BAWAG P.S.K.

Overview
When BAWAG acquired P.S.K., the resulting entity became the fourth-largest banking group in Austria. Despite this impressive market position, BAWAG P.S.K. recognized that achieving post-merger cost savings would require a standardized IT backbone for the entire organization.

Neither the BAWAG nor the P.S.K. system was considered advanced enough to serve the merged entity's core banking needs, and developing an entirely new system would be time consuming and expensive.

For help, BAWAG P.S.K. turned to Accenture. Accenture has a proven record of helping financial institutions succeed in large-scale IT transformation and systems integration projects—and Accenture offers Alnova Financial Solutions, a modular core banking system that has been implemented worldwide more than 100 times.

How Accenture Helped
Accenture assembled a team of experts from more than 10 countries to implement Alnova Financial Solutions at BAWAG P.S.K. through a series of releases. The first three releases focused on specific banking modules, including: deposits and payments, loans and credit cards. The final release involved migrating all P.S.K. client account data to the new system and implementing the Alnova Financial Solutions' front-end at postal branches.

Alnova Financial Solutions enabled BAWAG P.S.K.'s postal banking channel to shift from a centralized to decentralized model, reducing the need for large back offices and enhancing service levels by providing online access to all customer- and product-related information. Customers would benefit from improved personal service, real- time processing and easy access to a comprehensive range of financial products.

In addition to system integration, Accenture supported BAWAG P.S.K. by providing functional design, change management and staff training. In particular, the Accenture Delivery Center in Spain provided skilled professionals to ensure overall implementation quality as well as to help mitigate resource constraints and quickly deliver software components.

High Performance Delivered
Accenture helped BAWAG P.S.K. implement Alnova Financial Solutions in only 29 months—making it one of the fastest implementations in the world. BAWAG P.S.K. is now maximizing the benefits of its recent merger and reducing IT maintenance costs by up to 20 percent.

By offering a joint operating platform and achieving business integration, the bank is also able to:

• Streamline work processes.
• Create synergies between IT capabilities and business goals.
• Support Basel II compliance activities.
• Adapt quickly to new market conditions.

BAWAG P.S.K. achieved a solid post-merger IT platform for its constituent organizations by introducing Alnova Financial Solutions.

Client Background
BAWAG P.S.K. is a leading banking group that serves approximately 1.2 million retail customers and 60,000 corporate clients in Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta and Slovakia. The group reports total assets of €45.4 billion and has around 6,300 employees who administer customer deposits of €20.1 billion. With 150 BAWAG branches and more than 1,300 post offices, BAWAG P.S.K. now has the largest centrally managed distribution network in Austria.