Executive Overview

In September 2010, Our client announced the strategic acquisition of the a boutique tax managed fixed income business unit from a peer company, setting in motion a complex nine-month technology integration initiative. The business, managing over $4.2 billion in tax-advantaged municipal bonds, required a comprehensive platform migration from Advent Geneva to Client’s Eagle STAR and PACE ecosystem. This case study chronicles our journey through this transformative project, highlighting the challenges we faced and the innovative solutions we implemented.

The Integration Journey

The integration journey began in March 2011 with an intensive discovery phase. The business unit acquired presented unique challenges due to its sophisticated trading requirements and complex tax-lot accounting needs. Operating on Advent Geneva, the platform had evolved over a decade to support specialized municipal bond trading strategies and tax-optimization algorithms that were crucial to maintaining their competitive edge in the market.

Our initial assessment revealed the true scope of the challenge: we needed to preserve over ten years of historical performance data, maintain complex tax-lot accounting structures, and ensure zero disruption to daily trading operations. The business couldn’t afford any downtime, as their trading strategies required continuous market participation and precise execution timing.

Strategic Approach

By May 2011, we had developed a comprehensive migration strategy that would unfold over the subsequent eight months. The approach centered on maintaining business continuity while progressively transitioning systems and data to the new platform. We established a dedicated team of specialists who worked closely with both TABS portfolio managers and BNY Mellon’s technology teams to ensure all requirements were properly captured and addressed.

The summer months of 2011 saw intense activity as we built the foundation for the migration. June through August focused on developing custom ETL processes and integration mechanisms. We created a sophisticated reconciliation engine that could handle the complex municipal bond positions and their associated tax implications. This period also involved extensive collaboration with compliance teams to ensure all regulatory requirements were maintained throughout the transition.

Technical Innovation

One of our most significant achievements came in September 2011 with the development of a custom tax-lot optimization bridge. This innovative solution allowed us to maintain the sophisticated tax-harvesting strategies that were central to the business model while transitioning to client’s platform. The bridge provided real-time synchronization of tax-lot information between systems during the parallel run period, ensuring no opportunities were missed during the transition.

As autumn approached, we initiated a series of mock migrations. October 2011 saw a full dress rehearsal of the cutover process, helping us refine our approach and identify potential issues before they could impact the actual migration. The practice run proved invaluable, as they helped us optimize our processes and reduce the final cutover window compared to initial estimates.

The Cutover Experience

The actual platform cutover took place during the Thanksgiving weekend of 2011, chosen specifically for its traditionally lower trading volumes before heavy December tax related trading activity. The migration team worked around the clock from Wednesday evening through Sunday, executing a carefully orchestrated plan that involved over 200 individual tasks. By Monday morning, the business unit was fully operational on the PACE platform, with all historical data, positions, and trading capabilities successfully transferred.

Measuring Success

The December 2011 month-end close provided the first full test of the new integrated platform. The results exceeded expectations: processing times for daily operations had improved, system availability maintained at 99.9%, and most importantly, there was no disruption to trading activities during the entire transition period. The successful integration allowed the business unit to maintain its trading strategy while gaining access to our client’s broader technology capabilities.

Conclusion

This integration project, completed in December 2011, stands as a testament to the power of careful planning, technical expertise, and strong project governance. Through close collaboration between business and technology teams, we achieved not just a system migration, but a true business transformation that positioned the business unit for continued growth and success within the our client’s ecosystem.

The project’s success has led to its adoption as a model for future integration initiatives, with its methodologies and lessons learned now forming part of our standard integration playbook for acquired businesses.