Banks and financial institutions in the region must 'think as one company' to make their information

Speaking at the 2001 World Islamic Banking Conference in Bahrain his presentation, entitled 'Truly Free Information - What is it and Who Has It', outlined three steps that banks should take to make their information work more effectively.

"The first step is for organizations to recognize the value of the information they hold," he said. "They also need to learn to share the information and finally, they must think as one company. Too often individual departments hold on to information so that rather than having a single seamless system there are several information 'silos' within an organization, so the company ends up acting as if it is several different organizations."

The World Islamic Banking Conference has attracted a large number of delegates from across the Gulf in the financial and IT sectors, and is directed at addressing the most pressing issues facing banks and financial institutions from around the region.

As the only technology solutions company speaking at the event Reuters Solutions used the event to address what Ian Evans calls 'the single greatest IT challenge facing financial organizations in the Middle East today.' He explained that as well as facing a huge increase in the volume of information that organizations must manage, they are also having to deal with an increase in the sources of this information.

"As well as their core banking systems, marketing databases, trade management systems, credit card systems and information providers they are also having to keep track of information from the internet," he said. "The increasing demands of customers asking questions such as 'why are your portfolios not real-time', and 'why is internet banking so difficult', allied to an increasingly fierce competitive environment results on enormous pressure on banks."

His advice to organizations on how they should interact with internal and external data was to ensure that all information should be presented in one form so that organizations can see the big picture. All interaction should be through one interface and there should be no difference between internal and external data. "Our solutions are designed to enable organizations to link content, connectivity and technology to make their business work effectively," he said.

Reuters also mentioned that the company has a team of people who are researching the needs of institutions involved in Islamic banking and the company expects to make significant announcements in the coming months.