Bangkok--27 Dec--IBM
Chiang Rai Teachers’ Savings Co-operative Ltd, one of the most respected non-banking financial institution in the Chiang Rai province, announced it recently tapped on IBM to upgrade its IT infrastructure. The investment will improve efficiency and staff productivity, accelerate service delivery to customers and shorten time to manage data as well as to help reduce storage and energy costs.
The savings co-operative started with 408 members and an initial capital of only 12,550 baht. To date, it has been growing fast with current membership of over 11,300 and a working capital of 9.94 billion baht.
On a daily basis, the co-operative has more than 500 financial transactions and these are transmitted to at least 30 network servers through multiple work/process applications, resulting in database inability to execute increasing workloads. To address the challenge, it has decided to bank on IBM technology including Power Blade servers of the IBM BladeCenter? family and IBM DB2 9.7 database software for greater efficiency and productivity, improved server stability, more database scalability and maximized ability to handle detailed workloads. Coupled with safety and backup functionalities enhanced by the IBM systems, the company’s depositors and customers will be assured of fast service and greater convenience.
Wichit Srinuch, Chairman of Chiang Rai Teachers’ Savings Co-op, said that the company was committed to offering the best possible financial products and services to its depositors and customers. He explained, “All financial activities here are designed for the utmost benefit of our members. Our main objective is to provide teachers in Chaing Rai with long-term financial security by offering high interest rates for depositors as well as financial assistance for those facing tough times.”
He continued, “To encourage confidence among our members and enable us to achieve long-term sustainability, we always seek cutting-edge and cost-effective technology to boost reliability, scalability and fast service delivery in response to today’s ever changing business environment. We looked at various offerings from other vendors but came to the conclusion that, with its global expertise and proven experience, IBM has the best IT solutions that are perfectly matched with our requirements.”
“Based on high efficiency and effectiveness gained through the previous implementation of other IBM solutions, we are confident that the latest technology combination will enable us to better manage and protect all business-critical data. It will also be the backbone of our business infrastructure offering increased performance and high data processing speeds to support rapidly growing market data”.
A major advantage of upgrading the IT infrastructure is to enable a paperless workplace. The company’s paper consumption can be much reduced by storing and retrieving its minutes of meeting through the Intranet. Minutes of meeting can be stored, retrieved and displayed as web pages. In addition, quick data services to board members will be available real-time with basic information such as membership, number of shares, outstanding balance of an individual, among others, can be easily retrieved and shared.
Once the infrastructure has been completely upgraded, depositors no longer needs to visit the co-op’s physical office. Interactions and even financial transactions such as transfer, withdrawal and loan application for instance can be done through web-based services and core banking systems. Innovative means of communications such as SMS and mobile banking will also be used to provide greater convenience, enabling a huge improvement in operating efficiency and cost reduction.
“We are very pleased to partner with the Chiang Rai Teachers’ Savings Co-op in their ‘smarter’ expansion journey. IBM systems and solutions will optimize further Chiang Rai Teachers’ IT infrastructure and current operations to drive a more successful business development in the future. It also helps them position their company as a technology leader and one of Thailand’s most respected and stable non-banking financial firms,” said Kittipong Asawapichayon, Country Manager, General Business, IBM Thailand Co Ltd.
For more information please contact:
Communications, IBM Thailand Co.,Ltd.
Chinnaree Tanmanee Tel. 02 273 4676
[email protected]