SOA in Banking - Fifth Third Bancorp - IBM SOA Customer

Fifth Third banks on automated processes and flexible systems to deliver world-class reliability - SOA in Banking - IBM SOA Customer

“IBM’s role is to help us find new solutions every day that enable us to reach our objectives more efficiently and cost effectively. We don’t view IBM as a vendor, but as an extension of our organization. - Jim Scott, CTO, Fifth Third Bank

Customer: Fifth Third Bancorp - IBM SOA Customer
Deployment Country: United States
Industry: Banking - SOA in Banking
Solution: Business-to-Business, Business Continuity, Business Process Management, Data Warehouse, Database Management, Enabling Business Flexibility, Innovation that matters, Optimizing IT, SOA Service Oriented Architecture, Systems & Network Management

Overview - SOA in Banking
Fifth Third Processing Solutions—one of the largest electronic payments processors—needs to ensure that its systems will always be there for its customers.

Business need: SOA in Banking - Fifth Third wanted a more flexible IT infrastructure to meet today’s peaks and tomorrow’s growth—all with maximum efficiency.

Solution: SOA in Banking - Fifth Third is transforming its infrastructure by adding autonomic and virtualization capabilities which deliver both resiliency and consistently high performance.

Benefits: SOA in Banking -Increased system resiliency via autonomic and proactive infrastructure management -“Tens of millions” in overall cost savings associated with IBM-related transformation initiatives.

SOA in Banking - TransFonD - IBM SOA Customer

TransFonD brings Romania’s national banking system into the electronic era with IBM infrastructure solution - SOA in Banking - IBM SOA Customer

"With our service oriented architecture, TransFonD can leverage reusable code components, enabling the same services to function within many applications, saving time to value for our new solutions." - Marian Simion, IT Director, TransFonD

Customer: TransFonD S.A. - IBM SOA Customer
Deployment Country: Romania
IBM Business Partner: S&T Romania
Industry: Banking - SOA in Banking
Solution: Enabling Business Flexibility, SOA Service Oriented Architecture, Small & Medium Business

Overview - SOA in Banking
Since the fall of communism in 1989, Romania has undergone numerous development programs to modernize its government, privatize its industries and make its financial institutions more efficient. For assistance in joining the European Union (EU), Romania has tapped EU funding for several projects, and none has had more dramatic consequences than the development of an electronic interbank payment system. TransFonD S.A. carried out the project with IBM’s assistance.

Business need: SOA in Banking - To compete in the European Union, Romania needed to upgrade its banking IT infrastructure and implement an electronic interbank payment solution

Solution: SOA in Banking - Scalable, flexible, service oriented architecture and messaging software integrates interbank electronic payment system with core back-end processing applications and data of its member banks, processing up to 300,000 transactions per day in automatic clearing house application alone

Benefits: SOA in Banking - Faster processing of up to 7 billion EUR (8.6 billion USD) per day in funds; reduction of settlement period from two days to real time; 67% reduction of fees compared with paper-based system; improved security and liquidity management in Romania’s banking system; simplified work processes

SOA in Banking - Storebrand - IBM SOA Customer

Storebrand improves agility by integrating business processes with IBM solution - SOA in Banking - IBM SOA Customer

"In combination with our service oriented architecture, IBM DB2 9 can help us achieve, with far greater ease, our goal of using information on demand to readily respond to market changes and customer demand." - Thore Thomassen, Senior Enterprise Architect, Storebrand Group

Customer: Storebrand - IBM SOA Customer
Deployment Country: Norway
Industry: Banking, Financial Markets, Insurance - SOA in Banking
Solution: Business Process Management, Customer Relationship Management, Database Management, Enabling Business Flexibility, Information On Demand, SOA Service Oriented Architecture, Web Services

Overview - SOA in Banking
With roots dating back to 1767 and fiscal year 2004 profits of 2.4 billion NOK (358 million USD), Storebrand Group is Norway’s oldest and one of its biggest financial services companies, and a leading player throughout Scandinavia. The company provides life insurance, pension products, commercial retail banking and asset management to many of Norway’s largest companies as well as to private individuals, municipalities and public sector entities.

Business need: SOA in Banking - Improve business agility, ability to make timely and informed business decisions and provide better customer service

Solution: SOA in Banking - Implement a service oriented architecture based on IBM DB2® and IBM WebSphere® solutions, including IBM DB2 9 data server

Benefits: SOA in Banking - Expected ability to handle five times as many customers; reduced order processing time; faster time to market with new products and product combinations; improved customer service through 24x7 online access and ability to view all orders; richer ability to query stored customer and product data for business insight; dramatically reduced time, complexity and cost to conduct database queries; improved productivity for programmers

SOA in Banking - netASPx - IBM SOA Customer

netASPx delivers new value to customers with IBM middleware - SOA in Banking - IBM SOA Customer

"By incorporating IBM technology, netASPx is able to deliver a wide range of benefits to its customers. We’re able to provide and manage ERP applications at a scale and service level that are unprecedented in the market." - Chance Veasey, Vice President of Operations, netASPx

Customer: netASPx - IBM SOA Customer
Deployment Country: United States
Industry: Banking, Computer Services, Healthcare, Insurance, Retail - SOA in Banking
Solution: Enabling Business Flexibility, Enterprise Resource Planning, SOA Service Oriented Architecture, Small & Medium Business

Overview - SOA in Banking
netASPx is an innovator in the delivery of “software as a service.” The company provides Managed Applications Services (MAS) for enterprise resource planning and workforce management solutions. netASPx automates these functions for customers at lower cost, higher service levels and with less risk than would result if customers maintained an in-house team.

Business need: SOA in Banking - Respond to customers’ demands for scalability, performance and high availability, with the cost-effectiveness of a hosted solution

Solution: SOA in Banking - Incorporation of IBM middleware, security and server technology into a hosted ERP application

Benefits: SOA in Banking - netASPx, IBM SOA customer, can better serve customers who could not afford a clustered environment; ability for customers to focus on high-value work without needing to maintain infrastructure; improved performance will enable customers to migrate to Web solution and save costs for themselves and for netASPx

SOA in Banking - Banco de Chile

Banco de Chile reduces application deployment cost with IBM integration solution - SOA in Banking - IBM SOA Customer

"The WebSphere Message Broker solution is part of a business initiative to streamline processes and solutions, and provide our customers with stellar service, while increasing our revenue." - Ruben Farias Sasia, Senior Vice President, Technological Development, Banco de Chile

Customer: Banco de Chile - IBM SOA Customer
Deployment Country: Chile
Industry: Banking - SOA in Banking
Solution: Business Integration, Enabling Business Flexibility, SOA Service Oriented Architecture

Overview - SOA in Banking
Based in Santiago, Chile, Banco de Chile provides commercial banking services to a diverse customer base that includes large corporations, small and mid-sized businesses and individuals. The bank’s 9,000 employees deliver financial products and services through a nationwide network of nearly 250 branches, more than 1,000 ATMs and additional electronic distribution channels.

