Web Migration for parcIT's Banking Software

The Customer

parcIT GmbH is one of the leading providers of methodology services and software for bank management, risk management, and rating processes in Germany. The company offers method development and validation as well as standard software and consulting from a single source. More than 450 employees ensure that everyday banking becomes simpler, more efficient, and regulatory compliant with competence and teamwork.

Since 2009, parcIT has been part of the Atruvia AG corporate group (formerly Fiducia & GAD IT AG) and is thus firmly anchored in the Cooperative Financial Network. More than 1,100 institutions and companies both domestically and internationally use parcIT’s software, including numerous cooperative banks, savings banks, private banks, specialized credit institutions, insurance companies, corporate clients, data centers, and associations.

Initial Situation and Start of the Collaboration

For years, parcIT’s software has been distinguished by its outstanding professional quality. However, during the realization of the web transition, there was a lack of comprehensive expertise. For this reason, parcIT sought a renowned and experienced service provider for software modernization, and itemis AG was selected due to its successful projects in this area. After analyzing the existing system and a proposal for a Proof of Concept (POC) on the topic of web transition, itemis AG was awarded the contract to conduct the POC. Even in the POC, parcIT and itemis AG worked in mixed teams. This close collaboration continues to characterize the ongoing cooperation and forms the basis for successful joint work.

Our Contribution to Success

The Proof of Concept on the topic of web transition marked the beginning of a long-term partnership. With the successful completion of the Proof of Concept, parcIT gained confidence in the expertise and commitment of itemis AG as an IT service provider and decided to tackle the topic of software modernization, and in particular, the web transition, together. Since then, itemis AG has been supporting parcIT in various areas of software development.

• Improvement of the software development process and development infrastructure through the use of cutting-edge tools, such as Jenkins, Docker, and Kubernetes.
• Various topics in the area of web transition: software modularization, introduction of Spring, development of a web UI framework based on Angular, and support in the area of security.
• Participation in various specialist projects for the development of bank management procedures.
• Development of a Behavior Driven Development framework for the technical testing of risk management software to ensure compliance with MaRisk regulations.
• Training parcIT employees on various software development and DevOps topics, such as version control, software testing, and dependency injection.

Technology Projects

The employees of itemis AG have significantly advanced parcIT in the following two projects with their technical expertise.

12.2017 – present

Modernization and Modularization of the Software and Web Transition

As previously described, the Proof of Concept on the topic of web transition marked the beginning of the modernization and modularization of the okular software.

parcIT aims to make existing and new functionalities of the okular software available online. As part of this initiative, the existing software and the software development process are being updated to current standards and transformed into a flexible and scalable architecture.

Since 2017, experienced consultants from itemis AG have been supporting the modernization efforts in all crucial areas.

01.2020 – 06.2021

Proof of Concept Model-Driven GUI Development

The goal of this Proof of Concept was to examine the extent to which parcIT developers could benefit from model-driven development in web GUI development. The model-driven user interface development environment was developed based on an LSP server and Xtext.

Participation in Specialist Projects

In the following projects, we have supported, and continue to support, parcIT in the development of specialist projects. In mixed teams, we work together with parcIT developers on implementing the technical requirements.

01.2020 – 12.2021

Development and Analysis Platform

Development of a technical platform for conducting quantitative analyses. These analyses are used for the development or validation of processes for the standard software VR-Control.

03.2020 – present

SIMON

okular SIMON consolidates control metrics from preliminary modules and supports customers in establishing economic and regulatory risk-bearing capacity, including risk limitation, as well as in conducting comprehensive stress tests for the entire bank. Additionally, okular SIMON provides standardized whole-bank reporting, which meets the requirements for MaRisk risk reporting.

01.2021 – present

Data Management / Merger Platform

Development of a high-performance platform for the technical merger of 1 to n banks. Existing and new merger rules were analyzed together with Atruvia and implemented into a Java program.

01.2021 – present

Development and Implementation of a BDD Test Framework

With the help of this framework, product management can describe the desired technical outcomes in such a way that the implementation can be automatically tested against them.

01.2021 – present

ZIRIS

okular ZIRIS supports the entire market risk and liquidity management and consolidates the process steps of planning, business processing, and result control into an effective workflow.

01.2022 – present

Integrated Contribution Margin Planning

The Integrated Contribution Margin Planning in okular provides early insights into business volume and performance development, identifies misdevelopments, and enables targeted countermeasures. It ensures that all revenue management tools are used in a coordinated manner.

Customer Advantage/Benefit

With itemis, parcIT has a long-term IT partner by its side. The collaboration on the web transition offers parcIT numerous opportunities. In addition to the transfer of expertise and experience from itemis developers, the efficient collaboration in mixed teams enables accelerated project implementation. The solid and long-standing partnership is characterized by trust, openness, and constructiveness.

Furthermore, the improved scalability of the development team is of high importance, allowing for flexible responses to changes. At the same time, the quality of the developed software is enhanced through the exchange of experiences and early error detection. parcIT benefits from the collaboration of technological innovation and new solution approaches, which strengthen its competitiveness.

Outlook

Going forward, parcIT GmbH and itemis AG will continue their open and trusting partnership and jointly advance software development at parcIT.