PricewaterhouseCoopers has completed an information technology strategic initiative development project for OTP Bank in Ukraine

20 January 2009

The Banking Technology Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has completed a project on identifying long-term information technology (IT) development initiatives for OTP Bank in Ukraine (OTP). This project helped to determine OTP's target IT application architecture and portfolio of IT projects. In addition, PwC provided recommendations on IT infrastructure and IT governance

In the course of the project, experts from the PwC Banking Technology Group, together with their colleagues from ОТP, analysed the Bank’s business strategy and examined the requirements of business units to IT. Following this analysis, PwC consultants assessed the Bank's existing portfolio of IT projects, IT applications, IT infrastructure and IT governance functions for compliance with these business requirements. Based on its research of available banking IT solutions, PwC consultants conducted workshops for representatives of the Bank’s business units in order to explain the benefits associated with those solutions, their functionalities and case studies of successful implementations.

Liliya Lazepko, a Board Member and Supervisor of Operations and IT with OTP, stressed that IT strategy is an integral component of the Bank’s overall strategy and should fully meet the objectives and tasks facing OTP now and in the future. “A mature IT strategy provides significant benefits, including the use of modern information technologies and best practices in IT governance, as well as increases the Bank’s competitive advantage”, said Ms. Lazepko.

Following the project work, PwC developed a benefits plan for the Bank that included a roadmap of the Bank’s IT projects for the next five years, a target IT application architecture and an assessment of investments needed for each class of the IT solutions considered during the project. A description of the benefits associated with implementing the roadmap was also presented.

PwC provided the Bank with recommendations on its organisational structure and such areas as coordination between IT and business, management of external IT service providers, change management and software development, security management, as well as capacity and performance management. PwC consultants also benchmarked information technologies in OTP against other entities in the financial sector.

“The results of this project will help to rationalize the Bank’s portfolio of IT applications and IT projects and bring them in line with its business strategy”, said Vladimir Burtsev, Head of OTP's IT . “This will also provide for the improvement of the IT organisational structure. IT operations will be more understandable for the business and communications between business units and IT functions will improve”.

Alexey Yankovski, leader of the PwC Banking Technology Group noted, “Considering the current situation in the financial market in Ukraine, ability to react to changes in market conditions and business requirements in a prompt and flexible manner is crucial. And with cost optimisation becoming a priority for companies today, a properly built IT management function will ensure a significant increase in IT efficiency”.

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The Banking Technology Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers provides advisory services to banks in the area of architecture planning, banking systems selection and implementation, IT strategy development and IT governance processes improvement.