Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) has sharpened up
its payments system and cut costs usingMicrosofttechnology, in order to meet
the demands of the forthcoming Single Euro Payments Area
(Sepa) payments directive.
The bank has developed and implemented a Microsoft-based system
to process corporate customers' payment orders faster by
facilitating direct communication with its Italian customers'
banks.
Since implementation, the MPS Group has reduced payments times
from a few days to near real time and has saved more than 50% on
operating costs as a result.
In addition, with access to these services online, MPS Group's
corporate customers have been able to optimise cash management
processes and gain greater visibility of cash flows and credit
levels.
The MPS payment orders system uses Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006
to orchestrate workflows and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 to maintain
customer data, as well as produce usage and volume reports on a
daily, monthly and yearly basis.
It uses the XML ISO 20022 message standard, in compliance with
the Sepa directive.
To improve efficiency, the bank migrated from a mainframe,
batch-based architecture to a distributed, service-based
architecture.
By combining Microsoft BizTalk Server and real-time Microsoft
SQL Server-based reporting with the bank's existing IT system, MPS
has eliminated the issues associated with daily batch processing
and enabled corporate customers to view daily transactions and
balances online in near real time.
Customers can also benefit from being able to access historical
data and run statistical reports of their payment disposals.
Piero Poccianti, head of the MPS technology lab, said, "We were
able to develop a flexible, reliable and robust payment orders
application to provide faster processing times and improved
customer service, and enable support for increased transaction
volumes."