A customer-focused IT system, based on a
service oriented architecture, has been key to the success of
internet-only bank Egg.
Egg,
now owned by Citigroup UK, which celebrates its 10th
anniversary this year, has developed its own banking platform based
on a service oriented architecture, which means it is not tied to
SOA platforms like
Microsoft .net or Java.
Speaking to Computer Weekly, Ken Woghiren,
head of architecture
and innovation at Citigroup UK, said: "We needed this
architecture to harness existing banking platforms, adding
sophisticated middleware to create a service tier, allowing a
customer centred top tier."
Egg started with a system called Top End, which was bought by
BEA. Four years ago, the bank moved onto Microsoft .net and active
server pages. Now that it is owned by Citigroup, Egg is moving the
banking platform to a Java platform.
The advent of web services has eased compatibility issues. "The
service tier is used to communicate with the back end. Web services
allow you to be technology agnostic. I don't lose sleep ever
compatibility anymore, so long as everything is written to the web
services standards."