Fidelity Continually Enhancing Online Retirement Planning Tools

- As industry evolves, Fidelity is increasing services to institutional broker-dealers,- Web 2.0 will enhance Fidelity.com, Streetscape, Advisor.com and Net Benefits,- Globalization of IT teams is next frontier for firms

Fidelity Investments

Steven E. Elterich

Chief Information Officer

Fidelity Investments
82 Devonshire St.
Boston, MA 02109

SIZE OF FIRM:
$1.4 trillion in managed assets, $3 trillion in custodied assets.

PREVIOUS POSITIONS:
President, Fidelity Investments Systems Co.; president, Fidelity eBusiness; EVP of technology, Fidelity Employer Services Co.

EDUCATION:
B.S. in general business and M.B.A., University of Rhode Island.

HOW DID YOU GET YOUR START IN IT?
I got my start with Burroughs Corp. in 1974. The company was looking for business majors and would teach them the IT skills they would need to do the job. I immediately fell in love with the creative process -- the ability to build things and solve business problems. Throughout my whole career, one thing that I've consistently strived to do is drive business value out of technology.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR WORK PHILOSOPHY?
You have to make a commitment to your profession, and that has a number of different elements to it -- working hard, respecting other people, maintaining high ethical standards, giving back to the community and giving back to the profession as a whole through involvement in various professional groups.

LAST GOOD BOOK READ:
"Mavericks at Work," by William Taylor and Polly LaBarre.

What's Next?

The globalization of IT. IT development, expectations and costs will become equalized across the world. You'll increasingly see development teams that are composed of people from many nations. We primarily do it today across three countries, but I can see development teams being deployed from around the world.

VITALS

IT Budget:

$2.5 billion.

Key Technology Management:

Bill Thornton, Head of Technology and Architecture Team,

Ken Starkey, Head of Telecommunications and Operations,

Tom Skiba, Head of Development,

Steve Scullen, Head of E-Business,

Jon Aliber, Head of Information Security,

Size of Technology Team:

12,000 employees.

Percent of IT Projects Outsourced:

We primarily do most of the work ourselves, but we do use contracting companies both domestically and in India to help us. We don't outsource the work totally; we just do staff augmentations.

Key Technology Partners:

We work with all the big ones.

Success Metrics:

We have all the standard measurement tools, as well as our own methodology and checkpoints. Overall, information security, stability and outstanding performance are our first three concerns when we're building systems. We also need to develop systems that are high-quality, on-time and have the appropriate functionality. Last, but not least, there should be a level of innovation and excitement around the technology.

2008 INITIATIVES

The projects that we are working on this year are long-term projects, so we will continue to work on those in 2008.

TOP 3 CURRENT PROJECTS

Retirement Planning Tools

This continues to be one of our top projects because of the complexity involved. People who are planning to retire at 65 are making decisions for the next 20 or 30 years of their lives based on our planning tools. This year we launched "My Plan," a new interface for people who are setting up their long-range retirement plans. Our tools are comprehensive today, and we're looking to add more capabilities to our offerings in the future.

Web 2.0

We have many Internet platforms that serve different business and client needs -- for example, Fidelity.com; Streetscape, which services our broker-dealer world; Advisor.com, which supports financial advisers; and Net Benefits, which supports our benefits outsourcing business. Technology has come a long way in terms of what you can do on the Internet, so we'll be updating and upgrading those platforms to incorporate all the new technologies.

Enhancing Broker-Dealer, Adviser and Clearing Services

We are advancing the services that support our institutional broker-dealer, adviser and clearing customers. That industry is evolving, and the lines between those various businesses are starting to blur, so we want to be there to provide more and more services as those businesses evolve.