Zaman Islamic Bank JSC Starts Using Colvir Core Banking System

We are happy to broadcast the news that Zaman Islamic Bank JSC have gone live with Colvir Core Banking System. The implementation project had been ongoing from September 2019, and the system went live года on Octoberb12, 2020. The key objective of the exercise was to replace the Bank’s outdated legacy Core Banking System. Zaman Bank’s top management and staff decided to go with Colvir Core Banking System v.3 that is already leveraged for their business process automation by 15 Kazakhstan banks including the country’s largest financial institutions. The system is fully localized for Kazakhstan, complies with key regulatory requirements and supports requisite integrations with IT systems used by the country’s public authorities. The project scope encompassed implementation and setup of business modules required to support teller and current account services, modules used to generate and send regulatory reports, Data Warehouse and Internet Banking for  business users.

The project team comprised experts experienced in implementing relevant business modules, migration experts and Data Warehouse implementation experts. The go-live exercise also involved analysts, developers, module designers and other relevant experts. Effective engagement between the Colvir and Zaman Bank teams was delivered by the project managers who ensured timely communication among team members, deadline management and comprehensive implementation of the Bank’s requirements.

Dinara Tumenova, an employee of Colvir Software Solutions who was the Colvir Project Manager for the Islamic Zaman Bank JSC project, shared with us her experiences of what made this core banking system implementation project so unique.

I am very glad that we have implemented the Zaman Bank project. Each and every bank is certainly unique, and Zaman Bank is no exception. It is supposed to be of a relatively moderate size by Kazakhstan standards, and that makes it possible to pay greater attention and offer personalized treatment to each customer. This is exactly what the Bank places emphasis on— it has circa 1000 customers, over 2000 opened accounts and posts some 600 accounting entries per day. Despite the relatively small number of employees, the team demonstrated excellent performance, and I would like to give credit for this to the Bank’s IT Head Igor Demchenko and its leading domain expert Botagoz Akhmetov. Their team managed to master the system from scratch within a short space of time, and ensure successful go-live from the Bank’s side

Dinara Tumenova

Colvir Project Manager for the Islamic Zaman Bank JSC project

The system implementation process took 1 year from project kick-off to go-live, although the initial plan provided for this to be completed within 6 months. The pandemic caused 80% of the Bank’s employees to be assigned to remote working, and this slowed down the user acceptance testing process. It was also in May that the Bank launched an integration project — it was decided to wait for its completion prior to Core Banking System go-live.

Dinara Tumenova elaborated on specific aspects of putting a core banking system into service remotely under coronavirus pandemic conditions. This was the first ever such experience for Colvir, as well as for Zaman Bank:

The Bank employees were affected by the pandemic above all: they had to adapt to the online working regime and facilitate remote access for all employees involved in the project. We reassigned resources, and we made arrangements with the Bank for remote go-live. Implementation per se, as well as system startup in the production environment were performed remotely. All issue were discussed and resolved via correspondence in Skype chats, video calls, screen sharing with users. It should be mentioned however that this had zero impact on the issue resolution timeliness and quality — the remote go-live went without a hitch according to Zaman Bank management. This was the first remote CBS go-live experience for all the parties involved, and it was recognized as successful. Particular thanks go to Zaman Bank deputy Management Board Chairperson Diara Smagulova and Zaman Bank Management Board Chairperson Gulfairuz Asaeva for their support, their commitment to the project, and every assistance that they provided during this difficult year.

Dinara Tumenova

Colvir Project Manager for the Islamic Zaman Bank JSC project

The Bank’s representatives appreciated the Colvir Software Solutions flagship product, as well as its implementation process процесс. Zaman Bank IT Head Igor Demchenko provided the following comment:

"Сolvir Core Banking System offers adequately rich functionality and setup flexibility. I may also note its excellent scalability. As far as user impressions are concerned, initial comments are also positive. Bank employees recognize the system’s operational user  friendliness, its intuitive easy to understand interface, and its rich functionality".

In conclusion: not only have we achieved the targets set, but we have also gained new experience implementing such large-scale projects in today’s online reality. We are currently going through the stabilization period — Colvir technical experts are communicating with the Bank and promptly responding to any issues arising in the course of system operation. No critical errors have been encountered by the Bank, no any downtime has occurred since go-live, and this may be considered as successful outcome of the first months of Zaman Bank using Colvir Core Banking System.

About the Bank: 

Zaman Islamic Bank JSC was established on June 6, 1991, and is one of the oldest banks in Kazakhstan. The Bank’s 27 years long banking activity experience and its highly professional personnel ensure for the Bank’s customers prompt response time, personalized treatment, quick decision making and continuous support. The Bank’s shareholders include the Islamic Private Sector Development Corporation (ICD) which is a multi-party organization and a member of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group. The Bank partners with Shariyah Review Bureau – a global leading company in the Shariyah principles and standards consultancy domain.

In case your bank is interested in business process optimization, write to your account manager, or to sales@colvir.com, and we will tell you about the product features in more detail.