Business need: SOA in Banking - Enhance competitiveness by enabling a faster, simpler and more flexible infrastructure that could support new business processes targeted at improving customer service for bank customers

Solution: SOA in Banking - IBM software solution to connect and integrate new application development environment with existing back-end systems

Benefits: SOA in Banking - Reduced application development time and maintenance costs; improved response time to changing business requirements; flexible application infrastructure enabled the bank’s IT staff to focus on other line-of-business requirements, improving overall service while reducing the need to hire and train additional personnel

SOA in Banking - HypoVereinsbank connects systems

Service oriented architecture SOA in Banking - HypoVereinsbank connects systems, offering new services

“The ESB provides a flexible infrastructure for HVB's agile investment banking. Our business is changing very fast, and the ESB enables us to support upcoming business opportunities immediately by connecting new market places and new dealing systems to our existing system landscape. The ESB accelerates the adaption of new business processes and the launch of new products and services.” - Michael Dietze, Head of Business Development, HypoVereinsbank AG

Customer: HypoVereinsbank AG - IBM SOA Customer
Deployment Country: Germany
Industry: Banking - SOA in Banking
Solution: Business Performance Transformation, Enabling Business Flexibility, Information On Demand, Openness, SOA Service Oriented Architecture, Systems & Network Management, Transforming IT

Overview - SOA in Banking
A leading bank in Germany reduces the time required to develop new integration scenarios by 35 percent and improves its time to market for new services when it engages IBM Global Business Services and IBM Business Partner Steria Mummert Consulting to implement an enterprise service bus solution based on IBM WebSphere and IBM Tivoli software.

Business need: SOA in Banking - The Corporates & Markets line of business (LOB) of HVB needed to improve its ability to offer new services to its customers. The LOB's IT department, known as HVB Information Services GmbH couldn't respond quickly to capitalize on market opportunities, meet customer demands or fully support its business strategies. The LOB needed to integrate its IT infrastructure to improve its ability to address customer demands and respond to market opportunities.

Solution: SOA in Banking - With help from IBM Global Business Services, IBM Software Group and IBM Business Partner Steria Mummert Consulting, the HVB Information Services GmbH department deployed an enterprise service bus (ESB) infrastructure based on IBM Tivoli and IBM WebSphere software. The integration solution acts as a cost-effective connection environment that simplifies the trading process and offers HVB a competitive advantage by decreasing its time to market for new products and services.

Benefits: SOA in Banking - HVB achieved a 35 percent reduction in the time required to design and implement integration scenarios used to link existing and new applications with internal and external information systems. The solution enables HVB to quickly and easily become connected to the Euronext stock exchange. Time savings has led to more affordable implementation and operations costs as well as an improved ROI and time to market.

SOA in Banking - To stay ahead of the competition, RouteOne develops a strong service-oriented architecture using IBM WebSphere software

SOA in Banking - To stay ahead of the competition, RouteOne develops a strong service-oriented architecture SOA using IBM WebSphere software.

“Using the WebSphere solution, we are able to respond quickly to meet evolving customer require­ments, putting us a step ahead of the competition.” - T.N. Subramaniam, Chief Architect &Director of Technology, RouteOne

Customer: RouteOne, LLC - IBM SOA Customer
Deployment Country: United States
Industry: Automotive, Banking - SOA in Banking
Solution: Enabling Business Flexibility, Openness, Service Oriented Architecture, Small & Medium Business, Transforming IT

Overview - SOA in Banking
RouteOne offers a revolutionary real-time, Web-based system that enables automobile dealers to manage the credit application process from multiple financial sources. The RouteOne system integrates with numerous participating financing companies, and it aggregates all financing sources into a single point for auto dealers.

Business need: SOA in Banking - RouteOne was looking to upgrade its application platform to an open-standards based architecture so that it could support more users and integrate with diverse partners. In addition, the company wanted to differentiate its system within the automotive marketplace by implementing a service-oriented architecture (SOA) and leveraging Web services to build a more flexible system that could respond quickly to users’ changing needs.

Solution: SOA in Banking - RouteOne built a robust SOA for its credit application management system using IBM WebSphere® and IBM DataPower® software.

Benefits: SOA in Banking - Provides a robust service oriented architecture SOA infrastructure to deliver an open, integrated, Web-acces­sible solution for customers • Enables RouteOne to reuse services, build business rules and adopt best prac­tices to bring services to market more quickly than the competition • Offers flexibility to meet evolving customer requirements and support more users • Able to scale to a very large number of concurrent users

SOA in Banking - EBS Building Society gains competitive edge with new channel

Service Oriented Architecture SOA in Banking - EBS Building Society gains competitive edge with new channel

“With our service oriented architecture, we have the ability to build services as standardized components that can be reused and combined to address changing business goals. We realized we could better compete with anyone regardless of size because this ability enables us to bring new innovative services to market faster.” - –David Yeates, Senior Manager, IT architecture, EBS Building Society

Customer: EBS Building Society - IBM SOA Customer
Deployment Country: Ireland
Industry: Banking - SOA in Banking
Solution: Business Continuity, Business Resiliency, Enabling Business Flexibility, Service Oriented Architecture SOA, Small & Medium Business

Overview - SOA in Banking
A building society based on cooperative mutual principles, EBS has been offering home financing to its members since 1935 and today commands in excess of a 10 percent share of the 26 billion EUR (31 billion USD) Irish home loan market.

Business need: SOA in Banking - EBS has traditionally operated exclusively through its network of branches and franchised agents. But the market for home loans in Ireland has been transformed by a new breed of independent mortgage brokers who now account for 40 percent of the market. To respond to this marketplace change, EBS needed a channel to reach these brokers.

Solution: SOA in Banking - EBS had prepared an infrastructure for this innovation, which would connect the company directly to brokers’ in-house systems, by previously laying the ground­work for service orientation using IBM WebSphere® Application Server Network Deployment and IBM Rational® Application Developer for WebSphere. A service oriented architecture (SOA) provides significant business value by exposing exist­ing systems as “services”—without having to write extensive code or scrap previous investments.

