Company Overview
Opal Future Technologies is a fully owned subsidiary of Mivtahim Futures (previously Mivtahim Foundations Ltd), which is a  subsidiary fully owned by Mivtahim Pension Funds. The company was founded for the sole purpose of executing the comprehensive project of establishing information systems and for providing operational services for the eight pension funds in the agreement. Also part of the agreement are Mivtahim, Makefet and K.G.M Pension Funds, who posses thousands of retired and active members.

Business Challenge
Opal's current information systems handle some 700 users, 4TB of data, 6 million I/O operations per hour and produce approximately 2,000 reports per year. The systems are linked to thousands of employers, banks and government ministries. The systems were developed through a continuous evolutionary process over the years since the establishment of the Funds in the agreement, undergoing transformations and conversions according to the progress and availability of the computerization technologies. The computer systems are heterogenic and complex and include, among others, platforms such as Unix, AS400, IBM-MF and Win, as well as a range of databases such as DB400, UDB, DB2, SQL, Informix and Oracle. The way the current systems developed resulted in Opal currently being required to deal with many difficulties, namely:

	Diverse and incompatible computer and operational systems – each of the veteran Funds has an independent computer and operation system
	Work procedures that are outdated and inefficient
	Low quality data
	High operating and computerization costs
	Unsatisfactory customer service

The solution
In the beginning of 2006, Malam-Team Group won Opal’s immensely challenging, 100 million NIS tender. Malam-Team will be responsible for the establishment of the future information systems for the eight Pension Funds in the agreement and for the operation of the model OS unified computer system. The development process is currently at its peak while still accurately meeting the work schedule. The overall MF operating services for the Mivtahim Fund are already being provided by Malam-Team. The MF services include hosting the Opal computers at Malam-Team's computer center in Jerusalem, full accountability for hardware infrastructure, operating systems and operation of the application infrastructure systems. The transfer of the MF computers from Mivtahim’s facility in Ramat Gan to Malam-Team’s facility in Jerusalem was a remarkable and unique logistics achievement, with less than 24 hours of down time and zero hitches until the MF was operating again. This achievement was made possible thanks to precise planning and synchronization of tasks between the dozens of elements involved in the mission. While the planning of the mission did in fact take into account dozens of possible failure scenarios and prepared appropriate DRP plans, they were not required.

System Technologies:
The overall solution consists of a central system supporting the organization’s core business and another 10 supplementary satellite systems based on off-the-shelf packages.

	On the application level – emphasis is placed on explicit separation between the various tiers. The presentation tier is separate from the business logistics tier and from the data tier. This provides the system with maximum flexibility (for example: interchanging between the system’s databases)
	On the systems level – service oriented architecture is used enabling links between all the organization's applications and systems via an Enterprise Service Bus. This architecture enables trans-organizational management, easy linkage of future systems for implementation of business process modifications and reuse of system components (Activity Reuse/Component)

Business Advantages
The future system, which is currently under development, will replace all the existing systems and will significantly reduce the ongoing operating and maintenance costs. Another objective is to significantly improve the level of service, the quality of the information available to the system users (including members and pensioners of the Funds in the agreement) and the level of transparency at all stages of the working, documentation, supervision and control procedures. The future system will enable unified management and operation for all the Funds in the agreement, based on unified regulations and databases. The future system will provide a solution for the problems described above and will unify the operating and computer systems of the agreement Funds as well as their working procedures. This will allow effective, reliable and cost-efficient operation and service. Overall protection and storage of the information and strict adherence to the regular standards for banking information systems will be included. On top of this, the future system will offer other added values:

	Implementation of state-of-the-art technologies and tools to improve user service, providing the longest possible system durability and implementing guided technology upgrade capacity alongside structured upgrade capacity
	Implementing and enforcing uniform work regulations and procedures for all the agreement Funds, combining decision-making support tools
	Full support of simple, effective and unified work procedures for all the agreement Funds
	Reducing manual work procedures and paperwork by entering all the relevant information into the future system
	Improving information availability and accessibility
	Improving and shortening service time to members
	Improving the fixed secure communications with the branches and external elements involved in the various work procedures, such as banks (including the Bank of Israel), different government authorities (including the Ministry of Finance, Income Tax Authority, VAT, National Insurance Institute, Ministry of Interior, Execution Office), computer output printers and others
	Improve transparency of work procedures, supervision and regulation.
	Increase information security, supervision and control procedures, including the level of infrastructure, source code and adaptation to the requirements of the relevant regulation
	Optimal enforcement of the relevant legal guidelines, flexibility for regulatory changes and legislation amendments
	Significant saving of the Funds’ computer operating costs and ongoing management resources for many years

Project Challenges
The project's main challenges are:

	Establishing the project within a short period of only 18 months while providing an extremely flexible system which meets regulatory requirements for frequent implementation of regulatory amendments.
	Replacing core organizational systems with a new information system, including removal from the MF system.
	Unification and improvement of numerous databases into one database.
	Replacing three outsourcing suppliers while efficiently synchronizing establishment and conversion activities with the various outsourcing agreements, and emphasizing transition processes which include:      a. Exchanging dozens of information systems on diverse platforms.    b. Replacing equipment and importing information from numerous technologies to one uniform    technology while updating and adapting the work procedures.

Ron Valichman, Director of Opal’s Projects Division, is satisfied with the project’s progress:
“We see Malam-Team continuing as a strategic partner in Opal operations for many years to come. We chose Malam-Team with absolute confidence in its ability to meet the multifaceted challenges we posed to the vendors bidding for the right to establish the future information systems for the Pension Funds agreement. Our project is complex and problematic with near impossible deadlines. Nonetheless we have faith in Malam-Team’s ability to meet them. Malam-Team’s groundwork for the project met our expectations and the company is well prepared for this difficult undertaking, responding instantly to the frequent changes in the working environment. It is important to understand that this is an extraordinary project in that eight separate information systems based on individual platforms and databases and with different work procedures will be integrated into one sophisticated unified system, which will enable implementation of the veteran pension fund agreement and unite the organization and operation of all eight Funds. According to our plan, all the above changes will be implemented over the next two years.

"In addition to the project’s extreme complexity, the mission that Malam-Team has undertaken requires synchronization with other Opal projects for the establishment and integration of a document management system, investment management system, pension payment system, organizational portal and information protection projects, with all the above merging at the end of the project to create the most comprehensive future solution for the funds.

"The Malam-Team, headed by Levi Halevi, invests a lot of efforts in the project and to date the outcome has been to our absolute satisfaction. An example of the successful cooperation between the companies can be seen in the transfer of Opal’s MF site in Ramat Gan to Jerusalem which was a resounding success".