IT outsourcing: improve your efficiency through our IT excellence

In recent history, almost every business enjoys advantages of outsourcing to a greater or lesser extent. The financial industry is no exception.  

Financial institutions that consider IT as a strategic enabler of business enhancement and closely bind their business goals and IT strategies, have embraced IT outsourcing as a strategy for growth and transformation.

Despite the overall economic slowdown, IT outsourcing remains one of the most rapid-growing sectors. The rise is explained by a strong demand for IT outsourcing services from companies of telecommunication and financial sectors.

Irresistible Appeal of Eastern Europe

Being one of the fastest-growing regions in the world, Eastern Europe has emerged as a new centre for IT outsourcing.

Countries of the region enjoy political and economic stability. IT providers in Eastern Europe have low employee turnover and their prices are very competitive, even compared with India and China.

Sergei Levteev, IBA Group President, comments: “IT departments have tight budgets, limited resources, and time constrains. Outsourcing to Eastern Europe can serve as a key strategy in addressing these challenges .”

Valentin Kazan, IBA Group Vice President, adds: “ IT companies in Eastern Europe have accumulated extensive experience in outsourcing. They have highly qualified IT resources, a well-developed education system, and a favourable geographic location – very close to Western European clients. Therefore, outsourcing, or in case of Eastern Europe, near-shoring will continue to grow.”

Synergy of Experience and Innovation

Although the region is a comparatively new destination, some Eastern European companies have been in the outsourcing business for years. For example, the first IBA Group’s development centre was founded in 1993 in Belarus as a three-way partnership between IBM Corp. and two leading Belarusian IT enterprises. In 1999, IBM withdrew as a part owner, however, remains a strategic business partner.

In the past years, IBA Group has evolved into a Prague-headquartered international alliance with 17 offices in the Czech Republic, Belarus, the United States, Germany, Russia, Cyprus, and Bulgaria. To date, IBA employs more than 2,000 professionals that combine creative resourcefulness, business thinking, and technical expertise. Most of IBA experts have university education and are certified by IBM, SAP, SAS, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft or other leading IT providers.

The IBA team is composed of gray-haired gurus and young developers, which results in a unique synergy of experience and innovation. Our traditions go back to the days when first IBM mainframes came to life. IBA experts are familiar with different computer platforms and technologies, both old and new. Migration of legacy systems to advanced computer platforms and technologies is among IBA focus areas. For many of our clients, such migration serves as a transformation vehicle to address new opportunities.

Levteev argues: “IBA Group has preserved all the best that was accumulated in the last decades, including an excellent staff training system, extensive experience in the implementation of large-scale projects, and high quality standards. We have complemented these with advanced technologies, a sound understanding of Western clients, and new management methods. The combination is our primary competitive advantage.”

Top-of-the-Line Services

Using software outsourcing to Eastern Europe, Western companies create choicest products and render to their clients top-of-the-line services in a cost-effective and timely manner.

As an outsourcing vendor, IBA Group provides software development, migration, maintenance, 24/7 support, and consulting services with special focus on mainframe systems and applications; enterprise applications on Java 2 EE, .Net, SOA, and other up-to-date enterprise technologies ; web solutions; SAP solutions; other ERP systems; and Lotus technologies.

The company stands out because of its expertise in different computer platforms, from mainframe to PC and mobile. In addition, IBA Group releases dozens of proprietary products.

IBA is a producer and supplier of self-service banking equipment. Its Information and Transaction Terminals (ITTs) are functioning in Belarus and other CIS countries. The ITT is a self–service device designed for financial transactions and quick access to reference information. Using the terminal, it is possible to pay by card for public utilities and telephone, internet, and cable TV services, as well as repay loans. ITTs are installed in bank branches, retail chains, commercial areas, airports, railway stations, hotels, tourist centres, and educational institutions.

In addition, IBA has developed a mobile banking system that allows cardholders to perform financial transactions via SMS messages. Using the system, they pay for mobile and home phone services, internet services, public utilities or cable TV from their mobile phones.

