Malaysian Electronic Payment System (1997) Sdn Bhd (MEPS) and IBM (NYSE:IBM) announced the completion of MEPS mainframe upgrade to the IBM System z9 Business Class (BC) which will enable MEPS to create an advanced and smarter Information Technology (IT) environment to cater to its explosive growth for one of its core services, Interbank GIRO (MEPS IBG).
MEPS IBG is an interbank funds transfer service that facilitates payments and collections through the exchange of digitized transactions between banks.
Under the agreement signed early last year, IBM provided MEPS with a System z9 BC for MEPS IBG's production and disaster recovery sites. The mainframe is connected to an IBM System Storage DS6800 and the TS1120 tape solution. The IBM disk storage and tape solution will provide MEPS with high availability, continuous operations, and data can be quickly recovered in the event of any disaster.
MEPS has invested more than RM 3.7 million (USD 1 million) in the total IBM solution.
The IBM solution will provide more than three times the bandwidth previously available to MEPS. This higher bandwidth will enable MEPS to focus on reducing overall business costs while consolidating and simplifying its IT management. It will also enable MEPS to develop new product features as well as provide faster and more efficient delivery to customers.
Group Managing Director of MEPS Dato' Mohd Hata Robani said, "We are confident that this upgrade will further improve MEPS' processing capability and provide the capacity to accommodate the accelerated growth in IBG transactions. IBM Systems provides more stability and bandwidth as well as security for enhancement initiatives in customer service quality."
"Over the last three years, MEPS IBG has experienced a compounded growth rate of 52%, and as of December 2008 over 36 million transactions worth approximately RM90 billion were processed. MEPS is a strong supporter of the Government's national agenda of migrating from paper-based payment to electronic payment. With more organizations and government agencies pushing and promoting the e-Payment, MEPS IBG volume is expected to continue to grow aggressively," Dato' Mohd Hata added.
IBM Global Technology Services successfully implemented all hardware setup and installation services for both production and disaster recovery sites without interruptions.
IBM Malaysia's managing director Ou Shian Waei said, "With energy costs rising, and power density of new electronics increasing, power-efficient devices are increasing in importance with companies like MEPS. We provided the relevant value propositions that have real short-term and long-term impact on MEPS' business and helped them to realize their goals with our end-to-end products and services."