CSOB Group Migrates Central Database linked to 90 Critical Banking Applications to a Next-Generation Database Platform On Time, On Budget, and Without Disrupting Business Operations
 
 

CSOB Group Migrates Central Database linked to 90 Critical Banking Applications to a Next-Generation Database Platform On Time, On Budget, and Without Disrupting Business Operations

  • Oracle Customer:  CSOB Group
    Location:  Prague, Czech Republic and Bratislava, Slovakia
    Industry:  Financial Services
    Employees:  7,700

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CSOB Group (CSOB) is a leading player in Czech financial services industry. It is part of the international bancassurance KBC group, which is active in Belgium and the CEE region.

Combining the power of its retail brands —CSOB, the brand for banking, insurance, asset management, pension funds, leasing, and factoring; the Postal Savings Bank, which providesbanking through a postal distribution network, the Mortgage Bank, and CMSS, a bank specialized inr financing residential mortgages—CSOB group is strongly positioned in all segments of Czech financial market, where it has  long held a top position for financing residential mortgages, leases, and having total assets under management.

CSOB needed to upgrade its production systems in the Czech Republic and Slovakia that support 90 key applications for its retail, corporate, internet, and ATM services from Oracle Database 9i to Oracle Database 11g with simultaneous migration from Alpha processors/OpenVMS-based hardware to a Power7, AIX system. Oracle Consulting helped to complete the upgrade within schedule and budget, while meeting tight restrictions on downtime. Knowledge transfer by Oracle Consulting to the bank’s IT team has improved self-sufficiency in support and maintenance while the technical and advisory services of Oracle Consulting Expert Services continue to optimize performance and availability while lowering cost of ownership.

 
 

 
 

Challenges

A word from CSOB Group

  • "Oracle Consulting’s technical and industry sector expertise, combined with its successful track record in coordinating complex system upgrades, enabled us to achieve a seamless upgrade that was transparent to both employees and customers." – Boris Treiger, Project Manager, CSOB Group

  • Upgrade a business-critical, high-availability infrastructure that runs all CSOB’s retail, corporate, internet, and ATM banking systems—totaling more than 90 applications—from Oracle Database 9i to Oracle Database 11g and migrate from Alpha processors/OpenVMS-based hardware to a AIX Power7 system
  • Minimize the upgrade’s risks and technical challenges, including a complete architecture transformation and the creation of a modern, agile, and dynamic infrastructure
  • Complete the upgrade without disruption to day-to-day operations and minimize system downtime for CSOB’s more than 2 million customers, who expect around the clock services
  • Increase self-sufficiency in system support and maintenance to reduce reliance on external IT expertise and reduce cost of ownership

Solutions

Oracle Product and Services

  • Commissioned Oracle Consulting to manage the upgrade of Oracle Database 9i to Oracle Database 11g and migrate the data for CSOB’s two separate production databases in the Czech Republic and Slovakia
  • Capitalized on Oracle Consulting’s knowledge to complete the migration in seven months, while meeting the acceptable system outage requirements of 10 hours in the Czech Republic and five hours in Slovakia
  • Used Oracle Consulting’s workload capture and replay features to test the impact of application code changes and eliminate the risk of suboptimal settings before making changes to production databases
  • Reduced testing time and effort as well as the risk of system instability following the upgrade
  • Leveraged Oracle Consulting’s proven migration and upgrade methodologies to manage a successful dry run migration, which enabled CSOB to resolve issues prior to live upgrade
  • Completed the migration within schedule and on budget
  • Achieved a seamless upgrade, which went unnoticed by CSOB’s internal users and customers and caused no disruption to daily business operations
  • Leveraged Oracle Consulting’s on-the-job-training to ensure CSOB’s database administrators have the knowledge necessary to ensure self-sufficiency in day-to-day system maintenance and reduce costs
  • Used the technical and advisory services of Oracle Consulting Expert Services to optimize performance and availability as well as enhance responsiveness while lowering ownership costs
  • Gained a flexible, scalable, stable, secure, high-performance  database platform that will enable the bank to serve its growing customer base with around the clock financial services

Why Oracle

CSOB Group had used Oracle Consulting for previous successful upgrades of business-critical systems and benefited from the expertise of Oracle Consulting Expert Services to help maximize the value of its investment in Oracle Database technology.

"Oracle Consulting is our long-term trusted partner and we rely extensively on its expertise when planning and executing strategic implementations and upgrades," said Boris Treiger, project manager, CSOB Group.