Flexible value-added services for Sparkasse Group partners
Once more delivering impressive proof of its reliability, FI-TS last year expanded its strategic partnerships with other Sparkasse Group companies, launching two projects with new partner LBS IT.
FI-TS takes on mainframe operation for LBS IT
LBS IT, the IT service provider of the German Landesbausparkassen (the state building societies) staked out its objectives a few years back: to outsource the mainframe services of each Landesbausparkasse and achieve sweeping consolidation of technology, sites and processes. Collaborating with building societies in Bremen, Frankfurt, Mainz, Münster and Stuttgart, LBS IT took the first step in 2007, with the completion of an internal feasibility study.
The results looked good – so in 2008 LBS IT set about finding a suitable service partner to develop, build and operate the mainframe services. Our flexibility, expertise and agility as a “mittelstand” service provider – part of the backbone of SMEs that power Germany’s economy – won us the LBS IT business. In a timeframe to the first quarter of 2010, LBS IT will be successively transferring mainframe operation to FI-TS. The mainframes are the platform for development, test and productive operation of the application LBS-NEU, which the building societies use to enter and manage contracts.
Multi-step project – first phase complete
Previously LBS would develop and maintain IT systems centrally, with operations spread across three locations, and with systems sharing development, test and productive operation of LBS-NEU. LBS IT is now looking to make some changes. “Our goal is to harmonise, consolidate and centralise the three streams, which are distributed across three computers and seven logical partitions,” says Joachim Binder, Managing Director of LBS IT.
To realise this objective, LBS IT is transferring operation of all mainframe systems to FI-TS. We will migrate the present seven system environments to just one physical mainframe and two system environments: a development and test environment for the five building societies and LBS IT, and a productive environment for capturing and managing contract data. The first project phase, migration of the shared application development environment of LBS IT and LBS Westdeutsche Landesbank from Münster to our data centres in Nuremberg, was completed successfully in 2008, just months into the project. The project’s three remaining phases are scheduled for completion by 2010.
Joachim Binder, Managing Director of LBS IT:
“Compared to our present system costs for data management, we can capture double-figure savings potential by consolidating the mainframe environment and outsourcing services.”
Sabrina Früchting, Managing Director of LBS IT:
“The collaboration with FI-TS is highly positive. We set tremendous store by having a reliable partner who can give us a fast, flexible and unbureaucratic response to our needs, also when our requirements change. We’ve found this in FI-TS.”
New project: infrastructure for LBS sales portal
A web portal for savers, the “BauSpar” portal is a shared application of the Landesbausparkassen in Bavaria, northern Germany, eastern Germany, Schleswig-Holstein-Hamburg and Saar. The portal is already in operation in Bavaria, and is currently hosted on an infrastructure environment of BayernLB (eBIT). It has been decided to introduce the portal successively in the Landesbausparkasse regions as the banks migrate to the OSPlus system of Finanz Informatik. Production of the complex development, test and production environments will be centralised. Accordingly, we are currently engaged with LBS IT in planning and building a central system environment. The service is due to go into operation in May 2009, with the Sparkassen in Lower Saxony acting as project installations.
Strategic partnership
IT consolidation and mainframe outsourcing enables LBS IT to focus on its core competences: developing and running business applications for the Landesbausparkasse banks in Germany. We are in charge of provisioning IT infrastructure and software for LBS IT, and also take care of ongoing system maintenance. System and technical operation of the logical partitions comply with the latest standards, creating a robust basis for shared application operation by LBS IT.
| Facts & Figures on LBS IT: | |
|---|---|
| Founded: | 1998 as a joint venture of Landesbausparkasse banks |
| Business activity: | IT service provider for Landesbausparkassen with a focus on coordination, planning, development and operation of building-society software |
| Products: | LBS-NEU, LBS-Online, BauSpar portal and NBI in central systems, various support systems |
| Management board: | Joachim Binder and Sabrina Früchting |
| Employees: | approximately 125 internal and external staff |
| Headquarters: | Berlin |
| Offices: | Kiel and Münster |
| Locations: | Stuttgart, Munich and Cologne |