– How do you demonstrate to

Certification from SWIFT prospective employers that you are

a true SWIFT Expert?
The ultimate validation of skills
– How do you really know the SWIFT
knowledge of candidates?

– Want to get ahead in your career?

Topic SWIFT Certified Expert - Alliance Access Administrator

Aim Individuals who pass this certification exam have a good knowledge of the administration of the latest
release of Alliance Access.
Content Upgrades and Updates

Security Functions

Gateway connectivity

Message partners

Routing

Message searching and Reporting

Archive and Backup

Scheduling and Calendar

System Parameter and Event log

Monitoring

Target Audience Individuals who are Alliance Access Administrators or Alliance Security Officers in a Financial Institution

Career Path SWIFT Operational Manager

Possible next steps for
certificat e holders includes:

Recommended Study Deploy and Manage Solutions – Alliance Access Administrator – Associate
SWIFTS m a rt Curricul a’ s:
Deploy and Manage Solutions – Alliance Access Administrator – Professional

Deploy and Manage Solutions – Alliance Access Administrator – Expert

Experience At least six months of recent experience in an Alliance Access support role

Exam Method A variety of multiple choice questions and situational scenarios

Proctored exam - onsite as part of tailored training event

Fee Certification fee

+
Proctoring fee
Validity Two years
As SWIFT certification is based on
transparency, exam criteria is detailed
below to help ensure you are fully
prepared.

Exam questions may additionally test

your ability to apply knowledge and
theory to relevant situational scenarios.

In order to successfully pass the

exam you need to be able to:

General Knowledge of Alliance Access

Identify at least four different message formats supported by Alliance Access

Identify at least three application integration options offered by Alliance Access

Describe the Alliance Access GUI applications and their function

Arrange the various SWIFT components in a logical application diagram

Label the SWIFT components according to their Business data storage function

Identify the service, application and components needed to setup connections making use of FIN, InterAct, or FileAct protocol s

List the benefits of Alliance Access in terms of automation and easy integrat ion

Upgrades and Updates

Select the normal actions that you must perform before installing an update

Indicate where you can find an overview of the upgrade and installation path for Alliance Access software

Indicate what the Message syntax Table contains

Explain the steps to install a new Message Syntax Table

List which other component of the SWIFT software stack, must usually be updated when there is an Alliance Access upgrade

List important steps related to the yearly ‘Standards MT’ change

Explain why the ‘MX Message Standards deployment package’ must be installed, when your institution uses an MX
message SWIFTNet service (e.g. SWIFTNet funds)
Describe the contents of the Alliance Bank File (sometimes referred to as the BIC File)

Explain the difference between an Alliance Bank file FULL and an Alliance Bank File DELTA

Recall where to download the Alliance Bank File

Select the two options you have to get the Alliance Bank Files (FULL or DELTA)

Select the three options (modes) used to upload the Alliance Bank File into Alliance Access

Explain what an Application Service Profile contains

Recall where to download the Application Service Profile package

List the two critical contents of the Application Service Profile package
Security
List the factors of an Alliance Access Licence that influence the Initialisation & Master Passwords on the license

List at least one use of an Initialisation password (on an Alliance Access licence)

List at least one use of a Master password (on an Alliance Access licence)

Explain what an Operator Profile defines

Identify what entitlement or permission, left and right security officers (LSO and RSO) cannot assign to other operators

Identify the user role that can add an operator profile

Explain the usage of permissions in an operator profile, specifically when it is expressed in the list values that are ‘Prohi bited’ or
‘Allowed’
List the two predefined operators that come with every Alliance Access installation

Explain how an operator is defined

List the steps to create a new operator and enable the new user to use it

Explain at least two characteristics of the Authentication T ype: Password and TOTP

List the characteristics of the Authentication Type: Password

Explain the characteristics of the Authentication Type: RADIUS one time password

List at least two characteristics of the Authentication Type: LDAP

List at least two characteristics of ‘a UNIT’ in Alliance Access

Identify who can view / amend Security Parameters

Recall at least four functional differences when using housekeeping mode compared to operational mode

Explain how both the normal user and admin user password policy is configured

Explain the purpose of the ‘Security Best Practice Check Tool’

Explain the purpose of the new security parameter ‘System – 4 eyes mechanism’

Identify the operators the ‘Password Blacklist’ applies

Gateway Connectivity
List the two features used to secure the connection between Alliance Access and Alliance Gateway

Explain what the SSL setting (in Gateway connection details); Data Encryption / Host Authentication means

Describe the resulting security features of implementing LAU between Alliance Access and Alliance Gateway

Describe a FIN Logical Terminal

Describe the auto-reconnect option for FIN Logical Terminals

List the two components that you must stop in Alliance Access to add, modify, or delete a gateway connection

Describe what additional information you need to provide for a Test & Training Logical Terminal. (for example BANKHKH0A)

