Enables fluid integration and migration of systems going forward in complete support of business expansion

London – July 25th, 2006 – Fast-growing financial services company Alliance Trust Savings Limited (Alliance Trust) has gone live with a global deployment of Cape Clear’s Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) software as the basis for implementing a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Alliance Trust benefited from a quicker, simpler implementation at a lower cost than with conventional approaches, in part thanks to the dramatic reduction in coding that was required by using the Cape Clear ESB.

Business Challenges
Alliance Trust operates in a highly competitive and dynamic financial services environment and by 2005 had recognised that its legacy IT infrastructure limited its ability to expand business both in terms of volume and in terms of services it could provide to its customers. Its existing IT environment also presented challenges in terms of allowing Alliance Trust to meet ever changing regulatory requirements.

“In particular, a limitation of our previous IT environment was that it did not allow for transactions and dealing functions over the web,” explained Rowland Strickland, chief operating officer at Alliance Trust, the financial services subsidiary of Alliance Trust PLC, the FTSE-250 investment company. “In today’s highly competitive market, it is essential that we offer online transactions to our customers at a time convenient to them.”

ESB
After conducting a full review of its infrastructure Alliance Trust also determined that its existing IT systems would not be able to provide the foundation for future developments. Because of this it decided to opt for an immediate migration strategy. The key issue was to ensure that this investment would be maximized with all new systems closely integrated going forward in complete support of its business strategy. To fulfill this need, Alliance Trust identified the need to build a Service Oriented Architecture.

An extensive list of potential vendors was assembled from companies that included EAI vendors, Application Server vendors and pure ESB vendors. As a key requirement in the selection process, the vendors had to demonstrate that their ESB and SOA products and services could enable a low-risk, low-cost and rapid introduction of new systems without requiring the need to write additional platform-dependant code.

Alliance Trust decided to use Cape Clear’s ESB to build an environment that would allow for rapid changes to its systems to meet emerging business, market and regulatory requirements.

Aligned directly with business strategy “In choosing a solution we were looking for two things in equal measure; the right solution set, and knowledge and value added in terms of SOA direction. The economics had to be right for our size of company and we needed a rapid implementation which would not drain our own limited internal resources. Cape Clear delivered on all fronts. What’s more … there were no unpleasant surprises in terms of cost,” concludes Strickland.

“Our customers are able to implement a SOA in less time and with less cost because of Cape Clear’s fundamental adherence to open standards and because it is completely infrastructure agnostic,” says Annrai O’Toole, CEO, Cape Clear Software. “This means that companies such as Alliance Trust can easily and quickly deploy a SOA without the complexity and overhead of surplus coding that many other ESB’s require,” added O’Toole.

About Alliance Trust
Alliance Trust is the brand name of Alliance Trust Savings Limited, a Dundee-based financial services company that is authorised and regulated by the FSA. The company and its subsidiaries administer more than £3.3bn of assets on behalf of around 39,000 customers (as at 31 January 2006).

Alliance Trust Savings Limited offers investment dealing, self-invested personal pensions and a choice of tax-efficient and other investment wrappers.

Alliance Trust Savings is one of the top ten providers of self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs) in the UK by number of members.

Alliance Trust Savings Limited is wholly owned by Alliance Trust PLC, the largest generalist investment trust company listed on the London Stock Exchange and a FTSE-250 company.

For more information on Alliance Trust, visit: http://www.alliancetrust.co.uk

About Cape Clear Software
Cape Clear Software provides the fastest, simplest, and most proven way to implement a Service Oriented Architecture, delivering enterprise SOA projects in 20 per cent of the time and cost of alternative approaches. With over 200 customers, Cape Clear is the proven leader in Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) software.

Cape Clear’s True ESB software is based completely on open standards, works with your existing infrastructure, and enables business users to flexibly align their business processes with their infrastructure. Founded in 1999, Cape Clear Software is a privately held firm with headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts and offices in Atlanta, San Mateo, Dublin, and London.

For more information on Cape Clear Software, visit: http://www.capeclear.comCape

Clear is a registered trademark of Cape Clear Software. All other company names and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies or owners.