking Agent—a sales and marketing tool—in less than one year.  Now with ColdFusion 8, customers fill-out intelligent PDF forms which are processed and is automatically entered into UVI’s Oracle customer database.  Additionally, hotel management can view guest satisfaction reports which are integrated from a separate application and made available in near real time. Drawing on a rich set of FAQ responses, replies to most email inquiries can now be automated, leading to ongoing personnel savings.

Thoughtware Worldwide’s study findings showed an impressive 139% Return-on-Investment (ROI) for UVI’s upgrade to ColdFusion 8 alone, with an amazing Internal Rate of Return of 54% showing the quality of the investment.  Using Adobe ColdFusion 8, UVI has improved their sales and marketing processes while increasing revenues and strengthening relationships with affiliates and customers alike, resulting in an impressive 159% ROI overall generating $6.3M in net savings to date.

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Thoughtware Worldwide conducted an extensive analysis of the University of Miami and its use of the RSD EOS solution to help solve its information governance challenges.  Founded in 1925, the University of Miami is home to 15,400 undergraduate and graduate students from around the world including over 200 student organizations representing diverse interests.  As the second largest private employer in Miami-Dade County. the University has expanded rapidly and now encompasses multiple campuses and hospitals across south Florida. 

In 1998, the University of Miami undertook to replace its outmoded microfiche archiving system across the organization. In its search for an alternative document management system, the University discovered an environmentally-friendly solution that not only would do away with microfiche but could also curb the University's overall paper consumption, handling and waste, while simultaneously providing for efficient and secure information sharing. For the last ten years, the RSD EOS has enabled the University of Miami to keep up with exploding growth in business documentation, store and manage this content, and address the challenges associated with disseminating information.

By generating fewer paper-based documents and electronically managing their access, retrieval and disposal, the University of Miami has not only been able to continually free up more and more resources associated with producing and distributing reports, it has also been able to continuously reduce the costs associated with storage of those paper documents while putting an end to delays and expense caused by their inefficient retrieval. Furthermore, by digitizing its document archives, the University of Miami has reclaimed valuable on-campus space for additional offices while gaining strategic advantages in terms of business continuity—absolutely mission-critical in a region threatened regularly by hurricanes.

The low-cost RSD solution has proved a very wise investment indeed, with the University reaping substantial and sustained operational savings having rolled the solution out to over 4,000 users in 120 departments—and the solution still takes up less than 6% of computing resources and does not require special training for new users.

Savings through operational value—High-impact cost reductions and resource savings

Reductions in resource demand of all kinds—paper, printing, distribution, storage, disposal, outside services, and manpower—contribute to the operational gains enabled by the RSD solution.  Some savings examples include:

·         Eliminating the purchase and maintenance of microfiche archiving has resulted in a savings to the University of $250,000 per year

·         By enabling electronic document management, the University of Miami has been able to cut its annual paper budget from $1,000,000 to under $75,000—or 90%. This has eliminated the printing of 40,000 to 60,000 pages monthly, as well as the need for tens of thousands of pre-printed, 9-part carbon copy purchase order forms

·         Avoided off-site storage, retrieval and disposal of paper documents which now save the University of Miami another $1,000,000 annually

 Benefits of Information Governance—Accountability, business continuity and compliance

“In analyzing the results for the University of Miami, we believe this study demonstrates the power of information governance.  Using the RSD solution, the University of Miami is demonstrating how to effectively and efficiently manage the entire lifecycle of information in an exponentially growing environment.  The RSD solution is providing the University with a platform for greater collaboration, reporting and information sharing in a secure, efficient and low cost model.,” said Timothy Guyre, Managing Director, Thoughtware Worldwide, LLC. 

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Adobe and PGA

Thoughtware Worldwide, LLC, completed a study that measured the value achieved by the Professional Golfers’ Association of America (PGA) worldwide after implementing the Adobe ColdFusion and Adobe Air solutions as the foundation for building a comprehensive event management system.  The PGA developed a rich internet application with data-enabling capabilities to tie together disparate data sets in an intuitive, easy-to-use and easy-to-deploy solution where mobility, rented equipment and extensive volunteer staff mandate the need for a mobile and bullet-proof solution.

 In 2007, the PGA sought a way to overcome the challenges of managing dynamic, logistics-laden events where lack of information can dramatically impact the experience and profitability of the event.

 After careful thought and consideration, the PGA decided to use Adobe to build an end-to-end “Championship Management System”.  The PGA selected Adobe as it would allow it to leverage existing licenses with minimal incremental investment, an extensive and knowledgeable in-house talent-base skilled in the proven Adobe technologies and produce a rich internet application in short-order—in PGA’s case within three months. Using Adobe ColdFusion 8, the PGA IT team was able to create a comprehensive event management solution that is easy for untrained volunteers to use and leveraged ColdFusion 8's integration with Adobe AIR, a cornerstone of the Adobe Flash Platform, to provide mobile and even off-line tracking of (and accessibility to) accurate event data such as real-time attendance statistics. This has greatly improved the PGA’s wealth of customer and event data.  Now, with the Adobe ColdFusion 8 and Adobe AIR powered Championship Management System, PGA is able to streamline and accelerate event processes which have helped the organization to increase ticket sales and reduce waste, increasing the profitability and visibility of its events while enhancing the spectator experience and reducing staff stress.

