Doha bank Wednesday signed a multimillion dollar agreement with HP(Hewlet Packard) and its local partner Mannai for deployment of an integrated enterprise architecture in line with the strategy to redefine IT infrastructure to support the current and future Business challenges. The solution from HP was chosen after an intense study of the state of art solutions available in the market.
Sheikh Abdul Rehman Bin Mohammad Bin Jabor Al Thani, Managing Director of Doha Bank, R. Seetharaman, Acting General Manager- Doha Bank , Joseph Hanania, Managing Director for HP Middle East and Keith Higley, CEO of Mannai Corporation, were present at the singing ceremony held at the bank’s headquarters in Doha.
“This is a major strategic investment in technology which completely aligns with our business vision. We are happy to associate with a global leading technology solutions provider in strengthening our infrastructure” said Sheikh Abdulrehman Bin Mohammad Bin Jabor Al Thani.
“I am pleased to report that while Doha Bank’s growth has touched more than 70 per cent over the last two years, the pattern of our future growth is very much dependent on our investments in IT. The focal point of our IT strategy so far has been to introduce numerous electronic banking services, many of which were the first in Qatar, and we will continue to lead the way using the latest technology.” Sheikh Abdulrehman added
“Doha bank has been introducing variety of products and delivery channels regularly, and many more are in pipeline. In Today’s environment, technology is the central core of banking business. I.T. infrastructure must be highly dependable and robust to run the business and maximize profitability.” Said Mr. R.Seetharaman, Acting General manager of Doha bank.
“We have completely re-engineered the architecture of our core technology to enhance reliability, scalability, reusability, security and manageability. In addition, the new architecture will also be future proof in terms of investment. The state of art technology solution will improve the availability, robustness and performance. This means Doha Bank will be able to provide high availability Customer Access channels to support banking anytime, anywhere. This will also support quick deployment of new products and services” added Mr. Seetharaman.
Mr. Joseph Hanania, HP Managing Director ME, while speaking on the occasion said that HP was very proud to be a partner in this prestigious project. HP understands the mission-critical nature of the applications that will be implemented. We have taken much consideration to address high availability, performance, flexibility, scalability, manageability and investment protection.
Joseph Hanania of HP, also addressing the press conference, said that the over the years, HP had expanded the way it contributes to various industries and the specific challenges each faced. “Around the world, HP works with banks to bring together the infrastructure, tools, equipment and content for developing and maximising performance in a dynamic industry that has undergone a great deal of change.
“In Qatar, Doha Bank has a clear vision of how IT can help catalyse growth, while combining it with both cost efficiency and a quality delivery to their clients. There is a great synergy between this vision and HP’s own initiatives, and we look forwards to this partnership as one of the most significant for the banking industry in the Arab world,” he said.
HP’s enterprise solutions for Doha Bank include server and storage consolidation, High Available Multi-Tier HP UNIX Clustered Environment and virtual High Available Storage EVA5000. The agreement also includes implementing high end industry standard servers (Blade technology) for desktop access and web applications, enterprise management open view operations for infrastructure monitoring and performance management.
Mannai will be working with HP to implement the Oracle migration and the setting up of the multi-tier architecture applications.
“The new architecture, coupled with network security infrastructure already deployed, will enable us to introduce any solution in very short span of time. The deployment and recovery time will be reduced to very minimal level in case of any disruption which will improve the customer service considerably. This setup will help Doha Bank reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) while maintaining high availability and better manageability” said Mr. UVK Kumar, Head of Information Technology.
Mr. Keith, HIGLEY CEO, Mannai Corpn expressed his gratitude for this strategic partnership with Doha Bank and he elaborated ‘Our professional technical and management services should mean more than meeting customer requirements. We aim to add value to our services by anticipating business problems and recommending preventive action by suggesting realistic, cost-effective improvements.
(menareport.com)
© 2004 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
