on the likes of IBM’s Websphere but also lower cost platforms such as JBoss’ server. It would support a range of Java standards and connectors for integration. The system would support any database, with development work having been done on Oracle 10g.


Neptune had a team of around 30 in-house resources


working on the Supernova project, along with a number of contract staff, including some from CSA. These used a mix of in-house and third party tools, including Neptune’s own code generator. The requirements stemmed from a range of


sources including the Equinox designs and business analysts within Neptune. The Neptune ranks included a wide range of nationalities and former bank, consultant and supplier staff. The first version was intended to span full retail banking. The system was ultimately meant to cover FX, MM, securities, derivatives, precious metals and commodities, and trade finance. Shah was hopeful that the full functionality would be available at the start of 2007. He added that Equinox would still be sold, pointing out that it had been extensively tailored for African requirements.


Further African headway


Neptune continued to make sales on the African continent throughout 2006, to banks in Cameroon, Benin, Zimbabwe and Nigeria. Genesis Investment Bank in Zimbabwe selected the system to replace I-flex’s Microbanker. The bank went through a full selection process, taking in ten suppliers, with RFI and RFP, plus a series of site visits. Reasons cited by the bank for the decision to replace Microbanker were elimination of manual processes, improved reporting, and a desire to broaden its product offerings. This was Neptune’s second win in the country. In Nigeria, the government-owned Bank of Industry chose


Equinox after considering systems from I-flex, Infosys and Temenos. The bank’s main role was as a long-term financing partner for the country’s industrial sector and it was formed through the consolidation of a number of central and state investment


banking operations, starting with Nigerian


Industrial Development Bank in 2001. It had seven branches. There was previously a basic accounting system at the bank, said Neptune director, Dr Sanjay Prakash, and spreadsheets in the credit risk department. By early 2007, the bank had embarked on the implementation of the Equinox core along with modules for treasury and trade finance, credit scoring, loan application processing and the MIS portion. It also took human resource and payroll software from Neptune as well as the fixed assets module of its ERP system and a document management system. Hardware was to be provided by Hewlett-Packard, said Prakash. There was customisation needed for credit risk, he said, and a few enhancements to the finance module. The system was due to go live in the second half of March 2007. One that evaded Neptune was in Ethiopia, where United Bank shortlisted Equinox and I-flex’s Flexcube, but after a detailed selection process, the bank decided that Flexcube was superior. However, there was then a breakthrough in Mozambique in the second half of 2007. This was at merchant and investment bank, Banco Mercantil e de Investimentos


(BMI), Neptune’s first win in the South East African nation. BMI is a commercial bank focused on the retail market. The bank had two branches and was in the process of opening its third. It started looking for a new system in 2002 but, according to George Agu, head of business development at Neptune, ‘they had not been confident on any of the solutions they had seen’. One key factor for the bank was the need for Portuguese language operations support. After some independent research, BMI discovered that although it had passed through the net first-time round, Neptune had experience converting its platform into a different language, with translation of the system into French for Siab Bank in Togo. This led to a call back for the vendor and its eventual selection with BMI taking all the Equinox modules. Others considered were I-flex and Infosys. According to Antonio Alafo, head of IT at BMI, ‘normally we would use Promosoft software’. Indeed, the bank looked at the Portuguese vendor’s Banka system. This is a popular system in Portugal, with the vendor boasting several big name banks in its home nation. It has spread through Portuguese-speaking nations in Africa, such as Angola and Mozambique, and was trying to move into the wider Portuguese-speaking world. However, the bank wanted to adopt IBM’s Unix platform, with this swaying the decision towards Neptune. The plans for the bank were to ‘expand into rural areas’, said Alafo. This was another area that helped the Equinox selection. ‘We are trying with Equinox to implement a mobile banking system,’ said Alafo. ‘This was our expectation when we bought the software.’ The process of converting Equinox to Portuguese would


run in parallel to the implementation, with a single version able to run in English, French, or Portuguese, with users selecting their preference. ‘We have recruited Portuguese IT professionals and ex-bankers to ensure it is accurate and true of meaning,’ said Agu. The language conversion was already generating interest in other Portuguese speaking nations, he


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