CASE STUDY
The business challenge
BankservAfrica has a proud heritage as the
trusted utility to enable the distribution
of wealth and currency in a thriving,
vibrant and diverse nation. South Africa’s
National Payment System (NPS) is widely
acknowledged as one of the most efficient
and effective in the world.
Banks must now consistently deliver
positive customer experiences across both
digital and traditional channels, and add
value in new ways, to increase customer
retention and strengthen their customer
relationships. Often, technology can help.
To maintain the reliability and robustness
of the NPS, BankservAfrica invested in
state of the art data centres and disaster
recovery (DR) strategies. The goal was real
ABOUT BANKSERVAFRICA
BankservAfrica is the largest
automated clearing house (ACH) and
payment system operator in Africa.
BankservAfrica processes billions of
transactions each year for 23 banks
and their 27 million customers, while
maintaining the safety and security
of South Africa’s National Payment
System. BankservAfrica was established
in 1972 and is based in Johannesburg.
“Organisations the world over must contend
with changing customer requirements that
see an expectation of continuous availability.
Institutions that resist digital transformation
will ultimately be punished by customers,
financial markets and to some degree
regulators. This is even more so the case when
it comes to the financial services industry that
has embraced mobility and is offering users
solutions that service their needs irrespective
of location. That’s why we’re seeing financial
institutions and banks move quickly to
embrace digital,” said Claude Schuck, Regional
Manager for Africa at Veeam.
CHALLENGE
The payment landscape has changed
rapidly in recent years. Countries around
the world are working hard to improve
and modernise their payment systems,
including South Africa. The country’s
payment system plays a pivotal role in
the financial health of the economy.
Modernising the payment system
required BankservAfrica to evolve
the way it protects data. Backup and
recovery was slow, proving at times
to be challenging to ensure data
availability 24.7.365.
SOLUTION
“Payments and transactions are our
lifeblood,” said Hamman Ferreira, Chief
Technology Officer at BankservAfrica, “So we
understand the need for modernisation in
the payment landscape. We are constantly
striving to safeguard against disaster.”
Modernising the payment landscape
required BankservAfrica to modernise the
way it protects data. At the time, the backup
and recovery processes on some of its
legacy systems were slow, resulting in the
organisation being unable to meet recovery
point objectives (RPO) in service level
agreements (SLAs) with customers.
• Veeam Backup & Replication
RESULTS
• Delivers 24/7/365 availability of
banking data
• Meets customer SLAs readily
VEEAM DELIVERS A LEVEL OF VALUE
THAT COMPETING SOLUTIONS WERE
UNABLE TO MEET; BOTH MONETARILY
AND PEACE OF MIND.
time, continuous payment processing to
ensure that participating banks can provide
service to their customers 24.7.365. Making
sure its services were always available
was a key differentiator for the financial
institution, and would transform the
experiences of its customers.
www.intelligentcio.com
“Our backup technology required updating
to meet the ongoing demands of the ever-
evolving payments industry and alignment
with new technologies. This also ensures that
backup, recovery and testing is enhanced.
Additionally, that we successfully protect and
guarantee the data at all times.” Ferreira said.
Ferreira said rapidly growing data (30% per
year) added to ensuring that systems were
enhanced to meet capacity and SLAs.
He added: “Mobile banking and the need
for real time data analytics have grown
dramatically in popularity, which are some of
the main reasons behind our data growth.”
Sub-Saharan Africa countries, including
South Africa, have recorded the largest
growth of mobile bank accounts being
opened globally, according to Moody’s
Investor Service. Approximately 12% of
adults had mobile bank accounts in 2015,
compared to 2% globally.
“Up until recently, cash was king, but that has
changed substantially as mobile devices and
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