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Banesco
: Venezuela’s Fourth-Largest Bank in Ten years...chose Datapro’s
IBS as their core application. |
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“Banesco is seen by
its customers and other banks as a technological bank
and is recognized as a leader in the use of the latest
technology. This case study shows how the iSeries system
helps Banesco with its day-to-day operations, and how
it has helped Banesco overcome some challenges along
the way. It also shows how the system adapted to the
bank’s IT needs and the financial marketplace demands.
Banesco was established in 1992. The company adopted
the iSeries system as their primary core business system,
even though the System/390® was considered by major
banks as “the system” for serious banking. Since their
beginning, Banesco counted on the support of IBM Business
Partner ISF Alpiz. Being a new bank with minimal IT
staff, Banesco found the iSeries system to be a perfect
fit for them.
Internally, the first challenge Banesco
faced was to start a bank with minimal IT staff. Banesco
needed a system that would help put their banking applications
into production in the shortest possible time with the
lowest possible cost. An additional challenge was that
the majority of Banesco’s IT staff had mainframe experience
and skills. With the support of IBM and ISF Alpiz, Banesco
chose Datapro’s IBS as their core application, which
at the time covered most of the requirements for a bank
of their size and target market.
Banesco’s challenge was to provide their customers with services that would
help them accomplish their banking tasks more quickly.
Banesco also wanted to offer additional distribution
channels such as Internet banking, ATMs and Point of
Sale (POS). Another important challenge was to provide
a warranty of services availability for the critical
systems.
In the marketplace, Banesco was challenged
by external factors:
1 A major economic crisis that
eventually caused the bankruptcy of several local banks.
2 Many European banks taking over local traditional
banks, for example, BBVA and Banco Santander.
Banesco partnered with Datapro to acquire IBS as their core
banking application. This partnership forged a strong
business alliance with ISF Alpiz and IBM de Venezuela.
Over time, Banesco, ISF Alpiz and Datapro’s relationship
matured. The relationship became so strategic that many
changes that were introduced into the application and
applied to other customers worldwide came from Banesco’s
experience and aggressive approach to resolving business
issues.
The alliance with IBS helped Banesco grow from
12 branch banks and 300 employees, in 1992, to 400 branches
and over 7000 employees in 2004. Banesco advanced from
Venezuela’s twelfth largest bank to its fourth largest
bank in twelve years. They compete successfully with
major overseas banks. Banesco was able to merge four
times with different financial institutions over the
years, regardless of their technology base, making a
smooth transition in the eyes of their clients.
Banesco now has their own network of ATMs, POSs and most importantly
its own division of credit cards (Visa, Master Card
and American Express). They have the largest base of
credit card holders in Venezuela.
To manage these distribution channels, Banesco acquired an iSeries system-based application
called Autoriza400 from a Colombian independent software
vendor (ISV), CLAI Ltda., through ISF Alpiz, who represents
the application in Venezuela. This application allows
Banesco to administrate, control and audit the ATMs
and POSs as well as manage the credit and debit cards,
including a cryptographic solution to use the iSeries
cryptographic processors.
The introductions of new applications, such as Domino, helped Banesco implement messaging and
collaboration in record time with minimum downtimes.
Also, the introduction of Linux and WebSphere helped
Banesco extend and integrate applications, so that they
are now positioned on the leading edge of On Demand
Business technology.” |
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