Efficient Mainframe Integration – The Backbone for Multi- Channeling and New Distribution Concepts in the Fund Business

All direct trading operations at DWS are conducted via its IKS investment account service. As Europe’s largest supplier of public funds, DWS has been handling all necessary customer and account management since the late 1980s with an Adabas- and Natural-based mainframe application. In the late 1990s, DWS put its entire It landscape, including this essential application, to the test. the need for action arose in particular because of insufficient integration of the different It systems. A need for modernization was quickly identified in the IKS department, DWS’s internal distribution channel for the funds trade. Over the years, a number of isolated solutions with only limited interaction capabilities had emerged. The mainframe application was developed with Adabas and Natural in the late 1980s for central customer and account management. It was distressing that marketing and distribution applications, such as call center and document management, could only access the mainframe application via workaround solutions or, in some cases, could not access it at all.

DWS Investments is the mutual fund arm of Deutsche Asset Management. Founded in 1956, DWS’s activities span not only the European markets. Over the last few years, the DWS Investments brand has been rolled out to cover countries and products across the Americas, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. DWS has outstanding expertise in all of Europe’s core markets. Its international network enables it to identify market trends at an early stage and swiftly translate them into investment ideas. By bringing the right products to market at the right time, DWS turns current market conditions into investment opportunities. As the European market leader in the public fund business with administered assets of more than €120 billion and more than four million customers, DWS Investments is a major player in the finance and investment industry.