Resona Holdings, one of Japan's largest Banks, overhauled its branch system with Low-Code in record time
A growing number of large-scale, mission-critical companies choose GeneXus and the advantages of Low-Code development. In this case, Resona has quickly progressed towards a complete overhaul of its physical branch system, using web terminals, in half of the expected development time.
With the support of NTT Data, the Branch System of Resona Holdings is being overhauled using GeneXus Low-Code development platform to accelerate the processes of system creation, maintenance and deployment.
Resona Holdings has been the fifth largest banking group in Japan since 2012. The company was founded on December 12, 2001 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
The Resona Group banks serve small-sized companies and individuals at a regional level by providing a wide range of banking and financial services. It operates through Consumer Banking, Corporate Banking, Market Trading, and other segments.
The importance of focusing on the branch system
In order to contribute to the digitalization of the bank and the realization of a "business management system that supports customers," a new system was implemented, which, in addition to providing customer convenience, also helped to reduce the banks' costs.
The thousands of physical terminals (designated device for specific purpose) to perform the different operations that Resona Bank's customers used to count on will be reduced by half, while the capacity to meet customers' needs will increase by 70% by enabling the use of general-purpose terminals (PCs, tablets, cell phones).
The truth is that branches are important points of contact with customers and the reduction of these points of contact due to digitalization is often a problem. NTT Data, NTT Data Sofia and GeneXus team in Japan point out that, in order to solve these problems, location-free digital reception terminals were developed, thus contributing to the achievement of the "customer-facing business operation system" intended by Resona Holdings.
It is a web application that can perform about 150 transactions: open an account, transfer a savings account, open a fixed-term / accumulated account, deposits and withdrawals, biometric registration, and various inquiries in the account system.
The new branch system was gradually rolled out starting April 19, 2021, and will be introduced in about 450 Resona Bank and Saitama Resona Bank locations by December 2021. The investment will amount to 10 billion yen, the equivalent to almost 100 million dollars.
Advantages
The greatest advantage of the new system is to be on the client side, as 70% of the work that was previously processed with a single terminal can be done with a tablet or a personal computer. This is expected to reduce the number of terminals – currently around 7,000 – to less than half. The goal is to reduce the remaining 30% of the work that needs to be processed by a dedicated terminal.
Prior to the development process, in 2019, NTT DATA SOFIA carried out a study to assess the feasibility and productivity of the new system. As a result, it was confirmed that a very short development could be achieved in seven months, less than half the estimated time (16 months) based on previous results, and that, in turn, productivity would be increased. This led to the adoption of the new system, as it was less than half the estimated development time based on the results of conventional development.
In a very short period, an open and lightweight system structure was achieved, instead of a packaged product, along with the certainty that the adoption of a Low- Code development platform improves productivity and shortens development time, while enabling long-term use of software assets.
GeneXus was chosen as a Low-Code development tool because it can keep up with the evolution of information technology in a timely manner, while allowing the bank to focus its limited human resources on business applications, which are its competitive advantage.
NTT DATA and NTT DATA SOFIA jointly created a development standard for the GeneXus platform, so that even beginners could take part in the construction of the system.
Haruyuki Nakamura, General Manager of the Sales Management Department, Financial IT Management Division, Financial Business Headquarters, NTT DATA, said that: "We have made it possible for even inexperienced engineers to carry out development work according to certain rules."
Technical Characteristics
When developing the web application to operate on the terminal side of the new system, innovation was achieved by choosing a Low-Code development tool.
The new system is open source, using Linux as the operating system and open source PostgreSQL as the DBMS (database management system).
GeneXus automatically generates table definitions and source code such as Java and .NET when design information such as data elements, input/output rules and screen display is entered.
Resona HD also automatically generated Java applications that handle about 150 types of transactions, such as opening accounts and transferring savings.
Why GeneXus?
“GeneXus can almost automatically operate the business system implementation even in the change of operating system,” explains Koki Katayama, Process Reform Manager at Resona HD, and “Resona HD started to expand other systems with GeneXus, not only for Branch
System but also for Smart Phone Application in Minato Bank (one of the group banks),” explains Takahisa Usui, IT Planning Manager at Resona HD).
