IBS Journal Supplement 2015
Turks & Caicos Islands ©Jonathan Palombo, Flickr
cites its real-time capabilities and user-friendliness as advantages, and also that it covers the majority of the bank’s requirements without the need of exten- sive customisation. Howard points out, however, that ‘BCB’s operations are small and not complex’, so there was expecta- tion that a vanilla version of the system should be sufficient. BCB specialises in financing large infrastructure projects in the hotel and tourism management sector, and also provides individuals with private banking services. It implemented five modules of IPBS: IPBS/Banking (core banking support for standard private banking operations), IPBS/eBanking for online banking, IPBS/Business Manager for KYC and AML regulations, IPBS/Mort- gage for short-term mortgage loans and long-term commercial mortgage loans, and IPBS/Swift Payments. The system is integrated with the Swift payments software from Curacao-based IBIS Man- agement Associates. The implementation was completed
within a three-month timeframe, but was not plain sailing, recalls Howard. ‘It is a given that the larger the conversion, the more complicated and error-prone it is,’ he comments, and even though every at- tempt was taken to minimise the impact, there were still ‘tremendous problems’. ‘Anyone who claims that their conversion went smoothly is simply not being hon- est,’ he states. ‘Migration is the time when
‘It always comes down to how quickly the IT guys can sort a problem out.’
Stewart Howard, British Caribbean Bank
everyone is tearing their hair out.’ The bank penned a three-day week-
end (that had a public holiday falling on a Friday) for the conversion, so that when the bank opened its doors for business the following Monday, the IPBS system was up and running. The old system was Unix-based, whilst the new one is on Microsoft, so communication had to be done in two formats, which added to the complexity. There were ‘programming issues’, plus the quality of the existing data was ‘extremely bad’. ‘It always comes down to how quick-
ly the IT guys can sort a problem out,’ says Howard. ‘Luckily, we had a responsive team from IPBS and that was a major plus. They worked through everything with us step by step.’ It was also important to ensure that
© IBS Intelligence 2015
the vendor provided adequate support once the transition was completed. ‘Post-conversion is like a post-apocalyptic environment. But in our case, we had close support,’ he says. User training was not long or burdensome as the IPBS solution is ‘intuitive’, he comments. There were some ‘teething issues’ with the reports in the system, but these have now been resolved. The benefits of the new set-up be-
came apparent almost from day one, ac- cording to Howard, namely the increase in operational efficiency and straight- through processing (STP). Working with a ‘customer-focused supplier’ has helped the bank to successfully complete the project in a concise timeframe. All eyes are now on BCB’s parent and its Misys’ Fusionbanking Essence overhaul.
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case study: british caribbean bank
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