Today it announces that is consolidating its 18 year partnership with Misys Banking systems by becoming the first site worldwide to go live on the latest Equation software (Equation 3.8).

Bank of Cyprus UK is upgrading to Equation 3.8 from an earlier version of Misys Equation (3.5) and will gain increased value from the upgrade in many areas. The new system has an enhanced data integrity function and provides significant performance improvements. These come as a result of utilising commitment control and the powerful batch processing capability of the series including multi-streaming.

Equation 3.8 is the prerequisite for the new Misys banking software architecture - Equation Plus. The bank will be able to implement further new modules to its core retail operation, such as lending, which will give it the opportunity to improve productivity through automation and management information capabilities.

The partnership has allowed Bank of Cyprus UK early access to the software. A dedicated team from Misys has managed all aspects of the project, from initial development, through roll-out, consultancy and project management. Misys new product roll-out methodology has been used, and this new complete project approach has ensured that the project has progressed rapidly, smoothly and to budget.

Soleris Antoniades, head of systems at Bank of Cyprus UK, comments: "The bank operates in the highly competitive and regulated SME market. We differentiate ourselves by offering a traditional relationship based service. We are therefore continually seeking to improve our performance and productivity, and to enhance our customer service through technological improvement."

"Misys Equation 3.8 allows us to continue to meet customer expectations whilst streamlining business processes. In deciding to implement Equation 3.8 it was key that the Bank would be able to extend its customer offering, avail itself of opportunities to improve productivity and contain IT operational costs. The fact that there is a clear vision and strategy for the Equation product going forward was also a contributing factor in our decision to implement Equation 3.8."

Graeme Smith, Misys project manager, comments, "This project owes its success to high quality software and the close working relationship built between the Bank of Cyprus UK and the Misys team. During the project all internal lines of business within Misys worked closely to ensure that any issues raised could be resolved quickly. Bank of Cyprus UK saw the benefits of this approach as solutions to problems were available on a timely basis, ensuring that the project momentum was not compromised."

Marjolein Veldhuis, Misys product delivery manager, emphasises the team approach that has been effective in the project. "At Misys there is now a strong focus on customer satisfaction, not only in terms of the product quality and the services we provide, but also in the relationship. For new upgrades and products, we have now introduced revised procedures to bring our products to the market. A major change has been the involvement of a specifically allocated team consisting of representatives of all our lines-of-business and bank personnel. Bank of Cyprus UK has been the ideal partner for this first implementation of Equation 3.8 resulting in the successful completion of this project."