Credit Suisse Asset Management Successfully Prepares for the Year 2000 and Beyond	Industry Financial

Complete Y2K remediation project, addressing unique company requirements, renders America’s Region of CSAM ready for the next millennium in less than six months

Financial institutions are among those most acutely aware of the liabilities that can come from failing to fix the Y2K bug in their computer systems. In addition to government regulators, customers have little forgiveness for companies that take risks with their money. Organizations that are not positioned to move smoothly and seamlessly into the next millennium can find themselves in hot water — or out of business.

It was of paramount concern, therefore, that the America’s Region of Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM) address its Y2K issues aggressively and make any necessary changes as quickly and completely as possible.

Sizing Up the Situation
The international organization of Credit Suisse Asset Management (from which America’s Region is a division) is a leading global asset manager responsible for $154.3 billion of discretionary assets. The company also offers a unique array of asset classes managed throughout the world: a total of $25.2 billion with core specialties in European equities; emerging market equities; and specific domestic asset classes, particularly Swiss equities. In addition, CSAM has $19.2 billion in balanced portfolios (primarily in Switzerland and Japan) and $20.8 billion mainly in derivative-based products and real estate.

CSAM felt pressure from a few sources to confront — and solve — its Y2K compliance issues. In addition to customers and federal regulatory bodies, CSAM’s parent company, Credit Suisse, was eager to get its various subsidiaries and affiliates on solid ground to move successfully into the Year 2000. At the root of all these pressures, of course, was the steady march of time itself, ticking away precious days and hours until the new millennium’s arrival. CSAM needed to act quickly and decisively.

Finding the Perfect Partner
To remedy the century-date change problem in the tight timeframe, CSAM needed an outside-the-box Y2K solution. Its in-house IT staff didn’t have the time to devote to such a sweeping project, nor did they possess the specialized expertise in this critical area. Rather than use guesswork to solve such a sensitive problem, CSAM opted to enlist the services of CoreTech Consulting Group to get ahead of the curve in short order.

CoreTech develops strong client partnerships and fosters an environment in which knowledge sharing and collaboration occurs between its experienced consultants and its client partners. Solutions developed by CoreTech help companies reduce the risk, minimize the negative effects and ultimately provide greater business value by assisting their clients in understanding and managing the broad implications new technology may have on their organizations, processes and people.

This level of interaction and attention was a perfect fit for the needs of CSAM. In addition, CoreTech counts Year 2000 Solutions among its CoreSolutions™, along with Electronic Commerce, Knowledge Management and Technology Migration. Having just assisted another major financial institution with its own Y2K situation, CoreTech was ideally suited to bring the same know-how to CSAM.

Getting Ahead of the Curve
CoreTech assumed overall management for the entire Y2K remediation process at CSAM, setting up a "Program Office" at the client site that coordinated activities and facilitated communications among the various groups involved.

The initial steps in CoreTech’s approach were the Y2K Readiness Assessment and Project Planning phases. "From this close examination of the client environment, we determined where CSAM stood along the path to Y2K compliance, which in turn lead to the prioritization of key projects, the development of project plans and project budgeting," explained Richard Gengenbach, Branch Manager of CoreTech’s New York office. Continued detailed assessments were conducted as needed throughout the course of the Y2K engagement.

In less than two months, CoreTech had completed its study and planning activities and was ready to move ahead with the execution of the Y2K solution. At CSAM, this meant more than fixing date code on the company’s mainframes or minicomputers. A unique – and crucial – component of the Y2K project for CoreTech would be examining the farthest reaches of the enterprise. CSAM traders and portfolio managers had proprietary information stored on their desktops and personal laptops, and used date-sensitive tools such as Excel spreadsheets and database programs to make important business decisions every day. These remote applications needed special attention in order for CSAM to achieve 100 percent Y2K readiness.

Understanding the critical end-user issues at play within CSAM was a major strong point of the CoreTech team. To remedy the data on laptops and desktops, CoreTech established a system of IT "coaches" to work with traders individually and school them on how to fix their own systems. This solved the problem without compromising traders’ reluctance to grant a third party access to confidential information. For legal reasons and the well being of the CSAM organization, once the traders completed the Y2K remediation of their systems, they were asked to sign a form stating that they had, indeed, completed this mission-critical task.

The execution of the Y2K remediation on behalf of CSAM was comprised of four steps – inventory validation, analysis, deployment and audit. It was during deployment that CoreTech conducted awareness sessions followed by one-on-one sessions with traders and other staff members who needed to learn how to make their personal information systems Y2K compliant. As part of this phase, the CoreTech team also took initial steps towards standardizing CSAM’s entire desktop environment to maintain consistency in how employees work in the future. "In other words, rather than continue to allow an environment where multiple versions of non-compliant programs existed, CoreTech assisted CSAM in defining certain standards to be followed," said Gengenbach.

Positioned for the Next Hundred Years
In less than six months, CSAM had addressed a majority of the issues identified by CoreTech. In addition, an outside auditor did a thorough once-over of CoreTech’s work and was pleased with the level of detail achieved and the approach employed for the remediation project.

As a result of this success, CSAM has retained CoreTech’s expertise for additional projects, such as preparing a comprehensive business continuity plan. The two companies have established a strong, productive relationship that promises to bring continuing benefits as time goes on beyond just the Year 2000.

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