Business Situation
Recognising the need to broaden its service channels and to respond quickly to new competition, Trusted Board sought new tools and technologies for accessing and managing data. To meet that need, Trusted Board wanted an interactive electronic share option system to support the groups employee share option plan, which would help promote corporate transparency and enable it to achieve efficient time reductions. It wanted a web-based database solution - with straight through processing where applicable - that would enable employees to directly access the system from the Internet. It also wanted to have this system linked to internal departments for digital authorization, as well as to the computing resources of external parties such as banks, brokers and the Singapore Exchange. It hoped to enhance productivity by automating processes such as the offers of new grants, and requests to exercise options.

Solution
Using web services and XML, Avanade built a web-based employees' stock option system using Microsoft SQL Server 2000, with the companys core technology elements on the Windows 2000 Advanced Server Operating System. The application made use of isolated transactional methods for scalability, while Active Server Pages were used to create dynamic, interactive sessions with the user. The employee stock option system leveraged best practices from the Windows DNA architecture.

Results
Productivity increased as the time taken by the system administrator to process grant offers and exercise options were reduced. Employees can now view exercise history and exercise their options. Because the system is linked directly to banks, brokers, and, if permitted, in future - the Singapore Exchange and the Central Depository - the time taken to process and approve the exercise requests would be reduced. The system automatically generates offer letters and email alerts and allows digital authorization. Trusted Board can now also offer its services to other companies and customers that are e-enabled.