100?00fW8
iut the engine size and features so that
the vehiele nieets your exact requirements.
Likewise, there is no "plain vanilla" Euro
implementation that will suit every office's
desires,' says Reusch.
EURO-RELATED BUSINESS
Flying Squad members, all consultants,
have been given a two-week orientation
course to bring them up to speed with
Hans Reusch: '....Flying
Squads have to bring the
process up to speed.
Rabobank Internationals Euro strategy
and tactics, and to identify each individual
office's progress, backlog, and specific
requirements. After further preparatory
work in Utrecht, the teams embark on
their field missions starting this month.
Their task, first and foremost, will be to
work with the local office staff to produce
analyses of our Euro-related business
objectives - which is the necessary first
step before we can prepare the functional
descriptions for the software that will be
required to meet these needs. A complete
set of milestones and guidelines will result
- and the overall deadline for coming back
on track with our timetable is end-March.
HARD DEADLINES
The importance of coming back on track
cannot be overentphasized. The software
programs that will actually execute our
objectives still need to be written.
Software vendors will want to have all
their questions answered by the end of this
month or the middle of March at the
latest - and the offices will have to work
very closely and in great detail with these
vendors in order to make the whole
15
euro/emu
process work. What's more, once the
software is delivered it will also have to be
tested. 'Experience has repeatedly shown
that the time required for this crucial
testing phase is consistently
underestimated,' says Reusch. 'Sometimes,
as much as 70 percent of a project is
devoted to testing.'
ADVANCE TESTING
In practice, vendors will deliver small
components of the entire software
packages, and these can be tested in
advance, but the overall systems, and
their interaction with others on the
network, also need to be verified.
'Obviously, we have to speed up our
efforts to be on time. Testing is the key to
a successful implementation and we have
little if any margin for error,' Reusch says.
Murphy's Law states that if anything can
go wrong, it will. Thus, time also needs to
be allocated to cope with unexpected
glitches. For example, Reusch says, 'we
all go around saying that the Euro is a
minor issue for the non-EU offices. But
what if this is not the case? For instance,
how will we deal with offices that have
non-Euro denominated derivatives that
expire after the 1999 Euro launch date?
We need to be prepared for such
eventualities.'
T'r?asssg"
SINGLE TOOL SOLUTION
The challenge was therefore considerable:to
design a single tooi that would embrace the
transition as a unified process, in all of its
complexity, and that would at the same time
make it possible to drill down into the specific
issues that each cliënt will need to address
during the various phases from January 1999
to 2002.The general principle here, as
elsewhere in the bank, is that by intelligently
filtering our resources, we can save our clients'
time and make the most of their attention,and
thus perform an important added value
service on their behalf.
FULL DATABASE
Meeting all of these requirements cost
effectively was a challenge met by Cash
Management with the help of outside
^mnsultants from KPMG: the solution is an
^hovative and an interactive PC-based
presentation. Rather than merely being
printed and sent to clients, where it mightjoin
a large stack of unread material, the PC
program has been specifically designed for
joint presentation and review.This of course
accentuates the relationship aspect of cliënt
communication. A graphics-rich program, it
contains a full database of Euro-related
background; it will be the task of the sales
person to mine this database and extract those
nuggets that most clearly enrich the business
needs of each of some 300 Holland-based
clients. In other words, each cliënt will be
offered an individualized presentation.
EASY UPDATES
According to De Gou.the presentation will
provide a clear overview of the transition, of
specific products and services and of the
related electronic banking systems that
deliver them, and will pinpoint what changes
need to be made. It will also distinguish
between a clients'own transitional
responsibilities and the support services that
we will be able to provide.The presentation
partly takes the question-and-answer format
and will thus help generate a check-list of
'to-do' items that can, in turn, serve as a
catalyst for rapid and efficiënt cliënt
preparation.The digital format ensures that
any political or technical changes in the Euro
agenda can easily be reflected in a revised
version of the program without having to go
through the bother of redrafting and
reprinting a physical brochure.
IMPROVED PERFORMANCE
The design, layout, and execution of Cash
Management's PC Euro presentation have met
several difficult requirements, and the format is
already being used as a model for similar
Euro presentations by Corporate Banking and
Investment Banking. Cash management is of
course a field in which we are now making a
concerted effort to professionalize our image
and radically improve our performance.
Our competitiveness here, as in all other areas
of operation, rests on whether we can deliver
the information and services that give our
customer more control over the flow of
their assets and their business.The PC
Presentation is thus an innovative and
important tooi in helping us to meet this
commercial aim.
