Bancs by early 2010, with about half the 7000 on the system by the end of the year. The target was for the rest to be using Bancs by the end of 2011. 'The benefit in terms of operations and management is clear, so the investment has been worthwhile,' Xuejun stated. As well as the aforementioned improvements in flexibility and product time to market, the whole model of GDRCU was changed from a decentralised operation with autonomous branches and systems into an integrated operation, albeit with the former business and management reporting structure remaining intact.
The most salient lesson Xuejun learnt from the implementation project was in the importance of identifying all of the business processes of the institution at the start of the project. 'The team can then just match these with the new system, or reorganise some of the old processes where they are not up to today's standards of competition. Identifying and working on these in parallel is a crucial factor for the project, and these were mostly identified well within the timeframe, making the project a success,' Xuejun felt. He added that having had testing running for a year of the project 'gave comfort to all involved', particularly encouraging the senior management of GDRCU about the scalability and flexibility of the solution.
GDRCU remains a work in progress, with a five-year IT plan which incorporates the development of internet and mobile banking, and international and private banking services. On the management side also, a more complete system will be built to help in accounting, risk management and related areas. Xuejun is open to the idea of extending the functionality GDRCU currently uses of Bancs. 'Whether to extend the module range depends on our business development.We have proved in practice that co-operation with TCS is successful, and will continue to co-operate in future. GDRCU made the right choice in selecting the Bancs core banking system.'
