Barclays beats refresh target
Bank completes main part of £5m upgrade six months before schedule
Barclays has completed the main part of a £5m upgrade to replace its counter systems ahead of schedule.
The bank has replaced 60,000 pieces of legacy branch hardware at 1,736 branches six months ahead of the 18-month timescale, according to Kevin Robson, Barclay’s programme manager.
‘We brought the schedule forward to concentrate on a number of larger more profitable branches,’ he said.
The new infrastructure will allow the bank to develop applications that would not have been able to run on the old system.
‘We are remodelling our branch-based applications and converting them into more modern work data applications in terms of functionality and presentation,’ said Robson.
‘Removing legacy applications will reduce support and maintenance costs in the longer term because we won’t be running both legacy and new applications,’ said Robson.
He says Barclays is already experiencing benefits.
‘By replacing architecture you are obviously getting a better support position, fewer failures because it’s not old kit anymore and as far as the user is concerned they get a more pleasant experience,’ he said.
‘We have rolled out a number of products and applications that have improved our ability to interface with customers, which in turn improves the sales ratio with those customers.
‘Being web-based means it gives us more opportunity to do cross-application blending.’
Although the core project objectives have been achieved, it will take until the end of the year before the new infrastructure is completely operational.
‘As soon as the latter components are done we’ll build on the new kit by removing more legacy applications which in turn will enhance our servicing interface,’ said Robson.
IT services provider Getronics supplied Barclays with the new equipment and training for 17,000 counter staff.
Robson says accelerating the project schedule was down to the relationship between Barclays and Getronics.
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