Launching Joint Study and Development of Office Process Consolidation ASP Service for Financial Institutions- Building a Shared service to support optimization of office IT costs -

NTT DATA Corporation (Headquarters: Koto-ku, Tokyo, President and CEO: Toru Yamashita, hereinafter NTT) and RKK Computer Service Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Prefecture, president: Masaaki Takemura, hereinafter RKKCS) will begin joint study and development of an office process consolidation ASP service. The objective of the service is to reduce information technology costs at the processing centers of financial institutions.
The office process consolidation ASP service will seek to replace individual systems, which have been created for each office function and concentrated in processing centers, with an ASP service to enable 30% cost reduction when compared with traditional office IT costs. The target start date for the service is FY2010.
NTT DATA has provided numerous shared systems and services based on accounting and settlement infrastructure for financial institutions, while RKKCS has delivered many subsystems for financial institutions' processing centers. Leveraging their track record and rich experience, the companies will extend the range of shared systems into the arena of office process consolidation.

Background

As deregulation of the financial industry proceeds and nonfinancial companies enter the field, the business climate surrounding the financial institutions is changing rapidly. The financial firms have sought to improve customer satisfaction and the sales performance of the sales offices that are their key marketing channels by concentrating large volumes of regular office work in processing centers.
As a result, multiple subsystems have been implemented in the processing centers, and when modifying their systems, the financial institutions consider ways of cutting their IT costs. Nevertheless, the industry recognizes that the task of major cost reduction faces challenges in the form of the ongoing office application modifications and system maintenance required to accommodate the latest communications and system infrastructures.

Overview of Services

The ASP service that the companies have begun to study and develop will provide subsystems for processing centers in the form of an ASP service. The features of the service and advantages to its adaptors are as follows:

1. System implementation and maintenance cost reduction
   Because subsystems will no longer be implemented individually, initial implementation and modification costs, as well as maintenance costs, will no longer be needed. Usage fees will be set under the assumption of a 30% cost reduction.
2. Easing the burden of system operation and management
   System operations and management such as data backup and administration of server operating status will no longer be necessary. That will free office personnel to concentrate on their main tasks.
3. Further reduction of sales office work
   The lower-cost ASP service will enable the adoption of office process consolidation subsystems, which have often been forgone because of insufficient return on investment. It will also contribute to the consolidation of duties for the achievement of further sales office work reductions.
4. Security considerations
   The office process consolidation ASP service offers high security, including communication security, for worry-free use.

The lineup of office process consolidation ASP service capabilities is as follows:

• Account transfer request record system
  Prepares data on account transfer records and stores request documents as images
• Report (of losses) management system
  Manages the processing, and processing status, following receipt of notification of an event such as loss of an account book, and stores images of reports
• Personal ID confirmation record management system
  Registers images of personal ID confirmation records and appended documents, and stores the documents as images
• Secondary record system for Customer Information Files
  Records data on the characteristics of customers when a new account is established, and stores images of the application forms

Future Development

The goal is to develop the service, including the framework and conditions of use, so that services will become available to financial institutions in FY2010. The target is participation by 10 banks by FY2015.
In parallel with that, and in addition to the current service lineup, study will be given to extending the service lineup to operations such as inheritance/seizures and recordkeeping of a variety of applications.