the system and allow Islamic banks to create their products, workflows, and how they want to do their accounting from scratch, and ‘tie that all up into a services-based kind of platform’. The official launch of Ethix was dependent on how the financial crisis moved over the next few months, but the vendor had provisionally pencilled in March or April 2009 for the product’s global release.


A Phoenix overhaul


By 2007, Harland had revealed plans for the next generation of the Phoenix system, to be called Phoenix EFE (known as Phoenix International outside the US). As part of this project, the vendor also planned a version of Phoenix EFE for the US credit union industry, which would be the first time that Harland had gone after this market with Phoenix Work on Phoenix EFE started in 2005; the ‘EFE’ stands


for ‘extended financial enterprise’. It was described as an evolution of the existing system in two areas: technology and functionality. The first was what Shivdasani termed a ‘port’ to Microsoft .Net technologies, rather than a complete system rewrite. ‘The Phoenix system was created in the early 1990s,’ he said. ‘At that time, it was one of a few systems with a modern technology platform in the US. It was client-server- based, used a relational database, had PC clients, and was open.’ When Harland acquired the Phoenix system from Fair Isaac in 2004, it was still the most Microsoft-centric system on the market, he said. But the vendor quickly realised that to best serve the customer base it had ‘an obligation to keep the platform current’.


Using .Net and web services, Phoenix EFE would


incorporate real-time, around-the-clock processing of transactions originating in all retail delivery channels. In addition, the old thick PC clients would be ‘thinned’ and the new front-ends would be smart clients. Microsoft defined smart clients as ‘easily deployed and managed client applications that provide an adaptive and rich interactive experience by using local resources and intelligently connecting to distributed data sources’. Microsoft’s Windows Workflow Foundation would be the integrated workflow component. Microsoft Active Directory would be incorporated for single sign-on management. Phoenix EFE would be tightly integrated with Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer. The executive analytics dashboard would be driven by a Microsoft user interface.


Harland would extend the use of XML for connectivity, building on the success of its PhoenixXM middleware. ‘The Phoenix system has good connectivity,’ explained Shivdasani, ‘but we saw the need for more openness, especially in an internet-driven world. PhoenixXM, the XML layer with web


80


services connectivity, will be at its heart.’ The database options remained the same as the old Phoenix system, so SQL Server and Sybase. The Sybase version would run on multiple flavours of Unix, including IBM’s AIX, HP-UX, and Sun Solaris, as well as Linux. Phoenix EFE would continue with ‘single storage’ of all data. ‘We think these developments will bring substantial efficiencies,’ said Shivdasani. ‘The system will be heavily parameterised. With its component architecture we will be able to provide customisation capabilities to financial institutions, even though Phoenix EFE is packaged software.’ Phoenix EFE represented an evolution in functionality, too. The vendor saw the convergence sweeping the US financial services industry and responded, said Shivdasani. ‘The fundamental concept supporting the “extended financial enterprise” is the convergence between thrifts, community banks and credit unions.’ Phoenix EFE was conceived as a system that could work in any type of financial institution and, at the same time, support new lines of business such as commercial lending, mortgage banking, and investment banking.


The functionality to support this convergence was being added. Phoenix EFE would include integrated processing from origination to servicing with automated workflows and decisioning across all business lines, including consumer banking, commercial banking, mortgages, and investment banking. Financial management and CRM analytics would be built-in. Web services and XML would ensure open connectivity to third party services that support insurance, brokerage, credit card, and payments products. New functionality was being added for pricing, compliance, and payments. Speaking in June 2007, Shivdasani said that his team had completed about 40 per cent of the port to .Net. The remaining work included the addition of Windows Workflow


Foundation and Microsoft Active Directory


for single sign-on and the movement of the front-end to smart clients. With Phoenix EFE planned for a converged financial services industry, Harland began developing the version for US credit unions. This would be a second offering alongside the Ultradata system, which had around 600 customers. This


Universal Banking Systems Market Report | www.ibsintelligence.com


By 2012, ITS had contributed around 30 sites in the Gulf,


and appeared to have focused on converting conventional banks into Islamic ones. This was the case at KIB. ITS also claimed to be undertaking similar projects at Bank of Kuwait and Middle East (BKME), and elsewhere, in 2009. BKME changed its name to Ahli United Bank in April 2010, with an Islamic solution provided by ITS.


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