Project of the Year: Barclays Bank

In 2003, Barclays started building a business internet banking product, in an attempt to meet these needs.

What were the business objectives of the project?

'We wanted to give our corporate customers secure and easy access to our banking systems,' says Steve Lansdown, programme director at Barclays' UK banking division.

'The plan was to put Barclays at the centre of our customer's financial systems so it would become integral to their financial management.'

To do so, the bank wanted to build on the success of its consumer online banking product, by developing its existing offshore banking platform to meet medium and large corporate banking needs.

'We wanted to build a system that allows business customers to make payments, see balance information and integrate it with core financial systems such as Sage and Pegasus,' he says.

Sterling and international payments, inter account transfers and foreign exchange trading were also functions the bank wanted to incorporate, says Lansdown.

'It was a massive project to give customers access to banking systems by a secure, flexible and portable platform.'

What were the key milestones in the implementation?

'The project really kicked off in earnest in February 2003 when the decision was taken to build on a platform that had already been developed for our offshore customers,' he says.

A trial version of the service was given to financial services clients in June 2003, including account viewing facilities.

In May 2003 Barclays started building a more in-depth service, including permission-based rules allowing corporates to assign different levels of clearance to employees performing banking activities.

The service went live to 100 participating firms in March this year to rigorously test security before commercially rolling it out in June.

'The reason this took longer is because we had to integrate it with other enterprise systems and ensure its integrity,' says Lansdown.

'Since July we have implemented further disaster recovery systems and enlisted 1000 customers.'

What technology was used?

Barclays worked with systems integrator Xansa to develop the online banking platform offshore in Noida, India.

'We used J2EE on a WebSphere Applications Server and used 128-bit encryption and public key infrastructure for security,' says Andy Bysouth, technology programme manager at Barclays.

To tighten security the bank also built in a smartcard system to uniquely identify and authenticate users.

'We also used Java connectors to communicate with legacy mainframes,' says Bysouth.

How did you manage the business change and people issues involved?

'The key for customer adoption was to make it as simple and intuitive to use as possible,' says Lansdown.

'We focused on online help, user guides and desktop support to ensure that problems were reduced.'

Sales and registration processes were also automated as much as possible to ensure that undue pressure was not put on in-house accounts teams.

'We also ran 60 roadshows across the country to educate staff about business banking and the benefits it offers,' he says.

What results were achieved?

More than 1,000 medium and large sized businesses have used Barclays Business Internet Banking since its launch on 5 July.

'We have won a number of large, high profile banking relationships since introducing the service that we could not have won without it,' says Lansdown.

'It has also helped us strengthen relationships with existing customers, who have done more business with us because we have made it easier for them.'

But the biggest advantage is for customers, says Bysouth.

'They now has access to a real time, secure and portable banking system, which they can access from all over the world,' he says.

What were the lessons learned?

'We have proven that through close co-operation between Barclays and Xansa, it is possible to deliver very complex business applications offshore,' says Bysouth.

'It has allowed an honest exchange of views and knowledge transfer,' he says.

Regular staff transfers between London and India ensured that the project's objectives were achieved, says Lansdown.

'Bringing some of the offshore people to the UK and sending our staff to India at key points was integral to the success,' he says.

'You can't underestimate the knowledge transfer that needs to happen.'

What were the business benefits and return on investment?

'The most significant saving has been the technology saving,' says Lansdown.

By introducing internet banking for large corporates, Barclays has been able to cut down on the number of dedicated PC banking systems that it has had to install for customers.

'We will be able to close our existing PC banking systems over time,' he says.

This will also cut down on maintenance and upgrade costs, says Lansdown.

'When we develop a new version of internet banking it will automatically go out to customers,' he says.

'Before, we were supporting multiple versions of the PC system.'

How do you plan to build on the project further?

We will be building upon this platform regularly, says Lansdown.

'We will continue to extend the core functionality and also improve management of accounts overseas.'

Barclays says it also plans to develop personalised content tailored to individual business needs, including news and financial advice, says Lansdown.

Computing says:

Barclays has reduced project costs by building upon an existing online banking system and cut maintenance charges by transferring existing workstation-based customers over to internet banking. The company has also shown that complex business applications can be successfully developed by offshore development teams.

And the bank has managed to allay current online banking fears, surrounding phishing and identity theft, by introducing a smartcard authentication system.

Project at a glance

*Barclays Business Internet Banking is a service tailored for large and medium sized businesses, providing tools such as foreign exchange trading, import and export capabilities and integration with other enterprise software

*The bank worked with systems integrator Xansa to develop the application offshore in India

*Smartcards, readers, 128-bit encryption and passwords all provide an extra level of security, with permission-based rules allowing firms to restrict staff access to certain parts of the site

*More than 1,000 large and medium sized businesses have signed up to the internet banking service since its launch in July

*Barclays plans to make further cost and maintenance savings by switching dedicated PC workstation-based customers over to internet banking

*The bank has future plans to develop personalised content and financial advice for individual customers

Source: VNU Net