Bank Pekao is one of the largest financial institutions in the CEE region and the second largest universal bank in Poland with over PLN 250 billion in assets. It has the second largest branch network and serves over 6.1 million individual and business customers, including half of the companies in Poland. As part of its strategy, the bank has been intensively developing digital channels and implementing fast and convenient service processes.
The Asseco Migration Platform solution developed by Asseco enabled efficient migration management.
Bank Pekao took over Idea Bank S.A. on January 3, 2021 as part of a forced restructuring process initiated by Bankowy Fundusz Gwarancyjny. The takeover concerned the whole enterprise and liabilities of Idea Bank S.A., with the exemptions specified in the decision. Thus, the process of integration and preparation for the customer migration began. The approach adopted by Bank Pekao assumed transferring all data, including historical data and account numbers from the migrated Bank – such process had not been done before in the Polish market. Approximately 270,000 customers, including 220,000 corporate and 50,000 individual ones were to be migrated.
The scale and complexity of the project meant that the bank was looking for a technology partner to coordinate the technical aspects of the process, as well as develop tools to support the transformation and verification of the transferred data. It chose Asseco Poland to perform these tasks.
The bank’s cooperation with Asseco began in April 2021 with the development of a product and IT architecture, as well as a business model. In the next step, a migration strategy was created that defined the rules for moving, transforming, and quality controlling customer data from over 200 systems to the target format. In the meantime, work began on a detailed schedule for the migration weekend that precisely defined all the tasks and accompanying activities that had to be completed to successfully finalize the integration.
The migration of over 270,000 clients to Bank Pekao’s systems required the full involvement and cooperation of all the bank’s departments, which were responsible for defining the project framework, as well as for preparing and implementing allocated tasks. Therefore, in cooperation with Asseco, we developed methods and mechanisms that made it possible to assess the success of each stage of work from the business perspective.
Planning, precision, and synchronization of individuals and teams were critical in this project. During the migration week, the successive tasks had to be carried out in a set order and without the slightest disturbance because if any difficulties arose, it would not be possible to move on to the next stage and carry out the migration in the required time. An additional challenge was that the work was entirely done during the pandemic, either remotely or in a hybrid model.
The implementation of such a complex project required the use of advanced IT tools ensuring the highest possible level of automation and providing up-to-date data to support decision-making processes. For this purpose, Asseco created Asseco Migration Platform (Asseco MP), a unique solution that allowed for structuring and storing high-quality data.
Asseco MP consists of three integrated applications: a parameterized migration engine responsible for online data transformation, and a conciliation engine taking care of control procedures at each stage of the migration - from extraction from the source systems to loading into the target systems. The third component of the platform is a migration console, which is a graphical interface for the engine operator and migration participants. Its functional scope includes, among others, coordination of all tasks, current reporting on progress of work or completeness and compliance of transferred data.
The last stage of the work was the migration weekend. It required efficient coordination and flawless execution of approx.
3 thousand tasks, which were performed by over 500 people from the teams of Bank Pekao, Asseco, as well as consultants and suppliers. They had to be done in the right sequence, so after only approx. 4 months after the start of the project, the entire team began preparing for the simulation. The tests were implemented in the same way as during the migration weekend and covered all decision-making processes. They were repeated in full several times to eliminate potential difficulties as much as possible and to ensure a smooth process.
The migration weekend lasted 26 hours and ended on the night of November 20-21, 2021, while ensuring that customers’ access to card payments was not interrupted. It was the only merger in the Polish market that was carried out in such a short time and in a completely remote manner. The success of the project meant that the customers immediately gained access to their accounts in Pekao24 and PekaoBiznes24 online banking, as well as the PeoPay application. They could also use the helpline services and a wide network of Pekao Bank branches throughout Poland.
Key Benefits
The Asseco Migration Platform solution developed by Asseco enabled efficient management of the migration process. It also structured decision-making processes of the merger business leaders during the migration weekend, ensuring that they had access to all the necessary information at every stage of the work. This gave the Bank full control over the process. It could also verify on an ongoing basis, among other things, the completion of individual tasks and the level or quality of transferred data.
The implementation of the project was the final element in the process of merging the banks. It unified the service and provided customers with a smooth transition to Pekao banking systems, including intuitive online services and new functionalities such as Apple Pay or Blik. Additionally, throughout the migration weekend, they were able to pay with cards at stationary stores and withdraw cash at ATMs.
