Applications

Networking Exchange Member Content Preview

Industry Focus

Investment management

Size

Approximately 600 employees

Networking Solution

ATG application management provided by AT&T on a Utility Platform

Business Value

Highly available, cost-effective platform provides enhanced website performance while enabling internal IT team to focus on sales tools, not technology

About Our Customer

Pioneer Investments® is the Boston, Massachusetts-based U.S. headquarters of a $258 billion global investment management company dedicated to growing and preserving client assets. The global organization partners with financial professionals and institutions worldwide, offering a full range of solutions, from mutual and hedge funds to a mix of products that span the risk-return spectrum.

Situation

In a competitive investment market, Pioneer needed to arm its sales teams with powerful web tools to inform and encourage advisors and investors to add Pioneer funds to their portfolios. With a focus on efficiently managing its resources for Internet services, the firm needed a fully managed solution for its ATG™ e-business platform.

Solution

Pioneer migrated to a managed web platform with a full range of scalable utility hosting and application management services that offer enhanced user performance. A second data center in Europe provides disaster recovery capabilities and helps expand Pioneer’s global presence. The company now has a reliable, cost-effective path for growth allowing it to devote time to enhancing its websites and creating new tools to support sales efforts, instead of worrying about technology.

E-business: A Valuable Asset for Growth

When it comes to solid financial management, there’s no substitute for experience. That’s certainly the case with Pioneer. Founded by legendary investor Philip Carret in 1928, the firm manages the third-oldest mutual fund in the United States, the Pioneer Fund.

After navigating through many bull and bear markets, Pioneer has a historical perspective very few financial firms can offer. Careful research and Carret’s “value” style of long-term investing has guided the firm and its customers through the great depression and the more recent credit crisis.

Through the years, the tools of the trade have changed. Back then, a simple stock ticker conveyed prices to advisors and investors. Now, the web has permeated nearly every aspect of fund management and is a critical tool in a fiercely competitive market. Pioneer has successfully made the journey from ticker tape to web technology. In fact, Pioneer’s Director of Internet Marketing Todd Goldstein says e-business plays a key role in growing assets under the firm’s management.

“Our e-business vision is to leverage web technology to tell the Pioneer story – we offer our economic and market insights and provide all the information our customers need to know about Pioneer products,” Goldstein said. “One of our primary goals is to provide our sales teams with the tools they need to help advisors and their firms learn about and consider recommending Pioneer funds to investors.”

Pioneer’s e-business platform is based on Oracle^®’s ATG Web Commerce applications, hosted and managed by AT&T. “With AT&T, we have a highly available and redundant platform that helps us get our story out there,” Goldstein said. “More importantly, I have access to resources who understand my infrastructure, applications and needs, so we can focus less on technology and more on new projects.”

Supporting Big Goals

Compliance issues, regulatory demands and a constant need for results are all challenges in the investment industry. However, before the new solution, technology was the toughest dragon to slay for Goldstein. Although he reports into the marketing organization, his work doesn’t stop there.

“My group has all of the responsibilities of an IT group, without the large staff,” he said. “My prior vendor was very focused on keeping the hardware running, but someone had to be in charge of the entire technology stack, and that was largely me with support from Pioneer’s Enterprise Technology Services department. We needed a hosting relationship that went way beyond just the hardware.”

Addressing the problem with an investment industry perspective, Goldstein conducted in-depth vendor research and focused on the long-term benefits of switching providers. “I needed to make the change because I had to think about moving Pioneer forward. I knew AT&T would be able to support my whole technology portfolio with a full range of services now and in the future.”

Pioneer chose AT&T to run its ATG applications, which AT&T does on a utility computing platform that combines network, computing and storage capabilities into a virtualized infrastructure. AT&T hosts and manages the solution in its Internet Data Center in Annapolis, Maryland. A second data center in the Netherlands was selected for geographic diversity and serves as a backup site for disaster recovery and a platform for expanding Pioneer’s global presence.

A monthly fee covers baseline services. “It was the best direction to go,” Goldstein said. “Moving to a more reliable and cost-effective architecture gives us the flexibility to add more power as we need it. Because AT&T manages the ATG application for us, we get more services at a cost close to what we previously were paying just for hosting. It’s a win/win situation.”

A Smooth Transition

The AT&T professional services team worked closely with Goldstein to create a technology roadmap, convert the existing websites to the new infrastructure and integrate deployment and source control environments. They also managed  the ATG application upgrade  as they moved toward launch day.

That day came just five months after work began. “The transition was unbelievably smooth. We came in on a Saturday, went live and went home on the same day,” said Goldstein. “I was very pleased. I expected to be sequestered here through the weekend, but any issues that came up were addressed very quickly. The effort and teamwork between AT&T, my internal team and Pioneer’s IT team was phenomenal. All the sites cut over and we were more than ready Monday morning when everyone came back to work.”

The first thing the associates noticed was the speed of the websites. The difference in performance wasn’t only noticeable, but measurable. “It was just incredible. People said the pages were popping right up. It cut our full-page response time by more than half,” reported Goldstein, noting site metrics. “Since the pages snap right up, people spend more time clicking through and staying on the site because the experience is so much better.”

Positive Returns

The switch included many internal and external websites across the company, supporting multiple sales channels. The main website links investors and the public to a range of information, from daily price and performance data to fact sheets and videos from Pioneer fund managers. Another website, restricted to advisors, provides more in-depth information on Pioneer investment products. There are also dedicated websites for other channels, such as Institutional Investors and Registered Investment Advisors (RIA).

But it’s the web tools on many of those sites that have the most impact on Pioneer sales teams. For example, during a meeting, Pioneer wholesalers can use an interactive historical allocation tool to graphically demonstrate Pioneer’s prowess in managing fixed income funds over a given time period. Advisors can also access the online tool themselves. “The sales teams say it really helps them tell the story of a fund to advisors in an interactive fashion, so the advisors can better see why they should consider adding the fund to their portfolio,” said Goldstein.

Other projects with AT&T are underway, including a new search engine with advanced capabilities to help sales teams find presentations and other information faster and respond more quickly to customers. A web content management system from ATG will soon help Pioneer publish thought leadership materials, such as market outlooks and fund commentaries, in formats optimized for search engines and social media outlets. Tablet PCs are also being evaluated as a way to help the sales staff improve the effectiveness of their presentations. 

Working with AT&T to augment his internal staff frees Goldstein from the technology issues that used to draw his time away from e-business initiatives. “Now, I can continue to reach my goals without getting caught up in technology all the time. If an issue arises, I know the AT&T team will take action to resolve it. I never doubt they’re working hard on Pioneer’s behalf,” he said. Based on the project’s success, Goldstein sees a long relationship ahead with AT&T. “All my goals have been pretty much met. I don’t get to say that about every project.”

Voice of the Customer

“It cut our full-page response time by more than half. Since the pages snap right up, people spend more time clicking through and staying on the site because the experience is so much better.”

- Todd Goldstein, Director of Internet Marketing, Pioneer Investment Management USA Inc.