Shamil Bank sharpens competitive edge with new banking solution

In addition, the solution will enable it to enhance its service levels and improve the efficiency of its internal operations.

The solution is the first of its kind in Bahrain. It is based on IBM infrastructure, which will run the Core Banking Solution. Overall, the solution components include new IBM Power 5 servers, high-end Intel servers, an IBM eServer xSeries server, a storage server, and FastT600 and Cisco networking components for the bank's entire data centre.

The implementation will enable Shamil Bank to centralise its data management and processing requirements. This will involve seamlessly integrating customer activity with back-end systems to create a much more efficient banking platform, which will align core systems with business goals.

More efficient processes and a customer-centric approach to product and service development will provide the bank with a 'single view' of each of its customers, irrespective of the products, services or interaction channels they use when dealing with the bank.

By linking business lines to a single application, customer needs can be analysed. This will serve as a catalyst for creating and modifying the bank's product offerings. Other potential benefits of the service-based architecture include creating the ability for the bank to build a global presence with multi-currency processing and multi-lingual capabilities; near real-time monitoring of various limits across a customer's product
exposure; security-rich data management; the ability to utilise multiple delivery channels to reach out to new customers and segments; as well as additional functionality to move into new business segments through the modular-based nature of the solution' architecture.

According to the bank's CEO Dr. Said S Al-Martan, the shareholders of Shamil Bank are committed to investing in IT in order to help grow and expand its business.

"Shamil Bank was the first to offer two-way SMS banking and was the first Islamic bank in the Kingdom of Bahrain to offer Internet banking facilities. The new core banking solution will enable us to continue to offer state-of-the-art Islamic products and services amid an environment of unfaltering customer service levels, which is a key competitive differentiator for us," said Dr. Al-Martan.

"The solution is an integral part of our continued evolution and is set to help take our customer service provision abilities to new heights," added Yousif A Al-Khan, Senior Manager, Information Technology, Shamil Bank.

"Customer service will be enhanced as a result of flexibility, scalability, integration, operational simplicity and high availability, while internal productivity will be improved and the ability will exist to develop more innovative delivery channels and offer new and innovative banking products."

"These advantages will enable Shamil Bank to increase its business in the highly competitive niche market in which it operates by facilitating its ability to create products based on accurate customer information," said Abdulla Ishaq, General Manager, Bahrain Business Machines, GBM's operation in Bahrain.

"In addition, it will enable service differentiation and the provision of enhanced customer conveniences through multiple banking channels. A high level of data security and business continuity provisioning will be associated with these benefits, as will reduced costs by way of Straight Through Processing (STP) and automated exception handling."

The technology upgrade follows a thorough 'sweep' of the bank's existing infrastructure components and the outcome from a customer perspective will be an expanded range of choices - from more efficient and cost-effective product and service propositions to increased ways to conduct business with the bank.

"The selection of GBM over competing contenders followed a thorough review of the overall value proposition each offered. The GBM offer provided the reliability we need with the overall reduction in operating costs that we wanted," added Mr Al-Khan.