Banking on outsourcing

BoQ ready for more online services

With competitors launching internet services left, right and centre, BoQ had to act fast to plunge more than just its toes into the online banking waters.

After launching its Internet banking service successfully in 2002 it is now looking to add new features such as online approval for loans.

With speed to market at the very core of its requirements back in 2002, the bank chose EDS as its outsourcing partner, and one which it hoped would not only launch it onto the Web but also take care of the nitty gritty back end later on.

In the run up the partnership with BoQ and throughout 2001, EDS had gained hands-on experience with .NET well before it became available to the general market. EDS .NET engineers, with support from Microsoft, cross trained ASP and J2EE developers to deploy the project quickly, with only a small .NET learning curve required, which was exactly what the BoQ was after.

To ensure the BoQ's system met the specified requirements, EDS took a Rapid Applications Development/Joint Applications Development (RAD/JAD) approach. It implemented the online banking service on Microsoft's .NET platform.

At the time of the launch, and as reported on ZDNet Australia, EDS claimed that it had built the world's first Internet banking solution using .NET development architecture. And aside from EDS's claims that the project is a world first, the implementation of the .NET architecture at the bank had a second significance.

Given the critical nature of their security apparatus, banks are known for being conservative when it comes to choosing Internet banking technology. Most banks prefer to wait until a technology matures before putting on the front-line.

Frank Arrigo, Microsoft group manager for .NET ecosystems, accepted criticisms that the move was premature in part.

"It's a reasonable criticism if you look at it form the Web services implementation point of view, but I would dispute [the criticism] if you're looking at it from a .NET architecture perspective," said Arrigo.

Arrigo admitted that the security protocols such as WS-Security (wihch were yet to be implemented), which .NET relies on to secure Web service transactions, were still evolving. Though companies with significant stakes in the Web services development have agreed to the specifications for the protocols they haven't been implemented

John Dowles, director of Monash Information Technology told ZDNet however that it was unrealistic to expect any new technology to be perfect out of the box.

"It's always evolutionary, nothing is shrink-wrapped and goes in perfect, it comes about through working in a real-life situation," says Dowles

At the same time as the EDS announcement, Microsoft claimed a number of victories for the .NET platform, including the migration of the Australian Taxation Office's Australian Business Register onto the platform.

BoQ's Web site went from concept to reality in less than three months, launching in the first half of 2002. And came in under budget.

As well as meeting the bank's stringent security requirements, it was important that the online banking service operated with the bank's existing legacy systems, to enable it to get to market without having to wait for its IT environment to be completely updated (that was next on EDS' list).

Within two months of the site's launch, Web traffic increased 500 percent. Customers were registering at the rate of 1500 per week. And the site was serving up to 3.5 million pages per week. While the bank is increasing revenue through its growing customer base, it also estimates it will save up to $10 million Australian dollars over ten years.

Since the Web site launch, EDS has worked on about four more releases and enhancements to the Internet banking service, and will do more after replacing the core banking systems.

"We want to do more online originations, so that customers can get approval for loans and credit cards over the net," says Jennifer Heffernan, chief operations officer at BoQ.

Why Fiserv?
Not long after EDS and the Bank of Queensland announced that work had begun on overhauling the bank's ageing legacy IT systems, at the end of 2002, ZDNet Australia reported that the bank had agreed to adopt the Fiserv data processing and information management software systems.

At the time of the announcement Jennifer Heffernan, general manager of IT and operations at the Bank of Queensland, said that the decision to go with Fiserv was based the robustness of the product line, and its operability on the mid-tier IBM I-series platform.

"Basically the product fits in with a number of our key objectives, including providing us with a customer-centric view of the data, and robustness in terms of systems availability," she said at the time.

The shift to the Fiserv platform was foreshadowed in March 2002 as part of the IT outsourcing agreement reached between the bank and EDS.

"In addition to the outsourcing arrangement we agreed to undertake some transformational IT initiatives, and the adoption of Fiserv is within the framework of those initiatives," Heffernan said of the decision.

It was reported at the time that, according to Heffernan, the outsourcing arrangement has enabled the bank to deliver on a number of IT initiatives including greater efficiencies in business processing, more vigorous productivity and work flow metrics, and the bank's recent foray into Internet banking.

Subscribe now to Australian Technology & Business magazine.

