Inside This Issue:
fedtalk
Learning How to Use AMI and SCI ........................ 3
What People Are Saying About AMI and SCI ........ 3
How AMI Was Built to Meet Bankers’ Needs ......... 5
FedLine’s Future? It’s on the Web ......................... 7
FedLine for the Web Resources .............................. 8
FINANCIAL SERVICES UPDATE OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF BOSTON
........................................................................ MAY 2002
Two New Web-based Applications
Help Meet Accounting Info Needs
Y
ou’ve suggested a host of ways that we
can make the accounting and billing
statements that you receive each month
for Federal Reserve Bank services less complex,
easier to use, timelier, and more accessible.
We took your suggestions and turned them into
two new accounting applications. Account Management Information (AMI) and Service Charge
Information (SCI) will allow you online access to
the information found on your Fed accounting and
billing statements through one common gateway,
FedLine® for the Web.
Using AMI and SCI you have the freedom to
view information when you want it from virtually
any Internet-connected PC within your institution.
The web also allows us to provide you with realtime updates. You get to see what happens in your
account as it happens.
Here are brief overviews of the two new
applications.
Account Management Information – AMI
The development of AMI began in January 2000,
and a Boston Reserve Bank team did most of the
work. (See “A Talk with Alan Bloom” on page 5.)
The first thing we did was focus in on how we
could make accounting information easier for you
to access. We decided that the best thing that we
could do for you was to minimize the number of
systems you use. Therefore, one of the key features
of AMI is that it provides access to the Integrated
Accounting System (IAS) and the Account Balance
Monitoring System (ABMS) through one common
application that:
✔ Is continuously updated and always available;
✔ Lets you select the amount and complexity of
the information you receive;
✔ Takes advantage of the latest web-based
technologies; and
✔ Delivers specific customer service contact
information to help make problem resolution
easier than ever.
continued on page 2
customer
spotlight
Tolland Bank Enjoys Judging AMI
M
any banks today promote banking by mail, by phone, or
over the Internet. How many, though, can boast of “bankby-train” service? One that can — although it has to look
back some 15 years to do so — is Tolland Bank.
Over its 160-year existence, Tolland Bank has experienced
significant growth. Today its nine offices span an area between
Hartford and Connecticut’s border with Massachusetts. The bank’s
executives recall with particular fondness the period from 1976 until
the late 80’s when its first branch in Willington was housed in a
converted Vermont railroad station.
As Willington grew, the branch needed additional space, and in
1979 it expanded into a 1925 Delaware and Hudson caboose!
continued on page 4
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FEDTALK • MAY 2002
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Web Accounting Apps
continued from page 1
Information for the current business day is
continuously updated and immediately available.
You also have the option of viewing end-of-day
information for the previous business day. Based
on your needs, you can drill down through multiple
levels of data — from the most basic information
to more complex transaction details.
■ A one-stop information source
Because AMI consolidates so much information, it’s a one-stop resource. You no longer have
to access both IAS and ABMS to get the information you need to manage your account. AMI also
integrates these reports: ABMS Inquiry, IAS
Detail, and IAS Payment System Risk. Managing
paper or multiple sources of information to access
details in these accounts will become a thing of
the past.
Additionally, AMI provides access to your
daily Statement of Account, IAS Notifications, and
Advices. If your institution subscribes, Cash
Management is also included. Your Statement of
Account is provided as a PDF file, allowing the
information to be stored and printed. Five days of
statements are available for retrieval over the web.
■ Extra optional security
On top of the security already built into
FedLine for the Web, AMI comes with a new,
optional level of security: Restricted and Non-
AMI and SCI Are On the Way
Both AMI and SCI will be available to First District institutions sometime in the
second quarter of this year. If you haven’t already seen an announcement letter,
expect one very soon. Now that we are focused on FedLine for the Web as our
platform for the delivery of new information services, you can look forward to
more web-based applications with new features and increased functionality.
Restricted views. We have identified as potentially
“sensitive” four items that appear in AMI —
available funds balance, collateral, memo post, and
net debit cap totals.
If you choose, you can restrict access to these
four items to particular employees. Other employees will be able to view everything else in AMI.
