Nottingham Building Society is embarking on a major
project to modernise its IT systems and offer customers online
banking for the first time.
Nottingham's IT manager and a project manager will oversee 14 IT
and business-led work streams over the next two years.
The business streams cover areas such as compliance, risk and
auditing. The IT streams include the implementation of a new
network, a storage area network and a disaster recovery centre.
The building society will also replace its central mortgage
system and other key applications, and implement Windows Server
2003, Active Directory, Exchange Server 2003 and Citrix thin client
software.
The project will have many challenges beyond normal "scope
creep", said IT manager Jack Cutts.
"It is a very complex project. It is like trying to change a
jumbo jet engine while crossing the Atlantic - I have got to keep
the business going during the project," he said.
"Also, every process in the business is going to change, so we
are going to have to train every one of our 500 staff."
To prepare for the IT overhaul, the building society has frozen
all IT changes for three months. "This means we can go through and
make sure everything is stable. That will enable us to buy some
time," said Cutts.
Systems integrator Esteem is designing the IT infrastructure and
will project manage the installation of servers, storage and
software, as well as the migration of data.
The key driver for the change was the need to upgrade the core
savings and mortgage system, which Nottingham has been using for
eight years. It will be replaced with Tietoenator Summit, which
will allow the building society to offer online products and
instant quotes. It will also make it easier to add and change
products, said Cutts.
Nottingham will initially run the new and old systems side by
side, going live in phases. The mortgage application will go live
in Q3 2007, and the savings system in Q2 2008.