BoQ ready for more online services

With competitors launching internet services left, right and centre, BoQ had to act fast to plunge more than just its toes into the online banking waters.

After launching its Internet banking service successfully in 2002 it is now looking to add new features such as online approval for loans.

With speed to market at the very core of its requirements back in 2002, the bank chose EDS as its outsourcing partner, and one which it hoped would not only launch it onto the Web but also take care of the nitty gritty back end later on.

In the run up the partnership with BoQ and throughout 2001, EDS had gained hands-on experience with .NET well before it became available to the general market. EDS .NET engineers, with support from Microsoft, cross trained ASP and J2EE developers to deploy the project quickly, with only a small .NET learning curve required, which was exactly what the BoQ was after.

To ensure the BoQ's system met the specified requirements, EDS took a Rapid Applications Development/Joint Applications Development (RAD/JAD) approach. It implemented the online banking service on Microsoft's .NET platform.

At the time of the launch, and as reported on ZDNet Australia, EDS claimed that it had built the world's first Internet banking solution using .NET development architecture. And aside from EDS's claims that the project is a world first, the implementation of the .NET architecture at the bank had a second significance.

Given the critical nature of their security apparatus, banks are known for being conservative when it comes to choosing Internet banking technology. Most banks prefer to wait until a technology matures before putting on the front-line.

Frank Arrigo, Microsoft group manager for .NET ecosystems, accepted criticisms that the move was premature in part.

"It's a reasonable criticism if you look at it form the Web services implementation point of view, but I would dispute [the criticism] if you're looking at it from a .NET architecture perspective," said Arrigo.

Arrigo admitted that the security protocols such as WS-Security (wihch were yet to be implemented), which .NET relies on to secure Web service transactions, were still evolving. Though companies with significant stakes in the Web services development have agreed to the specifications for the protocols they haven't been implemented

John Dowles, director of Monash Information Technology told ZDNet however that it was unrealistic to expect any new technology to be perfect out of the box.

"It's always evolutionary, nothing is shrink-wrapped and goes in perfect, it comes about through working in a real-life situation," says Dowles

At the same time as the EDS announcement, Microsoft claimed a number of victories for the .NET platform, including the migration of the Australian Taxation Office's Australian Business Register onto the platform.

BoQ's Web site went from concept to reality in less than three months, launching in the first half of 2002. And came in under budget.

As well as meeting the bank's stringent security requirements, it was important that the online banking service operated with the bank's existing legacy systems, to enable it to get to market without having to wait for its IT environment to be completely updated (that was next on EDS' list).

Within two months of the site's launch, Web traffic increased 500 percent. Customers were registering at the rate of 1500 per week. And the site was serving up to 3.5 million pages per week. While the bank is increasing revenue through its growing customer base, it also estimates it will save up to $10 million Australian dollars over ten years.

Since the Web site launch, EDS has worked on about four more releases and enhancements to the Internet banking service, and will do more after replacing the core banking systems.

"We want to do more online originations, so that customers can get approval for loans and credit cards over the net," says Jennifer Heffernan, chief operations officer at BoQ.

Why Fiserv?
Not long after EDS and the Bank of Queensland announced that work had begun on overhauling the bank's ageing legacy IT systems, at the end of 2002, ZDNet Australia reported that the bank had agreed to adopt the Fiserv data processing and information management software systems.

At the time of the announcement Jennifer Heffernan, general manager of IT and operations at the Bank of Queensland, said that the decision to go with Fiserv was based the robustness of the product line, and its operability on the mid-tier IBM I-series platform.

"Basically the product fits in with a number of our key objectives, including providing us with a customer-centric view of the data, and robustness in terms of systems availability," she said at the time.

The shift to the Fiserv platform was foreshadowed in March 2002 as part of the IT outsourcing agreement reached between the bank and EDS.

"In addition to the outsourcing arrangement we agreed to undertake some transformational IT initiatives, and the adoption of Fiserv is within the framework of those initiatives," Heffernan said of the decision.

It was reported at the time that, according to Heffernan, the outsourcing arrangement has enabled the bank to deliver on a number of IT initiatives including greater efficiencies in business processing, more vigorous productivity and work flow metrics, and the bank's recent foray into Internet banking.

Subscribe now to Australian Technology & Business magazine.

