Creating IT Architecture Solution for Banking 

Background

Banking and finance companies need to adhere to the demands and expectations of the ever-evolving market that is driven by globalization and advancement in technology. As part of a digital transformation, your existing IT system infrastructure may require an overhaul and modernization, as you strive to achieve a more flexible, responsive, secure, and reliable solution to optimize business expenses and provide excellent services to the customers. 

A modernized IT system infrastructure, which is more flexible, responsive, secure, and reliable, helps optimize business expenses and provide excellent customer service. 

Client

The client is a top retail bank with the head office in Brussels, Belgium and branches in Paris and London. The company specializes in trade finance operations for select exporters in Europe and provides banking services to customers in the Middle East and North African countries.

Challenges

The client was facing the challenge of managing their extensive infrastructure of servers and devices and required expert consulting on aligning the architecture and keeping track of infrastructure inventory, dependencies, and costs. 

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Solution

Symphony Solutions took the client through a discovery phase to investigate the inner workings of their IT system infrastructure, and how it is arranged and managed, detect areas for improvement and come up with an action plan. The provided architecture consulting services entailed inquiring into the following issues: 

• Who is working with what?
• How is it arranged?
• Where is it hosted?
• What are the dependencies?
• What is the cost?

Architecture consulting services begin with a discovery phase in which the expert team investigates your IT system infrastructure arrangement and management. The aim is to detect any shortcomings and areas for improvement, followed by the development of an action plan. 

Symphony Solutions architecture consulting team discussed with the client the further steps required to align and manage the infrastructure, which would allow to: 

• Have an extensive database of servers and devices that make up the IT system infrastructure 
• Understand dependencies and constraints within the infrastructure 
• Know the possible triggers that can affect the workflow of the infrastructure 
• Optimize expenses 
• Create a user-friendly UI to accommodate non-tech-savvy users 
• Decided on tech stack for further implementation of the architecture solution. 

The team worked on developing a comprehensive IT architecture solution in accordance with TOGAF 9 framework, including: 

• Building the CMDB from scratch 
• Designing IT Asset Management (ITAM) processes 
• Working on Enterprise architecture 
• Designing the architecture repository. 

TOGAF 9 is the global framework for enterprise IT architecture. 

Group security policy for SWIFT was also implemented as requested by the client. Symphony Solutions’ IT specialist was brought on board to deliver the solution that allowed all the devices to pass the security audit and be compliant with the SWIFT policy.  

Result

Symphony Solutions provided IT architecture consulting services to get the client started on implementing the solution for a more efficient and streamlined IT system infrastructure: 

• Conducted audit of the existing infrastructure 
• Drafted architecture that will be implemented in the course of further cooperation 
• Built the CMDB from scratch 
• Finished the first phase of IT and Application architecture 
• Created and implemented an IT solution for group policy to address security concerns 

Symphony Solutions continues to work with the client on further implementation of the proposed solution.