PFS as an Innovator At Precise Financial Systems Ltd, innovation is a key element that cannot be compromised in the creative process - in the designs and development of all our projects and solutions. This attitude is reflected in all that we do and help to improve all our existing solutions.
Produced by: Precise Financial Systems Ltd, Lead Author: Babajide Alaka Co-Authors: Yele Okeremi, Philip Ayeni, Oluwafeyisarami Phillips
1 | THE BEGINNINGS From a little acorn, an oak tree blossomed
A wise man once said; “the beginning is the most important part of the work” There is a time to be born and a time to die but interposed in the middle is life. The birth, growth, development, expansion of life is in the hands of man but they can choose to just live or exist. Precise Financial Systems Ltd, precisely known in her area of expertise as PFS chose to grow, although the immediate environment was one that shirkedshunned growth – one that intentionally debauchesdegrades ideas, projects, and growth. Therefore it is instructive; there is cause for celebration for a Nigerian software company to have stayed in business, continuously for 25 years.
www.thepfs.biz
01
PFS is a wholly Nigerian software development company situated in Lagos, Nigeria. With her corporate slogan, “Simple Solutions…” the firm’s belief is clear- putting things in the proper perspectives – simple and practical solutions that break barriers and change the status quo at all times.
Historical Perspective The corporation formally commenced operation on March 1, 1994 as PEE-AARR Ventures Ltd with two divisions – Consulting & Investment. In July 1992, it modified its business model as a strict consulting outfit hence the change of name to PEE-AARR Consulting Limited before her eventual change of identity in May 1998 to its current name - PRECISE FINANCIAL SYSTEMS. Nigeria is a blessed country but it is also an under-developed one because many ideas die instead of germinating. Precise Financial Systems bucked this trend, as after throwing their hat in the software development ring has been fighting for the last 25 years so that yesterday’s dreams can become today’s reality and tomorrow’s proficiency. Take a drive to Marina, on the Lagos waterfront, park in a safe place and lug the computer bag over your shoulder for the next few hours, hawking solutions to all known accomplices and friends along Marina and Broad Street – that was the scenario both Akinyele Okeremi and Philip Ayeni faced about 25 years ago when they decided to follow their hearts, despite a lack of mentorship and www.thepfs.biz
02
guidance. At the onset, the resources at their disposal were simply: A. B. C. D. E.
Intellectual endowment; Desire to make impact, globally; A borrowed Compaq LTE Lite notebook; A borrowed Nissan Stanza 1.6 second-hand car; A gift in a ream of letter head, proudly bearing the name PEEAARR VENTURES and F. A cash sum of N8, 250.00 (Eight Thousand, Two Hundred and Fifty Naira) (About $400). At the beginning, most of the doors they knocked on stayed shut but the solution just had to be delivered. The first client, Oasis Savings and Loans (a mortgage institution in Anthony Village, Lagos), came with great delight on 21st May 1994. The company was to implement its main solution – CLIMAX (a DOS-based Banking & Financial Solution) - for a contract sum of 525,750.00. With this inflow, the company got its office at 174B Murtala Mohammed Way, Yaba, Lagos. The office space was audacious - a whole floor, 108.4m2 dimension and 400% of space requirement at the time. Before the end of 1994, expansion in triumph came via Triumph Merchant Bank at Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos. The company implemented its DOS version CLIREC (now a web-based flagship solution) for the sum of a whopping 100,000.00. Now - 25 years later, with over 10 million lines of code and over 100 employees, the journey is clearer and the company has become better equipped to embark on another 25 years into the future.
www.thepfs.biz
03
The Pioneers In the beginning, there were two young and daring men that started the journey of software solutions, which has nowve travelled over 5,000km, across 36 countries. Yele Okeremi (a Computer Scientist) and Philip Ayeni (a Chartered Accountant), stirred by an unquenchable desire to make impact and buoyed by uncommon divine providence, set in motion a partnership story in the field of financial software solutions that started as Pee-Arr Ventures and is today going strong as Precise Financial Systems Ltd. Entrepreneurship, as Harvard professor Howard Stevenson calls it, is “the relentless pursuit of opportunity without recourse to resources currently controlled.� PFS was an opportunity 25 years ago and continues to be one, looking into the future, with supreme belief that with God, things can only get better. They learnt from each other and tried to build the best way to bridge the gap between business owners and business managers through the instrumentality of Accounting and Information Technology (IT). Not quite long after their meeting in December, 1989 at Industrial Bank (Merchant Bankers) at Adetokunboh Ademola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, Yele and Philip left promising banking careers to start PEE-AARR Ventures Limited, and have since developed that dream into the multi-million dollar software development company that serves clients (mostly financial institutions) in more than 36 countries across Africa.
