This category is often the hardest to judge due to the range of technologies and projects that can be entered. Due to the sheer number of entries associated with compliance, we decided to grant two awards in this category: one for implementation and return, the other for innovation. The blurring of lines between financial services and other organisations has continued, as has industry co-operation, with some novel concepts and some excellent returns.
APPLICATION OF THE YEAR
Winner: Citigroup for TreasuryVision
Although internet delivery is often cited as being ‘unsecure’, the channel has been increasingly exploited by businesses that are able to minimise or remove the concern for their customers. In the area of treasury services, Citigroup has done just that with TreasuryVision, a web-based service that provides financial data aggregation, analytical tools that allow treasurers to understand their positions both globally and on a more detailed basis. It also provides distribution of information via reporting, request and approval processes to give customers the necessary level of security using a tiered architecture.
Highly commended: Citigroup and Panopticon with Citigroup’s Visualisation Treemaps; SunGard with SunGard FRONT ARENA
COMPLIANCE INITIATIVE OF THE YEAR
Project winner: Royal Bank of Scotland with Basel II Programme
With compliance issues regularly cited as the number one headache for the banking industry, our judges needed to see results to credit a winner for this award. Using the systems of a number of vendors in the hardware and data management space, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) ran a programme to enable parallel running of a Basel II infrastructure alongside that already required for Basel I. The project delivered tools for data warehousing, analysis and reporting with oversight from technology and business departments, demonstrating strong management and internal co-ordination. In addition to meeting formal regulatory requirements, it has spurred improvements to the bank’s own technology and processes, creating a potential for realising commercial advantage from a task that many financial houses have regarded as purely a compliance issue. Given the ratio of interest in achieving this against the success in achieving it, RBS should be proud of this result.
Highly commended: Aungate, Autonomy and ABN AMRO with Project Galileo; American Express Bank with Bank KnowlEDGE
Innovation winner: BT and Bank of New York with New Risk Management Strategy
Going above and beyond regulatory requirements, Bank of New York decided that to protect its customers’ interests in the best way, it would keep its back-up data centre (shared by a subsidiary) well out of range of potential disruption, given that serious incidents can have an impact beyond a city’s boundaries and the immediate surroundings. To achieve this was no mean feat – technologies to reliably deliver data across large distances without affecting speed are currently at their limit. BT used state-of-the-art technologies to ensure that data was transferred in the time required, with point-to-point optical fibre links and Dense Wave Division Multiplexing technology. A highly redundant network was established to reduce risk, despite the engineers having no time to create new ducting because the project was run on a tight timeframe of two months. Our panel thought the sentiment behind the project was admirable – meeting compliance requirements is often a challenge, going beyond them is quite rare – but the level of technological innovation to enable this was outstanding and delivered on a tough schedule.
Highly commended: Revelus with Revelus Basel II solution
INNOVATION OF THE YEAR
Winner: Trade Ideas Limited with Repository & Distribution Centre
Although one judge quipped that Trade Ideas Limited (jointly owned by Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Merrill Lynch) deserved a prize for getting four banks to agree on any good idea, the award was given for the reason behind the co-operative grouping. Recognising an inefficiency in the current method of distributing trade ideas, namely the multiple unstructured routes and methods (such as phone and e-mail), the group of banks realised that if they created the circumstance for an equal evaluation of trade ideas through a single route (open to the buy and sell sides), they would decrease the complexity for both. In doing a favour for themselves and their customers using a Java-based system, Trade Ideas Limited proved a solid winner for Innovation of the Year.
Highly commended: Aconite Technology with EMV Script processor
NETWORKING INITIATIVE OF THE YEAR
Winner: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China for its network system
This huge project utilising two data centres reaches out to 17,000 Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) branches, 21,000 ATMs and 110,000 point-of-sale units. In utilising an internet protocol (IP) network, the bank has been able to run it out for use across many business units with differing needs (transfer of voice and video being made possible). The project reduced the bank’s costs as it allowed centralised management of the phone bank call centre and network access services for its unified internet banks, giving the entire project impact across a big range of services. Control was added via a network management system to reduce downtime by pinpointing points of failure. Given its scale and use of the latest technologies, the judges unanimously saw this entry as winner.
Highly commended: Arcontech for CityVision MDPS
OUTSOURCING PROJECT OF THE YEAR
Winner: Lloyds TSB for Ideal
Lloyds TSB showed initiative in breaking into a new market area but its understanding of the customer base has allowed it to set up a viable commercial operation. In combining the billing of utilities together (telephone and energy), the bank has created an offering that works well, alongside its mortgage and insurance offerings. The use of Servista as an outsourced provider of billing consolidation accelerated the process of delivery, removed the need for in-house development of resources and made best use of Servista’s relationship with utility companies.
Highly commended: Barclays and Wincor Nixdorf Outsourcing Partnership
RETURN ON INVESTMENT OF THE YEAR
Winner: Scotiabank with wealth management branch infrastructure
For what could be considered one of the most straightforward of categories, the judges were surprised that some entries failed to provide figures to indicate return on investment. Scotiabank demonstrated both the value and financial gains wrought from the development of its wealth management branch infrastructure and most ably impressed our judging panel. The implementation reduced the total cost of ownership by 63% over five years, while enabling mobile working, reducing risk through the strengthening and future-proofing the infrastructure, and increasing workstation performance by up to 300% in speed. Although the plan was established with savings in mind, it yielded 44% more savings than anticipated. A well deserved win.
Highly commended: BNP Paribas and Datasynapse with BNP Paribas Grid Project
