process was driven by James Brent, the bank’s executive director and head of information technology at the time.
Shortlist the vendor
The final decision on selection was taken jointly, and responsibility for the decision was also collective. The initial list of prospective vendors was sourced from IBS Intelligence and general market information. During the selection process, a gap analysis was undertaken, as were detailed product and module walk-throughs. Prototyping was not felt necessary, and nor were any changes to the shortlist. The four vendors which reached the shortlist stage were I-flex Solutions (now Oracle FSS), Temenos, Path Solutions and Infrasoft Technologies. All were international vendors, since there were no domestic solutions available.
Vendor Finalization
By May 2008, Infrasoft’s offering, OmniEnterprise, had been chosen, because both the product and the vendor were found to meet all of the selection requirements. Infrasoft’s understanding of treasury, asset and fund management (in conventional as well as Islamic banking), the system’s functionality and the speed and ease of the implementation were the factors that had most bearing on the selection. Extensive due diligence was used to scrutinize OmniEnterprise, but the implementation process then began as soon as it was logistically possible for GBCorp, which was in June. The scope of the project consisted of Islamic treasury activities and Islamic investment banking including equity trading, asset and portfolio management and risk management. Retail
lending and consumer
finance were not included. The location was the head office in Bahrain, with the expectation that operations would be extended to international joint ventures and subsidiaries in the near future. Being a start-up bank, the scale in terms of numbers was unlimited. The core system was required to interface to two solutions from Microsoft, a CRM solution and Dynamics/GP, a general ledger. It was also necessary to have an internal interface to Sharepoint, a Microsoft server. No external interfaces were required. The core system was also expected to fit within a well-defined technology strategy into which new software should fit. The detailed strategy is confidential, although in general terms it can be described as encompassing the provision of standardized, centralized global financial and administrative services to the GBCorp international group. Finally, the bank also required a service oriented architecture (SOA) approach. The reason for this was the ability to add and integrate specialised or niche products and services in future.
Implementation 56
Core Team
The implementation project itself was managed and planned by an internal project manager. The project involved approximately five agents from Infrasoft, plus the project management team from GBCorp, and a user group of eight to ten people from the bank. Nobody else was involved other than the bank and the vendor.
Phased Vs. Big Bang
It was decided to split the implementation into three stages, comprising treasury, then asset management, then integration, resulting in a phased, rather than a ‘big bang’, implementation process. The reason for the phased approach was that it would be easiest on GBCorp’s resources, and the total process was planned to last between nine and twelve weeks. Meanwhile, stages during the implementation process were split into a review of the proposed solution, prototyping, and implementation, user acceptance testing (UAT), final review and final go-live.
Go Live
The implemented modules were chiefly aimed at Islamic treasury and investment banking. There were six initial modules implemented, and these were client administration, treasury, asset management, fund management, custodial services and administration. The new system was designed to be centralized. The hardware was provided by HP Blade 460c servers, the operating system was Windows 2003 Server (Rel.2, SP2), and the database was SQL Server 2005 (SP2). Testing and user training both the users and the vendor undertook testing work. The system was continually tested during prototyping and implementation. The UAT was devised at the time of prototyping. The testing regime consisted of standard UAT scripts and tests for each product. However, the vendor’s own testing of the product prior to delivering it was described as ‘very good’ by Brent, who confirmed that the solution was delivered bug-free, and that there were no problems with the onsite testing. The process of training users was conducted without mishap. It was done by a combination of process reviews, prototype walk-throughs and UAT, performed with a hands-on ‘proof of concept’ type approach. That the training of users was straightforward is put down to a ‘very easy acceptance path with the business-user community. The system is user-friendly and intuitive, with easy to follow logic and workflow’, in the words of Brent.
Islamic Report
www.ibsintelligence.com
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