www.thepfs.biz
04
Edward Everett Hale said, “Coming together is a beginning; working together is progress and keeping together is success.” Both men have kept it together – a partnership that is an example to today’s entrepreneurs. This success marked the beginning of immense achievement for the organization. Of course, Okeremi couldn’t have done this alone. He had and still has the full dedication of his close friend, brother and business partner. According to Dr. Okeremi, what has kept him going as the MD of PFS is the pride he has for Nigeria - a feeling he believes is more than love of country. “Pride is taking joy in being a Nigerian and doing things that put Nigeria on the world map. Asides from the pride for the country, the other times they [Yele and Philip] had thought of giving up, the sense of responsibility they have towards this generation” emboldened them to keep going. There was lots of discouragement along the way, especially from other Nigerians, who weare supposed to have the mindset of building locally. “On a few occasionsSo many a times, wehad wanted to wind down and close the business, but we always asked ourselves - what examplewe would be setting for the upcoming generation - people who are genuine and want to create positive changes? “So we continued to hold on.”
www.thepfs.biz
05
2| DESIGNING SIMPLE SOLUTIONS Empathy is the crux of developing humane software “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” –Steve Jobs Design thinking is concerned with solving problems through concrete and sometimes, intricate concepts. The idea is that the future output of the process will provide a better answer than the one already available. If there’s nothing presently, something entirely new can be thought up. It is an unconstrained methodology where it is possible that the designer (or design team) will work on many possible solutions at
www.thepfs.biz
06
once. It enables designers to consider the problem in many different ways and speculate on both the past and future of the problem too. Being able to think of designs that provide solutions to already existing or even potential problems always comes with its own mistakes and challenges but with the mind to keep getting better until a solution is reached, the designers keep at it, analyzing the work done and the ground yet uncovered. As said before, it is being able to look at the problem in different possible ways (including future-possible problems that may emerge), in order to proffer a solution. Precise Financial Systems Ltd. is well known for creating really simple solutions. The idea is that the simpler the solution, the more precise it is. Being able to creatively come up with solutions that are specific and unambiguous is the key or goal of the company. At Precise Financial Systems, we have extensive experience in researching and studying state-of-the-art technologies applied to the development and integration of cost-cutting, innovative and robust solutions. Simple solutions are developed with the aim of helping users easily process, understand and interact with the system. The solutions are designed as answers to clients’ pain points and more importantly, why other solutions have not been able to lessen these pains. “It is not sufficient to simply give clients what they are asking for, but it is absolutely necessary to be able to see their pain points and give them a solution that is stronger, friendlier and future proof.�
www.thepfs.biz
07
Keeping things simple means letting go or giving up control to the end users. Okeremi continued: “We do this to prevent our clients from getting easily frustrated, because, we know people easily get frustrated when using applications that are not intuitive and easy to use.” “Good design is obvious. Great design is transparent.” –Joe Sparano Designing simple solutions involves removing all the excesses to ease the frustrations that come with overly complicated usage. PFS designs simple solutions so that the value of the product is not hidden under the excessive complications. Keeping it simple brings the value to the fore. It leaves no doubt whatsoever in the client’s minds of the clients. Quality, transparency, meeting deadlines and cost efficiency are at the core of the PFS Way. Our relationship with our customers, partners, suppliers and employees reflect these qualities. At PFS, innovation is a key element that cannot be compromised in the creative process - in the designs and development of all our projects and solutions. This attitude is reflected in all that we do and help to improve all our existing solutions. PFS offers a wide range of Web development solutions at very competitive prices. Our first-rate team has multidisciplinary knowledge in the use the latest technologies. As such, we offer customized solutions to help our customers achieve their objectives, including components and connectors to facilitate the integration of their Core Banking Solutions. These are achieved using varied technologies.
www.thepfs.biz
08
There are major projects we have developed, implemented, and which are currently operational in different companies all over the country. Each one of these projects is running very successfully and as such we have highly satisfied customers, who are happy with the quality of our products and services, our commitment to supporting these products and the ability to meeting deadlines and the proposed costs. It is delightful to state that one of our solutions is of national significance.
