In September, 2009, Bank of Thailand (BOT) announced it was considering a new check clearing system, to replace the physical checks used in the clearing process with digital images.
The Goal:
Enhance the capacity and efficiency of the check clearing process, making funds available to bearers within 1 working day nationwide, instead of the current 3-5 days. ICAS would create efficient circulation of money in their financial systems and would eliminate the movement of physical checks from collecting banks to the clearing house and to the paying banks. This, in turn, would greatly reduce the collection time, remove transportation cost, physical storage, and harmful pollutions associated with the paper checks.
Challenges
By January, 2010, NCR secured the order to implement the corresponding bank systems, which would connect to the new BOT system. While the goal appeared simple, NCR essentially had to implement 16 sub-projects, each with the same deadline. Each bank had its own legacy systems, process workflow, preferences, and constraints. How should NCR manage all 16 concurrent sub-projects? The challenges were many: What is the strategy? Team structure? Risks? Bank customizations? Migration and support considerations? Deployment to thousands of bank branches concurrently?
Solution
NCR decided to organize these sub-projects into a Project led by the NCR South Asia Pacific Region Project Management Office (PMO), in accordance with the policies, processes, and methodology of the Global PMO in Atlanta, GA. The Program Manager would lead the overall Project and would have a Project Manager assigned to each bank. The Project would consist of 16 sub-projects, and a software engineering project to leverage consistent software quality. This centralized approach enabled NCR to efficiently manage project resources, address common risks and issues, and execute more quickly with a stable solution.
Outcome
Initially, the systems did not meet their mid 2011 schedule, due to technical and operational challenges, including critical new regulatory requirements. Thereafter, it was further delayed by an unprecedented historic flood, which engulfed Bangkok in November for over 40 days. The flood delay was leveraged to strengthen deployment readiness via the creation of a central Deployment Command Centre. With the Command Centre managing 16 concurrent installation schedules for 2,431 bank branches, most systems successfully went live on February 3, 2012, with remaining branches fully deployed by March 31.
Why Project of the Year
It required outstanding project management discipline. It created history. It positively impacts the economy of Thailand. As a result, Thailand was propelled into the next generation of check processing, which few countries can claim. It exemplifies a true partnership between a solutions provider and a customer in need of a solution. NCR delivered a solution that allowed BOT to better serve their customers. The NCR project team of 77 consultants, employing NCR’s GlobalPM© methodology, worked with the client to deliver an unprecedented project, despite an epic flood, changes in government regulations, and other factors affecting the schedule. Not one bank or its member branches were disappointed in this partnership.