Results: SOA in Banking - New online channel for reaching broker community that enables brokers to connect seamlessly with EBS from within their own companies’ online business systems

Benefits: SOA in Banking -Mortgage application processed in just hours compared with 2-3 days taken by competitors; independent mortgage broker channel now accounts for substantial portion of EBS’s business after only 6 months, far exceeding expectations; new channel added without significantly increasing staff levels

SOA in Banking - Pay By Touch: Revolutionizing retail through biometrics

Service Oriented Architecture SOA in Banking - Pay By Touch: Revolutionizing retail through biometrics

"The retail use is the initial foray, but think about it...once this technology gets to a certain penetration point, consumers will want to see it being used everywhere, and the technology lends itself to all sorts of different environments." - Ryan Ross, vice president of business development, Pay By Touch

Customer: Pay By Touch - IBM SOA Customer
Deployment Country: United States
IBM Business Partner: Silicon Valley Systech
Industry: Banking, Retail - SOA in Banking
Solution: Business-to-Business, Business Integration, Empowering People, Enabling Business Flexibility, Innovation that matters, Operational Management, Optimizing IT, Security, SOA Service Oriented Architecture, Small & Medium Business

Overview - SOA in Banking
Pay By Touch, a San Francisco-based service provider, is a company that has taken two existing technologies and combined them to create a new service that has the potential to fundamentally change the way consumers think about paying for goods and services.

Business need: SOA in Banking - Pay By Touch had put together two existing capabilities—biometric recognition and electronic financial transactions—to create a groundbreaking new retail payment service. The company needed a highly scalable, secure and easy-to-integrate platform to support its rapidly growing operations.

Solution: SOA in Banking - Pay By Touch implemented a service-oriented architecture that helps the company integrate the diverse systems of companies that it acquires while remaining highly scalable to accommodate strong customer growth. The company is also collaborating with IBM to build Pay By Touch capabilities into IBM's leading point-of-sale software solution, making it easier for stores to take advantage of the service.

Benefits: SOA in Banking - 25 percent reduction in the cost of integrating acquired companies • 30 percent increase in the productivity of IT staff • 15 percent reduction in total cost of ownership

SOA in Banking - People’s Bank enhances customer service with IBM WebSphere software solution.

Service Oriented Architecture SOA in Banking - People’s Bank enhances customer service with IBM WebSphere software solution - IBM SOA Customer

“IBM WebSphere software allows us to save time and money by reusing applications, and by avoiding the costs of building new connectivity and integration into each new solution we deploy.” - —Jaci Coleman, Chief Information Officer, People’s Bank

Customer: People's Bank - IBM SOA Customer
Deployment Country: United States
Industry: Banking - SOA in Banking
Solution: Enabling Business Flexibility, SOA Service Oriented Architecture, Transforming IT

Overview - SOA in Banking
One of the principal challenges facing banks today is to remain focused on meeting customer needs in an increasingly competitive landscape. For People’s Bank—one of the largest independent banks in Connecticut, with assets of 11 billion USD—providing customers with personalized service has been a core value since its founding in the nineteenth century. The bank strives to deliver financial services that “revolve around you” at its more than 155 branches.

Business need: SOA in Banking - Bank tellers lacked a single, unified view of the customer and had to enter codes and toggle between screens to perform basic tasks, causing delays and inhibiting their ability to cross-sell and up-sell customers

Solution: SOA in Banking - People’s Bank teamed with IBM to create an SOA, integrating the back-end financial applications with front-end sales and service applications; this solution unifies and connects applications across the enterprise and provides the ability to focus on customer needs, not the IT infrastructure

Benefits: SOA in Banking - 400% improvement in response times; improved teller productivity; reduced teller training costs; upgraded customer service; increased up-selling and cross-selling; enhanced business agility and time to market; reduced long-range costs for application development and integration

SOA in Banking - St.George Bank - IBM SOA customer

Service oriented architecture SOA in Banking - St.George Bank saves 15 million USD through re-use of key business functions with IBM WebSphere solution - IBM SOA customer

A pragmatic and profitable approach to building a flexible bank and introducing new products

“We no longer want to invest the time and resources in two- or three-year initiatives. Business is changing so fast these days that we can’t afford to roll something into production that represents the thinking of three years ago.” - —Greg Booker, Head of Group Architecture, St.George Bank

Customer: St.George Bank - IBM SOA Customer
Deployment Country: Australia
Industry: Banking, Financial Markets - SOA in Banking
Solution: Enabling Business Flexibility, SOA Service Oriented Architecture

Overview - SOA in Banking
Growth by acquisition can help banks gain a larger share of the marketplace, but it can also lead to challenges associated with greater process and technology complexity. This, in turn, can threaten customer service and satisfaction. This is exactly what happened at St.George Bank, Australia’s fifth largest retail bank, during the middle and late 1990s when several regional savings and loan banks, as well as Barclay’s, came together under the St.George Bank umbrella.

Business need: SOA in Banking
St.George was focused on a large-scale integration of four separate banks. During this time, the bank focused many of its resources on standardizing its technology and weaving together disparate platforms using a point-to-point method of integration. As the bank came out of the year 2000, it found that the tightly coupled systems and siloed information platforms developed in this process needed to be integrated to ensure flexibility, tight cost control and speed to market for new applications.

Solution: SOA in Banking
St.George bank implemented a service oriented architecture (SOA) that re-uses business functions and loosely couples them to back-end systems with a messaging middleware solution from IBM

Benefits: SOA in Banking
Saved an estimated 20 million AUD (15 million USD) by re-using 47% of its key business functions; realized payback in less than a year for new personal lending customer application system; customer satisfaction rating has rebounded to 75% from approximately 55% prior to the solution

IBM SOA Customer - SOA in Banking - Wüstenrot & Württembergische AG

IBM SOA Customer - Service Oriented Architecture SOA in Banking - Wüstenrot & Württembergische AG - Creating a high-tech pipeline for traditional mail

Customer: Wüstenrot & Württembergische AG - IBM SOA Customer - SOA in Banking
Deployment Country: Germany
Industry: Banking, Financial Markets, Insurance
Solution: Enabling Business Flexibility, Service Oriented Architecture

Overview - SOA in Banking
With standard post still a key means of correspondence, Wüstenrot & Württembergische AG (W&W), IBM SOA Customer - Service Oriented Architecture SOA in Banking, sought to improve its mail delivery process. The existing system involved manually routing mail from a central location to regions and, from there, out to individual offices for distribution to the right department and person. The whole process was long, complicated and costly – frustrating for both the company and its customers.