Some of our solutions include: CLIREC: A suite of fully integrated account reconciliation modules with multi-currency and multi-lingual capabilities that gives organizations complete control of all reconciliation functions and processes. iTELLER: This is a cheque truncation solution. It is a complete suite of automated cheque lodgment, clearing and processing solution that comes with multi-functional application and capability. This solution combines software and hardware to provide a scalable and state-of-the-art automation with seamless abilities for absorbing technological and operational growth in the future. The iTELLER application is presently a T+0 ready system. The system is inclusive of an ultra violet cheque scanning ready solution. Cheque truncation is one of the elements necessary for the actualization of the cashless regime and it is just being implemented in Nigeria. www.thepfs.biz
09
PAYiT: Is a complete multi-channel payment system that incorporates detailed and flexible transactional workflow in payment up to validation, accounting, online signatures, payment register, multi-channel funds transfer, printing and entry posting.
NACS: This is used to describe the automated clearing system of the entire banking and financial industry for both electronic instruments (ACH) and derivatives/images of paper-based instruments (cheques). With the automation of the clearing system, the clearing process is poised to becoming a T+0 affair. NACS is also integrated with the Cheque Truncation System (iTELLER) from the banks, where physical clearing instruments are dematerialized into electronic format at a stage within the bank of first deposit (Presenting Bank) while only the electronic format (images/MICR data) is transmitted electronically to the Clearing House. The Presenting bank subsequently warehouses the original physical instrument.
www.thepfs.biz
10
3| BATTLING THE ODDS A testimony of integrity and grit
“When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.” - Elon Musk
“The 25-year PFS journey can be described as “A testimony to integrity and passion for excellence,” says Oluseyi Osifalujo, the Executive Director and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the company. www.thepfs.biz
11
“We continually ensure the focal point is to create and sustain an enabling environment for innovation while we strive painfully to stay ahead of customer expectations,” In a country that perceives local as not good enough, PFS has created solutions that have solved and amelioratedeliminated dire challenges in the financial sector, whilst and counting on the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Scheme Plc. [NIBSS] and the Central Bank as prime collaborators. A huge paradigm shift was attained in 2017 with the deployment of Nigeria Automated Clearing System [NACS]. The launch of NACS in Lagos in 2017 and the deployment of its accounts reconciliation solution, CLIREC, in 36 African countries and France, now occasioned with the appointment of Gartner as its globalisation advisor, have manifestlynoticeably positioned Precise Financial Systems Ltd as the foremost Nigerian software house. This assertion is backed up by the attainment of the CMMI certification (level 3), which attests to the process and quality standards PFS has put in place to develop and implement national and international projects. Okeremi and Ayeni often describe the enterprise a mission. “We owe a duty to our generation and the coming generationsafter us. We don’t want the younger ones getting discouraged by comments like ‘people who are brighter than you have ventured into this business but got stuck so who do you think you are?’ ” According to Okeremi, “The satisfaction I get when young men and women walk up to me and say your determination has made us do it, gives me a sense of pride. I realize I have people in the younger generation looking up to me as a beacon of hope.” www.thepfs.biz
12
“On the positive side, I also had the nudging from friends. I remember going to Afribank Merchant Bankers [now defunct], I had no idea Mr. Kunle Adebisi knew me because we had only met during the demo presentation of CLIREC in 1995. We worked late into the night during the implementation of the solution and when he saw us on one of those nights, he mentioned the name of our company in confirmation and said; ‘if you continue to work the way you are, then the sky will only be a starting point for you.’ “That statement felt like I had just been injected with courage to keep moving. It was and remains priceless; it feels good to hear acknowledgement especially during moments when it feels like every plan is not working.” “Someone once told my wife that, “your husband is not a medical doctor but he sure saves lives”. “Another time someone heading the Savings and Loans sector of an organization once gave the company the automation contracts for his company. “We didn’t even bid for the project. When I asked him why he gave us the job without inviting the rest of his team to do an evaluation of our product, he told me he had vowed that if he ever did reach the top of any organization, he’d give back to us.
