Bank awarded regional recognition for Best Enterprise Transformation Project Award 2008 and Best Data & Analytics Project Award 2008

Best Enterprise Transformation Award 2008
from left to right: Phil Strause (International Resource Director, The Asian Banker), Millie Yong (Business Manager, Financial Services Sector, IBM Malaysia), Datuk Bridget Lai (Group Chief Executive Officer of Alliance Bank Malaysia Berhad and Director of Alliance Financial Group Berhad) and Alex Escucha (First Vice President, China Banking Corp).

Best Data & Analytics Project Award 2008
from left to right: Phil Strause (International Resource Director, The Asian Banker), Jimmy Cheah (Managing Director, SAS Malaysia), Datuk Bridget Lai (Group Chief Executive Officer of Alliance Bank Malaysia Berhad and Director of Alliance Financial Group Berhad) and Alex Escucha (First Vice President, China Banking Corp).

Kuala Lumpur, 15 May 2009 - Alliance Bank Malaysia Berhad (Alliance Bank) was recently honoured with two regional awards: Best Enterprise Transformation Award 2008 and Best Data & Analytics Project Award 2008 at The Asian Banker IT Implementation Awards 2009 held in Beijing, China. The wins were made possible due to collaborative partnerships with two IT companies, IBM Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. (IBM) and SAS Malaysia (SAS Malaysia) respectively.

Representing Alliance Bank at the Awards ceremony, a very pleased Datuk Bridget Lai, Group Chief Executive Officer of Alliance Bank and Director of Alliance Financial Group Berhad, said, "This is a proud moment for Alliance Bank. These awards are a testament of the Bank's mission to deliver excellent customer experience through strategic alliances and enhanced group synergy, employing best-in-class technology and human capital. We will continue to look for creative ways to leverage and maximise our IT enterprise architecture to serve our customers better."

Alliance Bank won the Best Enterprise Transformation Award 2008 for creative and effective enterprise banking transformation in 2008. Realising that applying the right technology is pivotal to create sustainable business value, Alliance Bank implemented several IT projects in support of its enterprise banking transformation. The efforts paid off as it helps strengthen the Bank's risk management framework and build competitive positioning of the Alliance brand name.

"The Bank's successful IT transformation allowed us to expand our branch network across the country," said Datuk Bridget. "In line with our brand promise of Banking Made Personal, we strive to deliver quality customer service by reducing customers' queue time and increase over-the-counter transactions without increasing headcount at branches. We have also introduced a host of new Alliance Online banking services by upgrading our customer loyalty system to enable more customers to make online purchases and payments with ease."

"Alliance Bank and IBM enterprise banking transformation project demonstrated great success and shed a different light on technology", said Ms. Elena Torrijos, managing editor and project leader for The Asian Banker. She added, "Alliance Bank is now able to expand its business with strategic MIS to drive business growth." Standards for application integration have also been introduced to reduce the cycle of deployment for future interfaces.

In addition, Alliance Bank also won the Best Data & Analytics Project Award 2008 for developing a comprehensive and integrated data warehousing, and analytical solution across the organisation. Developed in collaboration with SAS Malaysia, the new data and analytical tool provides a comprehensive overview of the Bank's customers, enabling Alliance Bank to make effective decisions using well-informed data.

"We view our technology investment as an ongoing journey in the Bank's growth," said Datuk Bridget. "Our collaboration with SAS Malaysia has enabled us to gain insights into our customer behaviour and needs, thus allowing us the opportunity to ensure that Banking Made Personal for our customers via our suite of products and services."

"Alliance Bank deployed commendable efforts into implementation and worked together very closely with SAS Malaysia on the design of warehouse, rather than taking a wholesale proposal from a vendor," added Torrijos. "This resulted in a flexible and customised data mart design system to satisfy customers' needs and expectation."

Despite a challenging year for the financial services industry, Alliance Bank reported a double digit growth of assets in its financial results. Its non-performing loans remain below industry average while sales are growing at an encouraging pace.

Currently in its third year, The Asian Banker IT Implementation Awards is well known for its rigorous evaluation of both the technological implementation and its impact on business value. The award evaluation process uses a comprehensive methodology to evaluate the strength of IT implementations, which includes in-depth analysis of the submissions by a team of experienced researchers, as well as interviews of banks and partners. Candidates are assessed according to a set of standard performance indicators to guarantee objectivity.

"The IT Implementation Awards Programme is well-known for its high evaluation standards, which are guaranteed through the independence of the judges and their high expectations towards the candidates," said Alex Escucha, Chairman of The Asian Banker IT Awards Panel of Judges for the third consecutive year. Escucha and his team evaluate each award submission according to regional best practices and evaluate its positive impact on the institution's financial results.

This year, there were over 90 submissions for 13 categories; five special categories came from institutions in 15 countries across the Asia Pacific region. This record number is almost twice as high as in the previous year and reflects the rising importance of IT to the financial services industry in Asia Pacific.