They changed 30% of the technical assignment and twice exceeded the plan: how did VTB automate reporting?
The Bank of Russia is constantly developing new requirements for the information provided by commercial banks and twice a year makes changes to the regulations on how to create and submit reporting forms. When reports are stored in a bank in different systems, it is inconvenient to make regular changes. So we have established a unified system in which you can quickly update the necessary criteria and streamline the reporting process. In this post we will tell how it was done.
The issue of accountability arose during active changes in IT and in other internal spheres. The main system, where VTB aggregated reports, has been working for a long time. And there, as we have already mentioned, not all the reports were stored - some of the information, especially on legal entities, was scattered across other systems. In 2014, the optimization of mandatory and tax reporting was included in the list of top priorities.
After analyzing the market and possible risks, we decided to focus on large contracting companies that work primarily with banks. Such companies should have enough implementation and support specialists, and for small companies this can be a problem.
It was important to have experts immersed in the topic who are well acquainted with the specifics of reporting for the Bank of Russia. The supplier must constantly monitor changes in Russian legislation and maintain the system in accordance with them. And we need a sufficient number of experts on integration with existing banking systems, since the project was planned to be implemented in a fairly short time.
Another condition that reduced the choice was the mandatory use of the component architecture. There were no large-scale implementations of such systems in banks on the Russian market, and for reliability we needed exactly a product with a history of implementations that can scale from the level of a medium-sized bank to the volumes of VTB data.
After analyzing the market and numerous reference visits, VTB compiled a short-list, where only two suppliers remained.
For the final decision a pilot project was organized. Within one and a half months, it was necessary to create two reporting forms based on the provided anonymized data. The bank not only accepted the result, but also monitored the work of specialists of a potential executor during the pilot. As a result, the choice was made in favor of the Diasoft company with its FLEXTERA BI reporting platform.
Why Diasoft? Many other companies offered to create a solution based on the VTB data warehouse, but it required permanent leadership from the bank. “Diasoft” had a ready-made solution, which complemented the services of consultants and expert technologists who are well versed in the subject and can communicate normally with customers.
FLEXTERA BI is a platform for creating, modifying, and running applications for multidimensional business analysis. It includes comprehensive tools for analyzing financial performance, managerial and mandatory reporting - exactly what was needed. Data quality is also taken into account: FLEXTERA BI has the tools to detect such problems, their automatic or manual correction.
FLEXTERA BI monitors updates in the requirements of regulators - federal laws, regulations, instructions - both at the state and international levels. And in accordance with this updates standard reporting forms, such as 0409303, 0409120, etc. To protect against errors, standard reporting forms cannot be prepared manually. Other reports can be created and configured without the involvement of IT professionals, the system is quite easy to learn.
FLEXTERA BI can operate on the basis of the main ABS, on its own or already existing data store in the bank. Most competitors can work only on the basis of the main ABS.
The implementation of FLEXTERA BI began in April 2015. The deadlines were tight, so at the suggestion of Diasoft, the project was divided into iterations. The main stages were fixed, but the tactical plan changed in accordance with the new tasks and readiness of the data. The data for the reporting forms was not prepared immediately, since VTB simultaneously implemented an IT system for recording legal entities, and changes were constantly made to the data flows. It was necessary to correlate both projects with each other.
In total, the project had three stages:
During the project, the requirements of the Bank of Russia managed to change, so technical tasks had to be corrected on the fly.
Within 6 months after the start of the project, we prepared several reporting forms for the retail business. In August 2016, we completed the forms of mandatory reporting and tax accounting registers according to legal entities. In February 2017, the reporting system was completed and handed over for maintenance.
Initially, VTB wanted to automate 18 reporting forms and 26 tax registers. With FLEXTERA BI, the plan was able to exceed: automated 26 tax accounting registers, 25 forms of mandatory reporting and about 20 auxiliary reports. The reporting of the retail business was consolidated at the head office of the bank. Due to automation and exclusion of branches from reporting, the time to prepare a report was reduced by 30-60%. At 30 TB of bank data, the data quality ratio reached 99.8%.
Now Diasoft monitors new requirements of regulators and quickly implements them in the system - this approach gives a good saving of bank resources. VTB at the technology level divided reporting processes, customer services and the closing of the trading day. Due to the service architecture, the new platform is compatible with other solutions from Diasoft and other vendors.
