REPORTS FROM SENIOR IT MANAGERS ON STRATEGIC PROJECTS


BIT REPORT
Reported by Elizabeth U. Harding

The financial industry in recent years has seen many mergers and acquisitions, and in the wake of each deal, IT organizations face plenty of change. When Fleet Boston Financial, Boston, acquired Shawmut Bank, all but one suite of Shawmut's applications had to be changed to become Fleet applications. One system that got carried over to Fleet was a software change management (SCM) system.

At the time of the merger, Fleet did not have an efficient SCM system, but Shawmut had been using Change Man from Serena Software Inc., Burlingame, Calif., for some time.

"We completed our conversion to the product," says John Creviston, Fleet systems vice president, technology and operations division. "We have probably 250 applications on it. Several applications we've collapsed into one application on Change Man because they are so tightly coupled."

According to Creviston, a driving force for moving so quickly to convert applications to Change Man was to deliver application upgrades and business deliverables to market faster. "Each application has different requirements," says Creviston. "Change Man is flexible and can accommodate that. It's easy to administer."

Another compelling reason involved inventory issues. Fleet used a change management tool prior to Change Man which involved more of a data-entry-type process of stating changes at the end of development. "A lot of pieces were left behind in development," says Creviston. "As developers get used to the [Change Man] product, they certainly see the benefit. It definitely makes their life easier."

As Fleet's IT organization deals with growth in e-business, it is looking at eChangeMan for a consistent approach to software change management, Creviston says.