Initially taken on to complete a short-term project to consolidate and rationalise a series of managed life and pension funds for a third party, I also supported the transition of life funds into CGCalc.

Upon completion I joined a project concerned with launching a new office in Luxembourg; working as part of a large multi-disciplined team, but specialising in ad hoc regulatory and tax reporting solutions for a range of tiered funds: EUSD (calculation of TIS), taxe d’abonnement and CCLux reporting.

In September 2007, I transferred to become the sole business analyst on a project to take over fund accounting for a range of property-based funds: defining the profile, structure and operating requirements for these funds, including UK and Isle of Man tax and regulatory reporting, processing and payment of property-related invoices, on-line banking and incentive fee calculations.

From the end of October 2008, I carried out acceptance and system testing of an enhancement to a bespoke fund price capture and reporting system (developed offshore) to enable automated capture of asset prices received from external fund managers, perform calculation of indexed fund prices against benchmark indices and upload prices to the mainframe host fund accounting system. A smaller proportion of my time was spent gathering and writing up Austrian tax reporting requirements for funds managed by the Dublin office.

Following abandonment of the proposed replacement Settlement and Accounting system (Globus), legacy system (Quasar) needed to be brought up to date in respect of seven interim releases (representing five years’ worth of development) and by new technology (web-browser), still in development by Rhyme Systems.

I was one of three analysts who trialled the web-browser version during August/September 2004 making estimates of a realistic delivery schedule to be fed into the project plan. Errors and operational issues were raised with the supplier.

While these issues were being addressed, I assessed the interim release packages and reviewed their content with the relevant business users. System testing and UAT was carried out and a small number of errors raised and corrected. This version of Quasar was successfully rolled out across all users over an implementation weekend.

The web-browser version was divided into discrete components corresponding to business units. Management of the suppliers ensured that they remained focused on our priorities in order that business units could be migrated as their required functionality became available

Authoring web-based CGCalc help system (Robohelp) and preparation and presentation of business case/proposal to leading investment systems software house for Ellis Financial Systems, based on prior experience of writing user manuals and training at Coutts and Merrill Lynch.

Development and implementation of CGT component within Savannah decision-support programme (CGCalc/Quasar), specification of enhancements to CGCalc in respect of portfolio management, trusts and estates and automated calculation of notional CGT positions against pending deals in Triple’A (Odyssey) decision-support system.

I was engaged as the business analyst for a CGT project, joining at a time when a short-list of candidate systems had been drawn up. Initially my role was to evaluate the three systems and provide information towards system selection.

CGCalc was chosen, but represented a risk as Merrill Lynch would become its first major installation. Considerable time was spent with the developers (Ellis Financial Systems), examining the initial CGCalc data model, going back to first principles and making recommendations to ensure that both system and data model would meet present and future requirements, and integrate with existing systems. I also assisted drawing up a Service Level Agreement and support plan for the new system.

CGCalc became the first client system of the Central Data Repository. As such, I was responsible for ensuring that its data structures and interfaces were compatible with the requirements of the CGT and Tax Reporting projects.

The Tax Reporting system represented a completely new development, replacing annual “tax packs” produced from a single system with reports taking data feeds from several sources and across multiple platforms. The new “house style” corresponded to the Inland Revenue Self-Assessment returns in order to simplify tax reporting for private clients and their accountants. Following successful implementation (and favourable responses from clients), my design was adopted by EFS as part of their CGCalc product portfolio.

Successful implementation of project to integrate Coutts and Natwest Investments Quasar settlement systems; I joined this project at an advanced stage to assure the integration of separate Quasar/ Mumps databases from the two business units in respect of client and asset data.

Platform migration of Gilt-Edged Market Maker business in readiness for implementation of RIMS for fixed-income securities - involving analysis and design of new systems, enhancements to existing systems (Sagitta, Cumulus and Arrow), regulatory reporting interfaces and system testing specifications.

Planning and co-ordination of conversion activities relating to introduction of euro - staffing requirements, dress rehearsals, contingency planning and presentations to account managers of conversion mechanisms applicable to their clients and product streams; analysis and specification of euro compliance and conversion changes to Paladign investment management system.

Preliminary product review and requirements specification for CGT service to UK domestic clients.

Analysis and design of “Know Your Client” enhancement to Fiscal system to satisfy SFA regulatory information management requirements within Investment Management Division.

Specification and system testing of Fiscal changes in preparation for CGO2 implementation.

Appointment made on merger between Foster & Braithwaite and Quilter Goodison.

Comparative analysis of settlement systems; relocation and integration of hardware; Crest stock deposit and certificate management database.

Full responsibility for all front/back office systems and associated hardware, equipment specification and purchase.

Support of securities settlement and portfolio management system (Investmaster II), operating environment (Unix) and hardware (Sequent).

Successful implementation of Crest (software acceptance, hardware installation, system trialling, user training, transition).

Settlement/marketing support applications development (Access/Monarch), including Section 17 reporting, PEP dealing and IFA contact administration.

Introduction of Document Image Processing system (Keyfile/Access).

Installation and upgrade of real-time and historical price/news information systems (Topic, Market-Eye, Micropal, FT-Extel Workstation), networking of products, supplier contract negotiation.

Disaster Recovery and contingency planning.

Supplier management, purchasing, User Group representation.