Knowing that you are able to grant different levels
of access, you can feel more comfortable using
AMI to assist you in managing and reconciling
your Federal Reserve account.
Service Charge Information – SCI
Around the same time we began work on AMI,
the results of a separate study indicated that many
of you also wanted changes made to your monthly
Billing Statement of Service Charges. Specifically,
you voiced concerns regarding the amount and
accuracy of billing information, along with the
timeliness and delivery method of the statements.
The Service Charge Information application was
developed to address these concerns.
SCI summarizes all of the information found
on your monthly Billing Statement of Service
Charges. This includes your own activity, subaccount and/or respondent activity, charges passed to
correspondents, and earnings credits. Adjustments
or reversals processed to your account during the
monthly billing cycle are also available. Much like
AMI, with SCI you can select the level of detail
that you want to see. You can start by looking at
summary information, and then drill down to the
more detailed levels as needed.
SCI also offers a variety of reports and inquiry
capabilities that provide insight into the specific
billing activity in your account. If you need to look
up information from last month or the month
before, that’s not a problem: SCI maintains three
cycles of billing data.
FedLine is a registered trademark of the Federal Reserve Banks.
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FEDTALK • MAY 2002
Learning How to Use the Two New Web Applications
M
any of the individuals who participated in the AMI and SCI pilots found
the applications so intuitive and easy
to use that they did not need any training. While
we were pleased to hear that, every new user of
either application will receive computer-based
training materials on a CD-ROM. These materials
contain step-by-step tutorials, which take you
through each screen within the application. The
tutorials are designed to teach you how to
navigate easily around both AMI and SCI.
Why computer-based training?
Computer-based training offers multiple
benefits. For most of you it will be a good
introduction to these new applications. The
tutorials provide guided tours of AMI and SCI;
along the way, you will become familiar with the
features and functionality of each application.
Using the computer as a training tool allows you
to learn the application at your own pace, and you
can tailor the training sessions to fit your schedule:
stop when it’s convenient and pick up at the same
point you left off. Also, because you receive the
training modules on CD-ROM, you can go back and
refresh your knowledge at any point after you start
using either application.
In conjunction with the CD-ROM, you will
receive User Guides that contain detailed information about each screen within AMI and SCI. All of
the information in the User Guides is indexed,
enabling you to find what you are looking for
quickly and efficiently.
Pilot participants who used the computer-based
training were pleased with the level of information
on the CD-ROM and on how the information is
presented. We hope that you have the same positive
experience.
What People Are Saying About AMI and SCI
D
uring November and December of last year, 31
financial institutions around the nation (including
several in New England) participated in the AMI
pilot, along with Reserve Bank staff. The feedback has been
resoundingly positive. Over 90 percent were either “satisfied”
or “very satisfied” with the application, and over 95 percent
found AMI “easy to navigate” and “intuitive.” (See Customer
Spotlight on page 1 for a Connecticut bank’s experience
testing AMI.)
Here are some examples of what the testers had to say
about AMI:
“Everything was great and very user-friendly . . .”
“This will be a big step forward for us.”
“We have the potential to reduce operational costs and
reassign responsibilities when we reach the full potential
of the system.”
During November and December of last year, 34
institutions along with Reserve Bank staff from all 12
districts had the opportunity to test-drive SCI. The
responses from the SCI pilot participants mirrored the
responses of their AMI counterparts. Close to 87
percent were either satisfied or very satisfied with SCI
and over 90 percent found the application easy to
navigate.
A number of our pilot customers said that SCI
reduced their workload and paper output, and that SCI
makes the entire reconcilement process much easier. In
fact, the reconcilement process for several customers
was reduced by a few hours. The labor-saving potential
of our new FedLine for the Web application was
highlighted by this comment in one tester’s evaluation:
“Billing tasks that currently take three hours took 15
minutes with Service Charge Information.”
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FEDTALK • MAY 2002
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customer
spotlight
Tolland Bank Enjoys Judging AMI
continued from page 1
them” — typically, several times a day.
