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For more information about other Microsoft customer successes, please visit: casestudiesCustomer: United Bank LimitedWeb Site: .pkNumber of Employees: 8,000+Country or Region: PakistanIndustry: Financial servicesCustomer ProfileWith more than 1,400 branches across Pakistan and 19 overseas branches, United Bank Limited (UBL) is one of the largest banks in Pakistan and has more than PKR500 billion (U.S.$6 billion) in deposits.Software and ServicesMicrosoft Server Product PortfolioMicrosoft BizTalk Server 2006Microsoft SQL Server 2005Windows Server 200304445Microsoft Server Product PortfolioCustomer Solution Case Study00Pakistan-Based Bank Uses Middleware to Cut Project Development Time by 40 Percent“We estimate that we’ve cut our development timelines by 30 to 40 percent on average. BizTalk Server has liberated us in terms of time to market.”Syed Mujeeb, Head of IT Business Relationship Management & Software Services, United Bank LimitedPakistan’s second-largest private commercial bank, United Bank Limited (UBL), had multiple systems that relied on hard-coded integration with other systems. This made it difficult to improve its products and delivery channels. The bank needed an enterprise service bus to increase its responsiveness. After implementing Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006, it was able to introduce new applications quickly and reduce its development time by up to 40 percent.Business NeedsIn recent years, UBL has expanded its business significantly in areas such as home loans, retail deposits, and new products, including smart-card based credit cards.To continue its evolution into a market-leading bank using global best practice management structures and technology, it has invested in extending its in-house development team. This team is responsible for responding to business requirements such as product and delivery channel enhancements to serve the bank’s customers more efficiently.But the development team was finding it difficult to be responsive due to the bank’s rigid IT infrastructure. Service delivery channels and business applications had been developed in different programming languages over the years, and were running on a mixture of hardware and operating systems. There was no effective middleware and all applications were directly linked with other systems they needed to interact with through hard-coded integration. Syed Mujeeb, Head of IT Business Relationship Management & Software Services, United Bank Limited, explains: “Making modifications to any of our channels, such as online banking or interactive voice response (IVR) in call centers, was time consuming and complex. We needed middleware to help us streamline all the interfaces, for both development and maintenance.”The organization looked for middleware that could make integration between business processes and delivery channels more flexible. Senior IT managers knew that with the right enterprise service bus and architecture, they could be much more responsive in making the bank’s innovative ideas happen, and reduce time to market for new products and services.SolutionA number of companies were invited to demonstrate a proof of concept, showing how their middleware could help address the needs of UBL. The bank considered technologies such as WebLogic and IBM WebSphere, but chose to use Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006, after Microsoft demonstrated that it could implement the middleware and integrate three of the bank’s key applications in just 30 days. Besides speed of integration, another key reason for the decision was the orchestration feature in BizTalk Server. This helps business analysts and developers change processes and application building blocks, without having to redesign an entire solution. Faisal Anwar, Senior Vice President and Head of IT Strategy, Planning and Operations at United Bank Limited, says: “BizTalk Server provides secure inbound and outbound messages, helping integration with other systems. It also uses public key infrastructure to offer security between external partners by encrypting communications using X.509 certificates.” After the proof of concept, Microsoft Services consultants provided additional training for the developers. They also gave guidance and confirmation that the bank’s planned architecture was future-proof and complied with best practice for service-oriented architecture.Since BizTalk Server was implemented, it has become the middleware foundation for all new applications at UBL. Mujeeb says: “Working with the Microsoft consultants and partners, our IT team has gained the required skills to manage the architecture. We have become largely self-sufficient in developing and adapting the applications we need to be innovative and responsive to customer needs.”BenefitsWith BizTalk Server 2006 as the basis of its IT infrastructure, UBL has been able to reduce time spent on new developments significantly. It has standardized its coding and benefited from greater re-use of application components. The development team can now be much more responsive to business and customer needs, and plan ahead to implement new technology that will serve the bank in the future.Short time-to-market. With less coding required, the IT team can add products and channels quickly. Mujeeb says: “We estimate that we’ve cut our development times by 30 to 40 percent on average. BizTalk Server has liberated us in terms of time to market. We can now launch whatever product the bank wants to launch, in the shortest possible timeframe.” Ease of management. The UBL IT group is now self-sufficient, and its in-house team of .NET developers can easily handle most projects without external technical support. Mujeeb says: “Development projects are now standardized and based on common objects. Data movement is also more reliable.”Technology-independence. The middleware works with applications based on any technology, supporting elements of the bank’s previous IT environment and also helping the bank to add services easily. Mujeeb says: “After implementing BizTalk Server, we could quickly introduce a new IVR system for our contact centre. We’re also using BizTalk Server to integrate our new core banking system with the existing system, as well as other applications.”Ease of operations. BizTalk Server not only gives the bank a flexible architecture, it also employs a unified IT management console, which provides the UBL operations team with a single-window view for monitoring processes. “This gives the team a better sense of system load times and the interfaces that are currently running,” says Anwar. “As a result, the team can identify when the system is busy, or has been suspended, allowing them to manage connections, monitor system performance, and improve overall system efficiency.” ................
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