Thoughtware Worldwide’s study findings showed an impressive Return-on-Investment of 234 percent in one year and an internal rate of return of 18 percent, confirming the quality and value of the investment. The benefits of the Adobe solution well exceeded expenditures, reaching breakeven within three months.

The power and dynamic flexibility of Adobe ColdFusion 8 and Adobe AIR have provided the PGA with a first-class, browser-like event management system that offers continuous, mobile, environment-independent availability.

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Thoughtware Worldwide conducted an extensive analysis of Gruppo BPER and its use of the RSD EOS and Folders solutions to not only reduce the number of paper reports, but transform the static report data into dynamic, actionable analysis that would change the way BPER uses information in processing and decision making.  Founded in 1867 as Banca Popolare di Modena, the bank started out as a mutual society to finance the craftsmaen and local business activities growing through a series of mergers and acquisitions to become the 6th largest bank in Italy.  Banca Popolare dell'Emilia Romagna (BPER) has grown to become a "federa" banking group with 10 regional banks, consisting of 1,272 branches spread across 17 regions and 76 provinces with over 2 million clients in Italy. 

In 2003, Gruppo BPER wanted to replace its multiple existing tools sets with a single, more robust solution that would do more than just reduce the volume of centralised printing. As BPER looked for solutions, it discovered a comprehensive and efficient solution in use by its recent acquisition, Banca di Sardegna, where RSD had been successfully used for years. The RSD EOS (Enterprise Output Solution) software allowed BPER to not only reduce the number of paper reports, but transform the static report data into dynamic, actionable analysis that would change the way BPER uses information in processing and decision making. In RSD folders, BPER found multiple solutions ranging from personalised report delivery and analysis to acting as the back-end to Internet Banking, whereby customers can view on-line historical statements in a fast, efficient and cost-effective way.

Today, BPER has been able reduce costs and complications associated with paper. More importantly, BPER is able to free up significant resources and streamline operations and improve decision making by transforming data into real intelligence that allows the user to quickly tailor the information to solving problems.  Using RSD, BPER can now securely control, monitor and report on how information is used across the bank‟s federal model. With RSD, BPER can focus on new capabilities and strategic benefits like customer statement history delivered via Internet Banking made possible with RSD Folders

The RSD solution is helping Gruppo BPER to realize its vision of improving customer interactions by reducing processing inefficiencies, better staff utilisation, and putting knowledge at everyone‟s finger tips for better decisions. The RSD solution represents how data hidden in operational systems can be transformed into actionable intelligence and that solutions like RSD folders in conjunction with Internet Banking, can help Gruppo BPER extend the benefits to its customers.

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Thoughtware Worldwide conducted a thorough Return on Investment analysis of the Bank of India's transformation to core banking partnering with HP.  Bank of India selected HP as its business transformation partner after carefully evaluating more than 20 proposals from major IT solution providers.  Bank of India's three pronged strategy required HP to play multiple roles--hardware and software supplier, consulting and implementation partner and finally business process outsourcer (BPO), with HP chosen to run the bank's data center and help desk. 

The Bank of India has a long heritage of prudence and caution as one of the five largest banks in India. It was founded in 1906 and continued as a privately owned bank until 1969 when it was nationalized. Beginning with one office in Mumbai, and 50 employees, the Bank of India was the first Indian Bank to open a branch outside the country, starting with London in 1946. From this humble beginning, the bank has blossomed into a global institution with over 3,000 domestic branches and 28 offices in 15 countries which account for more than 20% of the Bank‘s total business.

In 2002, when the government started focusing on technology as a platform and enabler, the Bank of India realized it needed a game-changing strategy and technology infrastructure upgrade—especially to win and retain younger customers who were willing to pay for anywhere, anytime banking capabilities. The Bank of India decided to leapfrog the competition with a next-generation core banking solution, tied together with a new centralized data center and information management warehouse.

With HP as its true collaborative partner, the Bank of India is transforming banking in India. By establishing a platform to tie all its channels and information together, core banking is providing the Bank of India with an entirely new way to optimise banking operations and deliver on its promise to customers—relationship beyond banking. This new model is producing streamlined operations, faster settlement and clearing, and an overall improved access to money—all resulting in customer delight, and the unprecedented financial performance and success recorded in the Bank of India‘s accomplishments: 3x revenues, 4x profits, 9x stock performance, with 12% fewer employees and a 20% branch network increase. With HP‘s help, the Bank of India has produced a ROI of 234% over five years and a significant internal rate of return (IRR) of over 209%, validating the quality and importance of how this investment has transformed the Bank of India.

With HP’s help, the Bank of India is realizing phenomenal success—234% ROI over five years. Combining core banking, business continuity and information management, the Bank of India has doubled its revenue, and tripled its profits with 12% fewer employees, all made possible by efficiencies from the HP partnership where IT is now driving the bank’s strategy.

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