Business need: W&W, IBM SOA Customer - Service Oriented Architecture SOA in Banking, needed to implement an automated, paperless mail distribution solution to reduce the mail delivery cycle, improve efficiency and cut administration costs. The company also wanted to leverage a service-oriented architecture (SOA) that would offer reusable components and a strategic platform for future automation projects.

Solution: The solution includes a back-end document repository, automated workflows, a mail processing application and an easy-to-use interface. The new application environment automatically stores and distributes incoming mail and enables back-office employees to access a list of duties and responsibilities via an electronic workbasket.

Benefits: The company has enjoyed improved efficiency and customer service; mail is now processed and delivered within two hours. The solution has increased productivity by outlining outlines tasks and priorities and making workload balancing and management easier. A standard platform has been installed for future automation projects.

Case Study - SOA in Banking
Based in Stuttgart, Germany, Wüstenrot & Württembergische AG, IBM SOA Customer - Service Oriented Architecture SOA in Banking, is a large financial services company serving about 6.5 million private customers around the world. The company offers building loan contracts, retirement products, home loans, insurance, pension funds and more through a number of subsidiaries. W&W employs approximately 11,000 people.

Business Challenge
W&W’s customers frequently send important documents via postal mail. Incoming mail was initially collected in the Central Services department. Employees in that department then distributed the mail to regional processing groups. From there, distribution teams and group managers distributed the mail to the appropriate internal departments, where it was finally processed and delivered to the recipient. This mail cycle extended the time it took to accomplish simple business transactions, resulting in poor service that left customers dissatisfied. What's more, administration costs were high due to the lack of automation. And the company had no way to make changes to the manual process or integrate it with applications running on multiple platforms.

W&W needed an automated, paperless mail distribution solution to reduce mail delivery time and save money.

Solution - SOA in Banking
IBM Global Business Services led the project management, designed and built the mail processing solution. The solution includes a back-end document repository, automated workflows, a mail processing application and an easy-to-use interface. The new application environment automatically stores and distributes incoming mail and enables back-office employees to access a list of their duties and responsibilities via an electronic workbasket, which presents a time-sensitive view of upcoming tasks.
The IBM software used in the solution included:

IBM DB2 Content Manager for AIX V8.3 software, which the company uses to store and archive all paper documents in electronic format, including 30 million tagged image file (TIF) documents and 10 million advanced function presentation (AFP) documents.
IBM WebSphere Information Integrator Content Edition V8.3 software, which serves as the interface for client applications that access the Content Manager repository.
IBM WebSphere Process Server V6.0 software, which provides the runtime environment for the new automated mail distribution process and integrates various software components to form a streamlined, reusable SOA.
IBM WebSphere Business Modeler V6.0 software, which provides an easy-to-use modeling environment so that W&W can design optimized business processes.
IBM WebSphere Studio Application Developer Integration Edition V6.0 software, which provided the development environment the company used to build the new processing application that distributes electronic documents to employees.
The time frame for the project was based on a one-month conceptual phase, a three-month implementation phase and a three-month test phase. When it is completely in production, the new automated mail distribution system will accommodate 1,500 users.

Benefits - SOA in Banking
IBM created and deployed an automated, paperless mail distribution solution for W&W based on a robust SOA environment. With this solution, the company has eliminated its long and complicated manual mail distribution process, resulting in reduced times for mail delivery. Previously, it took between four and seven hours for mail to reach the appropriate recipient. With the new IBM solution, it usually takes less than two hours. This improvement leads to increased customer service levels. In addition, the IBM solution provides workflows for other back-office tasks, resulting in improved workloads and simplified employee management processes. And since the solution is based on a reusable SOA environment, the company now has a platform in place on which to develop future automation projects.

Products and Services Used - SOA in Banking
IBM products and services that were used in this case study.
Software: DB2 Content Manager, WebSphere Business Modeler, WebSphere Process Server, WebSphere Integration Developer
Services: GBS SOA Management Services, IBM Global Business Services, IBM Software Service for WebSphere

IBM SOA Customer - SOA in Banking - KBC Bank

IBM SOA Customer - Service Oriented Architecture SOA in Banking - KBC Bank
Improving customer service by automating content management

"Claims managers can now concentrate on their primary job, rather than on searching for information. As a result, KBC expects not only to save money, but to improve internal efficiencies and boost customer satisfaction." - Pierre Sleewaegen, KBC program manager

Customer: KBC Bank - IBM SOA Customer - Service Oriented Architecture SOA in Banking
ployment Country: Belgium
Industry: Banking, Insurance
Solution: Enabling Business Flexibility, Service Oriented Architecture

Overview - SOA in Banking
KBC's insurance division needed to make it faster and easier for customers and business partners to obtain accurate, up-to-date information about insurance claims. It also wanted to drive better collaboration among its back office, business partners and customers.

Business need: KBC needed to move from paper archives to a more automated, electronic approach. The company knew it had to build its new customer-centric strategy on a well-established IT architecture framework, with clear policies and reusable components.

Solution: The framework, built on a service-oriented architecture (SOA), enables KBC’s partners to access and update the electronic claim files, while KBC Claims Handlers and KBC Insurance agents can follow the status of their claims via the Web-based interface.

Benefits: This solution enables Web-based customer self-service and speeds claims processing by allowing updating by partners. Expected time savings varies from 2.5% for KBC Claim Handlers to 10% for administrative personnel.

Case Study - SOA in Banking
KBC Group is a financial services company that offers retail banking and insurance, asset management, and corporate and market services. It is one of the top three insurers in Belgium and has a presence in more than 30 countries worldwide. The company's 45,000 employees reach nine million customers through a wide network of branches, subsidiaries and representative offices. KBC has the ambition to be an independent, medium-sized, multi-channel bank insurer, serving private persons and small and medium sized enterprises in selected European countries, with expertise in asset management and the financial markets, and the aim of achieving high profitability targets through efficiency, customer centricity, employee-friendly policies and sound risk management.

Business Challenge: SOA in Banking
KBC's insurance division needed to improve claims handling cost-efficiency by automating workflows and utilizing electronic - rather than paper - archives. It also wanted to enable customer self-service and drive better collaboration. To efficiently handle unstructured content and support collaboration among its back office, channels, business partners and customers, KBC knew it had to build a strategy on a well-established IT architecture framework, associated policies and reusable components.

KBC ICT, the company’s IT support unit, began looking for an approach which would facilitate extensive collaboration among auto repairers, damage experts, legal advisors, insurance agents, brokers and customers. By using Web-based channels and distribution channel agents to give customers easily accessible, up-to-date information, KBC felt that it could significantly improve customer services.