Explain the primary benefit of defining multiple Alliance Gateway Connections and adding them to a FIN Logical Terminal

Explain what is needed to exchange InterAct and FileAct messages through SWIFTNet

List what is defined in an Emission Profile

List what service parameters are provided by the Emission Profile

List what is defined in a ‘Store and Forward’ Reception Profile

List the features that are provided by using input channels and input sequence numbers (ISN)

Explain the purpose of an output session

Recall the purpose of a FIN output session

Describe Alliance Remote Gateway (ARG)

Recall at least one command to use with Alliance Remote Gateway (ARG)
Message Partners
Define at least one use of Message Partners in Alliance Access

Describe the connection method used in a message partner profile

Describe the connection method File transfer

Explain what is needed to exchange FileAct messages using the File transfer connection method

Describe the Print connection method

Describe the WebSphere MQ connection method

Describe the connection method SOAP

Describe the connection method Direct FileAct

Label components: Input and output MP diagram

Explain the concepts of ‘FROM’ and ‘TO’ Message Partner

Define an ‘Exit point’

Explain manual and automatic session initiation

Explain the input attachment path entry

Explain the usage of LAU in an Input MP

Recall the impact of stopping the MXS component in Alliance Access

Recall at least to features of Message Partners in Alliance Access

Recall the impacts of the 'Route' and 'Dispose' settings in a FROM Message Partner

Indicate what happens if we manually start an input MP session

Indicate what happens if we manually Run an MP session

Explain the purpose of Direct FileAct

Recall the configuration settings for a Direct FileAct FROM Message Partner

Compare the functionality of sending FileAct messages, using Direct FileAct to File Transfer

Routing
Explain the concept of a queue in Alliance Access

List the elements that make up a routing point

Define an Exit point

Explain the purpose of an ADK queue

Explain in which queue you need to setup routing rules to route ACK and NAK messages back to a back-office application for
reconciliation
Explain what instance type in your routing action you need to select when you need to print out a hard -copy of a message before
sending it out to SWIFT
Describe the purpose of a routing schema

List at least three elements of a routing rule

Describe IPLA
Message Searching and Reporting
Explain where you would go to find the messages (MT, MX or file) send and received

Explain at least one use of a message search criteria template

List the Wildcards that you can use when using Message Search criteria

Explain how to create a report using message search

Describe on which source file you can perform a search

Describe the result when you do not fill in any message search criteria

Explain the difference between LIVE and COMPLETED messages

Describe how to see the message details of a message

Explain where you would be able to see all the message interventions of a particular message and all its associated instances. (For
Example created, routed, sent to SWIFT, received from SWIFT, sent to a printer, etc.)
Explain what ‘Display expanded text’ does in the Test tab of the message details

List the kinds of reports you can get from Message Management

List the formats in which a report can be generated

List the operations that can be performed on a message instance

Archive and Backup

List at least three steps to maintain the business and configuration data of Alliance Access

Describe the Normal Archival process

Explain why you must archive regularly in relation to message/event backups

Explain why it is important to have all message instances of a day completed (in relation to archiving)

Describe the easiest way to complete ‘all’ message instances

List where the different backup ‘tools’ available in the Access Configuration GUI (Graphical User Interface) can be found

Explain what an Alliance Access database backup contains

Indicate if it is possible to use command line tools to create backups of the Alliance Access Database and message/event archives

Explain why it is important to backup and remove Event and Message archives in relation to disk space

Explain why it is important to have message and event archive backups on an external storage

List the options you have to start a restore of a message/event archive backup

List the options you have to start a restore of a database backup

Explain the difference between a partial database restore and a full database restore

List the database Restore Sets you can choose from

Scheduling and Calendar

Name what needs to be defined before any process can be scheduled to occur automatically

List the processes that can be scheduled to occur automatically

System Parameters and Event Log
List at least three tasks that can be completed using System Parameters

Explain the purpose of a System Check

Explain a Software Integrity Check

List at least three methods to distribute alarms in Alliance Access

Recall at least two Alliance Access user roles that can modify the System Configuration Parameters

Describe the Database Integrity Check

Describe the Controlled Stop check box in the Scheduled Action Details popup of the Restart/Stop scheduling

Explain which Alliance Access Components need to be stopped when changing gateway details of a Logical Terminal and an
Emission Profile
Describe where you can find a description of the alarms that Alliance Access sends to an SNMP manager

Explain the purpose of an alarm distribution list

Explain to what kind of application Alliance Access can send alarms

Explain the options (All, Specific, None) of the Operators in the Distribution List details

Recall which System Configuration Parameter indicates which message structure of events to send to the local system log

List at least three methods to distribute events in Alliance Access

Describe an Alarm in Alliance Access

Monitoring
Describe Alliance Access Monitoring

Explain what allows operators to easily focus on the situations which require their attention

Explain what the Monitoring Scope definition allows you to do

For more information about SWIFT,

visit www.swift.com