News Desk |
National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), eager to modernize its financial transactions, signed another deal, with Microsoft and Premier Systems. Ceremony took place, last Friday at NBP Head Office, Karachi, where bank decided to partner with international giant Microsoft and Premier Systems in its ongoing bid to enrich business relationships by embracing digital transformation in its IT infrastructure.
A problem faced by many ‘Tier One’ banks is that they have to deal with ancient legacy systems forming a heterogeneous back-end patched up by a complex hybrid IT structure. This becomes problematic as the bank enters more and more markets. NBP was founded back in 1949 and with $17.2 billion in financial concerns it realizes the necessity to optimize inefficient structures with technology more suited to day-to-day operations.
In the latest ceremony, NBP officials hosted representatives from Microsoft as well as their regional partners; Premier Systems Pakistan.
The idea is to increase reliability on the national scale and reduce costs incurred especially when integrating Pakistan’s unbanked population which accounts for the majority of global numbers. NBP has already been making use of Microsoft Premier Systems but intends with this signing ceremony to make use of the entirety of Microsoft’s cloud-based computing package.
The end result would be a more efficient digitized system ideal for personal retail and corporate services. Not only would NBP benefit by removing disruptions and risks in the IT infrastructure that was inhibiting growth, but customers would also end up with more flexibility and security while both would be taking advantage of existing best practices while the digital transformation takes place in the meantime.
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Earlier this month, NBP had conducted another signing at the Head Office in Karachi with one of Microsoft’s OEM clients; Dell and its regional partners; Megaplus. In the latest ceremony, NBP officials hosted representatives from Microsoft as well as their regional partners; Premier Systems Pakistan. Present at the occasion were Mr. Tariq Jamali (President NBP), Mr. Shahid Saeed (SEVP / CIO), Mr. Shahnawaz Khan (EVP/ Head-Infrastructure & Technology Division, ITG), Mr. Abid Zaidi (Country Manager- Microsoft, Pakistan) and Mr. Arshad Raza (CEO – Premier Systems).
Mr. Shahid Saeed commended the commitment of the Information Technology Group (ITG) in helping NBP implement these transformative digital initiatives. While the transformation will take some time and given the nature of Pakistan’s overall ascendance into technology there will be various challenges.
The current challenges were identified and the Premier Systems remains dedicated to working with the ITG in bringing about NBP’s digital transformation.
With the aid of the contract between Microsoft and NBP, ITG will be able to run the parallel transformation of IT infrastructure development using products and services bundled with live technical support, technical training and end-user Software Assurance to ensure that NBP stays up to par in terms of technical needs.
The necessity for this digital IT transformation is first and foremost a top-down view of the inevitability of digitization when it comes to business. The need to not only recognize but also promote a technology-led culture is as important as making changes in the IT Infrastructure.
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The partnership of NBP with a globally credible partner such as Microsoft will bring in up-to-date, agile, end-user-oriented, innovations streamlined in an efficient and universal Microsoft platform to leverage immense business and banking opportunities to prospective and current clients of NBP.
Mr. Abid Zaidi of Microsoft reiterated the company’s commitment to helping NBP modernize its IT infrastructure and looks forward to adding NBP to the roster of Microsoft’s list of success stories. “Technology serves as a backbone for Financial Services Institutions to gain competitive advantage and this collaboration will enhance NBP team’s capabilities and increase employee productivity under a secure environment,” he stated.
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Premier Systems Pakistan acknowledged NBP as a long-term partner and will continue to support the bank in terms of new technologies and trends. The current challenges were identified and the Premier Systems remains dedicated to working with the ITG in bringing about NBP’s digital transformation.