Case Studies: Financial Services

InvestLink, a major technology provider to the Defined Contribution industry, was outgrowing its existing system, and decided on a redesign to meet its immediate and long-term needs. After finding that an Oracle-based solution would have cost more than twice as much as a SQL Server 2005 and .NET Framework 2.0-based solution, InvestLink contracted with Microsoft partner twentysix New York to jointly build a solution around the Microsoft Application Platform. This solution was brought to market successfully in 18 months. The new solution boasts better scalability and security, lower ongoing costs, and higher productivity for programmers and users alike.

To reduce complexity and to gain the agility to better meet customer needs, NLB Tutunska banka needed to migrate its operations—including core banking—to a more tightly integrated environment. The bank moved its operations to a banking application suite created by Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner Pexim Solutions, and deployed on Microsoft SQL Server™ 2005 Enterprise Edition. The solution runs on an active/passive cluster using Microsoft Windows Server® 2003 Clustering Services. Each node is configured with eight Dual-Core Intel® Xeon® 7040 processors running at 3.0 gigahertz, and has 16 gigabytes of RAM.

Shinhan Bank (SB), a leading financial service provider based in Seoul, Korea, completed a merger with Chohung Bank in April 2006. In preparation for the merger, SB developed a business plan for a total modernization of the combined institutions’ IT infrastructure. It wanted to transfer the Chohung Bank groupware to its own Goldwing groupware to form an integrated communications nucleus for its IT activities. SB successfully transferred the Chohung Bank Unix/Oracle-based groupware solution to Kaoni exFlow2000, optimized under Microsoft® Windows®, Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005 and Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003. The system went live for 22,000 users on the same day that SB merged with Chohung Bank. By transferring all sectors with excessive workloads to a 64-bit based environment, the bank improved its business efficiency, and now effectively meets increased user demands.