www.thepfs.biz
13
This was due to a happening when as a junior staff at a bank, he had performed a treasury bill transaction for a military man who felt cheated but the only thing that had saved him from getting beaten up by the soldiers was the PFS Treasury Management software that provided details about the transaction to the satisfaction of the customer who was a senior military personnel.� PFS is more than just a FinTech innovator; PFS is all about the future.
www.thepfs.biz
14
4 | Breaking Barriers A case study of the Nigeria Automated Clearing System (NACS) Upgrade Project
Ronald Reagan once said, there are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we erect ourselves.
Introduction The Nigerian information technology sector faces a lot of barriers and PFS is looking and has successfully developed and deployed excellent, simple and user-friendly solutions to some of these challenges using proven technologies.
www.thepfs.biz
15
The ACH is an electronic funds-transfer system that creates a network of conduits for the transfer of money instruments across connected financial houses in a country. The Nigeria Automated Clearing System is an upgrade of the Cheque truncation system where physical clearing instruments are replaced with electronic ones. It is a bank service system solely for the purpose of balancing, settlement and reduction in the process time in order to offer satisfying service for clients. In her words, the Executive Director, Technology & Operations at the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) Plc., Mrs. Christabel Onyejekwe explained NACS as the “system used for clearing/ processing of paper based and automated clearing House (ACH) instruments in Nigeria. Paper based instruments are draft, warrants and cheques (individual and corporate) while ACH instrument are batched/bulk EFT (credit and debit).� With an attitude steeped in breaking barriers, PFS locked down on the Automatic Clearing House (ACH) challenge and beat it down successfully with the deployment of the NACS software solution upgrade to the Nigeria Inter-bank Settlement System [NIBSS] Plc. in September 2017. The upgrade of NACS as handled by PFS introduced new gamechanging features to the clearing process and bequeath significant benefits to the participating banks and other stakeholders. PFS is proud to have given Nigeria the opportunity to be the first African nation to provide a T+0 ready application system.
www.thepfs.biz
16
Background Prior to 2017, it was a patient task to lodge a cheque and get value. It could take between two to 15 days depending on the kind of cheque. The clearinghouse, NIBSS, started the cheque truncation mission with ECPIX in June 3, 2013. Seyi Osifalujo, PFS Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Executive Director described the introduction of ECPIX as a major milestone in Nigeria’s financial sector but one that also came with its fair share of challenges. In as much as it was a very good thing to have and it was a major milestone, there were major issues. “It was largely manual, like when sessions have to be closed or opened. It was generally not efficient in terms of how it was hindering more forward-looking and efficient banks to process their outward and inward instruments customers had deposited with them, they had to wait till 8pm to start transmitting those items against the next morning. “These challenges meant an increase in operational costs to the banks because they had to keep the central clearing unit open throughout the night. And it was at this transmission time that rejected instruments [for whatever reasons] would be declared – a process that did not favour efficiency. “Adding to that maintenance costs was the operational cost incurred because of the need for clearing house gateways in each of the banks. They also had to maintain primary and backup servers that were maintained exclusively by NCR.
www.thepfs.biz
17
Osifalujo added, “ECPIX was also not flexible in processing these items. It was so cumbersome. For example, if you transmitted a batch of 250 instruments and there was a problem with one of the items, – the entire batch would be rejected. You would have no choice but to [manually] figure out which one of these instruments was affected. A simple syntax error was all that was required on just one item to stall the transmission of a batch of 250 items.