Solution: SOA in Banking
KBC ICT and KBC together engaged IBM Global Services as well as IBM Software Services for Information Management (ISSIM) to develop a content management framework for its claims management division. The solution integrates with the existing application architecture and utilizes IBM DB2 Content Manager software. The ISSIM group also provided knowledge transfer to KBC related to the new environment's software, framework and operating model, and acted as a liaison between the KBC support groups and the DB2 Content Manager support center in Boeblingen, Germany. KBC chose IBM DB2 Content Manager for Sun Solaris V8.3 software as the content management standard for its entire group. Utilizing the new framework, which is built on a service-oriented architecture (SOA), KBC's current and new business applications can access content management-related services to perform many routine tasks.

IBM Global Business Services developed and deployed the content management group framework and implemented new business processes. The new processes included:

Processes for adding of documents such as scanning, e-mail, and upload
Access to documents allocated to claim files to which they are allowed by the SA claim handling application such as View, Manage, Annotate and Output.
IBM Global Technology Services implemented the framework's infrastructure and operational services, while IBM Global Business Services - Application Management Services provided application development and support.

Benefits: SOA in Banking
With the new content management framework from IBM, KBC expects to improve customer services, making it faster and easier for customers to obtain accurate, up-to-date information about insurance claims. Because the solution uses electronically managed claims files, it drives better internal efficiencies and lower costs. Claims managers will be able to concentrate on their primary work rather than looking for documentation or information. KBC expects to improve the quality and quantity of claims management overall, improving customer satisfaction. Similar savings will be realized by implementing the content management framework at KBC's other companies in the Czech Republic in 2007 and later at Warta, Poland in 2008.

The solution also enables better collaboration between the company's back office, channels, business partners and customers. Insurance agents and participating companies, such as car repairers and claim experts, will be able to access and update the electronic claim files. Expected time savings varies from 2.5% for KBC Claim Handlers to 10% for administrative personnel.

Products and Services Used - SOA in Banking
IBM products and services that were used in this case study.
Services: GBS Application Development / Wireless Applications, IBM Global Business Services, IBM Integrated Technology Services

IBM SOA Customer - SOA in Banking - Oberbank AG

IBM SOA Customer - SOA in Banking - Oberbank AG
Improving service and expanding markets with a comprehensive banking platform

"Growth brings challenges, which is why we selected IBM and i-flex. They are both experienced partners that understand our needs and the needs of our customers." - Bernhard Reiter, Manager, Organization Department, Oberbank AG

Customer: Oberbank AG - IBM SOA Customer - SOA in Banking
Deployment Country: Austria
Industry: Banking
Solution: SOA Service Oriented Architecture

Overview - SOA in Banking
Oberbank AG is an Austrian regional bank that focuses on business banking and has designs on international expansion.

Business need: Oberbank wanted to expand into several cities in Hungary and improve customer satisfaction levels, growth and profitability in existing as well as new markets, and customer responsiveness through increased service flexibility.

Solution: Oberbank teamed with IBM Global Business Services, IBM Global Technology Services and i-flex to implement the FLEXCUBE solution, a modern core banking solution with a real-time e-banking module, for its clients in Hungary. The software is based on a service-oriented architecture (SOA) and includes features such as real-time transaction updates of deposits and withdrawals conducted at automated teller machines (ATMs).

Benefits: Account openings through e-banking that used to require several days' lag time to create are now up and running the same day. The solution also enables Oberbank to quickly create new services and products to meet changing client demands.

Case Study - SOA in Banking
With more than 100 locations, Oberbank has operations throughout Austria as well as in the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and Slovakia. Oberbank units are involved in investment, leasing and real estate lending.

Business Challenge - SOA in Banking
Oberbank prides itself on serving its business customers with agility and efficiency. As it continues to expand, it looks for opportunities to improve its services through technology and automation. The bank was undertaking two important challenges: expanding into several cities in Hungary and looking for ways to quickly implement the most state-of-the-art services for its customers.

Solution - SOA in Banking
The FLEXCUBE solution was created through a joint venture between IBM and IBM Business Partner i-flex solutions, and it acts as a comprehensive banking platform for financial institutions around the world. Oberbank teamed with IBM Global Business Services, IBM Global Technology Services and i-flex to implement the FLEXCUBE solution, deploying the software at its headquarters and piloting it at its first branch opening in Hungary.

The Global Business Services team worked closely with the bank to understand its needs and help it accomplish its goals for expansion and improved customer service. Under the project direction of the Global Business Services team, the Global Technology Services group installed one IBM System p5 570 offering running the IBM AIX 5L V5.3 platform at Oberbank's headquarters in Linz, Austria. The System p5 570 system provides high availability and performance using IBM POWER5+ processing technology. The client is leveraging the platform's logical partitioning functionality to run its FLEXCUBE software as the initial core banking solution at its new Hungary branches, and it intends to expand the solution to other branches over time.

During the nine-month implementation phase, the Global Technology Services group conducted training and related services for Oberbank to prepare it for the launch at its first Hungary bank branch. The Business Partner contributed additional training during this phase, passing on its in-depth knowledge of the FLEXCUBE software.

Benefits - SOA in Banking
The core banking solution and real-time banking modules enable Oberbank to deliver improved service to its clients. Account openings through e-banking that used to require several days' lag time to create are now up and running the same day. The solution also enables Oberbank to quickly create new services and products to meet changing client demands. With its FLEXCUBE software configured on the robust System p5 570 platform, Oberbank is delivering improved services to its customers and venturing into new business territory. The software is able to accommodate banking operations in the areas of retail, corporate, Internet and investment banking, which enables Oberbank to expand its services to other businesses and improve its international presence.

Since the solution runs on the powerful System p5 570 platform at the bank's headquarters using a hub-and-spoke configuration, Oberbank is able to extend the solution to many other branches using the same equipment. This easy transition process, coupled with the SOA configuration of the solution, saves the company resources and time while preserving its IT investment.

