The following case studies describe some of the data migration projects in which ATD consultants have played leading roles:

Case Study 1: Toyota Financial Services
Case Study 2: Land Rover Financial Services
Case Study 3: BMW Financial Services
Case Study 4: Volvo Car Finance
Case Study 5: BMW Financial Services


Case Study 1: Toyota Financial Services



Toyota Financial Services (TFS) recently undertook a major business transition programme to in-source its back-office functions. This required that a large number of Toyota and Lexus retail finance contracts, together with all their associated transaction data, be converted from an external IBM mainframe-based system to an in-house system. The new system was based on the Lynx "Portfolio" software package using Unix and Oracle technology. ATD consultants worked closely with TFS throughout the data conversion project in the following roles:

• contributing to a feasibility study into the risks and benefits of undertaking a data conversion from the outsourced external system, and presenting the findings of the study to the TFS management board, which approved the data conversion project
• managing the data conversion project from the start, through to its successful conclusion 18 months later
• acting as the principal contacts with both the existing external system supplier (Black Horse) and the suppliers of the new in-house system, for the resolution of technical and data-related issues
• support for the transition of the business to an in-house operation, particularly through the provision of management information from the source data
• data analysis, data mapping, design of the migration procedures and development of migration software
• unit and system testing of the data migration procedures and software, as well as support for user acceptance testing
• development of procedures for both the financial and non-financial reconciliation of the data conversion.

The director of the transition programme was Blair Pollock, TFS’ General Manager, Business Development, who commented:

"When the ATD consultants joined TFS, the administration of our finance portfolio was outsourced to Black Horse, a subsidiary of Lloyds TSB Bank. We had decided to bring this part of our business in-house and were looking for someone to lead the effort to convert our retail customer data from the Black Horse systems to our own.

The ATD consultants came to us highly recommended for their extensive knowledge and experience of similar conversions within the motor finance industry. We therefore expected a high quality outcome, but were nevertheless surprised by the excellent job that they did.

During the two years that the ATD consultants were with us, they delivered outstanding results. Their structured approach and attention to detail ensured that the specification, development and testing of the conversion was meticulous. The conversion event, a “big bang”, took place according to schedule, and 100% of nearly 80,000 contracts were successfully loaded into the contract management system. We have subsequently had very few issues with the quality of the converted data and have been able to cope well with the tremendous increase in business volumes.

It is a great testament to the quality of the work performed by the ATD consultants that in a recent review of our insourcing project, the Board of Management of TFS recognised the retail conversion as a major success.”
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Case Study 2: Land Rover Financial Services



ATD consultants played key roles in the integration of Land Rover Financial Services (LRFS) into Ford Credit Europe (FCE). The LRFS receivables were purchased by FCE from BMW Financial Services, and approximately 20,000 finance contracts, together with all their associated data, were migrated from BMW’s Oracle-based systems into FCE’s mainframe systems.

An ATD consultant worked alongside FCE staff and suppliers in a specialist data migration consultancy role, which included:

• a due diligence exercise, involving a detailed analysis of the LRFS portfolio
• drafting of the Sale and Purchase Agreement between FCE and BMW
• specifying an interim service level agreement with BMW, covering the administration of the finance contracts during the period between the purchase of the portfolio and the migration of data to the FCE systems
• analysis of the source data in the BMW systems and data mapping from source to target systems
• acting as the principal point of contact between FCE and BMW for the resolution of issues related to the source data
• supporting FCE’s finance team in the reconciliation of the data to be migrated.

Other ATD consultants were contracted to BMW, to work on the design and implementation of data extraction and verification processes to provide the source data for the Land Rover data migration and related projects (see Case Study 3).

The LRFS portfolio was successfully migrated into FCE’s systems using a “big bang” approach over one weekend.
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Case Study 3: BMW Financial Services



BMW, having brought in-house their finance portfolio, used a Copernicus Loan and Lease Administration System to manage this portfolio. BMW then experienced a rapid business-driven expansion, which included the integration of Rover Financial Services. The consequence of this expansion, over a period of several years, was an accumulation of data inconsistencies and a reduction in the data integrity within several areas of their systems. An ATD consultant worked as leader of a team of in-house I.T. and Accounting staff on a data integrity project. The consultant’s main responsibilities were:

• data analysis to establish the extent and cause of any data anomalies
• development and testing of data correction utilities
• liaison with business managers and staff for the implementation of corrective data maintenance procedures
• liaison with I.T. staff to implement changes to software causing data inconsistencies
• implementing reporting procedures to strengthen the monitoring of accounting information.

The project was completed successfully and the integrity of systems approved by external auditors. On completion of the data cleansing project, ATD consultants played a key role in the transfer of data to external parties following the sale of Rover by BMW. Two separate data conversions were undertaken, the Land Rover business being transferred to Ford Credit Europe (FCE), see Case Study 2, and the remaining Rover business to Capital Bank (CB). The ATD consultants worked alongside BMW staff to perform the data extraction and the supply of the data to the various external parties. The main tasks were:

• analysis and design of the data extraction processes and tools
• acting as the main point of contact for FCE and CB on matters of data content and to resolve any data migration issues
• supporting and controlling the extraction process during the conversion weekends.

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Case Study 4: Volvo Car Finance



After Volvo Car Finance (VCF) became part of Ford Credit Europe (FCE), the finance contracts themselves continued to be managed on a day-to-day basis by an external service provider, Lloyds UDT. FCE undertook a major project to transfer the administration of these contracts to its own customer and business service centres. Hence a requirement arose to convert data from various IBM mainframe systems run by Lloyds UDT. There were three distinct target systems in FCE, for the administration of loans, finance leases and contract hire agreements respectively.

An ATD consultant was contracted to FCE in a data migration consultancy role, which involved:

• liaising with the outgoing service provider, Lloyds UDT, over business and I.T. issues
• analysis, verification and reconciliation of the source data provided by Lloyds UDT
• mapping of the data from source to target systems
• advising the application developers in FCE and its suppliers on issues relating to the source data
• advising business managers within FCE on the content and meaning of the source data
• supporting user acceptance testing of the data migration
• detailed planning of the data conversion process.

The VCF portfolio, comprising more than 30,000 contracts, was successfully migrated from Lloyds UDT to FCE over the course of a single weekend.
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Case Study 5: BMW Financial Services



BMW embarked on a long-term programme to set up its own financial services organisation in the UK, in place of a service managed externally by Lloyds Bowmaker. ATD consultants played central roles in this programme, particularly in the migration of the data associated with existing finance contracts.

Some 50,000 contracts were migrated from Lloyds Bowmaker’s IBM mainframe systems into BMW’s newly developed accounting and administration systems, which were based on customised packages running on Oracle databases with interfaces to SAP.

The responsibilities of the ATD consultants within the data migration project were as follows:

• overall project management
• leading a team of business analysts, application programmers and Oracle database administrators, in the specification, development and testing of the migration procedures
• acting as the main points of contact between BMW and Lloyds Bowmaker, as well as between BMW and its system suppliers, in respect of any data migration issues
• supporting the transition of the BMW Financial Services business from an externally managed operation to an in-house operation
• detailed planning of the logistics of the data migration, including co-ordinating the migration with the securitisation of a major part of BMW’s finance receivables.

The migration was completed according to plan in three phases, each phase culminating in the conversion of a certain tranche of finance contracts over one weekend. The overall project was concluded within a period of 18 months.
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