IBS Journal March 2015
APS Bank pioneers ICBS core system in Malta
APS Bank Malta has completed the first stages of a project to replace the Profits system from Greek vendor Intrasoft Inter- national, which has been in place at the bank since 2002, with the ICBS core bank- ing system from BML Istisharat. BML won the contract after a lengthy selection pro- cess initiated in August 2012, allowing it to enter the Maltese market for the first time. The vendor fended off competition from Intrasoft, which proposed a new- er version of Profits, and Oracle FSS with Flexcube. BML was chosen because the bank
felt that it would ‘allow for more flexibility in creating business opportunities, and provide end-users with more powerful and complete information’, according to Jonathan Caruana, business solutions manager at APS. He also adds that 24x7 functionality and the ability to integrate various systems online was a contribut- ing factor, as various applications used by the bank, such as card systems ‘are still being updated offline using batch files’. Caruana also feels that the vendor offered ‘a feasible proposal, a system that met the majority of our functionality require- ments [a consolidated retail banking sys- tem based on a Windows/Unix platform that covered all retail modules], and a good number of reference sites’. The contract was finalised and signed
in December 2014, but the work start- ed as early as 2013. Reference site visits were made to BLOM Bank in Paris and IBL Bank in Beirut over February and March 2013, and BSN Bank in Kuala Lumpur and Commercial Bank of Kuwait in April of the same year. May 2013 saw the instal- lation of a ‘vanilla’ version of ICBS at APS Bank, followed by an initial staff training programme, and an agreement on gap developments. The bank is now prepar- ing test data, parameter settings, and a data migration study. The training programme focused on
the ICBS core, branch loans, credit facilities, interest calculation, regulatory reporting, statistics and MIS, FX, MM, transfers, Swift interface, letters of guar- antee and capital markets. This was then followed with training on the stock man- agement, purchase order and fixed assets modules. Joe Faddoul, CEO at BML, states
that ‘the training was appreciated by the bank’s attendees’, with 85 per cent stating they were happy with the training provid- ed when asked to complete a question- naire. Caruana is complimentary about BML’s delivery, saying that the vendor provided ‘experienced and patient train- ers with extensive technical and banking knowledge’.
APS has decided to take an out-
sourced version of the system (it had the same arrangement with Profits), with BML taking responsibility for the imple- mentation and business and integration consultancy. The bank itself will handle the setting up of the infrastructure, UAT, end-user training, security testing, project management and data migration devel- opment. Caruana points out that the bank employs 270 people overall, among which there is only ‘a very limited pool of developers’. He adds that the bank has
opted for a ‘big bang’ as there are ‘a num- ber of peer-to-peer and online integra- tions and APS specific customisations, which are very difficult to synchronise with the existing and new core banking system due to their different technolo- gies and data structures’. Caruana explains that the most sig-
nificant challenge the bank has faced to date is liaising with third party vendors which provide the technology for ser- vices such as internet banking, AML and MICR, to co-ordinate these applications to ICBS. The remaining milestones of the pro-
ject are gap delivery and parameter set- ting, which is expected to be finished by June 2015. This will be followed by UAT, which will run from May 2015 to February 2016, then by data migration, and a mock run in April 2016. The go-live is scheduled for June 2016.
IN BRIEF
Australia-based Suncorp has announced a milestone in its major core system renova- tion initiative, Project Ignite. The first stage of the programme has been ‘successfully implemented’, the bank said in its end-of-year results statement. Personal loans have been transitioned onto the new software, Oracle Banking Platform (OBP), supplied by Oracle FSS. Suncorp initiated Project Ignite in 2011, signing for a range of solutions from
Oracle, including OBP (the vendor’s new high-end core banking offering), Flexcube for trade finance and Oracle CRM. The CRM component was estimated to cost around AU$9 million ($7 million) and is now up and running. Project Ignite, which is the retail core overhaul, has an estimated cost of AU$270 million ($213 million) and is intended to bring a reduction in the bank’s cost/income ratio of at least four per cent. ‘An important component of this project is the removal of reliance on older tech-
nology platforms that are cumbersome to maintain,’ the bank stated. On the way out is the Hogan legacy platform from US-based CSC. Speaking to IBS in 2010, the bank voiced its concern that Hogan lagged behind more modern offerings and that the talent-pool for maintaining the system was shrinking as the majority of the develop- ers were nearing retirement. Incidentally, speaking at a previous investor call in May 2014, the bank’s CEO for business services, Jeff Smith, said that he would be worried about ‘any bank running Hogan in three years’ time’. Speaking to IBS last year, Oracle FSS’s senior director of product marketing,
Aubrey Hawes, noted that the Hogan user base was a ‘ripe opportunity’ for OBP. Project Ignite includes decommissioning twelve legacy systems at Suncorp,
redesigning 580 business processes and rationalising 50 per cent of the product set. It is due for completion in June 2016. The bank is emphasising the enterprise-wide nature of its transformation, with a lot of work already done for its large insurance operations and with other phases including areas such as cards (where it will replace CSC’s CAMS system) and business intelligence.
© IBS Intelligence 2015
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