Merrill
Lynch & Company, one of the leaders in traditional financial service,
began a thorough re-evaluation of its approach to its businesses. The growth
from low-cost traders and Internet-based stock trading have posed a significant
threat to Merrill Lynch sustainability in long run. The introduction of "FC-centric"
system was expected to provide every financial consultants in the company
with rich content and great analytical tools. This would help consultants
to develop, implement, and monitor financial plans for clients.
In October
1998, Merrill Lynch launched a new and upgraded system, "The Trusted
Global Advisor" (TGA), which cost them about $850 million. This system
includes a new telecommunications infrastructure, upgraded PC hardware and
software, and electronic market data feeds. They also spent a total of $250
million on software development, telecommunication system, and electronic
data feeds for stock quotes and news. Also the system is provided to each
financial consultant in the U.S. and international offices.
The TGA platform
enables fast and precise measurement of a portfolio's performance against
a client's financial goals. This allows financial consultant to tracking progress
in a portfolio with shorter time. Before the TGA system was introduced, a
consultant would have run a lot of "what-if" scenarios to figure
out what change is needed to get the portfolio on track.
