BankMuscat goes live with MKI's Trade Innovation in just 6 Months
(and achieves exceptional increase in throughput reduction in processing times)

BankMuscat, Oman's premier banking group, has gone live with Trade innovation, just six months after signing contracts with Midas-Kapiti International (MKI) to install the system; even more impressive is the exceptional increase in throughput and the reduction in processing times achieved by the bank's Trade Finance & Overseas Credit Department since implementing Trade Innovation.

BankMuscat goes live with MKI's Trade Innovation in just 6 months and achieves exceptional increase in throughput and reduction in processing times
BankMuscat, named as Oman's Bank of the Year*, is Oman's largest commercial bank, providing a wide range of consumer, private and corporate banking services. International trade finance forms a major part of the bank's Corporate Banking activities, since BankMuscat now dominates Oman's trade finance sector, where it commands a market share of more than 35%, following its merger with Commercial Bank of Oman in December 2000. To support it's expanding operations. the bank chose to adopt the latest technology, in order to improve the services offered to clients.

Mussallam Al-Shukairy explains, "The implementation of a new system using the latest technology was cornerstone in our strategy to enhance customer service. We wanted to replace our long-serving, in-house developed software with a solution that would increase the efficiency of our operations and raise productivity, to ensure we could respond quickly to customer requests. At the same time, we needed a solution that could be integrated with our core system, as well as giving us the potential to introduce new delivery channels in the future, to ensure we retain our competitive advantage in the marketplace." 

During the evaluation process, BankMuscat reviewed a number of different product offerings. including China Systems' Eximbills. Staff from the bank's Trade Finance & Overseas Credit Department were involved in the assessment and decision-making process, which included a number of reference site visits. The bank's final selection of MKI's Trade Innovation as its preferred trade finance solution was based primarily on the system's case-of-use and speed of implementation.

Musallam Al-Shukairy says, "One of our objectives was to ensure that our customers would benefit from the investment as soon as possible. Another reason for our choice of Trade Innovation was that it would provide a high degree of integration with our core banking system. Trade Innovation met our requirements on both these fronts, having. proved easy to implement and since it is a very open system, offering us the integration potential we require."

"Trade Innovation is supremely user-oriented and is designed for business users rather than I.T. experts, having been developed in conjunction with banks which are leading players in the trade finance sector. I believe that our users' involvement in the implementation process was the key reason for the success of the project," he continues. "While the bank's I.T. department took responsibility for the underlying system infrastructure, the main implementation work was carried out by the department's business users. Both teams worked hand in hand, in addition to their normal job responsibilities, with assistance from an MKI Business Consultant on a part-time basis "

The implementation process took just six months to complete, following the finalisation of tile contract between BankMuscat and MKI at the end of November 2000. Trade Innovation incorporates applications to process Letters of Credit, Collections, Guarantees, Bills Financing and Syndications, and supports the full range of the bank's trade finance business. MKI also worked with the bank's staff to develop an interface based on TCP/IP protocols to integrate Trade Innovation, running oil the Microsoft Windows NT platform, with BankMuscat's Unix-based MIE core banking system 

Musallam Al-Shukairy is justifiably proud of his department's achievement. He comments, Our initial business analysis shows that there has been a significant improvement in processing times " in fact, a preliminary assessment of benefits after the first three months of operation shows that tile average volume of transactions being processed has increased by more than 50%. At the same time, the turn around of trade-related transactions such as opening Letters of Credit, Guarantees and Collections are being completed in just 25% of the time taken previously, which represents an exceptional increase in productivity.

"Since Trade Innovation is interfaced directly to both SWIFT and the bank's core system, the laborious and time-consuming process of posting entries manually has been eliminated. Outgoing payment messages can be transmitted directly to the SWIFT network, while incoming payment messages can be mapped directly to the appropriate transaction. This facility has eliminated the need for manual intervention and has dramatically reduced the duplication of effort previously involved." Musallam Al-Shukairy comments.

He goes on to say, "All the documentation produced by the system, such as customer acknowledgements, advice notes, progress 'chasers', Guarantees and discrepancy notices. Can be tailored to the bank's precise specification and produced to a uniformly high standard, enhancing still further the bank's image in the eyes of its clients. Trade Innovation's unique workflow mechanism has also assisted in improving the overall efficiency and working practices of the department. and enabled us to provide a consistently high level of service to our clients."

Currently Trade Innovation is located at the bank's Head Office in Muscat, although there are plans to install a network to link the system with BankMuscat's major regional branches in the future. "We are also planning to implement an c-banking front-end to Trade Innovation," Musallam Al-Shukairy points out. "This will provide corporate clients with internet-based access to the system acid offer them the facility to initiate requests or track the progress of Letters of Credit, as well as making information available on-line."

He concludes by saying, "MKI's local presence in the Gulf was a major factor ill our choice of solution, and the excellent relationship and co-operation between the two organizations contributed greatly to the success of the project. We are also comfortable with the level and direction of MKI's ongoing investment in the product, which will enable both us and our customers to benefit from technological developments and new industry standards in trade finance, such as BOLERO," For further information, contact: 

Notes for Editors: -

Not only is BankMuscat the premier banking group in Oman, it is also the largest, following, the completion of its merger with Commercial Bank of Oman . BankMuscat now boasts the country's most extensive branch network, with more than 90 branch offices across the Sultanate of Oman, as well as the largest ATM network in the country. In addition to its domestic banking operations. BankMuscat has established an international representative office in Dubai, U.A.E. BankMuscat is acknowledged as being the foremost provider of value-added banking services in Oman, offering a range of financial products and advisory services to individuals, corporate clients, small avid medium- sized business, government agencies and institutions. 

Trade Innovation, MKI's advanced international trade finance solution, has been designed to operate in a client/server environment running on the Microsoft Windows NT platform. Trade Innovation, which now has the fastest-growing customer base of any trade finance system currently on the market, supports the full range of trade-related transactions. 

MKI a wholly-owned subsidiary of Misys plc, is the world's Premier supplier of solutions to the global banking and financial services industry, with annual sales of more than £200m. The company has an extensive network of international branches located in 28 countries around the world and employs over 1,900 staff. MKIs product range includes solutions for wholesale and retail banking, treasury and capital markets, trade finance, private banking and risk management. MKI has maintained a branch office 111 Dubai for over 20 years, and with a permanent team of more than 40 staff, offers local sales. support and implementation services for MKI's complete range of products at client sites throughout the Middle East. 

Misys plc, a FTSE- 100 company, is the UK's largest independent software products company and one of the world's 10 largest suppliers of application software, specialising in the international banking and securities, US healthcare and UK insurance markets. In the financial year ended 31st May2001, Misys achieved revenues of £849 million and operating profit of £140 million. The group currently has more than 5,700 employees worldwide. 

Source: 'The Banker, Country Awards 2001 (September 2001 issue)