Dubai Bank leaps ahead of competition with new IT infrastructure

The new system facilitates quick adoption of new services in response to market demands.

To streamline the use of various services and communication channels running on diverse technology platforms, Dubai Bank has implemented an integration solution built by LINK Development. By doing this, the bank has effectively made its IT infrastructure future-proof and technology independent - ready to easily accept changes in back-end systems and the addition of new customer communication channels with minimal hassle.

"Strong customer service is probably the most important competitive advantage of a bank today, and banks are relying on technology more than ever before to deliver this," says Faizal Eledath, Chief Information Officer of Dubai Bank.

"With an increasingly discerning and demanding customer base, it has become imperative for banks to deliver their services through a multitude of channels at any time and place of the customer's choosing".

"We needed an IT infrastructure that not only integrated our various IT systems, but also easily enabled adoption of new service delivery channels like Internet and mobile banking," he adds. "We wanted an infrastructure that is scalable and secure and would give us an edge in the future."

The various technology platforms used in banks today can make their interaction a daily challenge and the introduction of new services a daunting and lengthy task that hampers rapid business growth plans.

Since its launch, Dubai Bank has set about distinguishing its services through innovative products and strong customer service. Technology has been identified as a powerful enabler for its aggressive plans to introduce new services and branches in the UAE, and the bank's IT Department has already been recognised for its innovative use of technology within the industry.

Software development house LINK Development was called in to build a middleware solution, known as an enterprise service bus (ESB). This serves as the main hub between the back-end systems - such as the core banking, covered card and CRM systems - and the various corporate and retail communication channels such as Internet, mobile, ATM and tele-banking.

With the integration layer completed in under 70 days, the bank launched its Internet banking portal, a service eagerly welcomed by customers, followed by a tele-banking (interactive voice recording) service. The project also involves the first implementation of Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 in the Middle East.

The middleware layer channels all connections between the back-end and front-end, and replaces single point-to-point connections among the various systems. Consequently, changes in Dubai Bank's IT infrastructure become much simpler to implement, with work required only on the middleware layer, rather than across all systems.

Eledath further notes, "We believe the Service Oriented Architecture-based approach to our middleware deployment will yield significant long-term dividends through reduced development time and faster time-to-market of new services."

"This middleware solution drew on our competence in the area of business process integration and leveraged our highly skilled development team," explains Sherif Dahan, Gulf Territory Manager of LINKdotNET, parent company of LINK Development.

LINK Development was selected as a partner in this project due to its experience in integration and middleware implementations in the Middle East. "We needed a software development company with solid technical know-how and a track record in creating successful middleware solutions," explains Eledath.

LINK Development has previously developed other ESB solutions for public and private institutions in Kuwait, Bahrain, KSA and Egypt.