Products and Services Used - SOA in Banking
IBM products and services that were used in this case study.
Hardware: System p, System p: eServer p5 570
Operating System: AIX 5L
Services: GBS Finance - Enterprise Applications (FEA) , GBS SOA Implementation Services, IBM Global Business Services, IBM Integrated Technology Services

IBM SOA Customer - SOA in Banking - TMB Banks

IBM SOA Customer - Service Oriented Architecture SOA in Banking - TMB Banks on IBM's Open, Standards-Based Approach to SOA to Enhance Market Agility and Responsiveness

"TMB is committed to enhancing our customers' experience with our breadth of world-class financial product and services and agile business operation capacity. With SOA, TMB is transforming its technology infrastructure to improve overall corporate agility and to enable long-term return on investment. TMB trusts IBM's SOA technology leadership and expertise to help us achieve our objectives." - Ms. Saipin Kittipornpimol, Chief Information Officer of TMB Bank

Customer: TMB Bank - IBM SOA Customer - SOA in Banking
Deployment Country: Thailand
Industry: Banking
Solution: Enabling Business Flexibility, Service Oriented Architecture

BANGKOK, THAILAND and ARMONK, NY - 10 Jan 2007: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that TMB Bank, one of Thailand's top five banks, is streamlining business processes and improving efficiency while enhancing customer satisfaction with a service oriented architecture powered by IBM software.

As a leading Thai Bank offering a comprehensive range of consumer and commercial financial products and services with more than four million customers and 464 branches, TMB's first strategic SOA project is its Unsecured Personal Loan System to enable competitive responsiveness in the highly profitable and competitive personal loan market.

Prior to the SOA deployment, the loan processing procedure entailed data entry into multiple systems as well as numerous manual steps to perform credit checking, resulting in operational inefficiencies and lengthy customer response times. Now, with its SOA-based Unsecured Personal Loan System, business processes are streamlined through an integrated framework enabling automation of client information update, loan account opening and money transfer into the deposit account upon loan approval. Unsecured Personal Loans are now processed 50 percent faster and, with the elimination of much of the duplicate data entry, with greater accuracy.

Through the ability to create an application once and share that data with other business applications, the SOA also enables TMB to share loan processing data with other business applications across their enterprise, providing deeper client insights in support of organic growth initiatives. With this open, standards-based SOA approach, TMB can reduce application development costs and time and respond quickly to changing market dynamics.

"TMB is committed to enhancing our customers' experience with our breadth of world-class financial product and services and agile business operation capacity," said Ms. Saipin Kittipornpimol, Chief Information Officer of TMB Bank. "With SOA, TMB is transforming its technology infrastructure to improve overall corporate agility and to enable long-term return on investment. TMB trusts IBM's SOA technology leadership and expertise to help us achieve our objectives."

TMB, in collaboration with IBM and IBM Business Partner, Blueprint Solutions Corporation, deployed the SOA based on IBM WebSphere software. The open standards solution enabled TMB to connect its previously isolated silos of critical data and software applications, enabling business process improvement, reduction of manual tasks and operational risk in compliance with Basel Capital Accord (Basel II) regulations.

"IBM is deeply committed to helping businesses across the world realize the benefits of SOA," said Jadesada Kraisingkorn, Country Manager, Software Group, IBM Thailand Co. Ltd. "IBM has helped thousands of companies deploy SOA solutions, giving them greater flexibility and responsiveness to quickly meet new market opportunities and challenges. IBM is pleased to partner with TMB Bank to help TMB meet their operational agility and profit growth objectives."

IBM SOA Customer - SOA in Banking - Cashferium helps retailers and banks cut costs by keeping cash flow local

IBM SOA Customer - Service Oriented Architecture SOA in Banking - Cashferium helps retailers and banks cut costs by keeping cash flow local

"When you have a big idea, you need to find a partner who can also think big, and — just as important — deliver big. IBM understood our goals better than anyone and helped us to articulate a solution for making it a reality." - Ton van Schie, CEO, Cashferium

Customer: Cashferium - IBM SOA Customer - SOA in Banking
Deployment Country: Netherlands
IBM Business Partner: infosupportb+p solutionse-office
Industry: Banking, Retail
Solution: Business-to-Business, Business Performance Transformation, Database Management, Development & Technology Adoption, Enabling Business Flexibility, Innovation that matters, Security, Service Oriented Architecture, Transaction Payment, Transforming Business

Overview - SOA in Banking
Based in the Netherlands, Cashferium addresses the efficiency and safety of cash handling in today's flow of cash between retailers, banks and consumers. The core of its business model is the "recycling" of surplus banknotes of retailers into a local ATM, thereby minimizing cash transport from local bank branches and restocking of ATMs.

Business need: With banks and retailers spending some €50 billion each year on the handling of cash, the incentive for reducing the amount of cash in transit—one of the main sources of this cost—is powerful. However, with banks and retailers separated by a mountain of disparate processes and systems, the goal of a shorter cash cycle has yet to be realized.

Solution: Startup Cashferium created a whole new process framework for the exchange of cash between retailers, banks and their ATMs. Cashferium then engaged IBM to help define and optimize these processes, and to create a secure, flexible platform for delivering—and continually adapting—its service.

Benefits: • Up to 50 percent reduction in the cost of cash processing for retailers and banks • Estimated total savings of €250,000 per site deployed • Improved security for mall-based retailers

Case Study - SOA in Banking

"When you have a big idea, you need to find a partner who can also think big, and —just as important—deliver big. IBM understood our goals better than anyone and helped us to articulate a solution for making it a reality."
–Ton van Schie, CEO, Cashferium

Based in the Netherlands, Cashferium addresses the efficiency and safety of cash handling in today's flow of cash between retailers, banks and consumers. The core of its business model is the "recycling" of surplus banknotes of retailers into a local ATM, thereby minimizing cash transport from local bank branches and restocking of ATMs.

Business Challenge - SOA in Banking
With banks and retailers spending some €50 billion each year on the handling of cash, the incentive for reducing the amount of cash in transit—one of the main sources of this cost—is powerful. However, with banks and retailers separated by a mountain of disparate processes and systems, the goal of a shorter cash cycle has yet to be realized.

Solution - SOA in Banking
Startup Cashferium created a whole new process framework for the exchange of cash between retailers, banks and their ATMs. Cashferium then engaged IBM to help define and optimize these processes, and to create a secure, flexible platform for delivering—and continually adapting—its service.

Key Benefits - SOA in Banking
• Up to 50 percent reduction in the cost of cash processing for retailers and banks
• Estimated total savings of €250,000 per site deployed
• Improved security for mall-based retailers

One of the biggest changes in the world's retail economy has been the vast expansion in the role of alternative payment mechanisms. For reasons ranging from convenience to habit to need, more consumers are opting for plastic than ever before. But even in the face of this sweeping trend, traditional cash payment is—and is expected to remain—the lifeblood of the world's retail activity.

For that reason, the handling and processing of cash will remain an important operational priority for the retailers that receive it, and the banks that keep it circulating. Few consumers think of what happens to money when it leaves their hands, or where it has been before it comes out of an ATM. For retailers and banks, however, it's an issue that has a major impact on their costs and profitability, and is thus the focus of continual efforts to improve efficiency. The fact that cash is a physical medium of exchange—one that needs to be picked up, counted, checked, protected and transported from each place of business—is the main reason that inefficient practices have persisted for as long as they have.

