Tech giant Oracle has unveiled a new banking platform it hopes will tempt large financial institutions pondering the replacement of decades-old legacy systems.
Oracle has developed the platform with National Australia Bank over the last few years. Initially, the Aussie firm signed for Oracle's flagship i-flex core system back in 2008 but as the project evolved a new platform emerged, which customers of NAB's direct banking subsidiary UBank migrated to over the summer.
Now Oracle is pitching the platform to other big banks, many of which are finally looking to replace complex, ageing legacy systems that have until recently been deemed too risky and expensive to overhaul.
Bob Hunt, research director, CEB TowerGroup, says that although some banks are developing their own systems, most are turning to vendors, who have "responded to banks' needs for a less risky approach to modernisation by using service-oriented architecture to componentise their systems, allowing banks to implement single systems or even individual processes within the system."
The Oracle system is designed as such a native SOA platform, helping banks implement "key enterprise services, deliver on customer centricity, enrich channel capability, drive process improvement and tie it in with their existing applications and technology", says Oracle.
The firm claims that, through pre-integrated enterprise applications and the underlying Oracle technology stack, its platform can also help to reduce in-house integration and testing efforts, ultimately, reducing IT costs and improving time-to-market.
Frank Brienzi, GM, Oracle Financial Services global business unit, says: "Oracle Banking Platform provides a comprehensive suite of applications that makes the replacement of core systems viable for large banks, enabling strategic choices as well as providing a high level of flexibility and value."