3 July 2009

DenizBank is one of turkey’s largest private banks

When DenizBank, one of turkey’s largest private banks, needed to replace its legacy core banking system, it turned to Intertech and Microsoft technologies to build an integrated banking platform that would support multi-channel connectivity and business growth. Jacqui Griffiths found out more.

Internet technologies offer boundless opportunities for banks – more ways to connect with customers, more efficient processes with less technology spend, productivity gains for staff, as well as the cost savings and value that simplified IT management can add. In addition, as Web technologies continue to evolve, they offer untold potential for business growth in the future. But in order to make the most of this potential, banks need to make sure they have the IT infrastructure to support it.

One of Turkey’s largest private banks, DenizBank was keen to realise the benefits that a connected, Internet-enabled infrastructure could offer. As its Unix-based legacy core banking system neared the end of its life in 2004, the bank realised that now was the perfect time to develop an infrastructure that would support all its banking services reliably.

There were several reasons for the decision. “It was difficult to maintain the old system, and to build new applications on it,” says Ömer Uyar, research and development department head at Intertech. “When you have aggressive strategies and goals, as DenizBank does, a legacy system can limit your achievements. You need a flexible platform to meet your needs, and this was a key driver behind DenizBank’s decision to move to a new platform.”

Among DenizBank’s goals is offering fast, flexible service to a wide audience of younger customers. Around 50 per cent of Turkey’s population is under 30 years old – a generation of banking customers that has grown up with Internet technologies and expects fast, flexible multi-channel service. “We wanted customers to have the same service level across all business channels – be it walking into a branch, using our call centre, or going online,” says Hakan Ates, president of DenizBank Financial Services Group. “It was also important to provide a single view of the company’s performance to executives so we could measure, and manage our business more effectively.”

With Microsoft technologies at the heart of inter-Next, staff can handle complicated banking transactions easily

Hakan Ates, DenizBank But with tellers running legacy applications, this was very difficult to achieve. “With legacy applications you cannot cross-sell, you cannot market your different products – basically you cannot satisfy the needs of your customers,” adds Uyar. “DenizBank needed to be able to achieve these goals, while minimising the cost of managing and updating the system, and enabling itself to build new applications in the future without having to pay an external provider.”

DenizBank recognised that building a new banking infrastructure would be a huge undertaking, lasting years rather than months. It was important that the organisation found a software vendor to deliver expert support at every key stage of development, helping it to meet deadlines and budgets.

Thus, with an open mind, the bank embarked on a selection process, looking at offerings from IBM, Oracle and Microsoft. DenizBank found that Microsoft technologies met all its objectives and offered the greatest business value. The consensus was that the technology provided a familiar and trusted environment that employees and customers would adopt rapidly. DenizBank knew that the pool of talent to work on Microsoft technologies – such as the Intertech team – was greater than with other technologies, and the company’s Enterprise Agreement also ensured low-cost access to Microsoft licences. “We had developed four different banking applications running on different environments,” says Murat Çelik, CEO at Intertech. “Microsoft Turkey supported us entirely during the analysis, decision making and development process.”

The truth of these assertions is clear from the fact that, while Microsoft supported the project throughout, it was Intertech that developed the inter-Next platform. This was an ambitious project, as inter-Next needed to be more than a core banking platform. The goal was to create an integrated banking platform that would deliver a fully integrated Web system for banking services. The solution would support multiple banking channels such as Internet, mobile, telephone, kiosk, cash machine and point of sale, and deliver a range of services including customer relationship management (CRM), business process management (BPM) and business intelligence (BI). Crucially for DenizBank employees, all services would be accessible through a single user interface, requiring a single sign-on.

“Intertech has a great team, and they played the key role here,” says Berk Tufekci, account manager for DenizBank at Microsoft Turkey. “The Intertech team made the entire banking platform on its own – Microsoft just supported it with health checks at major checkpoints, and by transferring the necessary know-how to the team.”
“We used the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 development system to establish a three-layer service-oriented architecture (SOA) infrastructure,” says Çelik. “We separated the user interface and application layer, increased common object usage, and reduced development times. Our application layer created a joint infrastructure that can be used across all channels.”

