Largest Private Tunisian bank selects PeerLogic and Sun Starfire

The bank, which collects a rapidly-growing database of information daily from the 100 branches and runs batch jobs overnight, migrated 3,000 programs, 2,500 files, and 350 batch jobs with 6,500 steps from the mainframe to the Sun Enterprise server, using LiveContent TRANS and a relational database for some of the files. All applications were moved to the system in just eight months, a quick move for a system of that size. The new system runs batch jobs 20 percent faster than the mainframe did, and there was minimal retraining required for developers on the new system. To accomplish the migration quickly and efficiently, PeerLogic and Sun teamed with TMI, a large, experienced Tunisian systems integrator.

BIAT's previous mainframe was limiting the bank's expansion and service capabilities. Running the core banking applications since the bank was formed in 1976, the system lacked flexibility to adapt to rapidly evolving market needs and customer demands. In addition, the existing system could not handle projected business growth, and high operational costs threatened to place the bank at a competitive disadvantage in the marketplace. Replacing its mainframe with a flexible, scaleable open system would enable BIAT to take advantage of future eBusiness opportunities for international growth.

BIAT's return on investment in the new system includes a 20 percent reduction in batch job running time, which will enable the necessary banking updates to be done overnight, increased productivity of bank employees through access to the new database, better system performance, and lower cost of system ownership. These benefits, provided by the investment in the PeerLogic and Sun system, specifically meet BIAT's stated project goals of a centralized customer database to improve client loyalty, automation of transactions for reduced operating costs, and platform expansion capabilities for future growth.