Management Information System BANK ALFALAH

Management Information System BANK ALFALAH

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  Management Information System BANKALFALAH INTRODUCTION Information is the basis for decision making in an organization. It is essential that an effective and efficient reporting system should be developed because the performance of management depends upon the availability of relevant and regular information. Thus, modern management is now popularly known as “management by information” because management functions are now information-oriented. Management Information System is the system through which information is communicated to the management. MIS is a backbone as everything is based on it within the organization to keep all the concerned personal aligned and up to date with the daily tasks that they are supposed to perform. INTRODUCTION T O BANK ALFALAH Bank Alfalah Limited was incorporated on June 21st, 1997 as a public limited company, under the Companies Ordinance 1984. Its banking operations commenced from November 1st, 1997. The bank is engaged in Islamic banking, commercial banking and related services as defined in the Banking Companies Ordinance, 1962. The Bank is currently operating through 195 branches in 74 cities. It first operational main branch was opened in Peshawar in 1999; afterwards, Alfalah bank slowly and gradually increased its branches and network with the passage and demand of time. With the passage of time Bank Alfalah are emphasizing to offer high quality of services to large number of customers, in a highly challenging business environment. Due to the strength of Abu Dhabi Group and the strategic goals taken by BOD, bank has been able to invest in technologies to have an extensive range of products and services. The bank understands the requirement of its customers and matches them with quality products and service solutions. The Bank Alfalah Limited team comprises of dedicated and skilled professionals with vast
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  experience. The productline of the bank satisfy the banking requirements of not just the conventional consumer, but the demanding financial needs of the Islamic sector as well. Islamic Banking Division is a recent initiative which operates as a separate branch. It offers Shariah complaint products through a network of 6 branches. HISTORY AND PRESENT STATUS OF BANK LFALAH Bank of Credit & Commerce International (BCCI) was a Pakistan based bank, established by Mr. Agha Hassan Abdi from UBL, in association with U.A.E and Europe. BCCI has its branches in 74 different countries of the world. It had its 3 branches in Pakistan. In 1991, European countries accused BCCI that the bank was involved in some illegal operations with Gulf countries, so BCCI was banned. The major reason behind European accusation was that BCCI was of Islamic mode. Therefore, the bank was closed due to international pressure. Then, its 3 Pakistani branches were taken over by the Government of Pakistan, which were named as Habib Credit and Exchange Bank (HCEB) and these were working as subsidiary of Habib Bank Limited. Following the privatization in July 1997, Habib credit and Exchange Bank assumed the new identity of Bank Alfalah on February 25, 1998. It is now Abu Dhabi based bank as the family of H. E. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mabarak Al-Nahayan purchased 70% of its shares and 30% shares remained with Habib Bank on behalf of Government of Pakistan. Since its inception, as the new identity of H.C.E.B after the privatization in1997, the management of the bank has implemented strategies and policies to carve a distinct position for the bank in the market place. Since 1997, the bank has made great strides towards growth and profitability.BAL network has expanded from 3 in 1997 to 195 as on March 2009. The deposit base moved from less than Rs.9 billion to over Rs. 227 billion, advance from 5.8 billion to 109 billion. Being a bank that is focused on financing of foreign trade, volume of foreign trade business has grown from Rs. 5.8 billion to over Rs. 190 billion as on December 2008.
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  FUNCTIONS Branch banking: Deposits,Remittances, Foreign trade, Lockers. Consumer banking: Credit Cards, Auto loans, Home loans, Consumer durables, Electronic Banking: Telephone banking, ATMs, Online banking Corporate banking: Short/Long Term finance, Trade finance, structured finance. Treasury & Investment: Money market, Forex market, Investments, Government securities, Correspondent banking. MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Management means the administration and the governing body that is concerning the whole organization. At Bank Alfalah, the management is pretty strong and there is a lot of centralization in the whole network of the bank. The management at Bank Alfalah has been divided into 3 major parts. I-e, Board of Directors, the Top management, and the group of middle managers, supervisors and the employees. The Board of Directors The upper most part of the management is the Board of Directors or the Executives. The Board of Directors is responsible for planning, that is the first phase of the management process. So, all the decisions and the strategies are being proposed and implemented under the instructions and the supervision of the board of directors or the executives. Also the policies and the overall objectives of the Bank are being proposed at this level of the organization. The Top Management The top management involves the branch managers and the chief managers of the bank including the operations managers as well. The major responsibilities include the strategy formulating for the bank and supervising the whole staff at the branch. They define and interpret the objectives and vision and then formulate policies for their completion. The Middle Management, Supervisors and the Employees
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  Departmental heads constitutethis level of management at Bank Alfalah. They are directly responsible for planning and controlling the activities of officers. Finally, the employees’ activities are monitored and controlled. MANAGEMENT Check and balance is maintained all the time by the heads or supervisors weather it is transaction, daily maintenance of the equipment and machines. Branch manager can access all information while lower level employees have access to relevant information. There is a Supervisor at every level of the organization. New recruits at the initial stages are not granted the power and authority due to lack of experience and is granted slowly gradually with time. The new employees are not kept and limited on a track which he is told to do and with time and experience limits are increased. Small branches, supervisors and managers are having equal allocation of money and authority is almost same. Higher the post or authority in the managerial level i.e., regional manager has more budget and authority and branch manager has little than that of the regional manager MANAGEMENT STYLE There are two Management Styles mainly adapted; Centralized or Vertical Style of Management Decentralized or Horizontal Style of Management At Executives Level At executive’s level in Bank Alfalah, the Centralized or Vertical Style of Management is adapted. At Branch Level At Branch Level in Bank Alfalah Decentralized or Horizontal Style of Management is adapted.
