AFS POWERS UP FOR GROWTH

Enhanced IT Platform a Springboard to Elevate Product and Service Offering

Manama – Kingdom of Bahrain, 06 September 2006

Arab Financial Services (AFS) is enhancing its IT infrastructure to address increasing business requirements and harness growth opportunities in its electronic payment and consumer financing outsourcing services it provides to banks and financial institutions across the Middle East. By increasing processing power and storage capacity, AFS will further enhance customer service levels, boost its internal productivity and be capable of developing new and innovative product and service delivery channels.

The solution is the first of its kind in the Kingdom of Bahrain and is being implemented by Gulf Business Machines (GBM), IBM’s sole distributors, excluding selected IBM products and services, in the GCC with the exception of Saudi Arabia.

“New levels of flexibility, scalability, integration, operational simplicity and high availability will all foster enhanced customer services, while AFS’ internal productivity will be improved and we will also be able to develop more innovative delivery channels and offer new and innovative products to our customers across the region,” said Rasool Hujair, CEO, AFS.

The solution comprises the IBM System z9 Business Class (z9 BC) mainframe, the first in Bahrain and only the second in the region. Its advanced functionality will allow AFS to gain numerous competitive advantages, including a wide choice of capacity settings and an array of
granular growth options. In addition, a broad set of specialty engineers will facilitate the integration of all types of workloads.

“We needed a solution that guaranteed quality and business continuity to help us handle the recent increase in business volume we have been experiencing. The z9 Business Class mainframe allows seamless migration of our business applications from our old mainframe to the new one, without any disruptions to our operations,” added Mr Hujair.

“The z9 mainframe will also increase flexibility and scalability, which in turn will enable the smooth introduction of new and innovative products and services, as well as improve service levels and operating efficiency.”

Overall, the solution components being implemented by GBM include a CPU upgrade to the IBM System z9 BC, a storage upgrade to the IBM TotalStorage DS8100, and an OS upgrade to the z/OS 1.6. Full implementation of the solution will be completed within three months.

“The migration of AFS to the new mainframe will be done without disrupting the company’s existing operations and system users will experience no change in the way they currently use AFS’ IT applications. In addition to being able to more efficiently manage existing business and operational demands, the power provided by the solution will ensure that reports and files will be delivered in a more timely fashion and this will boost the management of service level agreements with the company’s clients. In addition, AFS will be able to implement new functions and applications to drive its business forward,” said Abdulla Ishaq, General Manager, GBM.