Eaton Vance Data Center Rebuild Slated for '07-'08

- Remote data center rebuild will increase efficiency, utilization,- SOA will help move Eaton Vance to real time processes,- Previous experience on U.S. Navy submarine keeps John Shea, CIO, grounded

Eaton Vance

John L. Shea

VP and CIO

Eaton Vance
255 State St.
Boston, MA 02109

SIZE OF FIRM:
$150 billion in assets under management as of May 31, 2007.

PREVIOUS POSITIONS:
IT director, Battery March Financial Management, a Legg Mason subsidiary; SVP, Mass Financial Services; naval officer for 10 years in engineering.

EDUCATION:
B.S. in marine engineering, Maine Maritime Academy; M.B.A., Anna Maria College.

WHO WAS YOUR MENTOR?
Peter Noll was my boss when he was CIO at Mass Financial Services. He taught me how to run the technology department as a business. Sometimes we in technology lose sight of the fact that we're here to enable the business and run ourselves like a business, too.

WHO INFLUENCED YOU THE MOST IN YOUR CAREER?
My grandfather, who came over from Italy when he was in the fifth grade. He started a fruit stand in Boston in 1912, and it supported three generations. It goes to show that if someone is willing to put hard work and dedication into something, they can be successful.

WHAT WORK EXPERIENCE HAD THE MOST LASTING IMPRESSION ON YOUR CAREER?
Being an officer in submarines for 10 years. It helps me keep things in perspective when working in a corporate environment -- I can sit back during a crisis and frame it in the proper context. It's a big responsibility [reporting to] the company and shareholders, but it's not like dealing with actual lives, and that keeps me grounded.

What's Next?

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and real-time delivery of services is the direction in which we're heading. The days of batching up everything nightly to figure out what happened for the day are over. It won't be too long before we do things in real time, which buys us a view into what's happening now rather than waiting until tomorrow. That gives us new decision-making opportunities.

VITALS

IT Budget:

15 percent of operating costs.

Key Technology Management:

Vinnie Cottone, Infrastructure Director

Todd Larson, Software Development Director

Frank Wertz, Customer Relationship Management Director

Lori Bradley, Director of Project Management

Ben Moreno, Purchasing Director

Annemarie Ng, Administrative Assistant

Size of Technology Team:

80 people: 65 permanent employees, 15 contractors.

Percent of IT Projects Outsourced:

10 percent to 15 percent.

Key Technology Partners:

PFPC Inc., Investors Bank & Trust, Eagle Investment Systems, Charles River Development.

Success Metrics:

We use traditional project measures. We try to look at projects to enable the business and provide shareholder value -- at the end of the day, that's what we're trying to do.

2008 INITIATIVES

Data Warehouse and data management efforts will continue through 2008.

Consolidation of select applications.

Preparing for our move to 2 International Place, including getting circuits, phone lines and networking gear in order.

TOP 3 CURRENT PROJECTS

Data Management Initiative

We're upgrading our data warehouse architecture. We're creating a technology framework that will allow us to bring data in from outside sources through the use of ETL (extraction, translation, loading) tools. We have a scheduler for all processes, and we're feeding the data into the warehouse through traditional data warehouse staging methods. We closed a deal with Eagle Investment Systems, which is our warehouse provider from a portfolio management perspective, and we're using Hyperion for business intelligence and reporting. The goal is to enable the business by providing views into the business that management needs to make effective decisions.

Remote Data Center Build-Out

We're evaluating where to put a remote data center and how to provide extensive bandwidth and connectivity to that data center. We're trying to get our critical assets out of the city into a facility designed to support computers. Having a remote data center will facilitate our upcoming move to 2 International Place, allowing us to redirect circuits instead of moving servers. Also, there are challenges associated with air-conditioning, power and facilities management related to a data center that we can offload to people who spend 24/7 looking at this stuff.

Data Governance

We are going through a major initiative to define data in preparation for implementing the data warehouse. Our objective is to have high-quality data in the warehouse right off the bat. We're making clear decisions about what source data or data of record we want to present.