provide Flexcube on a hosted basis. IZB was the Munich- based subsidiary of the savings banks’ IT services company, Sparkassen Informatik. It was a 600+ person entity offering a range of services, mainly to the Bavarian savings banks. I-flex had been bidding at another German bank services


company, Finanz IT, which was looking at replacement versus a rebuild of its systems. I-flex came through with ‘flying colours’, said Senthil Kumar, but no deal resulted as it was decided that Finanz IT would merge with Sparkassen Informatik. IZB had been watching the selection, he said. It would now seek to offer core banking, lending, risk and internet banking functions based on I-flex’s suite, targeted at private and public banks across the country. It planned to implement the recently unveiled Release 10 version of Flexcube, with this meant to be live in the first half of 2008. Crédit Agricole signed in 2008 for an initial clutch of


countries, including Albania, Romania and Bulgaria, for retail and commercial banking. Flexcube went live initially in Bulgaria, at its subsidiary, Emporiki Bank. However, there were delays here of three to four months, and it looked as if the wider strategy of Crédit Agricole to move to a global platform based on Flexcube would be a stop-start affair across different countries. By late 2011, Albania and Romania were also live, with the deputy general manager of the latter reporting ‘greater stability in our operations’. At Banca Transilvania, Romania’s fourth largest bank, Flexcube was taken in late 2010 for the bank’s four main business lines – retail, corporate, SME and healthcare financing – front-to-back office, to replace Bankmaster. The migration was set to take 18 months, with Flexcube supporting around 1.5 million customers, six million accounts and the bank’s network of over 500 branches and offices. As well as the core system replacement, Banca Transilvania was working on a replacement of its internet banking platform with Hungarian company, IND. By September 2012, 2200+ users at Banca Transilvania


had been trained and the UAT phase was nearing completion. The bank was running a few months behind schedule and the next stages had also been pushed back, said Leo Toderici, the bank’s COO. Since signing, a lot of developments had taken place at Banca Transilvania and in the Romanian banking sector in general, observed Toderici. The initial ‘high-level discussions’ estimated customisation


requirements at 2500 man-days, but the subsequent product walkthrough showed that the work was underestimated nearly three-fold, said Toderici. 12,000 man-days were then identified to address the customisation, but the team managed to bring it down to 10,000. This workload was a major blow to the HR resources and the budget, he said. New management plans had to be put in place to supervise the activity and the internal steering committee took a decision to cancel some developments in the system and instead make an emphasis on business reengineering at the bank, to align its own processes with the Flexcube standard. This was the opposite of the original intention (adapting Flexcube to the bank’s needs) and was not easy, said Toderici. ‘Everyone tried


310


to fight for their processes’ and multiple debates were held about the necessity of change. By September 2012 there were around 95 interfaces, including an online, 24x7 connection to the IND system (IND was bought by Misys in 2014). Certain developments that were originally assigned


to Oracle had been done instead by the bank’s internal team. These included the customisation of some front-end components like utility payment collections and mobile phone top-ups. ‘Flexcube’s Extensibility Framework allowed us to carry out these developments in-house instead of ordering them from Oracle FSS. This was a big plus, as it saved us both time and money,’ said Toderici. But certain processes, particularly around lending, were too complex to touch, he added.


‘It was very stressful and there were delays’ and ‘the speed


and the quality of the fixes could be a bit better’, said Toderici. He was, however, complimentary of the team supplied by Oracle FSS. The bank met with the chief project manager prior to signing and this person helped to pick a team experienced in Central and Eastern Europe. There were a number of Romanian speakers on the team, which helped to avoid misunderstandings caused by the language barrier. ‘Overall, we are satisfied with the project,’ Toderici concluded. ‘I have to admit that we created more pressure than was agreed on initially.’ He expected Flexcube to provide the bank with ‘a good base’ for further growth. ‘We have ambitious figures for performance testing in our contract, so if they match, I will be even more confident that we can become the leader in the market, in terms of share, technology and operations.’ There were also plans to move to version 12 of Flexcube from the current 11.1 in due course. Volksbank in Romania followed, taking Flexcube to


replace its legacy Midas system from Misys in 2013. Flexcube was taken to cover all main operations at the bank (including retail, corporate and risk) front-to-back office and to be rolled out across Volksbank’s domestic network of 135 branches. Of the 40 banks in Romania, Volksbank was the ninth largest. It had €3.1 billion in assets, 200,000 clients and 1300 employees. The deal was inked in Q4 2013, and go-live was set for June 2015. The bank started with a long list of 21 suppliers, with Temenos’ T24, Infosys’ Finacle and Flexcube making it to the final.


A notable multi-site deal from Mashreq Bank was Oracle


FSS’s only 2010 deal in the Middle East. Mashreq looked at the likes of Temenos, Infosys and Oracle FSS. The bank had been using the Flexcube Investor Services application for its fund distribution business across its branches in the UAE since 2001. Somnath Menon, the bank’s head of technology and operations, was ex-Citibank, so Flexcube was known to him. The shortlisted offerings, Flexcube and Finacle, were ‘pretty similar’, he said, with strengths and weaknesses balancing out across the list of requirements in terms of technology and commitment. ‘In my opinion, both are very good systems,’ stated Menon. ‘When we started this, most banks were not


Universal Banking Systems Market Report | www.ibsintelligence.com


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