Global Banking & Finance Review spoke with Mr. Hashem, Managing Director and cofounder of Pio-Tech about the current banking IT Landscape.

What are the prominent technologies trends impacting the Banking IT landscape today?

• Big Data, the huge amount of data that is so large and it is difficult to process using traditional database and software techniques and considered as a valuable asset to the banks as it contain a lot of information about the customers history which provides the banks with great source of information to help the banks to deliver better service and deals to their customers.

• Analytics, the need for easy to use tools to allow business users within the bank in analysing the data and access needed information for better decision making and allowing the banks to benefits from big data as they can extract good information quickly and easily from their data and convert it into meaningful information that provide benefits for themselves and their customers to lead driving sales, boosting retention, improving service, and identifying needs, so the right offers can be served up at the right time.

• Automation, and the need to standardize and control daily operations to increase productivity and efficiency….

• Customer 360 and insight and the need for butter understanding customer needs, and find ways to improve services

• Customer information management , the challenges that faces the banks to optimize their customer’s information to better understanding and targeting customers in order to enhance the customers banking experience by running the necessary information cleansing and enrichment procedures across all bank channels, and applying the necessary process controls to ensure the integrity and enrichment of customer information . 

Please tell us about more Bank-BI® and Bank BPM’s® and the challenge they address.

• Bank-BI addresses information demand challenges and data access, allowing business users to easily access the information they need for decision making, perform deeper analysis, access various pre-built reports and increase business user productivity without relying on the IT. The Regulatory Reporting platform to automate the compliance process and Central Banks reporting requirements within more than 12 countries now, additionally, the compliance for FATCA Reporting and Credit Bureau as well, furthermore; the solution provides a full DWH and a single sources of information for various users within the bank.

• Bank-BPM enables the banks to automate more than 60 banking processes, connecting people, process and information and allowing the bank to increase efficiency, enhance customer services, and standardize its process.

What are the advantages for banks in working with Pio-Tech versus creating their own in-house solutions?

Well, banks will acquire a solution to meet the special needs of banking sector, and therefore; do not need to re-invent the wheel and the following will explain why the banks should deal with Pio-tech:

• Comprehensive business expertise in the Banking and Financial industries.
• Delivers value through adopting local cultures and needs.
• Excellence with leading best of breed technologies.
• Ready to use products to deliver short time to market, reduced implementation risks and shared proven practices.
• Emphasis on high value methodology, enabling high quality solutions.
• Strong project management capabilities with proven success rates and customer satisfaction.
• Powerful after sales support and solution utilization.
• Continuous R&D to enhance the products and introduce new ones.

Do you have any plans for future expansion?

Of course we do, we are currently expanding to east and west Asia focusing on this fast growing market, in addition to GCC countries as well …

What other solutions do you offer? Or Are you launching any products or services?

At Pio-Tech we are focusing on research and development, to continuously provide innovative solutions that satisfies the market demand, and following new technologies to offer our clients with best solutions, we had recently launched a group of solutions that services the banks to provide better services to its clients:

Bank-BI® Profitability Engine provides the banks with the required parameterization and calculation for measuring profitability of products and customers to empower the users with visibility and flexibility to improve resource alignment in order to view the organization performance and profitability.

Bank-BI® Fund Transfer Pricing (FTP) allows banks to calculate and measure how much each source of fund is contributing to overall profitability, using international standards and various methodologies such as Cash Flow Transfer Pricing Methods, Cash Flow Weighted Term (WACF) and Non-Cash Flow Transfer Pricing.

Bank-BI® \ SAP CRM RDS  is a rapid deployment CRM solution using SAP CRM platform integrated with Bank-BI® which provides our customers with a ready to implement application. CRM-RDS offers a 360 view of the customer bringing together the solution and services in a new offering that gives banks compelling CRM functionality quickly and affordably, delivering a blend of transactional, analytical, and engagement features to manage customer-facing operations.

Bank-BPM® Collection is an innovative Collection solution that combines the absolute tools and know-how needed from a single, all-inclusive platform to counter delinquent accounts by automating the debt collection and recovery cycle, allowing banks to accelerate their collection process and optimize the collection department performance.

Bank-BPM® Customer Information Optimization Is a solution designed to help banks in enhancing the customer experience by running the necessary information cleansing and enrichment procedures, and applying the necessary process controls to ensure the integrity and enrichment of customer information within a single rich repository.

About Mr. Hashem

Mr. Hashem has a diverse scale of experiences working in the progressive fields of industrial data processing and analysis, as well as process automation and control in regional industrial contracting companies. Having gained a deep understanding of the markets in high-tech industries, Mr. Hashem became a partner and cofounder of Pio-Tech in 2003, and then moved forth as Managing Director. Since then, he has helped shape and drive the company’s vision and strategy, managing the company’s teams to provide competitive solutions and services to valued customers across the Middle East and Africa.

Mr. Hashem graduated from Yarmouk University, majoring in Physics and Computer Science.

About Pio-Tech

Pio-Tech has long crowned the market as a pioneering system integrator and business solutions provider, backed by a history of proven innovative results and dedicated team of consultants with futuristic vision”.

“The company’s carefully-built vertical solutions introduced an original brand, which evidently confirmed its presence as a commanding flagship in the financial industry. Through its wide array of solutions, Pio-Tech has helped myriad financial institutions to better understand their business and bond with their customers, and ultimately, to steer their operations towards attaining excellence in performance.”