Author: Michael Yeo

Business Strategy
November, 2012  -  Doc # FIN237888
Number of Pages: 31
Number of Figures: 3

This IDC Financial Insights report looks at the seemingly expanding trend of banking outages in the Asia/Pacific region and looks into the circumstances behind the outages as well as the intrinsic reasons behind them. It further goes on to provide predictions for whether we will see an increase or decrease in outages in the region. This report also discusses best practices for banks to both prevent and cope with outages, as well as the role that vendors must assume in order to help them meet their standards.

"Research suggests that a significant amount of outages can be accounted for by two factors: problems caused either by inconsistent upgrading or by system migration due to M&A activity between banks. Moreover, outages are no small matter. Our calculations suggest minimal estimated losses of over a million dollars per hour of outage for the largest banks in the Asia/Pacific region. With this level of financial damage, what is it that allows these outages to continue in so many banks across the region?" says Michael Yeo, market analyst for IDC Financial Insights Asia/Pacific.

"The whole IT function needs to be looked at with greater strategic importance in banks and to move away from the traditional cost center approach. Despite IT being so embedded and critical in the daily running of the bank's business, ownership and responsibilities regarding the bank's operations are still located in silo within the IT department solely. IT structuring should use business aims as the base it works from and look toward simplifying processes in an accordant manner. However, with new external threats having recently arisen, plus seemingly little change in the mindset toward IT, we expect outages for the next 12 months to increase in number or, at the very least, in the publicity that they receive."

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