The issue of accountability arose during active changes in IT and in other internal spheres. The main system, where VTB aggregated reports, has been working for a long time. And there, as we have already mentioned, not all the reports were stored - some of the information, especially on legal entities, was scattered across other systems. In 2014, the optimization of mandatory and tax reporting was included in the list of top priorities.
What was needed?
- A ready-made solution that is easy to implement in the existing IT architecture of the bank. And so that the new system will make friends with the existing data warehouse, and not duplicate it, and with minimal change in business processes.
- High performance. It was necessary to cope with a very large amount of data, namely, with more than 11 million loan agreements. And at the same time, at a minimum, load the main banking system, in which operational information is entered.
- Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). The future solution should use it.
After analyzing the market and possible risks, we decided to focus on large contracting companies that work primarily with banks. Such companies should have enough implementation and support specialists, and for small companies this can be a problem.
It was important to have experts immersed in the topic who are well acquainted with the specifics of reporting for the Bank of Russia. The supplier must constantly monitor changes in Russian legislation and maintain the system in accordance with them. And we need a sufficient number of experts on integration with existing banking systems, since the project was planned to be implemented in a fairly short time.
Another condition that reduced the choice was the mandatory use of the component architecture. There were no large-scale implementations of such systems in banks on the Russian market, and for reliability we needed exactly a product with a history of implementations that can scale from the level of a medium-sized bank to the volumes of VTB data.
Supplier selection
After analyzing the market and numerous reference visits, VTB compiled a short-list, where only two suppliers remained.
For the final decision a pilot project was organized. Within one and a half months, it was necessary to create two reporting forms based on the provided anonymized data. The bank not only accepted the result, but also monitored the work of specialists of a potential executor during the pilot. As a result, the choice was made in favor of the Diasoft company with its FLEXTERA BI reporting platform.
Why Diasoft? Many other companies offered to create a solution based on the VTB data warehouse, but it required permanent leadership from the bank. “Diasoft” had a ready-made solution, which complemented the services of consultants and expert technologists who are well versed in the subject and can communicate normally with customers.
What attracted FLEXTERA BI
FLEXTERA BI is a platform for creating, modifying, and running applications for multidimensional business analysis. It includes comprehensive tools for analyzing financial performance, managerial and mandatory reporting - exactly what was needed. Data quality is also taken into account: FLEXTERA BI has the tools to detect such problems, their automatic or manual correction.
FLEXTERA BI monitors updates in the requirements of regulators - federal laws, regulations, instructions - both at the state and international levels. And in accordance with this updates standard reporting forms, such as 0409303, 0409120, etc. To protect against errors, standard reporting forms cannot be prepared manually. Other reports can be created and configured without the involvement of IT professionals, the system is quite easy to learn.
FLEXTERA BI can operate on the basis of the main ABS, on its own or already existing data store in the bank. Most competitors can work only on the basis of the main ABS.
Project progress
The implementation of FLEXTERA BI began in April 2015. The deadlines were tight, so at the suggestion of Diasoft, the project was divided into iterations. The main stages were fixed, but the tactical plan changed in accordance with the new tasks and readiness of the data. The data for the reporting forms was not prepared immediately, since VTB simultaneously implemented an IT system for recording legal entities, and changes were constantly made to the data flows. It was necessary to correlate both projects with each other.
In total, the project had three stages:
- Works with reporting for the retail business of the bank.
- The introduction of the same reporting forms with new data for legal entities.
- Refinement of statements in terms of the reflection of other assets and liabilities of the bank.
During the project, the requirements of the Bank of Russia managed to change, so technical tasks had to be corrected on the fly.
Within 6 months after the start of the project, we prepared several reporting forms for the retail business. In August 2016, we completed the forms of mandatory reporting and tax accounting registers according to legal entities. In February 2017, the reporting system was completed and handed over for maintenance.
results
Initially, VTB wanted to automate 18 reporting forms and 26 tax registers. With FLEXTERA BI, the plan was able to exceed: automated 26 tax accounting registers, 25 forms of mandatory reporting and about 20 auxiliary reports. The reporting of the retail business was consolidated at the head office of the bank. Due to automation and exclusion of branches from reporting, the time to prepare a report was reduced by 30-60%. At 30 TB of bank data, the data quality ratio reached 99.8%.
Now Diasoft monitors new requirements of regulators and quickly implements them in the system - this approach gives a good saving of bank resources. VTB at the technology level divided reporting processes, customer services and the closing of the trading day. Due to the service architecture, the new platform is compatible with other solutions from Diasoft and other vendors.