The Customer:

A large retail bank in South-East Asia.

The Challenge:

The bank has set itself the goal to increase its customer base and the volume of electronic transactions conducted by having a sound technological edge over its competitors, and by providing improved quality service to all its customers. i-flex solutions, having achieved SEI-CMM^® Process Maturity, was approached by the bank to provide consultancy and define a global strategy for a Process and Quality Improvement Program (PQIP).

Recommended Solution:

i-flex offered to provide the bank with Phase I of its PQIP Consultancy. i-flex and the bank mutually decided that the Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model (SEI-CMM^® ) would be adopted as the framework for developing the PQIP.

As per the CMM^® requirements, participants from the bank's software projects would have to undergo an introductory orientation and training on SEI-CMM concepts, which was conducted by i-flex consultants. Presentations and demos on i-flex products - An online repository of modern software engineering processes and management practices, and a tool for project monitoring and tracking - were also conducted to expose the bank's key project personnel to i-flex tools for process adherence and improvement. i-flex consultants held investigations with the bank's project personnel at various levels to understand current processes, documentation and the nature of business at the bank.

Finally, based on the investigation, i-flex formally presented a global strategy for process and quality improvement to the bank, outlining the recommendations and action points. Non-existent groups/ functions at the bank, but ones required by the CMM^®, were also highlighted as part of the global action plan.

Customer Benefits:

 strengthening of the technology cell through improvements in software development processes.

 resultant improved quality of the software services provided

 lesser effort spent on maintaining systems for customer services, effectively reducing the cost of services (cost per transaction) provided to the customer

 improved quality and high-value technology services will result in a much larger volume of transactions and an increased customer base

 in addition to the above, a higher software process maturity model, as defined by SEI-CMM^®, will play a very important role in establishing the No.1 technology cell status for the bank, thus arming it with a competitive edge in the banking business

^®CMM is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by Carnegie Mellon University.