Dubai Bank Completes Technology Migration and Oracle Applications Upgrade Milestone on Route to Financial Innovation

Dubai Bank, a premier Shari’a compliant bank in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has upgraded its entire IT infrastructure to support ambitious improvement plans and innovative customer services technology.

The bank has recently completed the migration of its Oracle Human Resource Management System (HRMS) from Windows operating system to Linux platform and simultaneously upgraded from Oracle E-Business suite release 11i to the latest Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.

Dubai Bank worked with global IT solutions specialist, Inatech, for the migration project which lays the foundations for a robust platform for its future growth. After a successful proof of concept, Inatech worked alongside the Dubai Bank’s team to upgrade applications and ensure the smooth running on a Linux platform.

Inatech’s implementation of Oracle E-Business Suite 12 is part of Dubai Bank’s plan for an integrated, enterprise-wide view of Financials, HRMS and Reportin. The focus of this project is not simply on current requirements, but also on ensuring that the system has the capability to cater to scalable, long-term information management and financial reporting requirements across all entities of the bank. The move is designed to help the bank to enhance and constantly improve upon timeliness of financial information and analytics available. The implementation aims to allow transparency at a granular level and automatic service level alerts across the business.

Faizal Eledath, Chief Information Officer of Dubai Bank, said the bank chose Inatech after a lengthy selection process because of their consultative approach, local UAE presence for implementation, support activities and its commitment to the success of the project. The project was implemented by Inatech on time and to budget and will improve the performance and sustainability of its long-term IT strategy. The new systems improve usability, reporting, performance analysis, and provide a platform for the business to remain flexible to changes in operations while adapting to the implementation of innovative customer and corporate services.

“One of the main drivers for this project was to improve performance. Together with Inatech’s consultative approach, our aim was to successfully automate associated business processes and important tasks related to procurement, expense processing, payables and multi-GL consolidation,” says Faizal. “Migrating to Linux enables us to scale up our operations as and when we need to and, working alongside technical specialists like Inatech, has enabled us to draw on their experience to shorten implementation time without disrupting the business.”

“Using Inatech’s fixed-price project approach has provided us with a solution to optimise performance and improve efficiencies while allowing the business to remain competitive.”

Inatech also managed key enhancements to Dubai Bank’s architecture incorporating High availability, migrating the production environment from a single node to a two node configuration, in order to increase the robustness of the entire architecture.

Faizal continued, “In the first few weeks of upgrading to Linux operating system, the system’s performance has been greatly enhanced. The time for processing payroll has been halved and user feedback on improved performance and speed has been extremely positive.”

“We believe this may be one of the first instances of Oracle Enterprise Linux implementation for Oracle Applications Release 12 in the Middle East,” said Ravindra Krishnappa Director, Inatech. "We are extremely pleased to be working with the Dubai Bank team on this project. The fact that our customer has already experienced significant performance improvements substantiates our recommendations and technical expertise.”

The next phase of the project strategy is to complete the implementation of a transparent Procure-to-Pay process and on track to be completed by April 2009.

Ravi continued: "In the current financial market condition, it is imperative for organizations to extract and offer the best value possible to its customers. This deployment marks a significant step forward for the Banking and IT industries. Harnessing innovative IT technology has to be in conjunction with streamlined business processes to maximize benefits of implementation."

Dubai Bank is continuously challenging traditional banking practices by placing service, transparency and convenience at the forefront of its operations and introducing unique products and services to the market. The financial institution, established in 2002, positions itself as a ‘catalyst for change’ and has already won IT Department of the Year in the Arabian Computer Network Magazine Awards 2007 for its efforts.

Dhow Palace Hotel – Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Today, April 1^st 2009 saw the opening of the first Oracle User Group show in the Middle East Region, OAUG Connection Point 2009. Inatech is proud to be an inaugural sponsor and exhibitor of this event.

The Inatech team arrived early to prepare. The event kicked off sharply at 8.30am, with an internal team of presenters gathered from the strongest Oracle teams across the world.

The Inatech team enjoyed the Keynote Session which was given by Oracle's most senior executive in the Middle East & African (MEA) region, Husam Dajani, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, MEA, Oracle Corporation. Husam was extremely enthusiastic in his opening address as this is the first time the OUG event has been held in the region, over the 22 years that Oracle has been present driving and pioneering Enterprise IT applications in this part of the world.

Husam Dajani has been with Oracle for more than 20 years, during which time the company has become the number one provider of technology and e-business solutions in the Middle East and Africa. Oracle's industry-leading technology solutions are so ingrained into the region's technology infrastructure that it is not possible to spend a day without interacting with an Oracle system in some way or other, whether it is a bank system, the immigration system at the airport or an electricity and water bill.

With a customer count in the thousands, Oracle caters to almost every government in the region, as well as industries from oil and gas to aviation to banking and businesses from auto dealers to department stores. It is hard to find an industry or business that is not using Oracle applications, database or technology. Inatech is delighted to be supporting many customers representing a large number of industries in this region. Inatech is particularly pleased to announce the successful completion of a complex Oracle E-Business Suite upgrade project at Dubai Bank.

Inatech has a strong representation at this first OUG event which is represented by some of the most prestigious names in Oracles 2500 E-Business Suite customers in the region. International Key speakers for Day one include from Oracle, Cliff Godwin, Dr. Nadia Bendjedou,

Brian O’Neil & Roopa Dhanalal. The final speech of the day will be delivered by Cliff Godwin the Senior Vice President of Applications Technology at Oracle Corporation who will be providing an insight and road map into the future of oracle E-Business Suite. Cliff Godwin runs the Applications Technology Group and is responsible for ensuring that Oracle Applications effectively leverage Oracle's systems technologies, and for building the common objects and services used throughout Oracle Applications. Specific areas of responsibility include applications architecture, standards, performance, installation, and the Oracle Application Object Library, Oracle Workflow, Oracle XML Gateway and Oracle Alert products.

The Inatech Team are looking forward to the Dinner Cruise on Dubai Creek at the end of what will be a long day.............

Turner Report calls for more IT in bank risk management

Yesterday’s report from chairman of the Financial Services Authority Lord Turner recommends that banks manage their exposure to risk better through more effective use of IT.

The report said that banks’ decisions should be founded on up-to-date information from IT departments. Banks will, for example, need to have more and better managed data on their available capital and the risks involved in deals.

The news comes after a general backlash against the banking system, in which critics claim that more regulation of banks and fewer incentives for staff to take risks, such as big bonuses, would have avoided the current crisis.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that he had called for greater regulation and an end to unnecessary risk-taking ten years ago, and has since faced harsh criticism for not taking more action when he was Chancellor.

Lehman Brothers was the first bank to collapse in the onset of the credit crunch. Former UK COO of the bank James Martin has said that IT “has to provide completely reliable management information” in order for banks to operate responsibly.

Inatech has been working with the second largest bank in the UAE to implement transparent, secure and innovative banking technologies. The instituion's strategy is focussed on the customer working with Sharia law to maximise the faith people have in banking internationally.