Client Situation
Our client is a leading Islamic Bank in Jordan that offers all types of financing, banking, and investment solutions in compliance with the provisions of the Sharia Law. The bank has 100+ branches and 250+ ATMs all over the country. As part of its core banking modernization strategy, the bank underwent a detailed selection and evaluation of its legacy core banking system to look for options to transition into a componentized, parameterizable, API based architecture, supporting real time processing and data synchronization.
Cedar’s Approach
Cedar was mandated to assist the bank to identify and finalize the right-fit Islamic Core Banking platform for its Retail, Corporate & investment banking divisions. As part of the engagement Cedar:
- Reviewed, analysed the current state Core Banking Architecture of the Bank and recommended To-be architecture of the bank, considering new core banking and surrounding systems
- Built 4,000+ requirement covering over 9 functional & technical modules, including Retail Banking, Corporate Banking, Islamic Financing, GL & Finance, Trade Finance, Treasury, Investments & Portfolio Management, and Digital Banking
- Conducted market research on best-in-class Islamic core banking platforms regionally and globally
- Identified over 20+ Islamic core banking providers, both in the region and globally
- Conducted preliminary shortlist by launching an RFI and shortlisted 6 suppliers for RFP release
- Designed a comprehensive RFP that included technical and commercial response sheets covering all business requirements that were identified
- Developed shortlist criteria in discussion with key stakeholders in the bank
- Identified over 2,000 demo scenarios, which were demonstrated by shortlisted suppliers during the product demo
- Coordinated and conducted a 2-week detailed remote product demonstrations on a sandbox environment with 100+ business & technical users, along with top 3 suppliers shortlisted from RFP responses
- Evaluated suppliers based on experience, capabilities, and product demo outcome
- Compiled initial and final 5-year TCO through multiple discussions with suppliers and key team members from the bank
- Identified and negotiated areas of potential negotiations (commercial and contractual terms) with the shortlisted suppliers
Outcome
Assisted in the evaluation and shortlist of top 2 Islamic Core Banking Platforms best suited for the Bank. This included:
- Targeting state architecture blueprint for the bank, covering 35+ systems
- Business & Technical requirement specification for evaluation covering 4,000+ requirements
- Design and development of RFI and RFP documents
- Evaluation of supplier response to the RFP and shortlisting suppliers for a detailed evaluation through a product demonstration
- Managing and conducting detailed workshops with the supplier and the bank across multiple departments
- Shortlisting suppliers based on preliminary evaluation, 10+ RFP shortlist criteria & product demo outcome
- Compiling overall supplier TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) and providing total core transformation cost across Software, Infrastructure, PMO and Internal costs
- Evaluating commercials to provide an analysis and potential areas for negotiation
- Identifying over 100+ gaps in the commercial & contractual responses by suppliers
- Negotiating key contractual & commercial terms along with the bank’s procurement team