Anthony Leadbetter
MBAM 613.17
3/30/09
During my time at Merrill Lynch it was hard to see the supply chain of the entire
company versus our team of six that provided private wealth management services. So for
the interest of this paper I will discuss the six-person team. Our team was in the business
of providing a service to clients to create or maintain wealth generation through investing
in numerous varieties of products based on the best interests of the client. The main
positions of the team were the financial analyst, a client associate who performed
administrative duties, and two financial advisors, one more senior than the other. Our
supply chain began with a client who had a need or desire for certain returns, then the
analyst would construct a portfolio using a range of products that would optimize returns
while mitigating risk. The first financial advisor would require approval, and upon further
revisions the more senior advisor approved the final proposal.
The technology that was used was primarily from three software packages.
Microsoft Office Suite was used to create the presentation, Merrill Lynch’s legacy system
provided some of the personal information of the client, and its main ERP (which I believe
was from PeopleSoft) was perfect for all the necessary research. Three of the six shifts of
Johnson and Kopczak were recognizable. The legacy and PeopleSoft system was crossenterprise rather than cross-functional yet there was slightly different accessibility to
certain areas depending on someone’s title. Our business was based on a demand focus
rather than a supply focus. We knew clients existed that preferred professional financial
services expertise. We couldn’t create our service without the demand. Some other major
capabilities of Merrill’s products were that they could be customized to each client. There
were no specific mandated allocations that restricted how their accounts would be
Anthony Leadbetter
MBAM 613.17
3/30/09
managed. We manifested tailored offerings that had evolved from initial mass-market
supply offerings. This was largely due to the ERP system that encompassed available
information from every function and department of the company, such as: alternative
assets, financial derivatives, bonds, equity, or loan generation across all consumer types.
Over time Merrill Lynch was transferred some complex legacy system functions to
the ERP by creating new modules that were more user friendly and reduced the amount of
typical work time. With the legacy system, in most cases the employee would have to
contact a specialist within the company for help to perform a task that may only take one
minute, but due to of the lack of training it may take up to thirty minutes. This was due to
waiting on the phone for a representative and then that person may not have always had
the correct answer. I believe that Merrill Lynch constantly tried to incorporate the NEBIC
framework so that it could provide information and ease of use to its employees faster and
more effectively to help improve productivity so that the clients would benefit from faster
access of information. It allowed our team to provide full proposals from initially in two
weeks down to two hours due to the capabilities, increased training, and efficiency of the
employees on the team.
Bank of America acquired Merrill Lynch at the beginning of the year. I would expect
that the integration of the two different information systems would take a couple years to
fully integrate. Hopefully they both have the same vendor for their ERP to make it a
smoother transition. Eventually, due to the enormous capacity that both companies have
for financial instruments they should be able to offer greater custom detailed services in a
more productive and efficient environment in the future.
Anthony Leadbetter
MBAM 613.17
3/30/09
References
Keane, R. H., Herbohn, J., & Slaughter, G. (n.d.). THEORETICAL BACKGROUND OF
SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT AND POTENTIAL SUPPLY CHAIN OF NORTH
QUEENSLAND TIMBER INDUSTRY. Retrieved from
http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/eserv/UQ:8169/n3_Keane_et_al_T.pdf
Shahzada, B., Jan, V., Wim, V., & Herwig, M. (2009). Creating Customer Value through SOA
and Outsourcing: A NEBIC Approach. International Journal of Social Sciences, 1-7.