Stakeholder-centric
implementation
Euroclear Finland’s legacy IT architecture, with
its dual settlement systems, permitted a phased
approach to replacement – first, fixed income and
Throughout the project, Euroclear Finland
money markets; and second, equities.
met regularly with the Finnish regulators, who
“We knew that equities would be more complex
were also key stakeholders. “We operate critical
given the extensive functionality and support for
infrastructure for the financial markets, and so
corporate actions,” says Vainio. “That’s why we
the success of Infinity was essential for risk
included ISO 20022 messages and other base
management throughout the Finnish capital
capabilities during the first phase.”
markets,” says Vainio. “Our regulators supported
“As we replaced our fixed income systems, we
us throughout the entire journey.”
set the foundation for what we would then do in
the equities markets,” says Anu Puttonen, Head of
Partnership
approach
Product Management for Euroclear Finland.
“Our clients interact with our systems on a
TCS worked in close partnership with Euroclear
daily basis, and so they were closely involved and
Finland throughout the Infinity initiative. TCS’
engaged with what we are doing,” adds Puttonen.
onshore team in Helsinki sat alongside Euroclear
“At the same time, we keenly understood
Finland business analysts, IT teams, development
that clients have their own priorities, and that
and technology teams and business users.
whatever we launch has to be synchronized with
“We had a team of almost 100 people on one
their own development initiatives.”
floor, all sitting together, learning together and
Multi-tier engagement
with participants celebrating together, to create that ‘One Team,
To gather detailed, ongoing guidance and feedback from both sides traveled often between India
One Goal’ feeling,” says Vainio.
To further build a collaborative culture, experts
with clients, Euroclear Finland established several
and Finland, and teams also met frequently
engagement groups for covering business changes,
with offshore teams via dedicated video
technical changes, project management, testing,
teleconferencing facilities. Other collaborative
and data migration. The engagement groups met
approaches included the use of cloud-based issue
regularly to uncover and resolve potential issues
tracking and project tracking software, training
within their respective domains.
sessions, and sharing of detailed documentation
Overseeing the activities of the engagement
between teams.
groups, a Market Advisory Committee consisting
TCS created a dedicated offshore delivery
of senior executives from Euroclear Finland and
center for Euroclear Finland at Chennai, staffed
its key clients monitored the overall progress of
with development teams, testing teams, and SMEs
the initiative.
with deep knowledge of the European landscape.
Euroclear Finland established a dedicated
A specialized team was also set up to handle the
team solely for client account management. “The performance and other non-functional needs of
client account management team was responsible the program.
for being the central contact point between us Senior management teams from both TCS and
and our clients,” says Puttonen. “They not only Euroclear Finland provided strong governance and
answered client queries, but also made sure that monitoring throughout the project. “There was a
we understood what was going on with our client strong commitment at senior levels on both sides
organizations.” that this was a joint journey that we had to conduct
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