On another level, the inefficiency of retail cash handling processes can be viewed as a natural outcome of the fact that they follow centralized approaches in an increasingly decentralized world. One of the basic requirements for each retailer within a mall is to securely transport cash on the premises to a distant bank or cash center for deposit. The high costs associated with this process are but one dimension of the problem. The other is the risk of physical harm and economic loss, since store employees are sometimes forced to transport large amounts of cash. The irony is that this same cash may make a reverse trip from the bank to an ATM near the retailer, as part of the bank's equally costly requirement to replenish them from a central location. The fact is that recirculating cash follows a needlessly roundabout path that imposes cost on retailers, banks and the financial system as a whole by increasing the amount of cash-in-transit, or CIT.

Business Benefits - SOA in Banking
• Up to 50 percent reduction in the cost of cash processing for retailers and banks
• Estimated total savings of €250,000 per site deployed
• Ability for retailers and banks to shift their resource focus from cost centers to value-added operations
• Improved security for mall-based retailers

Circulatory troubles -SOA in Banking
The most direct way of shortening and simplifying the flow of cash between retailers, banks and ATMs would be to recirculate it locally. While elegant in theory, a combination of institutional and technological factors has kept the idea from becoming reality. One major barrier is the inherent complexity of the processes that govern the flow, which has made it hard for retailers and banks to find a common ground for process improvements. Another barrier has been a lack of standardized technology to support the transformation of the cash flow process.

In Europe, however, that tide has begun to turn. With much of Europe standardizing on the euro, the incentive for localization has grown even stronger. But the real force for change has come from a combination of breakthrough ideas and enabling technology. In the Netherlands, a small team steeped in retail and banking experience translated their knowledge into a revolutionary process that has made the vision of local cash recycling a concrete reality. The company that group became, Cashferium (www.cashferium.com), saw from the beginning that success in the complicated payment space would require the right mix of its own core expertise and partners who shared its vision. On the banking side, it partnered with global giant ABN AMRO, which saw the opportunity to reduce the cost of cash handling. On the technology side, Cashferium needed a provider that could not only meet demanding technical and security challenges, but also provide a commitment to success backed up by whatever resources were required. The company it selected was IBM.

"The process as a whole is now far more efficient because banks and retailers can focus on the parts of their business that drive profitability." – Ton van Schie

The physical core of Cashferium's service is secured locations in malls, known as Cash Kiosks,® where retailers deposit their stores' cash receipts at the end of the day. With security absolutely essential to the success of the Cashferium solution, IBM designed a robust security and communications infrastructure that provided customers with Web-based access to the system and enabled Cashferium to monitor and manage its Cash Kiosks remotely. To make a drop-off at the Cash Kiosk, retail customers can use a secure portal to schedule a reservation, with the information automatically registered and stored at Cashferium's operations control center. When customers arrive at the Cash Kiosk to make a scheduled deposit, the first level of security requires them to scan a badge with encoded identification information that is automatically checked against stored reservation data, including the scheduled time of the appointment. If the customer is granted access, the Cash Kiosk then applies a second level of authentication that uses a biometric interface to validate the initial check. Upon final approval, the customer deposits funds at the Cash Kiosk. The recycling process comes full circle when this cash is made available to the ATM situated on the outside of the Cash Kiosk and to local ATMs within the mall. Additional services include rolled coin distribution and a Security Host.

Focus on flexibility
In designing the architecture of the Cashferium solution, IBM Software Group's central aim was to maximize its security and manageability, while at the same time facilitating the long-term expansion of the solution by making it as flexible and architecturally efficient as possible. The team's approach was to use IBM WebSphere® Business Modeler to model critical business processes in the Cashferium solution and then design a modular architecture that employed Web services, using IBM WebSphere Process Server to integrate and automate them. By designing a service oriented architecture (SOA) solution, IBM ensured Cashferium the flexibility it would need to evolve its service rapidly by giving it the means to adapt its processes on-the-fly. Running on the IBM System pTM platform, the solution stores all customer and transaction data within a secure, centralized IBM DB2® database. Other key elements of the solution include IBM WebSphere Portal, which was used to create the customer interface, as well as a range of IBM Rational® software products to develop and deploy the solution.

Key Components -SOA in Banking
Software • IBM WebSphere Application Server
• IBM WebSphere Process Server
• IBM WebSphere Integration Developer
• IBM WebSphere Portal
• IBM WebSphere Business Modeler
• IBM Rational Software Architect
• IBM Rational Team Unifying platform
• IBM Rational Portfolio Manager
• IBM DB2
Hardware • IBM System p
Services • IBM Software Group Services
Business Partner • e-office (www.e-office.com)
• b+p solutions (www.bpsolutions.nl)
• infosupport (www.infosupport.nl)
Time frame • Solution design: 6 months
• Rollout: In progress

With five sites deployed in Holland and 22 more in the works, the Cashferium solution has more than lived up to its promise of being a "win-win" solution, notes CEO Ton van Schie. "The Cashferium solution saves banks the cost of handling money, while retailers get better security at a lower price," explains van Schie. "The process as a whole is now far more efficient because banks and retailers can focus on the parts of their business that drive profitability." Based on what customers have experienced so far, van Schie expects transaction costs to fall by as much as 50 percent for the companies using the local cash recycling solution, representing an average savings of €250,000 for each Cash Kiosk deployed. While it's hard to put a monetary figure on improved security, the security enabled by the Cashferium solution represents a significant improvement over traditional cash delivery and pickup practices.

Why it matters
Drawing on its cash-handling expertise, Cashferium pioneered a disruptive process that establishes a new path for cash to flow between retailers and banks based on the local recycling of surplus cash from retailers to ATMs. By drastically reducing the amount of cash in transit, the solution provides lower costs and greater security for banks and retailers.

Making big ideas work
Cashferium sees its decision to rely on a group of strong and trustworthy partners as a major reason for its success. While the solution's process improvement is what really makes it stand out as "disruptive" in the way banks and retailers handle cash, van Schie sees the technology underpinning this business model as absolutely essential to its successful execution. "When you have a big idea, you need to find a partner who can also think big, and—just as important—deliver big," says van Schie. "IBM understood our goals better than anyone and helped us to articulate a solution for making it a reality. Throughout the whole process, we felt confident that IBM would do everything in its power to help us succeed."

For more information
Please contact your IBM sales representative or IBM Business Partner.

