Business Intelligence is Next Holy Grail, Says American Century's Gudrun Neumann

- Making products visible on the Web (SEO) is one key for growth- Green technology in data centers in focus- Enhancing technology for distribution channels in progress

American Century Investments

Gudrun Neumann

SVP and CTO

American Century Investments
4500 Main Street
Kansas City, MO 64111

SIZE OF FIRM:
$104 billion in assets under mgmt. as of June 20, 2007.

PREVIOUS POSITIONS:
SVP, IT, American Century; 16 years at IBM, the last seven in IBM Global Services.

EDUCATION:
B.S. in commerce, McGill University.

WHO WAS YOUR MENTOR?
Two of my mentors came from my career with IBM. One taught me how to lead people -- by watching him, I saw what worked well. The second was a VP whom I supported. I learned a ton from her about how to manage complex efforts that crossed geographic, political and organizational boundaries.

WHO INFLUENCED YOU THE MOST IN YOUR CAREER?
Dennie Welsh, now deceased, who was the founder of IBM Global Services. Although I never worked directly for him, I saw how he had tremendous influence on the culture of that organization, and that influenced the way I look at my own management style. I consider myself to have a flat management approach, not hierarchical. He inspired that. He also inspired me to think in terms of a core focus.

WHAT WORK EXPERIENCE HAD THE MOST LASTING IMPRESSION ON YOUR CAREER?
My experience at IBM Global Services -- helping run outsourcing deals -- was key. Not only did I learn about the sales process and what it takes to win business, I also learned P&L responsibilities and how to run a department as a profit center. I run IT as a business as a result of that experience.

What's Next?

Business intelligence is key because there's a hunger for data analysis. Another key technology is Web trends in search engines -- it's a challenge to figure out how to make products visible to the consumer. Keeping an eye on the search engine capacity that comes with Web 2.0 is critical. Keeping up with all the advances on the trading end also is important, as is the greening of IT. We expect questions from potential customers along the lines of how green our data centers are.

VITALS

IT Budget

N/A

Key Technology Management

Carla Sievers, IT Consultant, Business Planning & Analysis

Jason Van Ness, VP, Technical Services

Keith Kinart, VP, Investment Management Technology

Mike Jackson, VP, Corporate Applications

Paul Somogye, VP, Data Center Services

Richard Amos, VP, Security and Data Services

Size of Technology Team:

300 people, including the staff providing IT support to our 401(k) business, which we sold to JPMorgan.

Percent of IT Projects Outsourced:

20% of IT budget is spent with outsourcers.

Key Technology Partners:

Cisco, EMC, Eagle Investment Systems, DST Systems.

Success Metrics:

Did we get the project done on time? Was it the scope that people expected? Did we spend what we expected to spend? As far as overall IT, we do a bill-payer survey to measure end-user satisfaction and look at the availability metrics on a service-level component. Another component is to link work back to company priorities so there is clear alignment.

2008 INITIATIVES

Growth Growth initiatives, including the implementation of the new accounting system.

Integration

Data and business integration, including the way we work with business partners.

TOP 3 CURRENT PROJECTS

Distribution Channel Growth

We've got multiple projects under way to support growth as we offer more of our products through more channels. In addition to new technology, this effort involves business process changes through automation. We're installing Oracle analytics on top of a Siebel CRM initiative to give our sales managers more intelligence into how effective they're being with their time along with conducting an RFP to find an alternative to a homegrown fund and accounting system that needs to be replaced for added flexibility.

Enterprise Data Access

There are efforts around data management to allow users in the investment management area to have access to data to improve performance. We have a repository based on Eagle Investment Systems, and on top of that we're putting in a reporting solution from Microsoft, which will allow the end users to do their own analysis. Our goal is to deliver data to people the way they want it. We need to keep control of data to make sure it's right, but we need to incent them by allowing them to access the data the way in which they're most comfortable.

Continual Improvements

This is where we focus on improving the craft of IT, increasing efficiency and mitigating risk. Some examples include software and hardware upgrades, more virtualization, implementing the next phase of our storage strategy and continual security efforts.