Although the bank’s Willington office now
Also, she notes, signing in to FedLine for
occupies more conventional space, a much-prized
the Web each morning is simple and quick.
mural of the caboose covers one wall.
Aside from the fact that AMI is so fast, Marliese
Tolland Bank’s railroading past is described on likes the flexibility of a web-based system.
its very contemporary web site, www.tollandbank.com.
“We’re not locked into proprietary hardware, so
The bank’s management prides itself on meeting
we can bring the system up on almost any PC in
the banking needs of the western Connecticut
the bank.”
communities it serves, and on using the most up-todate technology to help meet those needs — behind
the scenes as well as on the banking floor.
“What’s different about AMI is its ‘drill down’
So it was no surprise when Marliese Shaw,
Vice President and Treasury Officer at Tolland
capability. We used to have to research
Bank, volunteered her staff to test the Fed’s newest
an item… maybe call the Fed for the
FedLine for the Web application, Account Manageunderlying detail or activity.
ment Information or AMI (described elsewhere in
this issue of Fedtalk). Marliese, who manages her
That’s no longer the case with AMI.”
bank’s investment portfolio and Fed account,
among other responsibilities, saw potential benefits
for Tolland Bank in the new system and wanted to
That makes it much easier and less costly
be among the first to try it out.
for different functional areas within a bank —
After a six-week pilot, Marliese is sold on
accounting and operations, for example —
AMI’s benefits. “It’s
been great, especially as independently to access the FedLine applications they need. According to Tolland’s CFO
a timesaver for my
Dave Gonci, “That’s especially valuable for a
staff,” she recently
bank like us that’s functionally decentralized.”
observed. Until AMI
In practice, Tolland staffers bring up
came along, it took
FedLine for the Web in the morning and keep
Tolland Bank several
the web site going all day, refreshing it whenminutes a day to
ever they want to retrieve current data.
retrieve account
What about the format of the AMI reports?
balances from their
DOS FedLine PC. With “The summary information is quite similar to
what we’re accustomed to,” says Marliese.
AMI on the web, “it’s
nearly instantaneous, so “What’s different about AMI — and makes it
we can afford to update especially convenient — is its ‘drill down’
capability. We used to have to research an
account balances
whenever we need
continued on page 6
Marliese Shaw, Vice
President and Treasury
Officer at Tolland Bank
▼
4
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FEDTALK • MAY 2002
A TALK WITH ALAN BLOOM
How AMI Was Built to Meet Bankers’ Needs
A
few years ago we began noticing signs of
Customer participation didn’t end there. In
obsolescence in the tools available to our
addition to the focus groups, before AMI was
financial institution customers to help
finalized the project team obtained the perspective
them manage their accounts, and we decided to do
of customer advisory groups and of individual
something about it.” The speaker is Alan Bloom,
bankers who volunteered to participate in “usabilAssistant Vice President in charge of the Boston
ity labs.” Finally, over the last six weeks of 2001
Reserve Bank’s Central Accounting Technology
we conducted pilot tests of the new application in
Services group, and the “something” the Bank
every Federal Reserve district, including New
decided to do was to
England. “That way,”
build a new, integrated
said Alan, “at every
Account Management
stage of AMI’s developInformation system, or
ment we were able to
AMI.
identify and incorporate
About two years
requirements that
ago, Alan assigned to
genuinely satisfy what
the AMI project almost
bankers are looking for
one-third of his staff —
to manage their aca mix of analysts,
counts.”
programmers, accountants, and outside
A compelling option:
consultants. Their task
The Web
One of the first
was to take the 15-yearthings the development
old DOS FedLine
team decided was to
applications that provide
take a look at how AMI
accounting information
would be delivered to
to our customers, and
our customers. Finding
give them a complete
“We started out by building prototype screens
and retrieving accountmakeover to make them
and showing them to customer focus groups.
ing information over
more feature-rich,
Based on the feedback we received, we made
DOS FedLine worked
flexible, and easy to use.
changes
and
went
back
to
bankers
to
see
well in its time, but by
Put another way, Alan’s
2000 the Internet was a
goal was to build a
how well they liked what we’d done.”
compelling alternative.
