Modernizing Banking: The Role of Accelerators and Open Platforms with NTT DATA
The financial industry, known for its tradition and stability, is experiencing a seismic shift in response to technological advancements and evolving customer expectations, as reported by The Fintech Times. Traditional banks, in the face of this dynamic landscape, are at a pivotal crossroads. They must modernize their core systems to stay competitive in the digital age while effectively managing operational risks and costs.
In the past, banks faced a tough choice: maintain their existing infrastructure or embark on the expensive and disruptive journey of replacing their entire system. However, today’s core banking technology presents a more nuanced approach. Banks are increasingly embracing the concept of progressive core renovation and modernization, allowing them to upgrade incrementally and adapt to contemporary needs.
Jason Gandy, Senior Vice President of Financial Services Consulting at NTT DATA Services, highlights this shift in perspective: «Deciding to modernize a bank’s core is no longer a binary choice of either doing nothing or opting for a total replacement. The landscape of core banking technology has witnessed massive advances, presenting a variety of tailored solutions that empower the banking industry to become significantly more flexible and agile in their operations, enabling banks to adapt and thrive in today’s dynamic financial landscape.»
NTT DATA Services, a global IT consultancy firm, is fully embracing this transformative wave. They have introduced a suite of accelerators designed to empower banks on their modernization journey. This suite consists of various tools, each serving a specific purpose in the modernization process.
Among these tools, the Transformation Manager catalogs and evaluates existing application assets, streamlining the modernization roadmap and accelerating project timelines. UniKix offers a mainframe application re-hosting solution, aiding in migrating mainframe and secondary applications to a virtualized data center or public cloud platform, resulting in significant cost savings. The Data Cataloguer ensures a smooth transition of analyzed objects from source to target, and the Data Validator validates migrated data using configurable hash functions.
Additionally, these accelerators focus on cloud adoption. NuCAF provides a framework for clients to effectively adopt hyperscale clouds, while CloudART helps organizations identify the best-fit applications for the cloud, addressing aspects of cloud transformation, including remediation, migration, and cloud-native application development.
In addition to these accelerators, Platea is making waves in the banking industry. This platform has already made significant strides in regions like Japan, Latin America, the UK, and the EU and is now extending its reach to North America. Platea’s cloud-centric approach empowers banks to scale and adapt at their own pace, free from vendor lock-in. It allows banks to experiment, innovate, and stay competitive in response to the evolving fintech landscape.
NTT DATA has also formed partnerships with new fintech companies to enhance Platea’s capabilities, including Jumio for ID verification, Mambu for its core banking platform, Volante for real-time payments, and Akoya for account aggregation.
Kaoru Kumashiro, Manager of Global Industries, Global Marketing and Communications at NTT DATA Group Corporation, emphasizes the global nature of this transformation: «Our next target market is the US, where the shift to open banking is driven mainly by market demand but also potentially by regulation in the future.»
As banks navigate the evolving financial landscape, the decisions they make today will determine their ability to thrive tomorrow. Madhusudhan Magadi, Managing Director of Financial Services Enterprise Architecture in Financial Services Consulting at NTT DATA Services, sums it up: «Banks and financial institutions are walking a tightrope between innovation demands and aging technology. Our combined capabilities allow us to maximize financial and operational efficiencies to uniquely enhance customer experience while future-proofing clients’ investments with innovative coreless banking solutions.»