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  INFORMATION SYSTEM INBANK ALFALAH Managing information through technology has become an essential part, because without it, it won’t be able to meet the increasing and fast demands of the customers. Also because of technology the information is transferred and is available readily to almost everyone or to the required persons, because if the flow of information is not managed effectively then things won’t work according to plan. So technology has provided us with convenience. For example, if a customer comes and gives a check or money to the cashier and the cashier records that data, so the information is managed through technology and the data are available to everyone then, one doesn’t need to open up registers or contact the cashier about it. Similar all the operations and information is managed efficiently. Bank Alfalah is using information system since the start of their business in Pakistan; there was no pre information era of Bank Alfalah in Pakistan. Bank Alfalah existing IT system is serving excellent in terms of quality and security and is fulfilling all of their need without any error. With the help of information technology Bank Alfalah record the daily transactions that took place from all over the Pakistan into a centralized database in real time. Every bank branch is directly connected to the centralized server to keep the data up to date and to avoid any problems. Bank Alfalah makes thousands of transactions per day with its information system in less time. Information System makes whole process much more quick, reliable and simple. Due to Information System employees of one branch can easily connect with other branches in this way customer service gets improved. Mainframe computers are used. Mainframes help in achieving goals of Alfalah Bank. As its success rely on speed, capacity, intelligence, security which is offered by mainframes by giving instant responses, dedicated amount of processing power, handle the huge requirements of data analysis, security against hackers and cyber theft Bank Alfalah Online gives convenient, round-the-clock banking so customer can manage their finances anytime, anywhere. In order to maximize customer convenience, they offer
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   24-hour PhoneBanking  e-Statements  SMS Banking  ATM Cards and VISA Debit Cards  Online Banking IT DEPARTMENT IN BANK ALFALAH BANK In broader terms the IT department is in charge of  All Communications throughout the branches & data centers  Security of existing & new applications  Monitoringthe services ofexisting applicationsrunninginside theorganization.  In-house security issue’s  Networks and other connectivity mediums  Security of networks DATA WAREHOUSE SYSTEM OF BANK ALFALAH Now because of advance technology, the data is more secure because the employees never know where the data is saved or in which data warehouse. So the data is more secured because of technology that is used by the Bank Alfalah. In old models, the server system was used, but now the data warehouse system is used, the data warehouse is connected to different main HUB’s, presently there 3 main Hubs of Bank Alfalah i-e covering all the regions or all of the country. Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi have the main Hub’s, So even if a single transaction is occurred anywhere in the country, The data is processed and saved in these data collection warehouse which are connected to these Hub’s. The beginning the main flaw was due to the use of old technology i.e., they were using servers for maintaining data and if the data traffic flow increased the system would choke or bottle
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  neck than nowwhich the systems use data collection warehouses which are connected to hubs in which thousands of transactions and data traffic flow can be maintained. Security of all the data be it users or organizations have been improved with time regularly and even if in case something happens which threatens it then backup data’s are maintained in both soft and hardcopies . For instance there are 24 branches in kpk keeping the area/zone that the organization has to cover so no main data warehouse is in Peshawar, whereas there are 100+ branches in Karachi that is why it is one of the three places where the data warehouses are maintained. As a rule stated by State Bank of Pakistan A bank must have 3 years of customer data in their servers. So the Bank Alfalah stores the last 3+ years of data into their Data Warehouses for quick access of data and other issues. Bank Alfalah is using HP servers. The configuration of server depends upon the load of work it handles and the application, which is running on the server. If the application is critical then the server is also of high configuration. NETWORK IN BANK ALFALAH LOCAL AREA NETWORK (LAN) The local area network (LAN) is running inside the organization and providing ultimate connectivity between the employees and other persons. There are some Workgroup applications also running over their LAN for easy collaboration between the employees of same and different departments. The LAN is not exposed to the outside world for security reasons and there is a proxy server running for connectivity outside the organization which makes sure the internal network is not exposed to the internet.
