ITWeb sat down with Darren Turnbull, founder and CEO of MoData, to discuss what organisations need in a transaction processing system, what they should avoid, and how TANGO provides a single solution that meets all their needs.
Consumer demand for faster, more secure 24/7 payments continues to challenge payments organisations across the globe. For many organisations, the costs and difficulties of nursing an ageing payments platform are unsustainable. As a result, these organisations are now planning to replace their legacy applications with a faster, more agile solution that can free their business from the constraints of an inflexible payments platform.
MoData helps payments organisations simplify and streamline their migration projects, reducing risks and delivering predictable progress milestones. As Africa’s sole supplier of TANGO, the mission-critical online transaction processing engine, MoData is making it much easier for organisations to keep pace with consumer desires for greater convenience, speed and security in payments.
Q. What are the biggest challenges faced today by organisations with legacy transaction processing systems?
Turnbull: Legacy systems bring a whole host of challenges for organisations. For example, one of our clients, a top five global bank, found their 28-year-old legacy system severely constraining to their business. It had become too expensive to maintain and operate, development times were lengthy and they were less able to compete in the market.
When they started looking to replace the system, they realised that they were using the software throughout their entire line of banking services. Clearly, it would be crucial for the new solution to provide a highly extensible architecture, enable them to orchestrate low-risk migrations and be powerful enough to handle diverse transactions and increasing volumes.
They also wanted a solution that would reduce their cost of ownership and application life cycle costs while increasing the bank's agility in adapting to consumers' changing needs. The ability to efficiently support new regulations and scheme mandates was another key requirement. The bank conducted an extensive analysis of the leading payment solution providers. The analysis showed that TANGO exceeded all the client's business and technical requirements, and TANGO outperformed its competitors in the areas of architecture, flexibility and cost of ownership.
Q. Why is TANGO so successful in replacing legacy systems, such as BASE24?
Turnbull: Much of the success comes because TANGO is easily “built to order” and because of its micro-services platform. We recognise that payments organisations need a solution that works the way they do, that empowers staff, not hinders them. TANGO does this.
A good example of this in action is our client BankservAfrica, which wanted to expand into the rapidly growing South African development community. Well, to do this, they needed a fully functional core system that could cope with fast-changing payment methods and customer requirements. TANGO met BankservAfrica's business requirements, which included that it must be configurable, with specific monitoring capabilities. In addition, TANGO's cost and clear licensing structure appealed to the BankservAfrica team and our phased approach really makes for a painless migration.
Ultimately, a large bank won’t take on a project like this without the confidence that the vendor knows what it is doing and has done it before. We know and understand payment data and know how to handle it. We know transaction risk and how to manage that. We understand regulatory compliance and know how you can remain compliant throughout and we know all this because we have done more than 20 successful migrations.
Q. It really says something that some of the largest banks in the world have chosen TANGO to replace their systems. What's something you want other organisations and financial institutions to know about TANGO if they are looking at replacing legacy systems?
Turnbull: It boils down to this. We don't care what transaction processing system you had. We want to hear about what functionalities you want for the present and the future. With TANGO, we can build whatever you need with scalability for any of your future needs as well.
Q. What should organisations avoid when it comes to migrating their payments system?
Turnbull: The most important advice I can give is don't wait. To be successful, organisations need to develop the operational skills and procedures to manage continual change. Migrating to a new payments solution is not a one-time thing, it’s actually a transition to a different operational lifestyle – one where change is the expected norm.
For many organisations, this is a very different situation to what they are used to. Many organisations 'lock down' their systems and allow only limited changes, typically in response to new mandates and regulations. Transforming your organisation into one that is continuously innovating, improving and still stable and secure is not just about technology, it is mainly about people and their instinctive apprehension around change.
The most successful organisations shift to this 'always changing' mindset by taking frequent, well-defined 'baby steps' and making extensive use of automated testing. The use of automated testing provides immediate feedback on progress and, importantly, helps staff to build confidence within a backdrop of continual change. MoData and the TANGO team have extensive experience in migrating legacy payments applications and can provide advice and support specific to any organisation's needs.
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