Export Development Bank Sudan transforms its Core Banking System with Temenos & NdcTech

The Transformation

As part of its strategy to meet growth objective, the Bank embarked on this transformation and selected Temenos Transact, a modern and globally acclaimed technology platform. The transformation comprised of complete implementation of TEMENOS T24™R13 modules, inclusive of AML, Insight BI and Risk and Biometrics.

NdcTech, one of the renowned and global partner of Temenos was selected as the implementation partner for this transformation. The Implementation project commenced in late March 2013 and by April 2016, the Bank went Live on the new platform. The main modules which were implemented included Islamic Retail Banking; Islamic Corporate Banking; Microfinance; Trade; & Treasury.

This project was primed by NdcTech and Temenos governed the partner implementation and supported the Core Product enhancements and issues. The Client selected NdcTech due to their experience and ability to understand the local market. Temenos maintained contact with NdcTech throughout the length of the project in terms of governance and support. NdcTech carried out implementation of this project with the support of 8 consultants, 6 consultants who were on-site.

It was for the first time that the Bank’s team took up such a large implementation project. There was a lot of resistance within the Bank users to have to change their distributed legacy system which was tailored for their requirements over time.

Challenges and Solutions

The project suffered significant delays due to internal resistance, change of senior management in between the project, data cleansing issues; lack of timely support from Central Bank clearing; & ATM Switch services.

One of the major challenges faced during this transformation was cleansing of data from legacy systems and data reconciliation after migration. As the data was not maintained properly, the data cleansing was a time consuming process. NdcTech’s on-Site team and the Bank’s team had to make appropriate corrections, perform several mock cycles, and refine data to ensure migration with utmost quality retention.

As per the prevalent practice in Sudan in accordance with the Central Bank of Sudan’s policy, the legacy system of the Bank was a Cash Based system rather than an accrual based system. In order to cater for this requirement, Temenos product had to be enhanced and many scenarios had to be tested as the products suite was very extensive. NdcTech was able to leverage its country specific developments in Sudan to resolve this issue.

There were a few compatibility issues while migrating to the Core Banking platform. The ATM system was not an ISO system which was globally recognized. Additionally, EDB utilized Russian based software and the RTGS documentation was unavailable due to central bank withholding licenses. This created the need for additional man hours to develop and design a platform upon which the ATM ISO system would be compatible.

Moreover, the team had to meet several Central Bank and Country based requirements, which were not according to Sudan Shariah practices. The team conducted entirely customized Shariah Law Islamic Banking enhancements in this regard.

Despite these challenges, NdcTech prioritized the client & ensured that the project was delivered to fully cater to the unique requirements of Bank. The risks were mitigated throughout with the support of both old and new management teams through a troubleshooting approach.

The implementation strictly adhered to Temenos Implementation Methodology including Analysis, Build, Test, SIT, UAT, all the way to Go-Live which significantly improved the speed and efficiency of the implementation process and time to value. The success of the project is evident by the fact that EDB has gone Live which has created a very positive impact within the bank. The users have taken ownership of the system and are readily adopting the system. The bank plans to invest further in enhancing and adding basel 3 and AML system as part of phase 2. The Bank believes that they are now a showcase for some of the other banks in Sudan as well as Africa for an Islamic implementation.