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PROFILE
Modernising African banking
Technology to drive growth for MCS Mauritius Civil Service Mutual Aid Association, one of the country’s oldest financial institutions, is on a drive towards a digital future with Infosys Finacle as a partner. unil Dabeesingh, CEO of Mauritius Civil Service Mutual Aid Association (MCS) is very proud of the history of the company and has big ambitions for the years ahead. Above all, Dabeesingh said MCS aims to “provide happiness to customers”, and a partnership with Finacle is playing an important role in meeting this aim in the long term.
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From humble beginnings “MCS is one of the oldest financial institutions in Mauritius, it was started in 1893 by a group of civil servants the underlying philosophy is mutuality and this is still in practice today,” he said. Indeed, the very foundations of MCS were built on a need to help people in a time of trouble. The 175 civil servants pioneered the association by pooling resources in a fund to grant loans to members needing financial assistance. At the time, Mauritius was still recovering from a devastating cyclone which struck the island nation in 1892. At the time, loan facilities from banks were not widely available and MCS was able to offer a responsible alternative to unscrupulous money lenders. By 1894, an ordinance was passed, which constituted MCS into a limited liability society. “The Association’s mission is to provide the best services to make the customers happy.” When asked how MCS stands out from other financial institutions, Dabeesingh gave an intriguing response: “We are different but also alike.” He then elaborated: “ We have loan facilities, we take deposits, we are licensed by the Central Bank of Mauritius, we have the same basic functions as other financial institutions, but we are different because as an association, we have evolved.” “The relationships between the association and its members is crucial, it is the basis of the success of the association we have lasted already for 122 years.” Dabeesingh described the mutual trust
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Sunil Dabeesingh, CEO of MCS says customer happiness is paramount
between MCS and its customers as a “win-win situation.” “Our culture is an alignment of the needs and expectations of our customers.”
A major IT project for MCS with Finacle Now MCS has plans for expansion, and Dabeesingh said the extensive overhaul of the company’s IT systems is an important part of fulfilling this mission. He said the company has fully replaced all IT infrastructure, moving to an IBM platform in a partnership with Finacle, a multi-national banking IT solutions company, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Infosys. The replacement project supports all-new hardware, software, network resources and
Digital technology will play a crucial role in the next three to five years and to be on the competitive edge, we need an increased level of preparedness”
African Review of Business and Technology - Dec 15/Jan 16
virtualisation technology rolled out across all front- and back-end services for the entire company. When MCS decided to pair up with Finacle for the IT project, Dabeesingh said the company was “at a juncture”. A decision had to be made as to whether to upgrade the previous system, fully replace the system or simply contract it out. It was decided that a full replacement was required and Dabeesingh said the decision to use Finacle as the partner for the project was the result of market research. “We went for Finacle because of their stateof-the-art solutions,” said Dabeesingh. “They met our specific requirements and we were also quite satisfied with their pricing policy.” The testimonials of other satisfied Finacle clients, in Mauritius and abroad, meant that MCS could “move forward with confidence”. The result was, according to Dabeesingh, a “very good partnership with Finacle”. “Finacle’s people are very professional in their attitude to their work,” said Dabeesingh. “Each time we had a problem, people with the right competencies came to help.” Additionally, Dabeesingh was impressed with Finacle’s project management capabilities and said the replacement work was completed “on time and within budget”.
Looking to the future The IT replacement project with Finacle has been completed and MCS is now preparing for the next phase in its drive towards more digital services for customers. “We are settling down now. The next stage is to prepare to enhance the technology platform for ease of doing business for customers,” said Dabeesingh. Customer convenience is the main priority and MCS plans to move quickly with its latest digital plans. The new systems set up in partnership with Finacle form a solid foundation for future expansion. “Digital technology will play a crucial role in the next three to five years and to be on the www.africanreview.com