ViaNova companies complete a global upgrade

The ViaNova group have upgraded their automated order message set to the latest ISO 20022. No fuss!

The ViaNova working group is a group of companies who who together to automate the processing of orders and investment account reporting in the corporate pensions industry. The group have a long and successful history of implementing solutions of great benefit in terms of cost savings and risk reduction.

Much of the electronic communication across the industry is done using the ISO 20022 message set, an XML based messaging standard designed for the automation of funds transactions, over the SWIFT network. In November 2017 many of the messages that ViaNova uses were upgraded and new data items were added - the first time this had happened for 10 years. The ViaNova Group used the upgrade as an opportunity to work together on a re-structured version of the ViaNova Market Practice which more clearly distinguishes between the underlying ViaNova data model and its mapping to ISO 20022 messages. This made it easier for the Group to produce updated versions of their business requirements and message mapping documents in support of the new messages. The documentation was produced and agreed in record time and, through a series of monthly conference calls, development and testing efforts were coordinated to ensure that live systems were upgraded in time for the hard deadline of 18th November.

All the projects at the participating companies have been completed successfully. This just goes to underline the value of standard approaches to business communications and the huge benefit of working together to solve problems to the benefit of the whole pensions industry and, ultimately, the pensioners.