The Business Opportunity
The JP Morgan Middle Office organization recognized the need for a ýweb portalý, which would provide information about the organization, provide specific tools and techniques for use by associates, provide a continuing means of communicating with employees and outside constituents within JP Morgan, and an internet location for providing Q&A exchanges with upper management and hosting online meetings. The broad goals and long list of desired features provided a challenge for planning and managing the project and getting the site up and running as soon as possible.
The Solution
JP Morgan hired Alliance Consulting to provide the team to gather requirements, assess the options, and create an overall framework and look and feel for the portal site. The site was to be developed by an internal JP Morgan business unit, so the teamýs charge was to hand off everything to the development team, which could then move clearly forward to build a quality site quickly.
The Alliance team consisted of 4 individuals: project manager/business analyst, html designer, information architect, and technical architect. John Reiling of AcroVision served as the technical architect. This involved working closely with the JP Morgan development group, located off shore in Scotland, and other team members to assure that the requirements were clear and that each feature was feasible.
Challenges included assessing the technologies to be used for each requested feature, facilitating an understanding between the designer, information architect, and developers so that everyone was making the same technology assumptions, resolving technical issues to make most features feasible. In some cases, there were features that were studied carefully, and due to time and current technology constraints, these features were delayed until later releases. The final product ý including detailed requirements, site design, information architecture, and technology infrastructure and assessment ý was delivered and accepted, and application development by the offshore group commenced immediately.
The Results
The web portal site was up and running within two months of completion of the requirements, design, and feasibility work, thanks to the roadmap provided by the team as well as the quality execution of the offshore and internal team. AcroVision was pleased to work as part of an outstanding team and to contribute to the success of this project. JP Morganýs Middle Office Organization had an effective web portal site ý meeting requirements, attractive design, and within the possibilities of the technology environment - and a roadmap for future enhancements.
