“The management of NLB Tutunska Bank would like to express gratefulness for the professional approach and dedicated work of the Pexim project team, which together with the NLB Tutunska Bank project team, had managed to implement the new SW within the framework of only 9 months”.

Tutunska Bank - Member of the NLB Group is the leading banking institution in the Republic of Macedonia, with a steady trend of development and positive results since its establishment through tothe present day. It was founded in 1985 and since 1993 it has operated on the market as a commercial bank offering all financial and banking services to clients in the country and abroad. The bank is considered a big bank and according to the total net assets, it is ranked third among the banking institutions in the country. 

The strategic partners of Tutunska Banka include Nova Ljubljanska Bank d.d. Ljubljana, LHB Internationale Handelsbank AG Frankfurt and LB Interfinanz AG Zurich, i.e. the NLB Group. The NLB holds 77.20% of the ovarall bank capital whereas the remaining 22.80% is owned by legal entities and physical persons from the Republic of Macedonia. It is a strategic goal for Tutunska Bank to support and finance the development of small and medium-size enterprises which are entities with a potential to grow into agents of economic growth. Tutunska Bank is investing in the development of a modern business network which consists of 22 modern branches throughout Macedonia.

At the end of 2005, Bank has made a strategic decision to migrate from heterogeneous software platforms to open standards. There was a need for new banking information system that could provide efficiency, flexibility and modern products, as well as implementation of management system for dealing with clients. Also, in order to keep the competitive advantage on Macedonian market, Bank’s goal was to improve issuing of payment cards, credit loans and e-banking services in Macedonia.

Pexim has signed contract for implementation of new Information system with Tutunska Bank on 1st December 2005 and first kick-off meeting was held on 9th December 2005. Pexim team has implemented full Core Banking and Card Management Solution. The leading edge technology, IBM xSeries clusters, San CX storage and CISCO catalysts switches were deployed from Pexim and new services for businesses will significantly improve the issuing and processing of payment cards, loans and credits to clients. Decision to chose Pexim and migrate to Microsoft Windows Server™ platform was based largely on a desire to minimize total cost of ownership throughout a higher degree of manageability. More than 10 man/years of software development and work were used for this Project. Over 80 Pexim’s IT Specialists and Program Managers were involved in migration process. For production, from the ICT infrastructure point, primary, secondary and disaster recovery (business contingency) sites were configured and installed. Testing of Tutunska Bank’s new IS started on 4th September 2006 and full production on 19th September 2006. One of the important things for Pexim itself is that this was also     “a win back” Project!

• Standardized s/w platform
• Scalable IS for future growth
• Increased staff productivity
• Improved customer service
• New banking products portfolio
• Alignment with international standards