Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 56 | Page 62

CASE STUDY Bank ABC has greatly improved operational efficiency and reduced maintenance costsempowering the bank to focus on its growth goals. Baker said: “Centralising our trade finance workflows in one standard build of Fusion Trade Innovation means that we have gone from maintaining multiple systems in different countries to supporting just one. This has significantly reduced system maintenance costs, which has freed up more resources for us to focus on our expansion. “Standardised processes also reduce the risk of errors, as well as the duplicated effort of re-working tasks using different systems. With Fusion Trade Innovation, we can now send out automatic advice notices and offer eSignature capabilities for PDF advices, boosting our operational efficiency and removing obstacles for our clients.” two weeks – 80% faster than what would have been achievable before.” Fusion Trade Innovation also provides Bank ABC with an ultra-granular management information system. Baker said: “We struggled to monitor internal global KPIs before we deployed Fusion Trade Innovation. Now, the Finastra solution gives us detailed data on all of our core processes, which is proving to be an invaluable source of insight for improving our internal processes and network. Baker said: “A hybrid approach of working with Encore Theme Technologies, our specialist implementation partner, and Finastra worked extremely well and delivered rapid results. For instance, we rolled out the solution to a new country every six weeks and to 11 countries in total. Crucially, we managed to complete the upgrade to Fusion Trade Innovation in time for the changes to SWIFT standards, which enabled us to strengthen the service to our clients and minimise disruption.” With all of Bank ABC’s employees using the same trade finance solution, the organisation can quickly and easily relocate staff to different regional offices when it experiences a sudden surge in demand. “When demand for export letters of credit skyrocketed in Europe, we were able to bring in trade finance experts WE’RE BETTER PREPARED THAN EVER TO DELIVER HIGH-QUALITY TRADE FINANCE SERVICES TO CUSTOMERS AROUND THE WORLD. To ensure a smooth transition to Fusion Trade Innovation, Finastra sent out experts from its Global Services Team to Manama to assist with the deployment. Finastra was on hand to help with the installation as well as the production environment setup and provided expert training to ensure the project could be delivered successfully. from other locations in the group to help meet increased business with next to no additional training,” said Baker. “Through Fusion Trade Innovation, we successfully scaled up to support a three-fold growth in our letters of credit business in late 2018.” He continues: “The standardised, endto-end trade finance processes in Fusion Trade Innovation simplifies our ability to deploy operations in new jurisdictions, demonstrated by us recently rolling out an additional instance to a new market in under meeting service-level commitments. “With a focus on value in the past, we can now also increase volumes. And following the Fusion Trade Innovation upgrade, we now have a strong platform in place to introduce digital services and boost revenue growth.” Strategic partnership Bank ABC enlisted the support of both the Finastra Global Services team and Encore Theme Technologies to deploy Fusion Trade Innovation across its international “Finastra’s global presence and willingness to go the extra mile was a real asset for us,” said Baker. “We also engaged with the Finastra Customer Support team in the Philippines on a weekly basis. Knowing that we can call on the team if we encounter any issues puts our minds at ease. It also helps having a regional team in Dubai who are in close proximity and have a good understanding of the local market. “With Finastra assisting us in our growth, we’re better prepared than ever to deliver high-quality trade finance services to customers around the world.” • 62 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com