Implement a New Release Spanning Two International
Business Units over Five Months


Project Background

In keeping with its strategic upgrade path, the bank was migrating its current Avaloq Banking System release to the latest version. The priority was to ensure existing functionality and processes were supported while also assessing the potential advantages of any new features. When Orbium took over the project, it was already several months old – and had been encountering some difficulties.


The Client

The client is a medium size private bank belonging to a very large international banking group that covers a large span of banking activities. Its private banking business is spread across several international locations.


Challenges

The bank was one of Avaloq Evolution AG’s first clients and as such was using the system extensively, taking full advantage of its flexibility. Technically and business-wise, the scope of activities covered was large due to the sophisticated activities of the Group. The history of the existing system also meant that the migration path presented significant challenges, including managing legacy functionalities.

In addition to the technical aspects, Orbium was to take the overall project lead and provide a business and development team. As the project had already been running for several months, one of the key challenges was to ensure that the new team was smoothly integrated with both the previous project team and the management.


Scope of Project and Orbium’s Role

The initial project consisted of implementing a major release change for multiple business units across different countries within nine months. Orbium assumed full responsibility for the project in the latter half of this time period, taking on board the analysis completed to date. Orbium’s responsibilities included the following:

  • Carrying out the business & technical analysis and module parameterisation & tests across the full implementation
  • Training key business users as well as the IT department
  • Managing the migration to the new release
  • Leading the complete build/implementation team
  • Assisting the bank’s IT team in post-live support.


Results

The project was delivered on time and within budget. Despite taking over a project that had already started, the Orbium team assumed responsibility smoothly and developed a very constructive relationship with both the stakeholders and other consultants working on the client side. The positive outcome allowed us to develop a long term relationship with this client, which continues to grow through additional projects.