The Thought Process and Solution PFS was already an astute and consummate player in the financial sector and grasped figured there were simpler and better ways for clearing to happen seamlessly. “Being practitioners in the industry, we knew there were some things that could be done smarter,” added Osifalujo. There were so many questions thrown up: Why did banks have to wait till 8pm to start transmitting tomorrow’s items into the system? Why did a batch of 250 get rejected because one item had a syntax error? Why not let 249 go and reject the erring one?
www.thepfs.biz
18
These were some issues we felt could be simply resolvedsimply. “We also knew the process could be better automated instead of the largely manual operations,” said Osifalujo. We wanted a closer integration to the clearing system. The way ECPIX software works is a completely different system. The only means of exchange of data was through a folder – a manual process that deters efficiency. We thought we could completely eliminate human intervention because the systems could interact with minimal human interface. NACS was developed in late 2015 by a crack team of developers led by Osifalujo.
www.thepfs.biz
19
Value Proposition S/N
ECPIX
NACS Upgrade
1
Runs in batch mode
Runs in (near) real time
2
Session-based; transmission can only be done at specific times for different item types
Session-less; transmission can be done at any time; the systems automatically puts items into appropriate settlement windows based on Clearing House defined rules
3
Banks must call for assistance from NIBSS with their inward files if need be
Banks can independently track their outward and inward messages
4
Runs separate from in-house Clearing Solution
Integrates directly into the inhouse Clearing Solution
5
Does not support multiple concurrent bank users
Supports multiple concurrent users
6
Heavy footprint on bank side; require a server (Gateway) and installation
Very light footprint on bank side; does not require a server or installation
7
Sits on a separate network in bank from Clearing Solution
On same network in bank as Clearing Solution
8
Managed at the Centre alone
Self-service and administration by bank Administrators to redownload their inward messages and set up their users
9
Rejects the file on account of one item
Rejects only item with error and accepts other items in file
10
No Cheque Image warehousing
Provides Cheque Images Warehousing
11
No provision for capture of instrument date
Provision for instrument date
12
No provision for capture of means of truncation
Provision for capture of means of truncation e.g. Mobile, remote, kiosk, etc.
13
Supports only Windows Server 2003
Supports latest technologies (Windows Server 2012/2016)
www.thepfs.biz
20
14
Accepts items with invalid trancode, sortcode etc.
Enhanced validation on transmitted items e.g. trancode, sort code, account no, etc.
15
Cannot handle ad-hoc holidays declared by Federal Government, banks must retransmit their items
Has provision to move settlement date due to ad-hoc holidays declared by Federal Government. Banks do not need to re-transmit their items
16
Supports multiple currencies
Supports multiple currencies
Besides the above, other benefits include: • Banks can access own gateway; • Efficiency through removal of redundancy and reduced wastage in time and human inputs.
The PFS-Inspired Breakthrough With an attitude steeped in breaking barriers, PFS locked down on the Automatic Clearing House challenge and beat it down successfully with the deployment of NACS in NIBSS in 2017.
Today… Precise Financial Systems Ltd. has thus joined the league of software companies that have become nationally strategic with the NACS deployment in September 2017.
www.thepfs.biz
21
NIBBS’ TESTIMONY Innovation Mrs. Christabel Onyejekwe, Executive Director, Technology & Operations at the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) Plc. described the NACS Upgrade this way; “We have done something that will change the landscape of Nigeria in the clearing space forever. The project is nationally utilized and internationally recognized”. Mr. Ade Sonubi, the Managing Director of NIBBS, described how innovative the NACS Upgrade Project is, “In many ways in Nigeria, we have more imagination than the rest of the world. We do things not just differently but ahead.” To the bankers he said, ”When you start dreaming of your corporate customers issuing vouchers and the likes, we actually have a platform that can do it today. Your instrument may be and may not be a paper. “The platform is already in place; your imagination will make things happen. It is not just about cheques and it is not just about EFT. You can handle any media you can think or dream of. We have done the easy part, which is technology; the harder part is imagination and the hardest part is to make it happen.“ Sonubi added, “You can now use that platform of the cheque to define new products for your customers.” With the platform, the bankers can now “come up with different ways of doing different things”.
