KUALA LUMPUR, 24 FEBRUARY 2009 - Malaysian Electronic Payment System (MEPS) has upgraded its mainframe with IBM’s System z9 Business Class (BC) to help growing demand for one of its core services, Interbank GIRO (MEPS IBG).
MEPS group managing director Dato' Mohd Hata Robani said that it has invested approximately RM 4.35 million (USD 1.18 million) in the total IBM solution within MEPS IBG’s production and disaster recovery sites.
“The IBM solution will provide more than three times the bandwidth previously available to MEPS,” said Robani. “This higher bandwidth would 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.”
“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,” he said.
Incorporated in the 1997, MEPS is wholly owned by local banks and is the only interbank network service provider that supports domestic, development, Islamic and foreign banks in Malaysia.
Meeting demand with less energy
“Over the last three years, MEPS IBG has experienced a compounded growth rate of 52 per cent and as of December 2008, over 36 million transactions worth approximately RM90 (US$25.18) billion were processed,” he said. “MEPS is a strong supporter of the government’s national agenda of migrating from paper-based payment to electronic payment. With more organisations and government agencies pushing and promoting the e-Payment, MEPS IBG volume is expected to continue to grow aggressively.”
IBM Malaysia 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 help them to realise their goals with our end-to-end products and services. ”