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  NETWORK THROUGH DATACENTER Networking between different servers is necessary which are located at different areas of Pakistan. Data centers are connected with one another by using two links Radio & Optical Fiber because if one link goes down, there is second alternative link available. The starting date of Alfalah bank or Alfalah bank was opened and became operational in 199, and its first operational main branch was opened in Peshawar in 1999, afterwards, Alfalah bank slowly and gradually increased its branches and network with the passage and demand of time. SOFTWARE Whenever there is the word of information and technology, there must be some security issues related to it as well. The bank Alfalah uses the most advance technology to secure its information. Same software is used in all departments and at every level of Bank Alfalah. In the beginning it used the BANKSMART sequential security system. That system wasn’t very effective in providing security, because data loss, data execution errors, handling of data etc was not up to the mark and the bank was faced with frequent errors, but now a days the bank uses the latest security technology which is based on ORACLE software known as TEMINOS 24, which is more powerful, more secure more effective and efficient and better than all of its previous models or version of security software’s. We can say it’s the most secure security software up to date. BANKSMART was used for  Data Processing  Check Processing  ATM & Debit Card  Deposit Operations  Loan Operations  New Account Platform
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  TEMENOS T24 Automated paymentprocessing is a major consideration for all financial institutions. Because this enables institutions to accelerate processing cycles, assess charges and, more importantly, reduce operational costs. T24 is suitable for banks of all sizes. Temenos T24 is a banking software system provided by Temenos Group AG which is an Australian company. T24 is a product that provides advanced technology and rich functionality, incorporating best banking practice Banks with T24 are proven to be more profitable. With the system you can seize on new business opportunities as soon as they arise. The flexibility of T24 allows banks to launch new products quickly and efficiently with no interruption to existing services. T24 offers a seamless operation from sales to execution and delivery. At present, Temenos T24 is used by Bank Alfalah and Meezan Bank Only. TEMENOS T24 AT ALFALAH BANK Temenos T24 aligned with Oracle technologies with a modern core banking system that allows the Alfalah bank to build an application infrastructure that does what it needs today, while providing the flexibility needed to respond to whatever tomorrow brings. Temenos T24 is implemented as it is. Changes are made upon request by Alfalah Bank. Alfalah Bank upgrades its software yearly. Formerly Bank Smart was used then R13 and existing Software is T24. Bank Alfalah implemented TEMENOS T24 to support its Treasury Operations in three phases. The first phase of the implementation which was in 2009 was to integrate its retail operations, which services approximately one million customers to aid its growth plans. The second stage of a centralization project was to implement T24 across all of its 400+ branches in Pakistan. The bank implemented the third phase of T24 in second quarter of 2013 to support its Islamic Banking Operations.
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  T24 replaced anin-house legacy system Bank Smart, which had been in place for almost two decades. Using T24, Alfalah can maximize the process workflow capability and rich functionality of the software to automate a range of back-office treasury functions, including securities, transactions, interbank loans and deposits on an advanced, modern platform for improved operational and financial efficiency. At bank Alfalah following modules integrated with Temenos T24 were implemented  Core Operation  Trade Finance  Core Credits  Consumer Finance  ATM  POS  Credit Cards System. All online cash and transfer transaction are seamless integration of t24 and bank smart. It enabled the bank to significantly improve the speed of transaction processing, create more secure interfacing channels, decrease maintenance costs and ensure the continuous operations of the system. ELECTRONIC BASIC BANKING SYSTEM or Electronic Banking Bank Alfalah core banking application is Electronic Basic Banking System EBBS or online banking which is the strength of this bank. Customers can manage their account conveniently from their homes or office With online banking customer can  Manage Multiple Accounts  24/7 Account Access  Utility Bill Payment  Transfer Funds  Real Time Account Balances
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  ELECTRONIC CARD PROCESSINGSYSTEM (ECAP) Another core banking application that Bank Alfalah is using is Electronic Card Processing System ECAP which is used to manage all the Credit and Debit Cards of the account holders. ONELINK is connected with VISA and MNET is connected with MASTER card for making payments or cash withdrawal though any ATMs also the debit cards are of same companies i-e one link of visa and MNET of masters. Since these both VISA and MASTERS are American multinational companies, so wherever the transaction occurs or transaction is performed through VISA’s one link or Masters MNET, the profit goes to the same companies, in simple the profit is gained by America. Rs 15 is deducted if the transaction is performed on same network, i-e if transaction is performed from onelink visa card on one linked ATMs then Rs 15 is deducted, but if transactions are performed through alternative links i-e onelink transaction is performed on masters card or masters card transaction is performed on onelinked ATMs then Rs 35 per transaction is deducted. Assignment by Submitted to