Despite axing an earlier bid to replace the banking system
Suncorp is set to modernise and transform its core Hogan banking system, a year and a half after the company pulled the plug in a difficult attempt to replace the system entirely.
The organisation revealed plans for Hogan’s transformation in a Dec. 16 job posting.
Hogan Systems’ core banking software is an integrated suite of applications that provides real-time online access to all customer relationships of a bank across the entire company. This allows a bank to offer its customers convenient and easy access to all of their accounts, how, when and where they want.
“Hogan core banking and its supporting systems provide the foundation for Suncorp Bank, providing a robust platform to support transactional customer volumes while supporting rapid delivery of new customer capability,” the job advertisement, which has since expired, stated.
“Aligned to this demand there is a necessity to modernise and transform the capability to maintain relevance into the future.
“The purpose of this role is to transform Suncorp’s Hogan core banking platform capability, implement best practice platform tools and processes, continuously uplift and improve operational practises, support delivery of [a] complex program of work and maintain and uplift operational availability of Suncorp Bank’s most critical platform.”
The modernization offer seems relatively new, and the ad indicates that the responsibility for “creating … a strategy to modernize the Hogan platform” will fall on the new recruit.
Modernisation work will be performed by teams “across nationally and internationally distributed locations”, the advertisement states.
A Suncorp spokesperson did not address questions about the modernisation effort, however indicated that the recruitment advertisement followed an internal promotion.
This suggests that the modernisation effort has been underway internally for some time before that, although it is unclear for how long.
Suncorp originally sought a replacement of its core banking system under the multi-year Project Ignite.
The institution created a new core based on Oracle, which was launched in November 2015 with a plan to migrate financial products in stages.
However, the core replacement project ran into trouble in early 2017, and until mid-2017, migration was put on hold pending changes to the system by Oracle.
The freeze extended to 2018 and 2019, before Suncorp quit replacing the base system in May 2020 and signalled it would stay with Hogan, which ran in parallel all along.
The decision to persevere with the mainframe-based Hogan platform is a substantial win for the DXC systems and services provider, because it logically opens the door to upgrades that would otherwise be off the table if the Oracle replacement worked.
This seems to be the case, although it’s unclear whether in the years since Suncorp first tried to improve its banking core there was a more obvious or viable upgrade path for Hogan.
Core Banking Systems
A core banking system is a back-end system that processes daily banking transactions and posts updates to accounts and other financial records. Core banking systems typically include deposit, loan and credit processing capabilities, with interfaces to general ledger systems and reporting tools.