www.thepfs.biz
22
Courage & Motivation Speaking further on the courageous and unusual decision made by NIBSS to replace a foreign solution with an indigenous software application, Mrs. Onyejekwe stated that NIBBS’ decision to change the central clearing application “was borne out of the dire need to enhance the capabilities of the system in line with technology advancements, regulatory requirements and industry expectations. “Furthermore, it was a quest towards enhanced operational efficiency and improved service delivery through continuous automation of most of the platforms at a reduced cost to the Nigeria financial industry. “It was also a drive to promote local products and enhance the country export commodities in the area of off-the shelf software solution sales were major factors responsible for the change from the ECPIX system to i-TellerCH Application.” According to her, “The NACS system initially used to be run on the Electronic Cheque Presentment System (ECP) designed and supported by NCR Nigeria Plc. The ECP system only involved the exchange of payment instructions/data without cheque images. Banks meet in a clearing house for the exchange of physical cheques. “Over time, the ECP system was enhanced to ECPIX (Electronic Cheque Presentment with Image Exchange) to enable banks truncate cheques from their offices and avoid the stress of travelling to a central location for physical cheque exchange. The National Clearing System has helped to reduce the clearing process timing from the 14 to 21 working days to 1 day. This has enabled high liquidity rate in the economy.”
www.thepfs.biz
23
Why PFS? On NIBBS’ choice of PFS to deliver such a complex national project, Mrs. Onyejekwe explained, “Precise Financial Systems [PFS] and some other local software companies have been in the clearing system business since the commencement of electronic cheque clearing process. “More so, the company is one of the companies that provide this service to the majority - the banks, the Central Bank of Nigeria [CBN] inclusive. The business opportunity was thrown opened through a competitive process and PFS happened to meet all our criteria.”
Achievement While commenting on the capacity and milestones already achieved on NACS, Mrs. Onyejekwe further remarked, “The new system has capacity to process one million cheques in 30 minutes and four million electronic fund transfer [EFT] in 30 minutes. A number of stress tests were equally performed on the system during the implementation phase of the project. Some of the milestones we have recorded so far are real-time processing i.e. instant delivery of truncated cheques; prompt reports generation; user friendliness; easy access to archive images; same day clearing readiness; express clearing readiness and general increase in cheque processing time etc.”
www.thepfs.biz
24
Stakeholders Feedback: Mr. Agboola, a Central Bank (CBN) Deputy Director representing CBN Director in charge of Banking and Payment Systems stated, “The project has been successful. This new system wholly Nigerian, built by a Nigerian company – PFS. Kudos to PFS”. Mr. Cyril Okorogwe, NIBBS Senior Manager, Operations, while speaking of the robustness of the new NACS put transactions statistics between 15th September, 2017 and 5th July, 2018 (i.e. the day preceding project closure ceremony) as: Cheques: 7.9 million transactions valued at N4.1 Trillion; ACH: 18 million transactions valued at N9 Trillion Members of the Nigeria Bankers’ Clearing House (in no particular order): 1.
“Ease of retrieving information. You can work ahead…improved turnaround time” – Zenith Bank
2.
“It eliminates syntax error” …United Bank for Africa
3.
“Timely delivery of files” – Union Bank
4.
“A more robust design” – Stanbic IBTC
5.
“Ease of transmission” – Providus Bank
6.
“Availability of inward files even before the next session” – Wema Bank
7.
“More accurate… more user-friendly application” – Access Bank
8.
“Easier to navigate – Standard Chartered
Future Upgrades: As regardsRegarding an upgrade opportunity in the future, Mrs. Onyejekwe’s opinion is: “Yes, there are great futuristic upgrade opportunities. Work is currently on-going for additional features which are seamless…” www.thepfs.biz
25
A Nationally significant project There are not too many such software solutions running in the whole world – a measure of the possibilities when opportunity meets hard work and a clear pointer to the undoubted potential that resides in Nigeria – one that is able to proffer, develop, and deploy simple solutions for the everyday challenges. “We break barriers and change the status quo by providing simple solutions using proven technologies” – Precise Financial Systems Ltd At PFS, we are primed to walk that route, knowing the future will be the present for those that dare today. There are plans afoot to explore the African terrain for NACS. The success of the New NACS would not have been achieved but for the dogged determination and hard work of the worthy officials of the clearing banks despite deployment obstacles. We remain grateful to NIBSS for its faith in PFS and for its commitment to partnering with other credible Nigerian software houses. For us in PFS, we hold the view that the attainment of true sustainable national development is only guaranteed when it is in the consciousness of the nation to deliberately identify, develop and nurture its own into the realm of global competitiveness.
www.thepfs.biz
26
437 Herbert Macaulay Road, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria. www.thepfs.biz