When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth...Sherlock Holmes.

Axis Bank, one of India’s premier private sector banks replaced the first generation Finacle Core Banking System with the latest version, bidding farewell to the legacy-proprietary systems and embracing open standards-based architecture. The bank has lived to talk about its daring act. Today it stands ahead of the curve and claims that any bank which will migrate to the new version of Finacle CBS is at least 18 months away.

While narrating this suspense thriller, Subhakanta Satpathy, Senior Vice President and Head of IT of Axis Bank, accepted that their decision to migrate was a very bold one and one that is not easy to justify. As this was the first time that such a migration was being carried out, the possibility of a failure loomed large. In response, the bank took many precautions -— building adequate safeguards in the form of developing a robust business continuity plan and discussing the failover options many times. Still, it seemed like a gamble.

“The moment of migration to the new system was like the one at a PSLV launch. We all had goose bumps," says Satpathy. If the attempt to migrate failed, then all efforts at migration would have to pause for another six months as the next chance to migrate would come only then. "If things went wrong, we would have to wait for six months and put in the same amount of preparations again - that was an agonising thought!" he says.   

But the team wasn't ready to give up yet. They put various safeguards in place. The thought of rolling back to the old version of Finacle wasn’t really exciting. At the end, the migration was successful, though there were a few initial glitches. “Three months on, we have not only produced an acceptable and convincing P&L statement and quarter ending [June 2010] report but also have trained approximately 7000 users using our captive training centre located in Hyderabad,” tells Satpathy.

The story scores 10/10 in taking the plunge, 9/10 in mitigating the risk and 10/10 again in being the first bank to implement the new version. A clear case of an organisation behind ahead of its times. It deserves a mention in bold letters that the bank has become the Beta Site for Infosys Finacle.  Here’s the story with the rest of the details...

The Core Banking Story
Axis Bank implemented the Finacle CBS nearly a decade or so ago. Perhaps, it was the first customer of Finacle CBS (as a bunch of solutions bundled in a brand) from Infosys. Unlike other banks, Axis Bank ran it in an absolute ‘captive’ model, without a single event of outsourcing to third party. Having exploited the earlier version to its maximum capabilities, the senior management was convinced that it was time to migrate. “It wasn't mandated that we should be the first one to go for the new version, but there was an eagerness to implement it before it became the buzzword. Another big reason was that unlike other Finacle users, we are one of those users which use all possible modules of Finacle,” says Satpathy.  

The Countdown Began
Migrating to the new system was no easy task. In the life cycle of the first version of Finacle, the bank had already done a lot of customisation. On top of it, the technology and platform on which the system resided was purely legacy-proprietary technology. To migrate from proprietary to open standards-based technology meant that a mammoth task of rewriting of codes lay ahead. “We believed this transition would take years of efforts and there were no guarantees of success,” says Satpathy.

Nonetheless, the bank had decided that it was time to pick up the gauntlet. Sensing the mood at the bank, Infosys approached the bank and kept a very challenging proposal on the table. The company wanted the bank to be the Beta Site to migrate to this new version. In return, they [Infosys] promised to complete the migration in the stipulated period of time with almost no assurance that it will go right in the first instance. “No company can give such an assurance. The primary responsibility was ours. So we had to buffer for a failed attempt. The bank was prepared with plans A, B and C. Agreeing to be a beta site meant a lot. The entire business was dependent on CBS and anything could have gone wrong. The decision was bold and risky,” says Satpathy.

The entire machinery working behind the transition was ready with a robust business continuity plan. Worst, what if, after the migration, users weren’t able to log into the system? Anything was possible. As part of the plan, the core implementation team decided to stop the non financial transactions for the initial 3-4 days of migration.

On the day of migration, everyone was on tenterhooks. Then the first flaw surfaced. “Till late in the evening, we were not able to provide log in to the users," says Satpathy. A technical glitch had brought operations to a standstill. "It was frustrating."

At 7 pm, the problem had still not been resolved, and the company was now in a crisis. One option was to roll-back. The other was to listen to the bank's partners, which came up with some solutions but were waiting for the bank's consent. If the back rolled back, 15 months of hard labour of the entire team would have gone down the drain,” says Satpathy.

The Risk Committee constituted to monitor the migration was also puzzled. After a lot of deliberations, it was decided to try the solution suggested by the partner. The ruse worked. Ultimately the users were able to access Finacle. “Because we weren’t able to do any transactions on the first day, we had to clear a lot of those in a short window during the night." The inability to process transactions during the day had a cascading effect; it took the bank the next three-four days to clear
the backlog. "Frankly, the first week was slightly unstable, not because of the technology but because of the volume of transactions."

Users didn't have the same same comfort levels as they had with the earlier version of CBS, as a result of which there was a dip in their efficiency. "If a banker was able to do 100 transactions an hour, in the changed environment, he could do slightly more than half," says Satpathy. "After a week's time, the situation came under control and by the end of May 2010, we were able to produce an acceptable level of trial-balance and profit and loss account statement to the management. We did a smooth quarter ending in June 2010.”

In hindsight
Although the team succeeded in this tough task of migration, Satpathy wants to share his experience with his peers. “It is always advisable to migrate to a newer version of any software. But never be the first one and never be the last one. Our decision was bold but it was still a mistake to go live first and become a Beta Site. We survived because of our extensive business continuity planning and the tenacity displayed by our employees to endure the pressure.

“The next bank which will migrate to this platform of Finacle cannot do it before 18 months from now. Now look at the opportunity knocking our doors. If we can convert this period into a business opportunity, we will simply be ahead of the curve,” concludes Satpathy.