Project Summary List

• Honda UK (1996-1997)
• Royal London Mutual Insurance (1997)
• ABN Amro NV (1997-1999)
• WestLB Systems Limited (1999-2003)
• Credit Suisse First Boston (2003-2005)
• Lehman Brothers (2005-?)

Honda UK (October 1996 to January 1997)

Skills Provided by Slamsoft Computing Limited:- COBOL II, CICS, DL/1, VSAM, QSAM, Selcopy, TSO/ISPF, SDSF, SDFII, REXX, Datamanager, INFOMAN, Smarttest, MVS/ESA, CMS, VM/ESA, Microsoft Office V6.0 - particularly Excel and Access, Rumba 4.1 for SNA gateway.

At Honda, Slamsoft Computing Limited (SCL), was employed to work in their I.T. department consisting of about 15 to 20 programmers proficient in a variety of different skills ranging from COBOL on the mainframe to the provision of Single Server Network applications.

SCL was assigned to an analysis and programming project working on Honda's Finance System, particularly the area which covered payments and credits from Honda's finance company, Chartered Trust.

SCL inherited a system which had many problems, and so for much of his time at Honda he became involved in debugging, and overnight batch fixes. Most of this project required COBOL/CICS and Selcopy programs to be written and/or enhanced.

After successfully stabilising the finance system, SCL was then involved in the migration of a new system written in Microsoft Access which allowed interrogation of archived data from other financial systems. SCL was particularly involved in the data-transfer of all the archived data from the mainframe to Access (this involved writing about 25 Selcopy programs to download the data to Honda's network), and the reconciliation process (which involved a further 15 new Selcopy programs).

This project at Honda lasted for about four months, and although SCL was offered an extension to the contract, it was declined in favour of a new assignment secured at Royal London Mutual Insurance.

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Royal London Mutual Insurance (February 1997 to October 1997)

Skills Provided by Slamsoft Computing Limited:- COBOL II, CICS, DL/1, VSAM, QSAM, TSO/ISPF, SDSF, SDFII, REXX, INTERTEST, FILE, Datamanager, Multisession, MVS/ESA, AttachMate, Microsoft Office V7.0.

At Royal London, Slamsoft Computing Limited (SCL), was enlisted to work in a large I.T. department consisting of at least 150 people spread across three buildings.

During the project at Royal London, SCL was involved in a variety of different projects, most notably the implementation of a new Pensions Review System (which all companies selling pension policies were forced to adopt). For this project, SCL was required to write approximately 16 new COBOL programs (most of which were written for CICS using DL/1). SCL was also required to provide various analysis skills during the early system design stages.

Prior to the Pensions Review System, SCL worked on mainly smaller projects which included writing various Year 2000 modules, plus many more maintenance tasks all of which have required programming in COBOL, CICS, DL/1 and VSAM.

SCL was also involved in a number of small Visual Basic projects, and made constant use of Microsoft Word, Excel and Access. SCL was also regularly in contact with Royal London's users, particularly to discuss system enhancements and changes.

The project at Royal London Mutual Insurance lasted in total 9 months, which consisted of an initial six month contract and was followed by a further three month extension to complete the remnants of the Pensions Review System project.

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ABN Amro NV (October 1997 to January 1999)

Skills Provided by Slamsoft Computing Limited:- AS/400 using COBOL 400, OS/400 CL, DB2/400, DDS, SDA, AS400 Query, SEU, OS400 API's, COBOL I & II under VM/ESA Mainframe, CICS, DL/1, VSAM, QSAM, DOS/VSE, REXX, Selcopy, Microsoft Office V7.0.

Following the Royal London Mutual Insurance project, Slamsoft Computing Limited (SCL), was enlisted for IT consultancy services by ABN Amro NV.

SCL was utilised to work on a variety of projects on both the mainframe and the AS/400. The initial tasks were mainframe based and related to the migration of various ABN Amro systems from the mainframe onto their in-house accounting software called "SCORE" which ran on an AS/400 box. SCL was then developing full-time on the AS/400 writing COBOL applications. SCL was subsequently assigned various tasks which included the writing of various report programs for the Score system. SCL also had sole responsibility for the following two projects: -

1. The analysis of a suitable interface between FAMAS and the AS/400. FAMAS is a PC based package, which provides ABN Amro's credit risk department with suitable information to decide which companies were a worthy investment risk and which are not.

