Bank of America acquired US Trust in November 2006 to strengthen their Private Banking portfolio. The goal was to integrate US Trust’s computer systems, responsible for managing client investments and trust account data, into Bank of America’s own database called TrustWeb. Bank of America considered the impact on contracts and employees and decided to merge two existing US Trust systems, PMW+ and AMS, into TrustWeb. However, TrustWeb lacked certain functionalities that were important for providing excellent customer service. Updates were necessary to ensure associates could meet the high level of customer service expected by US Trust clients.
In TrustWeb, the main figures were Ken Lewis, who served as CEO of Bank of America, and Brian Moynihan, the President of the Global Wealth Management division. Additionally, there was the Transition Leadership Team (TLT) supervised by Robert Sandberg. Furthermore, Peter Santos oversaw the implementation of various client facing tools, including TrustWeb. The project management responsibilities fell on Mike Morris, who had two subordinate change analysts and a Tech Lead responsible for translating business requirements into functional systems.
This deviated from BOA’s project management approach, where projects with higher priority would receive more budget and resources. However, this did not happen in this specific case. The TrustWeb project faced fundamental problems from the beginning, and PM Morris was not involved in the definition and planning process. He was assigned to the project only during the execution phase. Additionally, he was simultaneously working on four other projects, with TrustWeb being one of the most significant projects, ranking in the top 10%.
Mike, a novice, had too many projects simultaneously when he should have prioritized TrustWeb. One crucial initial task for the project’s success is selecting the PM before any definition or planning begins. This enables team selection and stakeholder identification. However, the PM on this project lacked formal authority to make decisions pertaining to back-office operations and business stakeholders from client servicing.
The stakeholders mentioned earlier expressed their discontent with TrustWeb, but did not participate in any further meetings. The project manager lacked expertise in the IT field, which was a major weakness, and the technical lead was inexperienced in managing intricate problems. Moreover, the team had inadequate resources for such a large-scale project. There were also other factors that impacted the process. For example, Morris was absent during a crucial meeting in Dallas and consequently missed the introduction of new project requirements. He had to compensate for this later.
This article discusses issues that affected the project’s timeline. Not finding the project manager before the planning stages was a major problem, as it hindered the facilitation of the definition and planning phases. As a result, valuable time was lost, ultimately impacting the final project delivery. While some of these issues may have been unavoidable, implementing processes to mitigate them could have been helpful. TLT Santos, who was directly responsible for the PM, could have taken steps to address these challenges.
The Prime Minister’s lack of understanding in IT, coupled with being new to the role and overseeing a crucial project, presented another challenge. Furthermore, he was unaware of the intricacy of the system utilized by US Trust. This system, while easy for users to navigate, retrieved data from various databases that were undergoing simultaneous upgrades. All these issues were within the Prime Minister’s responsibility to comprehend the importance of the project, particularly as he had the opportunity to gather a team with the necessary expertise.
To ensure future project success, it is essential to identify the project manager early on during the planning phase. Unfortunately, this is where the project encountered initial difficulties. Moreover, there seemed to be a lack of guidance from Robert Sandberg, the sponsor who ultimately bore responsibility for the project’s outcome. The project manager displayed a clear deficiency in IT knowledge; I believe involving someone with extensive expertise in databases and IT would have been advantageous.
According to the case study, Bank of America usually employed the systems from the companies they acquired. However, in this particular instance, they seemed determined to stick with their own exclusive system despite TrustWeb having substantial funding. I would have recommended examining the system used by US Trust and understanding its effectiveness, as well as considering how it could potentially impact TrustWeb. Ultimately, the project required a high level of effort that Mike Morris, an inexperienced project manager, was unable to deliver.
As one gains more experience within the organization, they are given more projects to handle. If he was the right person, then he would have been assigned solely to manage TrustWeb and would have been provided with IT resources who understood the process from all perspectives. I would have insisted on him attending the Dallas meetings, despite the time and effort it cost him, as it resulted in unnecessary rework that could have been allocated to other tasks.