system that made sense
According to Alan,
for the twenty-first
century.
the web held particular appeal to AMI’s developers
As Alan describes it, the process of designing
for a couple of reasons: “Pretty much every banker
uses one business application or another on the
AMI involved a great deal of input from bankers
Internet, so it’s a familiar and comfortable environ— in New England and throughout the country.
ment for our customers. Also, it’s much faster and
“We started out by building prototype screens and
easier to make system changes on the web; the
showing them to customer focus groups,” he
explained. “Based on the feedback we received, we software is centrally managed, so individual users
made changes and went back to bankers to see how aren’t inconvenienced each time a fix or enhancewell they liked what we’d done.”
continued on page 6
“
▼
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Alan Bloom, Assistant Vice
President in charge of the
Boston Reserve Bank’s Central
Accounting Technology
Services group
FEDTALK • MAY 2002
...........................................................................
Alan Bloom
continued from page 5
ment is implemented. And we knew when we
started up the project two years ago that the
Federal Reserve planned to shift our delivery to
bankers of both information and transactional
services onto FedLine for the Web just as soon as
it makes sense.”
“At every stage of AMI’s development
we were able to identify and incorporate
requirements that genuinely satisfy
what bankers are looking for
to manage their accounts.”
As for the AMI application itself, Alan
explains some of the most significant improvements: “Under FedLine for DOS, some accounting
information is stored in our ABMS application,
some in IAS. Depending on what information
you’re looking for, you’ll need to open either (or
both) applications. But not with AMI on FedLine
for the Web. AMI acts as a gateway. You specify
what you want to see and AMI will track it down
and retrieve it for you.”
Another issue that a DOS FedLine user has to
contend with is learning Fed jargon. To find the
data you need, you may have to enter an ABA
number, one or more service category codes, and
possibly a few transaction codes. Not in AMI. The
first thing you’ll see is a summary screen. Then,
all you need to do is click each time you want to
drill down to view more detailed information. It’s
an intuitive approach that will be familiar to
anyone who has Internet experience.
In building AMI, Alan notes, “our goal was to
provide a more integrated presentation of financial
services information to our customers.” Judging
from the comments of pilot test participants, the
development team has certainly met that goal.
Customer Spotlight: Tolland Bank
continued from page 4
item…maybe call the Fed for the underlying
detail or activity. That’s no longer the case with
AMI.”
Krista Squiers, a Treasury analyst who has
been piloting AMI, gives an example. “Say you
“Say you have the account balance, and you
want to see more detail — such as the credits
and debits for today’s cash letter. On AMI,
you can get at that with a keystroke.
It’s so much easier to use.”
6
have the account balance, and you want to see
more detail…such as the credits and debits for
today’s cash letter. On AMI, you can get at that
with a keystroke. It’s so much easier to use.”
It’s also easy to learn, according to Krista.
“They gave me a manual, but I didn’t need to read
it. There was scarcely any learning curve.”
Although Tolland Bank evaluators suggested
several improvements, which were passed along to
the Fed development team, everyone at Tolland
who had the chance to try it out was impressed
with the application’s overall performance.
Marliese summed it up this way: “AMI is a winner,
and I’ll look forward to web versions of other
FedLine applications.”
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FEDTALK • MAY 2002
FedLine’s Future? It’s on the Web
T
platform. That’s because a truly secure Internet
Protocol (IP) doesn’t yet exist. The Federal
Reserve is actively engaged in identifying a secure
approach to value transfer over the web, and a
strategic decision to focus all of our efforts on
FedLine for the Web will help us to bring that
solution forward sooner.
As for information services, if you are
currently a FedLine user, you’ll have a choice. As
we make the transition to a full suite of web
information and transaction services, all financial
services currently offered by the Federal Reserve
will continue to be available through our existing
DOS-based FedLine product.
So one option will be to continue using the
DOS platform for informational services. We’ve
been working with Dell on a new DOS FedLine
PC that will enable you to use modern laser
printers. This will be available soon and should
help make the DOS version of FedLine faster and
more convenient.
