Porting an international branch network back-office system of a bank:
A recently merged Belgian bank was the owner of an international branch network back-office system. The acquisition party, Dutch based, had announced the takeover as a ‘merger’ for several reasons.
The back office system of the Belgian bank offered the solution to offer one single account throughout Europe, but was build on a proprietary Unisys environment. The decision was made to invest in the system to upgrade the environment to open standards.
On several areas this project was complex. The obvious technical challenge, the set of the external, British, vendors for the porting work, the cautious Belgium developing team, the team of contractors who knew they would be made redundant upon project delivery, the complex organizational structures, the connectivity of the back office system to all systems and departments and the high level of visibility to senior management.
The project was delivered on time and within budget; and, six (6) years after the delivery is still operational. The focus on addressing the needs of all the afore-mentioned stakeholders created a sense of project ownership among the participants. Furthermore, timely and transparent communications created the ‘buy-in’ required to have the involved departments cooperate and support the project. Easy access to the project manager, open team communications and the clear distribution of roles and responsibilities were all keys to the success.