[kictanet] TCO & Cloud

[robert yawe]

Hi Listers,

I came across a news item about how KREP Bank is to "invest" US 600,000/- (Kes 52,000,000 aka 52 Million) for a new banking software.

The system, Temenos T24, is a monster of an application also being under used by Kenya Commercial Bank in addition the Kenya Bankers SACCO barely uses it in a single site.

We keep bragging about how we are a technology savvy nation and developing a knowledge economy yet we are the most under-utilisers of technology. 

Which is a clear explanation why Vodafone cannot understand our obsession with wanting the MPesa servers installed in Kenya yet I am sure we currently utilise less than 1% of the capacity of the servers in Germany and 5% for 2 days in a month.

Temenos can handle over 3,000 transactions per second and handle over 25 million accounts across 2,000 branches  http://sqlcat.com/sqlcat/b/technicalnotes/archive/2011/04/26/lessons-learned-from-benchmarking-a-tier-1-core-banking-isv-solution-temenos-t24.aspx. 

Temenos can handle the needs of all the banks in Kenya (approximately 6 million unique accounts) and still not break a sweat while consuming less energy and resources than a mobile base station.  

Please let no one raise the issue of lost IT jobs because last time I checked a server was not a charcoal "jiko" that needs fanning.


KREP has less than 200,000 accounts & 35 branches http://www.k-repbank.com/branches.html, with Temenos they can run a transaction for each one of their clients every 58 seconds so what does the application do the rest of the time?  Kenya Bankers SACCO is an even more telling story with 1 branch and less than 20,000 members also uses Temenos that is internally installed.

If Equity was to use the same software it will take 21 minutes to run a transaction for each of its 4.3 million clients so why do we complain when MPesa takes 5 minutes (over 14 million accounts) to handle a transaction on the 15th and 30th of the month?

I am sure many of you in the banking sector are wreathing in anger because I am refusing to acknowledge that the data needs to be kept secure that is why you must look the servers in your individual server rooms.  So why doesnt the same arise when you open up your applications to KenSwitch for shared ATMs, to the mobile providers for mobile banking and to the ISPs for online banking.a

Here is my solution, Safaricom (I am using them as an example as they are less likely to sue me) buys off all the licenses of Temenos that all those small banks, DTMFIs, MFIs and SACCOs have bought and then install Temenos in their 2 billion cloud.  

Buy all those Sun and HP servers that have been running those core banking systems and donate them to universities around the country, they can recover the costs by writing them off next year as obsolete therefore passing on the cost to the taxman.

Then they can offer a complete package to the banks for using the cloud services without a nimbus and stratus pricing structure.  Safaricom, being experts at per second billing, can offer a similar solution to the financial institutions for use of the system.  To the financial institutions the use of the cloud will be treated as an expense therefore reducing their tax obligations.

What about the staff you say, the only ones who are likely to loose are service providers like myself who have actually become over glorified cleaners more because we charge more than really the service we render.

We have all been throwing profanities at the Walter of the Lazy African article fame yet we continue to prove him right every single day, yes, you, him, her and I.

Have a lazy day.

Regards
 
Robert Yawe
KAY System Technologies Ltd
Phoenix House, 6th Floor
P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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