having been implemented firstly as a distributed model. The switch was made possible by improving communications and was because ‘the bank’s strategy changed to one of rapid branch expansion’, Adeyeri said. The first implementation project was completed on time in Nigeria and since then the bank has grown internationally and locally with the same system. From first being licensed in 1990, it became a publicly quoted bank in 1996 and started to grow its focus on retail banking in 2005. This coincided with an expansion of the branch network, to about 160 domestic outlets in 2010. The system was rolled out to each country the bank expanded into. These were Sierra Leone and Gambia in 2002, Ghana in 2006, the UK in 2008 and Liberia in 2009. Adeyeri viewed the system as ‘good value for money, time


and efforts’, but listed a couple of areas where he thought the system and the vendor could improve. ‘Product development needs to be more flexible and with minimal dependence on the Banks developers,’ he believed, adding that the response time from ICS to customer requests could also be better. Other African takers were Magnum Trust Bank in Nigeria and, a signing in 2002, Pacific Bank. Banks was implemented at Magnum Trust Bank in 1999, and was installed across all of the bank’s 25 branches. The bank opted for the full Banks package, to replace a locally developed application called Realm Banker. Ngozi Porter, group head of technology atMagnum Trust Bank, pronounced herself happy with the


ICS system which, she felt, had contributed significantly to improvements in customer service delivery. However, she said that, although ICS had provided adequate support for the system, the supplier’s response time could be improved by the presence of a local support office in Nigeria. Over at Pacific Bank, there were also expansionist plans – it had around 20 branches but was planning to more than double this number. As well as gaining a steady trickle of new name wins, ICS’s African expansion was in part via existing clients. Presumably none of the Nigerian banks foresaw the radical


restructuring of their market which was instigated by the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2005, reducing 89 banks to 25. The ICS customers were caught up amidst the mergers and at the time it was unclear the extent to which the software might be retained within the larger entities that had emerged. However, by mid-2007 it had become clear that ICS had done well out of the mergers (see below). ICS traditionally managed virtually all sales efforts itself but


has sought partners over the last few years, with Africa a key area of focus. A first tie-up was forged with a company called Fidel Logic Limited in Nigeria. Partners were also being sought in the Middle East. This would probably be the geographical extent of ICS’s ambitions for the short to medium term, said Samara, otherwise it could be in danger of spreading itself too thinly.


Competitors, Middle East and African progress


Banks runs up against mainstream packages and seems to hold its own. As already pointed out, it probably has a significant advantage where price is a priority. At Pacific Bank it beat Misys with the Kindle-derived Bankmaster/LAN, and Infosys with Finacle. Admittedly, the latter’s reverse was something of an anomaly, as this large Indian supplier was winning the majority of deals in Nigeria at this time. Banks replaced Bankmaster/ LAN at Palestine Commercial Bank, with this bank apparently having a less than satisfactory experience with the Kindle/Misys system. This replacement seemed to back up ICS’s claims for the breadth of its system. At Housing Bank of Jordan, Banks beat off System


Access with Symbols and London Bridge with Phoenix (both systems had a small number of sites in the region, with the latter, now owned by Harland, pushed through proactive Kuwait-based distributor, International Turnkey Systems). One other retail banking heavyweight seeking to move into ICS’s backyard was Malaysia-based Silverlake. It struck upseveral strategic alliances: A tie-up with IBM’s exclusive distributor, Saudi Business Machines, for Saudi Arabia was signed in the first quarter of 2001 as well as one with United Business Machines in Jordan, IBM’s partner


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for Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. It took a while, but Silverlake duly gained its first couple of users in the region, although it has not kicked on from here. BML continues to make reasonable progress in the region and Path Solutions has done well of late, much of its progress being on the back of the enthusiasm for Islamic banking. Nevertheless, ICS’s system is proven in a number of countries and this allows the supplier to push speed of implementation, versus what can be achieved with outside software. At Housing Bank, for instance, such speed was important, said ICS general manager, Robert Hazboun. ICS had committed to implement its system within one month from the delivery of hardware. The other bidders were looking at three to six months, he claimed. The main changes would only be for central bank reporting. The activity in the region was often driven by politics, said


Samara. Some of the big projects and the ambitious plans of the banks were inspired by governmental policy. There has been some deregulation, with Syria seeing some relaxation in 2003-04, for instance. Others which might seem closed, such as Iran, were opening up, although FNS and Misys were the early incursors. Most decisions are made by the banks


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