LUSIS USER PROFILES
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Established in 1972, BankservAfrica’s primary objective is to function as a clearing house for the South African banking and financial sectors.
Established in 1972, BankservAfrica’s primary objective is to function as a clearing house for the South African banking and financial sectors.
Owned by South Africa’s four large-volume banks and a consortium of smaller-volume banks, BankservAfrica’s offerings include both real-time card-based services and traditional services such as direct debits, credit transfers and utility-type services. BankservAfrica processes approximately 3 billion transactions inclusive of batched and real time, valued at between ZAR 7 to 8 trillion.
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“We have a team that’s worked very closely with Lusis Payments, and BankservAfrica has had control over the source, up to a certain degree, and the flexibility of adding new functionality without getting the supplier involved every time we want to do something. For us, that’s been one of the big advantages,” Nolte said. “The other big benefit is the licensing model. Whereas with other platforms you license the transaction process, with Lusis Payments you license the software and you can process as many transactions as you want to. That model really works for us.” |
Challenge: The Need for a Scalable Product
For an organization like BankservAfrica, which wants to expand into the rapidly growing Southern African Development Community, the need for a fully functional core system that can cope with fast-changing payment methods and customer requirements is mission-critical. The decision by BankservAfrica’s current payments system supplier to sunset its product provided the perfect opportunity for the organization to conduct a thorough review of a replacement system and alternatives, while reassessing how the payments platform could become a genuine enabler of BankservAfrica’s business vision. It was critical for BankservAfrica that the solution selected ensure that it could quickly react to customers’ requirements while allowing the organization to add innovative payment solutions.
The Solution: Lusis Payments and TANGO
Ultimately BankservAfrica chose Lusis Payments based on the capability of TANGO. The solution met the organization’s business requirements, which included that it must be a configurable product with specific monitoring capabilities. In addition, BankservAfrica liked TANGO’s cost and clear licensing structure. BankservAfrica’s board approved the rollout of TANGO into production. The implementation of TANGO was conducted in a phased approach.
Real-time clearing (RTC) was rolled out first, as it involved a smaller amount of banks and volumes. ATM was next to be migrated by BankservAfrica, as this forms a large part of its business, and the majority of South Africa’s banks are participating. ATM was successfully migrated after successful certification testing with all participants. “Our credit card authorization system followed and was implemented in February 2013,” Nolte said. “The last component was debit card, which was fully migrated.”
The Results: Operational Flexibility Brings Benefits
The initial results of the switchover to TANGO have clearly proven BankservAfrica correct in opting for Lusis Payments, with an increase in ATM volumes recorded early in the implementation. But the main benefit of TANGO for BankservAfrica is its operational flexibility. According to Nolte, “TANGO is a lot more configurable and is parameter-driven. From a flexibility and maintainability perspective it’s also a lot easier, and that is a big benefit for us.”
Another key benefit of TANGO is that it is essentially “future-proof,” with the ability to seamlessly integrate new services and functionality as and when required.