In addition, in the Japanese news outlet Nikkei, NTT Data states that the adoption of a Low Code development tool such as GeneXus has enabled them to significantly improve productivity and shorten development time from 16 to 7 months.
Sources:
xtech.nikkei.com
www.nikkei.com
Resona Holdings has been the fifth largest banking group in Japan since 2012. The company was founded on December 12, 2001 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
The Resona Group banks serve small-sized companies and individuals at a regional level by providing a wide range of banking and financial services. It operates through Consumer Banking, Corporate Banking, Market Trading, and other segments.
The importance of focusing on the branch system
In order to contribute to the digitalization of the bank and the realization of a "business management system that supports customers," a new system was implemented, which, in addition to providing customer convenience, also helped to reduce the banks' costs.
The thousands of physical terminals (designated device for specific purpose) to perform the different operations that Resona Bank's customers used to count on will be reduced by half, while the capacity to meet customers' needs will increase by 70% by enabling the use of general-purpose terminals (PCs, tablets, cell phones).
The truth is that branches are important points of contact with customers and the reduction of these points of contact due to digitalization is often a problem. NTT Data, NTT Data Sofia and GeneXus team in Japan point out that, in order to solve these problems, location-free digital reception terminals were developed, thus contributing to the achievement of the "customer-facing business operation system" intended by Resona Holdings.
It is a web application that can perform about 150 transactions: open an account, transfer a savings account, open a fixed-term / accumulated account, deposits and withdrawals, biometric registration, and various inquiries in the account system.
The new branch system was gradually rolled out starting April 19, 2021, and will be introduced in about 450 Resona Bank and Saitama Resona Bank locations by December 2021. The investment will amount to 10 billion yen, the equivalent to almost 100 million dollars.
Advantages
The greatest advantage of the new system is to be on the client side, as 70% of the work that was previously processed with a single terminal can be done with a tablet or a personal computer. This is expected to reduce the number of terminals – currently around 7,000 – to less than half. The goal is to reduce the remaining 30% of the work that needs to be processed by a dedicated terminal.
Prior to the development process, in 2019, NTT DATA SOFIA carried out a study to assess the feasibility and productivity of the new system. As a result, it was confirmed that a very short development could be achieved in seven months, less than half the estimated time (16 months) based on previous results, and that, in turn, productivity would be increased. This led to the adoption of the new system, as it was less than half the estimated development time based on the results of conventional development.
In a very short period, an open and lightweight system structure was achieved, instead of a packaged product, along with the certainty that the adoption of a Low- Code development platform improves productivity and shortens development time, while enabling long-term use of software assets.
GeneXus was chosen as a Low-Code development tool because it can keep up with the evolution of information technology in a timely manner, while allowing the bank to focus its limited human resources on business applications, which are its competitive advantage.
NTT DATA and NTT DATA SOFIA jointly created a development standard for the GeneXus platform, so that even beginners could take part in the construction of the system.
Haruyuki Nakamura, General Manager of the Sales Management Department, Financial IT Management Division, Financial Business Headquarters, NTT DATA, said that: "We have made it possible for even inexperienced engineers to carry out development work according to certain rules."
Technical Characteristics
When developing the web application to operate on the terminal side of the new system, innovation was achieved by choosing a Low-Code development tool.
The new system is open source, using Linux as the operating system and open source PostgreSQL as the DBMS (database management system).
GeneXus automatically generates table definitions and source code such as Java and .NET when design information such as data elements, input/output rules and screen display is entered.
Resona HD also automatically generated Java applications that handle about 150 types of transactions, such as opening accounts and transferring savings.
Why GeneXus?
“GeneXus can almost automatically operate the business system implementation even in the change of operating system,” explains Koki Katayama, Process Reform Manager at Resona HD, and “Resona HD started to expand other systems with GeneXus, not only for Branch
System but also for Smart Phone Application in Minato Bank (one of the group banks),” explains Takahisa Usui, IT Planning Manager at Resona HD).
In addition, in the Japanese news outlet Nikkei, NTT Data states that the adoption of a Low Code development tool such as GeneXus has enabled them to significantly improve productivity and shorten development time from 16 to 7 months.
Sources:
xtech.nikkei.com
www.nikkei.com