Bankdata builds the workplace of the future

Bankdata

Bankdata's new digital workplace combines greater flexibility with strong security

Challenge

Bankdata’s previous digital workplace was based on a shared on-premise solution operated by an external partner. The workflows for both its own developers and the member banks’ advisors were characterised by heavy legacy infrastructure and inflexible tools.

Solution

Bankdata developed a cloud-based workplace in the Microsoft environment, which was first tested internally and then rolled out to member banks. The solution is based on standard technology with a high level of security and makes it possible to use new tools, such as AI, directly “out of the box”.

Impact

A modern workplace for both developers and advisors that meets future requirements for security, performance and innovation. The benefits include reduced restart time (down to approximately one minute, from up to ten minutes), fewer incidents and lower operating costs.

challenge

Digitalization on the financial sector’s terms

The financial sector is widely known for its high levels of regulation. And rightly so. After all, being responsible for financial activities involving citizens, businesses and the public sector, means you need to take extra precautions. The particularly strict security and compliance requirements involved make it very interesting to follow IT developments in financial organisations. When they take a digital step forward, the stakes are so high you can be absolutely sure that their decisions are well thought out.

This is the context that surrounds Bankdata’s recent establishment of a modern, digital workplace. Bankdata is a software company that serves a number of high-profile member banks, including Ringkjøbing Landbobank and Sydbank. Bankdata’s own developers were previously tied to an on-premise banking solution operated by an external partner, weighed down by cumbersome integrations, inflexible workflows and lots of waiting time behind the screen. When Bankdata was faced with an upgrade to Windows 11, they took it as an opportunity to become masters of their own software house.

“With Darize as our advisor, we launched a project which saw developers, security specialists and technicians work closely together. In just a few weeks, we succeeded in creating a cloud platform that is both more flexible and more secure than our old solution. We used the first version of the platform internally while we gained experience, and then we used that expertise to adapt and roll out the solution to our member banks. Except for Jyske Bank, which has chosen to use a different IT platform,” says Ditte Lund Storvang, project manager and Product Owner for Digital Workplace & MS365 at Bankdata.

Solution

Standard is a strategic choice

She explains that they chose Microsoft’s cloud environment for both business strategy and security reasons.

“The security settings in Microsoft’s products allow us to differentiate between our various user groups. Our principle is that a user should only have access to what they need. Practically, this means that only some of our developers have extended rights to access our production data, for example. Everything a user does is governed by a series of security policies, so we always have full control. We take this very seriously. Just because we are in the cloud does not mean that the infrastructure should be open to everyone all the time. It should only be open to those who have a business need to access data,” says Ditte Lund Storvang.

“In addition, we have chosen to rely on Microsoft’s standard technologies because they give us a high degree of flexibility. However, because we are in a highly regulated sector, in some areas we have to go beyond the standard and adapt our security and compliance so that they match the banking sector’s requirements for extra controls.”

AI and free choice scheme

Ditte Lund Storvang goes on to explain that the choice of standard technology has also been crucial to Bankdata’s development strategy. It means that systems can be updated quickly and new technologies, such as AI, can be rapidly adopted if needed.

“As a software house, our digital toolbox is one of the things that defines us as a workplace. We want to maintain a high pace of development. That’s not possible if we have to spend a lot of resources on updates and maintenance.”

She adds that with the new platform, they can offer Bankdata employees a free choice scheme, allowing them to choose between working on a PC or a Mac computer.

“We know what students bring with them from university impacts their technology preferences, and we don’t want to force our employees to use specific tools. With our new workplace concept, we can now also offer a Mac, which is largely based on the same principles. This is important for our ability to attract the right skills.”

customer perspective

“With Darize as our advisor, we launched a project which saw developers, security specialists and technicians work closely together. In just a few weeks, we succeeded in creating a cloud platform that is both more flexible and more secure than our old solution.”

Ditte Lund Storvang

Project manager and Product Owner for Digital Workplace & MS365, Bankdata

impact

Concrete business value

In terms of business value, the new digital workplace has already had an impact, says Gert Christensen, Head of Digital Workplace at Bankdata.

“A restart that previously took up to 10 minutes now takes approximately one minute. This benefits 5,500 users every day. It is a direct gain for both the banks’ advisors and our own developers. At the same time, we see fewer incidents because we follow Microsoft’s best practices. In addition, we have no legacy systems on the new platform, so operating costs for our customers have decreased. Of course, it hasn’t been free for them, but the business case is actually positive.”

Good collaboration with Darize

The collaboration with Darize has been positive and rewarding throughout the project. One consultant in particular has been on board from start to finish and has been able to cover several areas of the project.

“We needed a partner with expertise in infrastructure, security, compliance and the in-depth technology of Microsoft solutions. We have nothing but praise for Darize and the consultant in all respects,” says Gert Christensen.

Ditte Lund Storvang adds that Darize has been an important sparring partner, especially when Bankdata needed to find the right balance between standard security and the specific requirements of the banking sector.

“It has been reassuring to be able to rely on a consultant with experience from similar projects, who knows when it is necessary to use the extra resources to up the security level and when standard is good enough,” she concludes.

About Bankdata

Bankdata is owned by eight Danish financial institutions, including Sydbank and Ringkjøbing Landbobank. The company develops payment solutions, advisory systems and customer channels and has 1,000 employees spread across offices in Fredericia, Silkeborg and Aarhus.