The project, which began in June 2005, was finished by July 2007 – an astonishing two-year timeframe for a development that could easily have taken a decade. The SOA infrastructure was based on Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and Windows Server 2003. Other key Microsoft technologies included BizTalk Server as the systems integrator, Office SharePoint Server 2007 as the user interface, and Office Communications Server 2007 for banking provisioning.

Programmers wrote applications in the Microsoft Visual C# development tool, and used Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server to increase the speed of development and improve collaboration. DenizBank’s employees adopted the infrastructure quickly because they were already familiar with Microsoft applications – now, all 8,632 employees are using the infrastructure, and new employees find the technology quick and easy to use.

Indeed, the Web-based infrastructure has brought massive efficiency gains – it now processes a year’s worth of transactions from all DenizBank branches in just eight hours, a task that would take 600 full-time employees to do manually. Because of this, DenizBank employees gain access to banking data faster, enabling them to make smarter business decisions. “Apart from the increased efficiencies that the Microsoft technologies in inter-Next provide, access to data is improved, helping personnel make better-informed decisions when planning our growth strategies,” says Ates. “The BPM service has boosted our business agility. We can structure, automate and perform, and optimise business processes in a customer-oriented manner.”

DenizBank’s customers can now access a wide range of banking services online and using their mobile phones. In a country with high expectations for Internet and mobile services, this is strategically important in the long term, helping the company to maintain its leading role in Turkey’s finance industry. “We have achieved six times greater sales rates using sales force automation solutions, which are enriched with predictive analysis and embedded in inter-Next,” says Ates. “We feel more confident when planning for the future.”

“The most successful part of this project has been the end user,” says Çelik. “Now everything is Web-based, they just install the application on the server. Because the application isn’t installed at the desktop, infrastructure management is much easier. The typical teller logs onto his computer at the branch, opens the browser and does everything in there. Previously they had to open up several different applications which weren’t integrated, and this introduced the risk of a lot of mistakes. Now, everything is interconnected so the tellers access everything from that single application.”

The Web and mobile technologies have provided a springboard for DenizBank to develop new offerings and services for a whole range of clients. For example, customers can apply for a credit card by text message using their mobile. The message triggers an automated process that includes security and credit approval checks and, within five minutes, the customer finds out whether their application has been approved.

Customers who walk into a DenizBank branch looking for financial advice can have fast, up-to-the-minute information on investment opportunities. DenizBank managers can access a comprehensive range of financial information through the monitors on their desks, and start processing investments. By mining the data accumulated on people’s investment decisions, the company can tailor its product portfolios to customers’ needs and launch more focused campaigns to help drive sales. “Providing our customers, who have different needs and expectations, with the best service at the right time brings loyalty as well as satisfaction,” says Ates. “Structuring the organisation and business in a customer-centric manner using inter-Next is proving a key to success.”

Core banking services, distribution channel management, CRM, BPM and BI are all seamlessly integrated under a single, customisable dashboard. By creating such a simple, intuitive system, which features a secure single sign-on procedure, DenizBank established a solution that employees adopted quickly with minimal training. “With Microsoft technologies at the heart of inter-Next, staff can handle complicated banking transactions easily,” says Ates. “It highlights how technology can support people day-to-day, helping them achieve work goals more easily while driving business growth.”

Intertech believes that the success of inter-Next can be repeated at other financial services businesses. With the support of DenizBank, Intertech is now looking to roll out the infrastructure to other companies. “Due to our cooperation with Microsoft, we know the technologies behind inter-Next more closely,” says Dilek Duman, COO of DenizBank. “This solution is equipped with a structure that can meet the needs of financial institutions of different sizes in a cost-effective way. Our target is to put this infrastructure to the service of all financial institutions and help them take advantage of the benefits DenizBank is experiencing.”

This article first appeared in the Summer 2009 issue of Finance on Windows.

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