Add Value — software, data and intelligence
IT Let’s talk

Case study  ·  Banking

Exchange Digital Corporate: modernising the backbone of the banking flows.

A banking backbone running for over 25 years,
replaced without interrupting the service.

Banking · routing Corporate Banking flows · around 1.5 million banking flows handled every day

Tell us about your case The timings

Average routing time for the flows

Contract SLA STD system New Exchange 20–25 minutes around 10 minutes under 1 minute 025 minutes
< 1 minaverage routing time
1.5Mbanking flows a day
25+ yearsof life for the system replaced
0interruptions: both systems ran in parallel

Timings as recorded by the project: contractual SLA 20–25 minutes, around 10 minutes with the STD system, under one minute with the new Exchange.

The need

A long-standing backbone
to modernise,
without stopping the flows.

The client had to modernise the technology backbone that routes Corporate Banking flows. The Exchange NDC project replaced STD (Struttura Tecnica Delegata), a system that had been running for more than 25 years. The new infrastructure had to handle high banking traffic volumes, improving processing speed, operational efficiency and maintainability, without interrupting the service.

Handling the volumes

The platform had to handle around 1.5 million banking flows a day, which made efficient, steady processing essential even at peak load.

Replacing an established system

After more than 25 years in service, STD had to be replaced without breaking the continuity of the banking flows and the payments companies rely on.

Maintainability and change

The new infrastructure had to make maintenance simpler and allow the system to keep evolving, past the limits of the old one.

Cutting processing time

The goal was to cut the average routing time, using the resources better and making the processing more efficient and more repeatable.

What we did

Build, run alongside,
then optimise.

The new platform was introduced a step at a time, with STD kept running throughout. Performance was compared on real volumes, to find the optimisations needed before the final switch.

PHASE 01PHASE 02 PHASE 03PHASE 04 New platformRunning alongside Compactador and SplitterFine tuning Corporate Banking logicmoved onto the newarchitecture. STD stays live whileprocessing times arecompared. Files aggregated and theheaviest overnight flowssplit up. Resources optimised, provisioningand deploy automated. INTRODUCED STEP BY STEP — THE TIMINGS DECIDE WHEN TO SWITCH Logic already proven No leap in the dark Born from real volumes Best practice for future projects

The project in full

First in parallel,
then in production.

Add Value designed and built a new Exchange platform, moving the Corporate Banking logic already developed onto the new architecture. Before go-live the new system was introduced gradually and kept running in parallel with STD. That phase made it possible to compare processing times on real flows and check the new solution’s performance before the final switch.

Testing against the roughly 1.5 million banking flows processed every day showed that further optimisation was needed. Two specific components were introduced: the Compactador, which aggregates files into larger blocks, and the Splitter, which breaks the heaviest overnight flows into more manageable packets. The work was completed by optimising the resources and automating provisioning and deploy.

The two components

Two components for
the real volumes.

Running alongside showed that, on real volumes, the new platform needed more optimisation. Two dedicated components were built, designed to handle the shape of the banking flows more efficiently.

The Compactador aggregates the smaller files into larger blocks, reducing fragmentation. The Splitter breaks the heaviest overnight flows into more manageable packets. Together they organise the workload better and make the processing more efficient.

many small files heavy overnight flow Compactador Splitter one single block manageable packets Schematic representation of how the two components behave.

The result

From ten minutes
to under one.

With the new Exchange, the average routing time fell to under a minute. That compares with around 10 minutes on the previous STD system and a contractual SLA of 20 to 25 minutes.

< 1 minute

average routing time with the new Exchange

around 10′

the previous STD system’s time

20–25′

the SLA set by the contract

01

Better operational efficiency and shorter processing times along the whole flow backbone

02

An infrastructure that is simpler to maintain and to evolve

03

Provisioning and deploy automated, with the procedures written up as company best practice

04

A reference model for later projects

The new Exchange improved operational efficiency and cut routing times, while making the infrastructure easier to maintain. The provisioning and deploy procedures built during the project were written up as company best practice and became a reference for the projects that followed.

Inside the project

Three sides of the project,
one result.

The project can be read three ways: how the banking flows are handled, how the service stayed up during the replacement, and the procedures introduced for releases.

1.5 million flows a day

The platform handles around 1.5 million banking flows a day, with the Corporate Banking logic moved onto the new architecture.

  • Files aggregated by the Compactador
  • Overnight flows split by the Splitter
  • Average routing time under a minute
Flows view

Continuity during the replacement

Before go-live the new system was introduced gradually with STD kept running. Comparing processing times on the live flows made it possible to check the new platform’s performance without interrupting the service.

  • The previous system kept running
  • Timings compared on real volumes
  • Optimisations decided by data, not assumptions
Operations view

Procedures reusable on later projects

The resource optimisation and the automation of provisioning and deploy were written up as reusable procedures, and became a reference for later projects.

  • Provisioning and deploy automated
  • Best practice written up
  • A reference model for later projects
Release view

Technologies and areas

Corporate BankingBanking flows Exchange NDCCompactadorSplitter Automated provisioningAutomated deploy Fine tuning

Keep reading

Other stories

Insurance  ·  Software

API Management middleware

A custom .NET API Manager with a two-way orchestrator and ELK monitoring, for near real-time policy issuing, 24/7.

+20% performance

The full case

Insurance  ·  Software

Life AM

Running and maintaining the life insurance software: corrective and evolutionary work, plus the one-off requests.

97% SLAs met

The full case

Industrial  ·  Data

From on-premise to ROSA

The OpenShift environment migrated to Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS, with automated pipelines, Infrastructure as Code and health checks on the critical components.

migrated in about 3 months

The full case

Banking  ·  Software

Corporate Remote Banking

A multi-bank, multi-company platform with a modern interface and a microservices back-end, built for a technology provider to financial institutions.

0 outages

The full case

Banking  ·  Data

Data migration machine

Automates diagnostics, normalisation and transfer of the data needed to migrate NPL portfolios and support later acquisitions.

~350 transformations  ·  10 verticals

The full case

Banking  ·  Software

NPL field agents app

The Android app and the web portal, whose features partly overlapped, were brought together into one Angular Progressive Web App for the field agents and the recovery firms.

from 2 applications to 1

The full case

Insurance  ·  Software

Regression testing

An automated testing service running since 2019, first with UFT and then with Playwright, to check that new features do not break the existing ones.

+3,700 automated tests

The full case

Have you got a backbone
nobody dares
touch?