The MONY Group Inc. Integrates with Advest

The MONY Group Inc. (New York) has begun its systems integration with the newly acquired Advest Group (Hart-ford), which provides brokerage, trading, trust, investment banking and asset management services to retail and institutional investors. Advest became an operating subsidiary of The MONY Group ($55 billion in assets under management) on January 31. "The acquisition will result in broader product and service offerings and a greater ability to distribute them to Advest and The MONY Group's shared target markets," says Chris Breslin, spokesperson, the MONY Group.

According to Bruce Grant, director of IT, The MONY Group, the company began working on a strategy prior to the Advest acquisition. "The first thing that we did was create an inventory of systems, vendors and platforms that we have here at The MONY Group and then we did a similar thing with Advest's resources," says Grant. "We created a matrix and looked at the two systems, contrasting the two environments."

The MONY Group decided on best practices and built its integration plan, deciding what systems would be appropriate to integrate over a short or long period of time. "The first thing that we want to do is get everyone running on a consistent e-mail system," says Grant, noting that communications between the two groups was the highest priority. "Advest used Microsoft Exchange, and we use Lotus Notes, so we started out with the integration of a common e-mail platform." The MONY Group decided to use Lotus Notes.

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