Visit us at:

ibm.com/innovation

Products and Services Used - SOA in Banking
IBM products and services that were used in this case study.
Hardware: System p
Software: WebSphere Business Modeler, Rational Portfolio Manager, Rational Team Unifying Platform, WebSphere Application Server, Rational Software Architect, WebSphere Integration Developer, WebSphere Portal, DB2 9 for Linux, UNIX and Windows
Services: IBM Software Service for WebSphere

To stay ahead of the competition, RouteOne develops a strong service-oriented architecture using IBM WebSphere software

To stay ahead of the competition, RouteOne develops a strong service-oriented architecture using IBM WebSphere software.

Published on: 29 Nov 2006

“Using the WebSphere solution, we are able to respond quickly to meet evolving customer require­ments, putting us a step ahead of the competition.” - T.N. Subramaniam, Chief Architect &Director of Technology, RouteOne

Customer: RouteOne, LLC
Deployment Country: United States
Industry: Automotive, Banking
Solution: Enabling Business Flexibility, Openness, Service Oriented Architecture, Small & Medium Business, Transforming IT

Overview - IBM SOA Solutions in Automotive and Banking Industries

RouteOne offers a revolutionary real-time, Web-based system that enables automobile dealers to manage the credit application process from multiple financial sources. The RouteOne system integrates with numerous participating financing companies, and it aggregates all financing sources into a single point for auto dealers.

Business need: RouteOne was looking to upgrade its application platform to an open-standards based architecture so that it could support more users and integrate with diverse partners. In addition, the company wanted to differentiate its system within the automotive marketplace by implementing a service-oriented architecture (SOA) and leveraging Web services to build a more flexible system that could respond quickly to users’ changing needs.

Solution: RouteOne built a robust SOA for its credit application management system using IBM WebSphere® and IBM DataPower® software.

Benefits: • Provides a robust SOA infrastructure to deliver an open, integrated, Web-acces­sible solution for customers • Enables RouteOne to reuse services, build business rules and adopt best prac­tices to bring services to market more quickly than the competition • Offers flexibility to meet evolving customer requirements and support more users • Able to scale to a very large number of concurrent users

Case Study - IBM SOA Solutions in Automotive and Banking Industries

Overview

RouteOne
Farmington Hills, Michigan, USA
www.routeone.com

Industries

• Automotive
• Banking

Products

• IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment, Version 5.1
• IBM WebSphere MQ, Version 5.3

Quote

“Using the WebSphere solution, we are able to respond quickly to meet evolving customer requirements, putting us a step ahead of the competition.”

—T.N. Subramaniam, Chief Architect & Director of Technology, RouteOne

Background - IBM SOA Solutions in Automotive and Banking Industries

RouteOne offers a revolutionary real-time, Web-based system that enables automobile dealers to manage the credit application process from multiple financial sources. The RouteOne system integrates with numerous participating financing companies, and it aggregates all financing sources into a single point for auto dealers.

Challenge - IBM SOA Solutions in Automotive and Banking Industries

With the vision of becoming the credit application management system of choice for auto dealers, RouteOne was looking to upgrade its application platform to an open-standards based architecture so that it could support more users and integrate with diverse partners. In addition, the company wanted to differentiate its system within the automotive marketplace by implementing a service-oriented architecture (SOA) and leveraging Web services to build a more flexible system that could respond quickly to users’ changing needs.

Solution - IBM SOA Solutions in Automotive and Banking Industries

RouteOne built a robust SOA for its credit application management system using IBM WebSphere® and IBM DataPower® software. The company deployed IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment, Version 5.1 software as the primary application platform for the environment. The WebSphere Application Server software offers Web application services, performs capacity management and supports server clustering. IBM WebSphere MQ, Version 5.3 software supports all data transfer and guarantees receipt of business partner transac­tions, mostly between the dealers and financing companies. The IBM DataPower software acts as the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) and provides the ESB function­alities of transformation, routing and security.

Benefits - IBM SOA Solutions in Automotive and Banking Industries

• Provides a robust SOA infrastructure to deliver an open, integrated, Web-accessible solution for customers

• Enables RouteOne to reuse services, build business rules and adopt best practices to bring services to market more quickly than the competition
• Offers flexibility to meet evolving customer requirements and support more users
• Able to scale to a very large number of concurrent users

Products and Services Used - IBM SOA Solutions in Automotive and Banking Industries

IBM products and services that were used in this case study.

- Software: WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere MQ, WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment
- Services: GBS SOA Implementation Services, IBM Integrated Technology Services

Source: http://www-306.ibm.com

SAP Enterprise SOA for Banking

SAP for Banking: Making the Move to Enterprise SOA in the Banking Industry

The banking industry is facing major challenges today – global consolidation, cross-border mergers, the break up of the value chain, and new regulatory requirements. One of the prerequisites for successfully managing these challenges is a flexible and agile IT environment.

Blueprint for Greater Adaptability

Using enterprise SOA, a business-driven approach to service-oriented architecture (SOA), you can introduce a new level of flexibility and adaptability into your business systems – step-by-step. Enterprise SOA service-oriented architecture provides services and functionality that can be readily assembled and rearranged to enable new processes and provide innovative business solutions.

SAP delivers enterprise SOA service-oriented architecture through our business process platform for banking – and enterprise SOA-enabled business functionality from SAP and ISV partners – to support core industry processes. Because business functionality is linked and process-enabled within the platform, you get both:

Conventional advantages of standardized, packaged software, including out-of-the-box capability and high performance, scalability, and resilience
The promise of SOA service-oriented architecture : re-combination and reuse of services and business functionality, software upgrade paths, and the flexibility to adapt to business needs
The bottom line: You get all the advantages of standard packages from SAP and ISV partners without the inflexibility or cost typically associated with ongoing change.

Banks Collaborate with SAP on Enterprise SOA Initiative

CIOs and IT architects from major stakeholders in the financial services industry are collaborating with SAP – through our industry value network (IVN) for banks – to shape the future of industry service-oriented architectures that will power the next generation performers. Launched in September 2005, the IVN engaged leading banks throughout the world, including ABN Amro, Absa, Banca Intesa, Barclays, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), Credit Suisse, Deutsche Postbank, ING, Nordea, and Standard Bank, with the goal of accelerating the transition from traditional to service-oriented architectures.

Currently, the IVN is evolving into an independent and open association comprising retail, private, and wholesale banks, as well as software and service providers. Members contribute by fostering service-oriented architectures for the industry within an independent industry body – while gaining first-hand knowledge of leading-edge enterprise SOA projects.

Source: www.sap.com