HSBChas replaced nine-year-old
internet banking platforms across the world with a single website
to cut costs and add functionality after completing a project that
saw the bank run two internet banking services simultaneously to
minimise risk.
The bank has migrated more than 3.5 million customers to the new
platform in a four-month project which included the replacement of
all back-up servers in two datacentres as well as all critical
software.
The Personal Internal banking application and its supporting
security applications were replaced and the bank had to rewrite
code for all applications within this such as balance reporting,
bill payments and share-dealing software. The bank said there
are dozens of these.
The project was managed in-house and the bank faced the
challenge of moving to the new platform without breaks in service.
The bank ran the two services simultaneously while integrating the
identification and verification systems so that each customer was
handed to the appropriate
internet banking service as they logged on. "This was driven by
a database that was being updated as each new batch of customers
was marked for migration," said Nick Staib, spokesperson at HSBC
information technology.
He said the upgrade was done to take advantage of the synergies
of operating globally on the same platform. "This allows savings
and functional interoperability between our global entities," said
Staib.
The upgrade is not just a consolidation strategy but is also
scalable to allow services to be added. "Banks must constantly
review, refine and update their online service offering as this
remains a very competitive aspect of service delivery," said
Staib.
The bank has designed it to offer a more personalised experience
for customers, which HSBC said will be important in the next
generation of personalised internet banking services.
According to HSBC the previous system, which was in place when
it launched internet banking in 1999, was effectively a publicly
accessible online brochure with information with an internet
banking section with account access and services such as bill
payments and funds transfers available.