After many years of cooperation between knowis and IBM in the implementation of credit solutions with the knowis banking platform isfinancial, Big Blue has now released a product that incorporates knowis' expertise. The IBM Financial Services Workbench provides banks with a tool that enables them to build cloud-native microservices quickly and easily. IBM and knowis thus jointly contribute to a successful future of the financial industry.
The Regensburg-based software vendor knowis and the technology corporation IBM can already look back on a long-standing partnership in which they have successfully realized numerous digitization projects in banking together. For its isfinancial platform, knowis AG relies on a proven tech stack of its strong partner IBM and the technology giant also sees a great advantage in being able to count on the German specialists’ expertise for the technological implementation of business solutions: IBM has already awarded knowis several times for the excellent collaboration.
The two companies have used their connection to jointly develop an innovative product that IBM has now released as part of its Cloud Pak for Data: IBM Financial Services Workbench. The product enables banks to build cloud solutions quickly, securely and easily in order to keep pace with the rapid changes on the financial market. The development of the Workbench built on the industry knowledge and know-how of the Regensburg-based company, which has already supported more than 180 financial institutions in bracing themselves for the future and successfully pursuing their digital transformation.
IBM and knowis Prepare the Ground for the Bank of Tomorrow
Thomas Bohn, Principal Business Automation and Open Banking at IBM Germany, summarizes the value of the Financial Services Workbench in a joint interview of knowis and IBM on the “cognitive bank” (only available in German): The new IBM offering “allows banks to build microservices very easily, quickly and with low risk, based on a state-of-the-art reference architecture. Thus, we provide our customers with a highly flexible, easily consumable and above all scalable platform […]. The customer gets an end-to-end experience that ranges from the design of services, their implementation and deployment with integrated testing, right through to runtime”.
Jean-Henrik Zitterbart, Executive Partner, Industry Leader Banking & Financial Markets D-A-CH at IBM Global Business Services, is just as enthusiastic about the result of the collaboration with knowis: “I am convinced that such partnerships are exactly what the market requires, because they combine the best of both worlds. On the one hand IBM’s deep technological competence and capability to scale solutions, on the other hand knowis’ business expertise”.
Stefan Engl, CFO of knowis AG, is also convinced that the joint experience in solving banking problems is a valuable advantage for the customers of both companies. In an interview he explains how this partnership with IBM will affect knowis in the future.
Stefan, how does the contribution to IBM Financial Services Workbench relate with knowis’ approach of supporting banks on their paths of digital transformation?
We at knowis have a strong opinion on the question how banks should adapt to the shifting circumstances and requirements. We rely on a banking platform that accommodates small solution modules that can be used independently of each other. These modules can interact flexibly with each other as well as with legacy applications and third-party services. The starting point is always business functionality. Following this philosophy, we have been able to integrate lightweight business solutions into heterogeneous application landscapes for 15 years now. And this was also the approach we followed while we contributed to the development of the new IBM solution.
What does this mean for isfinancial, does it make the knowis banking platform obsolete?
Not at all! The experience of collaborating with IBM obviously also enriches the enhancement and development of the knowis products. isfinancial is for example no longer available exclusively as on-premises installation, but now also as a cloud-hosted version. This alternative is already in operation at the first customers. Even now, knowis customers are reaping the benefits of the cloud expertise we have built up in recent years.
Does this mean that knowis will only focus on the cloud from now on?
Our aim is to create the best possible solution for the business requirements of our clients in the financial industry. Depending on the strategy and size of the banks, this may require different technological bases – one of them is the cloud. Together with our customers, we analyze which requirements and which prerequisites exist and find the right way. Tailor-made.
So you see the core competence of your company in the development of digital business solutions, completely technology-agnostic?
knowis is also, but not only, a technology company. That's just one facet of us. Here in Regensburg, we also unite know-how in the implementation of projects and deep industry knowledge under one roof. Due to our many years of experience in the translation of complex credit processes into software, we now have a broad spectrum of reusable, proven solution patterns in the field of credit. And we can certainly imagine making this business expertise available for cloud-native environments such as the IBM Financial Services Workbench.
Conclusion
In the financial industry, the creation of ecosystems is increasingly moving to the center of attention – as an opportunity to meet the changing demands of an increasingly digital world with joint forces. Meanwhile, IBM's Financial Services Workbench shows how collaboration with partners such as knowis can create added value. In this case in the form of a useful tool that facilitates the digital transformation of banks and enables them to develop business solutions that, through open interfaces, provide the possibility of networking in order to stay competitive in the long term.
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