In that year, I-flex/Oracle acquired US-based AML and compliance software vendor, Mantas, in an all-cash deal worth $122.6 million. The technology was viewed by I-flex as complementary to the Reveleus Risk Analytics product suite. In addition I-flex also unveiled a banking framework solution that was intended to support process workflow definition, reengineering and execution. Dubbed the I-flex Process Framework for Banking (iPFB), it was designed to integrate with Flexcube, but was intended to fit into any existing bank architecture. Around the same time the company board-room went
through a shake-up with a number of its high profile members shifting duties across to Oracle as part of a wider plan to make the most of the US giant’s investment. Oracle formed a Financial Services Global Business Unit (FSGBU) based in New York. The aim was to bring Oracle’s global financial services applications, domain experts, and related services under one roof and to serve as a vehicle for future acquisitions in financial services.
However, not everything has gone smoothly. In the US, First
Magnus Federal Bank (FMFB) in Arizona reversed a decision to implement Flexcube and signed with Open Solutions instead. The decision to cut short the deal was thought to be a mutual one, based on the bank’s expectations for implementation. Also in the US, a major project at People’s Bank seemed to
Oracle Banking Platform
OBP was officially launched in September 2102. Oracle already claimed a first live site for the system, at UBank, a start-up entity of National Australia Bank (NAB). This bank had been involved in the development for three years. Another Australian entity, Suncorp, was also recruited. This signed in 2011 to replace a heavily customised version of CSC’s mainframe-based Hogan. Both banks were previously claimed as Flexcube signings. There were no other customers at this stage but there was a strong pipeline, said Ashwin Goyal, SVP, financial services at Oracle FSS. The initial focus was on Australasia and North America and Oracle was ‘seeing traction’. OBP uses the Oracle technical footprint and middleware as well as harnessing application components, for CRM, data management, risk management, and financial management. However, OBP was a brand new development, with no reuse of Flexcube code, said Goyal. UBank was not running on any Flexcube components. The first release of OBP was primarily retail in focus, for deposits and lending. There was a new origination front-end which could also sit in front of third party systems. Generally, Oracle had started with simple retail products and would extend into more complex ones, said Goyal, turning to SME banking and moving on from there. Each iteration would also deepen the existing business components. There was support for self-service, branch, call
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come to nothing, with this confirmed by a source at the bank in late 2008. There was a marked down-turn in new-name deals in
2007. The reorganisation looked to be a cause, so too the loss of some or all of I-flex’s traditional cost benefits post-Oracle, and the challenges of taking on board such a large number of staff in the previous year or so without diluting the knowledge base. It could also be argued that while arch-rival, Temenos, had gone through the painful transition from Globus to T24, a similar leap forward with Flexcube appeared overdue, with this latter aspect only addressed towards the end of the year. This came when I-flex unveiled the latest release of Flexcube (R10), bringing embedded use of a number of Oracle components and a completely reworked front-end, which dispensed with the old Oracle Forms technology in favour of Java and XML. Using Oracle’s BPEL engine, Business Process Management (BPM) solution and Business Activity Monitor (BAM), the emphasis is on a ‘task-oriented’ user interface and process configuration within an SOA framework. Initial live sites were claimed by late 2008. Also announced was the Flexcube Lending Suite which combined a number of I-flex’s lending offerings, including Daybreak,
into a single platform using Oracle’s Fusion Middleware.
center and third party channels. Flexcube and OBP solve problems for different types of needs so are complementary, Goyal claimed. The company would continue to invest in Flexcube while for ‘pure play’ commercial banking and universal banking, Flexcube would be the route forward, he said. ‘For the vast majority - for almost all deals we will encounter - it will be very clear to us upfront whether to lead with OBP or Flexcube.’ Despite diverting considerable Flexcube resources to the development of OBP, the existing system took another leap forward in 2012 with Release 12. This was largely focused on improvements at the front-end and movements away from bespoke customisation. There was support for mobile banking, including iPad, iPhone, Blackberry and Java ME devices, with a ‘complete alerts framework’ around it. There were also new portfolio management facilities for private banking and wealth management, with the ability to hold and drill down into data related to holdings from sources other than Flexcube.
US Financial Services Technology Market Report |
www.ibsintelligence.com
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