IBS Journal March 2016


‘Banks are at an inflexion point of needing to modernise core tech assets’.


vestments being made on channel conver- gence and in middleware technology. Any procrastination, CIOs and CTOs increas- ingly admit, will only result in a spaghetti of connectors and even more sleepless nights, given the 24/7 banking model that customers increasingly expect.


4. Data, Big Data and


analytics Never before have we seen such a need for consolidation of multiple data sources, and the unending appetite for storing, warehousing and processing of data to be more pronounced. The average population per bank for UAE is at 191k, Qatar at 127k, Bahrain at 24k and Kuwait 165k. Compare this with India at 8.7 million people per bank and Malaysia at 760k – it is evident that the Middle East banks do need to compete to grab their share of the retail pie, and the opportunity of harnessing the power of analytics is seen to be critical. No wonder, then, that we are seeing a signifi- cant portion of IT investments being made with suppliers and service providers in the area of data and information management and analytics. From aggregation of data, to its cleaning and enrichment, to having the right platform for storing and warehousing, banks are continuously seeking to invest for the future. The new age terminologies of business intelligence, predictive analyt- ics, customer life cycle management, risk analytics and analytics driven campaigns are increasingly commonplace in the corri- dors of Middle East retail banks.


5. Modernising the IT


infrastructure A natural corollary to all of the above is new age application architecture. Last year alone there were over 27 new sales in the area of back office system, as compared to 21 the previous year in the Middle East. This is also a reflection of banks recognis- ing that they are at an inflexion point of


42 © IBS Intelligence 2016 www.ibsintelligence.com


needing to modernise core technology assets – and this includes not just the core banking platform, but also the aligned infrastructure and services around it. This is not limited to investments, but also in service transformations and improving the process and compliance framework, and adherence to international standards of ITIL, CoBIT, CMMi, ISO etc. There is also a general positive correlation to an economic slowdown and an inward focus to upgrade infrastructure – leveraging an opportunity to get some housekeeping done, whilst preparing for the next wave of growth.


Indeed, the above can only be a subset


of what banks are looking to do, and not necessarily exhaustive. Yet it would be a fair bet to say every bank in the Middle East has identified some if not all of these as part of its portfolio of initiatives for 2016. For those who ignore them all, they do so at their own peril! It will, of course, be interesting to see which ones succeed in getting them all right – the proof of the pudding, at the end of the day, will be in their customers consuming it!


About the author


V Ramkumar is a Partner at Cedar Management Consulting International LLC. Ram has over 20 years of strategic and technology transformation experience, and is responsible for over 40 large technology transformation programmes. He can be reached at v.ramkumar@cedar-consulting.com


case study: paratus amc Overviewnews


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