Even today, however, you may find that
FedLine for the Web is a compelling choice for
informational services. The web platform offers
greater flexibility than DOS and you can run it on
continued on page 8
FedLine and Windows NT are trademarks, respectively, of the Federal Reserve Banks and Microsoft Corporation.
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▼
he future of FedLine® is on the Internet!
On the heels of a complete reassessment of
our FedLine platform strategy, the Federal
Reserve has decided to move full speed ahead with
FedLine for the Web and to discontinue all work
on FedLine for Windows NT®.
Prior to setting this strategy direction, development teams within the Fed were moving ahead
simultaneously with both the web and Windows
NT versions of FedLine. However, the platform
review concluded that proceeding on two fronts
was spreading us too thin and taxing resources —
both yours and ours — to the limit and beyond.
Of course, the analysis that led to the Federal
Reserve’s strategic decision to discontinue
FedLine for Windows NT looked at myriad
factors. But the key issue came down to this: We
need to dedicate our full energies to developing
FedLine as an open system for our customers.
From your perspective as a FedLine user,
having to invest in two new FedLine platforms,
maintain multiple FedLine PCs, and train staff to
operate two or even three completely different
versions of FedLine at the same time, was a
daunting prospect.
For us, a strategy that
once made sense has been
adjusted in response to the
rapid development of Internet
technology. We share the
widely-held view that our
industry’s future relies on using web-based
technologies to provide information and transaction services. Developing and maintaining FedLine
for Windows and for the Web, and then having to
support both of those systems as well as a DOS
platform, became increasingly complex, burdensome and costly.
Where does that leave things? Now there are
just two FedLine platforms for you to think about,
DOS FedLine and FedLine for the Web. If you’re
using FedLine with one of our three payments
systems — Funds Transfer, Book-Entry Securities,
or ACH — you’ll need to continue to use the DOS
FedLine for the Web
shown here with the new
Account Management
Information (AMI)
application screen.
FEDTALK • MAY 2002
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FedLine’s Future? It’s on the Web
continued from page 7
almost any PC in your shop. Currently, Cash, Savings
Bonds and informational check services (such as
check adjustment information and check image
services) are available on FedLine for the Web, and
accounting (AMI) and service charge information
(SCI) are about to follow. Reporting and Reserves
services are available at www.reportingandreserves.org.
As we continue to introduce new informational applications for
FedLine for the Web, we are also developing a pricing strategy for web
access to Reserve Bank financial services. For now, though, there is no
charge to use FedLine for the Web services.
The bottom line is that your choices come down to these:
■ For transaction services, you’ll continue to need FedLine for DOS
— until we bring you safe, secure transaction services on FedLine for
the Web.
■ For information services, you can still use FedLine for DOS, if you
choose. However, FedLine for the Web will make sense for new FedLine
users as well as for many current DOS customers today… and even more
so in the future.
For more information and for assistance in your resource planning,
please call your Boston Reserve Bank Account Manager at 1-800-4477205, or our FedLine Help Desk at 1-800-435-7122. We also regularly
update information on our FedLine plans on our national web site at
www.frbservices.org.
FedLine for the Web
Resources
Extensive information about services available
on the web and a step-by-step guide to the
set-up process is on our web site at
www.bos.frb.org/finsvcs/html/services/
helpdesk/html/helpdesk.htm.
Help is also available from our Account
Managers (800-447-7205) and FedLine
Customer Support (800-435-7122).
You can also e-mail your questions to
BosFedLine@bos.frb.org or to
antonio.mendieta@bos.frb.org (or call
Antonio at 617-973-3370).
Fedtalk is a Federal Reserve Bank Services publication distributed three times a year to customers of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. It is designed to encourage communication
between the Bank and its customers. Your comments are welcome. Send correspondence to the editor: Hank Grossman, T-6, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, PO Box 2076, Boston, MA
02106-2076, hank.grossman@bos.frb.org. Fedtalk is available without charge. To receive Fedtalk via e-mail, please complete and send to us electronically the subscription form on our
Web site at www.bos.frb.org/finsvcs/html/contacts/html/fsemail.htm. Throughout this newsletter, “banks” refers to all depository financial institutions.
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