IBA projects for the financial industry are manifold and range in size, from a utility that streamlines operations of a minor banking office to a distributed system for a large multi-branch bank or a bank group. For financial institutions, IBA services include:

• System integration
• Bankcard technologies
• Migration of banking applications to new technologies
• Internet banking projects
• Maintenance, support and training of the client personnel.

Enhanced Functionality at Reduced Cost

In a project for a leading German bank IBA was assigned to replace a legacy OS/2 banking application with a new multilayer browser-based solution. Intended for the bank’s credit department , this application captured and stored information about clients, loans, loan guaranties and mortgages. It also generated more than 250 types of documents both for bank clients and the internal use.

The new system was to provide the same functionality as the legacy application. Another requirement was that the legacy Himalaya-based set of tools and libraries be used for the implementation of Java server applications (J2EE).

IBA implemented the project in close cooperation with the customer. The IBA responsibility was system analysis; application design; application construction; unit, functional and system testing; quality assurance; and warranty support.

The project involved a significant rewrite of the core system. The development was done in the IBA’s near-shore development centre, with short on-site workshops in Germany.

The customer received a high quality application that incorporated the latest technologies. Retaining all features of the legacy application, the new solution provided enhanced functionality such as visual interface for loan operations, graphic navigation for record selections, tree hierarchical structure, and context help. The new application enabled smooth integration with MS Word and Adobe Acrobat Reader/PDF. In addition to being compliant with the legacy database, it allowed for the simultaneous use of this database by the new and legacy applications. The new application supported more than 3,000 concurrent users.

The customer was able to reduce development costs while maintaining high quality. According to Dr. Axel Konrad, OE Leiter Software Engineering of NORD/IT, the system received a very good feedback from its users: “The application is stable, performance is good and – what is also very important – the end users like to work with the application. So after all, for you and your team together with us we can summarize: "Well done!"

To read more about the projects that IBA implemented for customers in the financial industry, please visit http://www.ibagroup.eu/case-studies/industry/finance/.

Client Loyalty

IBA Group serves clients in more than 30 countries across diverse industries. IBA boasts its clientele that includes such well-known corporations as IBM, T-Systems, Goodyear, McKinsey, and Coca-Cola. Financial institutions account for 18% of the company’s projects.

IBA enjoys good long-term relationships with customers in Germany, the United States, Russia, Italy, France, Denmark, Netherlands, Austria, Great Britain and South Africa.

The company lays special emphasis on long-term relations with its customers, which provides for a higher degree of trust and better understanding of client business needs.

The IBA Group reputation is strengthened by a high level of business partnerships with a selected group of world IT leaders including IBM , Check Point, Sun Microsystems, Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, Novell, Wincor-Nixdorf and Cisco.

To provide clients with the best possible services and solutions, IBA has designed and implemented its Quality Management System that complies with the latest international standards. IBA was among the first in Europe to achieve SEI CMMI Level 4 for Systems Engineering and Software Engineering. In addition, IBA holds certificates of conformance with DIN EN ISO 9001:2000 issued by TGA, a well-known German appraisal agency. As for information security, IBA is certified to ISO/IEC 17799:2000.

For client engagement, IT companies use different outsourcing models, including offshore, onsite and various combinations of offshore and onsite delivery models. According to Levteev, “we at IBA Group use a network of onshore, near-shore and offshore operations to provide premium quality solutions to our customers.”

To read about the client engagement models that IBA applies, please visit http://www.ibagroup.eu/how-we-work/delivery-model/.

Quest for Innovation

Although IBA Group has gained a reputation of a respected and reliable IT vendor, the company continues its quest for innovation. Levteev comments: “The IT market is highly dynamic. It is hard to predict what will be on demand tomorrow and therefore we keep exploring new trends and technologies.”

While being dedicated to its long-term clients, IBA welcomes new customers and business partners from across the world. Just contact us at info@ibagroup.eu and we will be happy to assist.