BoQ ready for more online services

With competitors launching internet services left, right and centre, BoQ had to act fast to plunge more than just its toes into the online banking waters.

After launching its Internet banking service successfully in 2002 it is now looking to add new features such as online approval for loans.

With speed to market at the very core of its requirements back in 2002, the bank chose EDS as its outsourcing partner, and one which it hoped would not only launch it onto the Web but also take care of the nitty gritty back end later on.

In the run up the partnership with BoQ and throughout 2001, EDS had gained hands-on experience with .NET well before it became available to the general market. EDS .NET engineers, with support from Microsoft, cross trained ASP and J2EE developers to deploy the project quickly, with only a small .NET learning curve required, which was exactly what the BoQ was after.

To ensure the BoQ's system met the specified requirements, EDS took a Rapid Applications Development/Joint Applications Development (RAD/JAD) approach. It implemented the online banking service on Microsoft's .NET platform.

At the time of the launch, and as reported on ZDNet Australia, EDS claimed that it had built the world's first Internet banking solution using .NET development architecture. And aside from EDS's claims that the project is a world first, the implementation of the .NET architecture at the bank had a second significance.

Given the critical nature of their security apparatus, banks are known for being conservative when it comes to choosing Internet banking technology. Most banks prefer to wait until a technology matures before putting on the front-line.

Frank Arrigo, Microsoft group manager for .NET ecosystems, accepted criticisms that the move was premature in part.

"It's a reasonable criticism if you look at it form the Web services implementation point of view, but I would dispute [the criticism] if you're looking at it from a .NET architecture perspective," said Arrigo.

Arrigo admitted that the security protocols such as WS-Security (wihch were yet to be implemented), which .NET relies on to secure Web service transactions, were still evolving. Though companies with significant stakes in the Web services development have agreed to the specifications for the protocols they haven't been implemented

John Dowles, director of Monash Information Technology told ZDNet however that it was unrealistic to expect any new technology to be perfect out of the box.

"It's always evolutionary, nothing is shrink-wrapped and goes in perfect, it comes about through working in a real-life situation," says Dowles

At the same time as the EDS announcement, Microsoft claimed a number of victories for the .NET platform, including the migration of the Australian Taxation Office's Australian Business Register onto the platform.

BoQ's Web site went from concept to reality in less than three months, launching in the first half of 2002. And came in under budget.

As well as meeting the bank's stringent security requirements, it was important that the online banking service operated with the bank's existing legacy systems, to enable it to get to market without having to wait for its IT environment to be completely updated (that was next on EDS' list).

Within two months of the site's launch, Web traffic increased 500 percent. Customers were registering at the rate of 1500 per week. And the site was serving up to 3.5 million pages per week. While the bank is increasing revenue through its growing customer base, it also estimates it will save up to $10 million Australian dollars over ten years.

Since the Web site launch, EDS has worked on about four more releases and enhancements to the Internet banking service, and will do more after replacing the core banking systems.

"We want to do more online originations, so that customers can get approval for loans and credit cards over the net," says Jennifer Heffernan, chief operations officer at BoQ.

Why Fiserv?
Not long after EDS and the Bank of Queensland announced that work had begun on overhauling the bank's ageing legacy IT systems, at the end of 2002, ZDNet Australia reported that the bank had agreed to adopt the Fiserv data processing and information management software systems.

At the time of the announcement Jennifer Heffernan, general manager of IT and operations at the Bank of Queensland, said that the decision to go with Fiserv was based the robustness of the product line, and its operability on the mid-tier IBM I-series platform.

"Basically the product fits in with a number of our key objectives, including providing us with a customer-centric view of the data, and robustness in terms of systems availability," she said at the time.

The shift to the Fiserv platform was foreshadowed in March 2002 as part of the IT outsourcing agreement reached between the bank and EDS.

"In addition to the outsourcing arrangement we agreed to undertake some transformational IT initiatives, and the adoption of Fiserv is within the framework of those initiatives," Heffernan said of the decision.

It was reported at the time that, according to Heffernan, the outsourcing arrangement has enabled the bank to deliver on a number of IT initiatives including greater efficiencies in business processing, more vigorous productivity and work flow metrics, and the bank's recent foray into Internet banking.

Subscribe now to Australian Technology & Business magazine.