Development, Optimisation and Maintenance of Back-office Systems at a Bank

Background

At the time Bank Nowy joined our client base, they operated under the name Podkarpacki Bank Spółdzielczy (PBS). Another change that occurred was a result of the restructuring of PBS bank, transforming it into Bank Nowy BFG S.A. Currently, after the completion of the restructuring process, the bank now operates under the name Bank Nowy S.A. and provides services available on the website. Our work with the bank lasted from 2018 to 2022, until change of ownership, which determined the use of the name Bank Nowy BFG in the context of our activities.

Bank Nowy BFG offered a comprehensive range of services for both individual and business clients. Among the modern solutions were: electronic banking system, e-loan, mobile application for fund management and payment processing via smartphone. Additionally, this bank stood out with the possibility of using biometric banking, allowing customers to authorise different operations, such as cash withdrawal from an ATM or opening a new savings account by fingerprint identification.

Challenge

In the operation of the bank, a significant challenge is managing the diverse IT systems. These include systems supporting the provision/closure of financial services, payment processing, reporting support, ATM reporting and management. It is necessary to maintain a particularly high level of security throughout the organisation, for which purpose the bank’s infrastructure is as strongly isolated from the external network as possible.

Additionally, the banking industry is subject to rigorous and often changing legal regulations, which affects the need to adjust the implementation processes and modify the software under the influence of changing regulations. This requires the need to keep a programming team ready for these sudden changes in the banking infrastructure.

Tasks Performed – Example 1

The bank has an extensive local network where the employees’ computers, operating on various operating systems, are integrated. One of the tasks we carried out was the development of a set of administrative scripts aimed at efficient data synchronization between individual computers and enabling data sharing according to the hierarchy prevailing in the bank’s structure.

Tasks Performed – Example 2

In one of the key cyclical processes in the bank, which originally took the whole day, we took actions aimed at significantly optimising the execution time. For some elements of the system, the bank did not have access to the source code, which forced us to decompile JAR files. The entire system was written in outdated and no longer supported versions of Java and PHP, requiring it to be migrated to the current versions of these technologies. During the software analysis, we identified the causes of performance issues and fixed them. The result of our actions is over a 100 times increase in the speed of the software. The process is now completed in just a few minutes, which is an acceptable time.

Tasks Performed – Example 3

Another issue that Bank Nowy BFG approached us with was related to employee transfers between departments, specifically regarding access to the files and data of employees from different departments. In the previous system, when an employee was transferred from one department to another, all their data would automatically move to the new department, and the original one would lose access to the employee’s information and files. However, the client wanted all documentation to remain in the original department, with limited access from the new department. In response to this need, we developed an efficient solution that automatically assigned the appropriate permissions according to the client’s expectations. As a result, the process of migrating employees between departments became as smooth as possible while ensuring the proper levels of access to the documentation.

Result

We formed a constant technical support team for our client, ready to act whenever they encountered technological problems or needed modifications or expansions of the system. Our programming team actively addressed the client’s ongoing needs and remained ready to handle further tasks after completing their work. The client appreciated our high technical competence, expert knowledge and effective communication skills. In the project, we utilised various technologies depending on the tasks assigned by the client.