IT Update
Deal of the month
WHAT's NewS Issue 9 September 1996
short news
FUNDING SOURCE
^nother aspect of the Advisory Services'
Pffort is to obtain EU financing for
projects within the bank itself. For
example, Rabobank is being funded by the
European Commission to prepare a
booklet on the consequences of the Euro
common currency for small and medium-
sized enterprises. It is also tapping funds
intended to stimulate such European
companies as Ahold, Rabobank, and
Heineken to operate management trainee
exchange programs by subsidizing some
70 percent of their costs. These will bring
MBA students and local hires from such
Asean countries as Thailand, and Vietnam
to work in and gain a better appreciation
for the European way of doing business.
Eike any true partnership, it has to serve
hoth parties' needs. Says Conijn: 'My job
is to match the interests of Rabobank
clients with those of the European Union.'
The deal: USD 9 million loan facility.
The cliënt: Grain Procurement Agency
PTE Limited.
JtjLhe players: Young Meng, Cheam I ling
^Kee and Sunil Kumar of TCF, and the
credit department Loke Poh Lam, Sophia
Kan and Angeline Tang, Singapore; Niek
Streefkerk, 1 lans Boggard and Anthony
Huijser of APFT in Utrecht; Warsaw
Thomasz Sandomierski; executive support
from Hans Hannaart and Arjan den
Heijer (Singapore), Hanno Riedlin, Robin
Bargmann and Mauk Faber in Utrecht.
USD 9 million may not be the biggest loan
facility extended by the bank this year, but
this deal certainly represents a tremendous
achievement for Singapore. Says Sunil
Kumar of Singapore's trade and commodity
finance department: 'We were approached
by our cliënt, Grain Procurement Agency,
and asked to consider providing advances
to farms in Kazakhstan for the purchase
agricultural equipment, such as diesle,
Tractor tires, and so on, during the pre-
harvest wheat season. In exchange, these
farmers would deliver the wheat harvested
during the season to our cliënt at an
SINGAPORE
FINANCIERT
KAZACHSTAN
Hoewel het zeker niet de
grootste deal is die ooit is afgesloten
kenmerkt deze zich door snelheid en het
benutten van de kennis van ons
internationale netwerk.Tevens is het de
eerste deal die op deze wijze door een
buitenlandse bank in Kazachstan is gedaan.
Op verzoek van haar klant, Grain
Procurement Agency (GPA), financiert
Singapore boeren in Kazachstan,die hun
oogst tegen een vastgestelde prijs aan GPA
^^erkopen. Dankzij de inzet van Singapore's
Trade Commodity team en met hulp van
de Agri-projectfinanciering in Utrecht en
Polen lukte dit binnen drie maanden.
I te 4 4
F.l.t.r. Sunil Kumar, Loke Poh Lam, Yong
Meng, Cheam Hing Lee, (seated) Angeline
Tang, Sophia Kan and Jayne Yu.
agreed ratio.'
The proposal represented a major
challenge for the TCF team. 'This was the
first time we had undertaken such a
project in Kazakhstan and it could also
provide us with a foot in the door there,'
says Kumar. 'Moreover, if we were
successful, we would be the first foreign
bank involved in financing a project of
this kind. As we only had three months to
complete the study, and as we had to rely
on inhouse expertise, we assembled a team
from APFT Utrecht and APFT Poland,
which had previous experience in
financing companies in the former Soviet
Union. Thomasz Sandomierski undertook
the exploratory trip, meeting both farmers
and regional governors and gathering
information.'
'This was really a joint effort,' says
Kumar. The final proposal was put
together by both APFT teams in Utrecht
and Poland, and by our trade and
commodity finance group here in
Singapore. We received approval from the
Central Credit Committee just before our
cliënt told us the President of Kazakhstan
was coming to Singapore on a state visit.
He was not only informed of our
involvement, but the cliënt also invited
our deputy general manager, Arjan den
Heijer, to a special lunch where he met the
president. It was a bit of icing on the cake.
In Singapore we see the project as a real
achievement. We're still working on the
complexities of the documentation, but it
has been an experience that can only
prove useful for future business.
The process of automating the foreign
offices has now been designated 'OPEX'-
suggesting the goal of Operational
Excellence.The name was also chosen to
emphasize that the IT program is driven first
and foremost by business and not purely
technical objectives.
Program insiders might be interested to
know that the business and operational
aspects of the IT strategy, formerly addressed
by what was known as the ID/IT Steering
Committee,are now being handled by a
newly-named Business and Operational
Systems Steering Committee (or BOSS).
In late July, team members were invited to a
formal kick-off of the IT programme in
Utrecht, where Rabobank's senior
management as well as the program
managers made a number of presentations
on strategie justification and organization.
Readers will recall that the strategie IT
program is being handled in four 'streams'.
Each now has a user committee, where
branches can make their voices heard, and
the first meetings were handled at the start
of September.
Significant achievements, noted by stream,
indude:
Stream 1 (large/complex branches):The
business review of London branch was
completed,forming a basis for assessing its
business needs and priorities and
considering what may be included in the
implementation. Further reviews are now
underway in New York, Singapore, Hong
Kong,and Frankfurt.
Stream 2 (medium/small branches):
Business reviews have been completed on
Schedule in Paris, Madrid, Dublin, and
Warsaw.
Stream 3 (start up branches): Five
vendors have tendered to provide systems
for the new branches, and the demonstration
and testing process was completed at the
end of August. A finalized contract is
expected shortly.
Stream 4 (architecture and central
services): As part of the effort to install an
integrated worldwide e-mail system, pilot
projects have been inaugurated in Paris,
London, New York, Frankfurt, Utrecht, and
Singapore (see pages 4/5 of this issue).
London branch went 'live'on 16 August,
while the other systems will begin this
month, with full implementation scheduled
before the year's end.
