Wipro Case Study Series
COMING TOGETHER WITHOUT
FALLING APART
Wipro helped a leading UK bank simplify their
processes during a massive merger.
INDUSTRY LANDSCAPE
The global banking industry is witnessing a new wave of restructuring and consolidation. Banks are
facing higher cost pressures and a tightening of regulatory compliance across key markets. With
corporate clients placing greater service demands, banks need new business technologies that
facilitate centralization of their functions. The banking industry in the UK too was witness to
consolidation with several mergers being announced in the past decade.
CLIENT BACKGROUND
The client is one of the top 5 retail banks in the UK with a number of leading market positions.
Following its acquisition of another major bank, the new entity now serves more than 30 million
customers across the UK.
THE OPPORTUNITY
The client was faced with the challenge of integrating the processes of the merged entities. This
entailed IT infrastructure consolidation, which would deliver major cost savings as well as help
standardize branch-based functions across operations. The consolidation would also remove
systems duplication by integrating the processing capabilities and platforms of the two entities.
This merger gave Wipro the opportunity to undertake one of the most complex migration projects.
The process involved moving 31.5 million accounts carrying total funds in the range of £110 billion.
The project was thrice the scale of a similar operation in 2000 that came about following the merger
of two banking entities. The integration process developed by Wipro involved storage of 2,000 TB
of data and creation of 1,229 new environments over and above the existing ones.
The integration program covered
97% of the bank's work streams,
from time critical projects, data
centers and platforms to central
functions like payments, HR,
procurement and banking
operations.
The project covered the three crucial work streams of the bank related
The Focus areas were:
to the core IT infrastructure, viz., time critical projects, data centers and
• Aligning incentives and performance objectives to drive the
distributed integration; systems & data migration and the central
functions like payments, HR, procurement and banking services.
right behavior
• Setting clear expectations on knowledge transfer and sharing
• Ensuring transparency, openness and inclusiveness across all parties
SOLUTION
• Setting clear terms of reference for all work with clarity of roles
and accountabilities between parties and laying out simple
The bank's post-merger IT integration program was developed
through close involvement across various stages like strategic planning,
creation of integrated design and architectural activities, and with a
escalation paths
• Close attention to sign off and handover processes to ensure
seamless transition
seven-stage release plan in three work streams.
After assimilating the strategic inputs, Wipro's integration design
center (IDC) worked with the project team to develop the enterprise
BUSINESS IMPACT
architecture & design (EAD) within stringent time lines. As the build
partner, Wipro simultaneously developed applications across 10 lines
The Wipro IT Integration Program was implemented across 97% of the
of business for the integration project, which addressed several
addressable platform to ensure superior quality of landed delivery.
requirements that include:
Key milestones are:
• Migration of all current and savings accounts
• Planned and delivered the largest customer database integration that
provided access to more than 60 million customers under “Single
• Integration of back office systems/processes (including collections,
Customer View”, resulting in improved cross product sales &
banking operations, financial & risk management)
services of Retail & Commercial banking
• Integration of front office systems/processes (including stores,
telephony centers and the internet channel)
• Integrated the largest network of ATMs & branches accross
the country, giving customers easy access to their accounts
• Revised systems to sell insurance products in the retail network
While developing the solution, Wipro fully leveraged its experience of
• Integrated two massive data warehouses facilitating improved
business analytics based on data, statistical methods and
working with other suppliers in the bank’s environment. Wipro drew
customer behavior
upon knowledge and experience gained from different integration
• Reduced risks due to centralised fraud monitoring and
programs handled earlier.
controlling mechanisms of all channels
• Reduced cost of operations due to merger of similar businesses,
IT applications / servers, licenses, offices & branding
Wipro Banking and Financial Services
Wipro’s Banking Practice has partnered with over 50 of the world’s leading banks including 4 of the top 5 banks worldwide as well as leading banks in
the Asia Pacific. Our expertise across retail banking, enterprise banking, investment banking, regulatory risk and compliance, mobile banking, channels,
payments, lending & mortgages and wealth management address transformational changes for our customers. Our solutions on cloud, mobile, social
computing and analytics enable our customers to build a bankable future.
For more information, please visit www.wipro.com or mail info@wipro.com
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