First National Bank Consolidates Business Intelligence 
South Africa’s First National Bank (FNB) recently completed the roll-out of a centralized business intelligence (BI) environment for its numerous divisions. The project, dubbed Merlin, is helping FNB transform its approach to BI, bringing bank analyst more control, better information and proactive risk management
South Africa’s First National Bank (FNB) recently completed the roll-out of a centralized business intelligence (BI) environment for its numerous divisions.
FNB’s consolidated BI server, dubbed Merlin, helped the bank centralize its business efforts, create a platform for future growth, and create a centralized area for the intellectual property of its processes, according to Ryan Prozesky from Strategic Credit and Analytics at FNB.
“Data is quintessential to our business,” Prozesky said in a statement, “and we use our data daily to glean insights to our business, our customers, and our products as well as a reporting mechanism to regulatory bodies, our board and our shareholders.”
In specific, Merlin, is based on the SAS Enterprise BI Server and is designed to help eliminate data duplication and save money throughout a variety of bank operations. Working with business analytics vendor SAS, officials said FNB now has a single server environment that’s used by analysts, statisticians and quants throughout the business.
The Merlin project aims to bring several key benefits to FNB operations, including:
- Unite the bank’s four original SAS server environments to create a standardized data source.
- Enable FNB’s data processes to become transparent and traceable, allowing analysts to better deliver their reports and expertise.
- Ensure all data authentication and authorization is done via a centralized metadata server, and which will also reduce the number of SAS PC licenses the bank had to purchase.
- Help analysts build standardized code for their processes, document and better manage analyst IP from BI operations.
“With Merlin, we now own our data processes and have a much better view of our business, being able to meet and exceed deadlines and business expectations.”
Ryan Prozesky
Strategic Credit and Analytics
FNB
(First National Bank – South Africa.)
Prozesky added Merlin will also likely help the bank proactively react to risks, identify business opportunities and new products and closely monitor customer satisfaction on a daily basis. “With Merlin, we now own our data processes and have a much better view of our business, being able to meet and exceed deadlines and business expectations,” Prozesky said.
The FNB, based in Johannesburg, is a division of FirstRand Bank Limited.
