Infosys Ltd said Philippines-based UnionBank has selected its Finacle banking platform as its software of choice for easing its migration to a cloud architecture.
The UnionBank of Philippines, a medium-sized bank with over 3,500 employees, is a traditional Infosys’ customer.
Banks are increasingly moving from the traditional IT architecture — under which they buy accounting, audit and other software and install them on local computers — to a cloud-based architecture where all this software is installed in a datacenter run by a third party provider like Infosys or Oracle.
Bank employees then input data into this software and use them via an encrypted connection through a webpage.
The new model, called cloud computing, drastically reduces the complexity of IT operations of banks. They no longer have to employ dozens of IT engineers to keep their locally installed software up-to-date. This also means that companies like Infosys don’t have to send their engineers to bank premises (onsite), but can instead manage the software at their own datacenters.
This reduces costs for both the bank and the provider.
Given that the bank is a traditional Infosys’ customer, it is likely that the migration is from an on-premise (locally installed) version of Finacle to a cloud-based model of the same software. Infosys did not clarify whether this is so.
Infosys’ Finacle, which too started out as a locally installed solution, was one of the first to offer the remote use or cloud computing model.
“The transition will enable UnionBank to scale both its Retail and Corporate Banking operations, rapidly develop and deploy new capabilities, and deliver frictionless, personalized, and secure digital banking services to its customers, in a cost-efficient manner,” the Indian company said.
Over 8 million customer accounts will be considered for migration as part of the effort, Infosys said.
The win is a victory and validation for Infosys’ Finacle cloud solution, given that the company is up against the biggest software brands in the industry in terms of competing for such customers.
The bank’s CTO Henry Rhoel R. Aguda said his organization has been investing in flexible and open systems for some years.
“The move from an on-premise to the cloud based Finacle Digital Banking Solution Suite is the next strategic step in that direction, that will set us up for success long into the future. We are investing in this new platform to gain exponential benefits in reducing costs, increasing efficiency and ultimately, delivering a world class digital customer experience.“
Venkatramana Gosavi, sales head of Infosys Finacle, said his company has been in the Philippine market for almost two decades.
“Infosys Finacle has had a and we are proud to have partnered many of the digital leaders here. UnionBank, our long-term customer, is leading the way to the future, as they have always done, with the migration to the Finacle Digital Banking Solution Suite on Cloud.”