2. Full implementation of an AS/400 system that supplied the Inland Revenue with details of interest paid to customers. This is a requirement of the Inland Revenue that all financial companies, such as banks and building societies, supply interest payment amounts for their customers, along with name and address details and various other items of information.

Both of these projects required continuous contact with users. Finally, SCL was also involved in the implementation of various systems ensuring EURO compliance.

The project at ABN Amro lasted in total 16 months, which consisted of an initial six month contract and was followed by a further 2 project extensions (one of 6 months, and one of 4 months).

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WestLB Systems (February 1999 to July 2003)

Skills Provided by Slamsoft Computing Limited:- Unix (Solaris), Sybase (version 11.92, 12.0 and 12.5), Visual Basic version 6 (including VBA), perl, AS/400 using COBOL 400, DB2/400, OS/400 CL, DDS, AS/400 Query, QM Query (using SQL), SEU, OS/400 API's, DFU, MIS Capital, AS/400 Java, Microsoft Office, Windows NT.

After the completion of the various projects at ABN Amro, Slamsoft Computing Limited (SCL) successfully secured a new contract at West Deutchelandis Bank (WestLB), a German bank.

Initially, the task at WestLB required SCL to help migrate the back office settlements system (MIS) from the AS/400 platform, onto an alternative Client/Server based platford. This assignment utilised various AS/400 related skills, including COBOL 400, and many new programs were written during this initial 6 month contract.

Inevitably during such large migration projects, timescales changed and it was not until September 2002 that the migration from MIS was eventually completed. This deadline meant a further five contract extensions.

During the later stages of these assignments, SCL became more involved in various other Unix/Sybase based systems. The main system supported was the LOcal REporting system (LORE). As well as being based on a Unix/Sybase platform, many of the scripts and reports were written using Perl and Visual Basic. These required regular enhancement depending on the requirements of WestLB users.

A number of smaller projects have also involved SCL in writing Java based applications.

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Credit Suisse First Boston (September 2003 to November 2005)

Skills Provided by Slamsoft Computing Limited:- Unix (Solaris), Sybase (version 11.92, 12.0 and 12.5), Visual Basic version 6 (including VBA), perl, Microsoft Office, Business Objects, Microsoft SQL Server, Remedy and Rational Clearcase (Source Control), Windows NT and Windows XP.

Slamsoft Computing Limited was originally appointed as a developer to work on a new regulatory Profit & Loss reporting system required by the Bank of England.  As a member of an 8 man team in the Controllers IT department, the deadlines were extremely tight, and the significance to create good, reliable and easy to maintain code was high.  The project was completed on time and on budget.

Following this, SCL developed and maintained a number of key P&L systems including a Trade Reconciliation application (Trex) and a system that reconciled trade data between the front and back office areas of CSFB (FoBo-Rec). Both systems required Visual Basic 6, Unix, perl and Sybase skills.

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Lehman Brothers (November 2005 to present)

Skills Provided by Slamsoft Computing Limited:- Unix (Solaris), Sybase (version 12.5), Visual Basic version 6 (including VBA), perl, Visual SourceSafe (Source Control), Microsoft Office, Windows XP.

This is a development and support role in the London P&L team within Finance Technology.  The team is responsible for the firms P&L reporting and control systems.  The systems provide the business with the ability to report P&L across FID, Equities and Investment Banking from individual trades up to a consolidated divisional level.  The position requires close liaison with the current local team of 8 members and Lehman India team of 5 people to develop and support these systems, alongside counterparts in New York and Tokyo.  Typical tasks involve: -

• Development of key finance initiatives
• User support for a number of high availability P&L System applications
• System maintenance, and overnight support of existing P&L Systems
• Liase with other technology departments within the firm, both providing a service and requesting deliverables.
• Involvement in all aspects of the product lifecycle, from business justification through analysis, development, testing, implementation and support.
• Planning of tasks and reporting status to management.

SCL has recently successfully completed the development phase of the CAD2 project which allows Lehman Brothers to significantly reduce the capital reserves and therefore costs needed on a daily basis.

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