StorARCH Data Archiving in Practice at UK Retail Bank

As data regulations evolve and business complexity increases, organisations are constantly looking for ways to optimise their Data Archiving and Retrieval practices. 

Here we take a closer look at a recent client implementation, specifically at how StorARCH, our data archiving and retrieval solution was successfully implemented for a leading UK Retail Bank.

Our client

Following its divestment from another company, a well-known UK Retail Bank required a solution to host historic data, documents and call recordings in multiple formats from more than 20 legacy source systems. The data needed to be retained in compliance with data security standards and accessible to authorised staff in order to support the Bank’s Regulatory obligations and customer-facing processes. The client also required a data archiving and retrieval solution that had the ability for its users to be able to redact and securely download documents and audio files, and to undertake targeted data purging at the end of its lifecycle in support of the Bank’s Retention schedule.

Business drivers for change

Previously part of a joint venture with one of the UK’s largest Banks, where technology and operations were provided by the partner Bank, this Retail Banking organisation was entering a new chapter in its history, standing up new independent Banking technology platforms and full in-house operations.

In order to ensure full compliance with the regulations governing the UK Banking industry, our client had a regulatory requirement to retain data for defined periods, driven by elapsed time or triggered by events. This included key documents such as customer credit agreements, financial statements, complaints data, customer correspondence and audio call recordings.

To migrate the required data to the new operational Banking platform would have been a costly and complex exercise, with high ongoing run costs. Their data warehouse was an unsuitable solution due to the wide variety of data formats and the need to store sensitive data subject to PCI DSS guidelines. Our client therefore sought a cost-effective solution to address its data retention needs, support operational processes to access the data in a timely manner, whilst providing the level of control required to support regulatory compliance.

“The historic data we required was held across a large number of source systems and media. We saw an opportunity to simplify how the data was held, searched and used in order to make our end user processes more efficient.”
Head of Architecture, UK Retail Bank

Key Solution Highlights

The benefits of implementing a strategic data archiving and retrieval solution are most easily illustrated via the obvious impact this has on your organisation’s bottom line. Quite simply, by incorporating your data storage strategy into your organisations journey to the cloud and ensuring your entire data footprint is centralised, in one harmonious ecosystem, you can decommission costly legacy systems, enabling your organisation to reduce its physical footprint, simplify your data landscape and significantly reduce your Total Cost of Ownership.

• StorARCH Private Cloud based solution hosted by Krome, with data backup and offsite Disaster Recovery
• Migration of 23 historic data sources, covering up to 20 years history, including mainframe data, end user developed applications, images, documents, audio files and digitized physical media (scanned or converted from paper and microfilm)
• Role based access defined ability to search, retrieve, view, redact and securely download data
• Browser based, no client software needed

Finding a Solution

The Bank’s Architecture and Procurement teams researched the UK market to assess whether any existing solutions were available that would meet all of their key requirements. Whilst a small number of suppliers offered partial solutions, it appeared that there was not a comprehensive product available which met all of the requirements via a single solution.

Based on recommendation, Krome Technologies were approached to discuss their capabilities. Krome had a proven track record of delivering bespoke data solutions for financial institutions and their StorARCH solution was quickly expanded upon to deliver an end-to-end conceptual design which addressed our client’s full business requirements.
Following a short discovery phase, and having assessed the specific client requirements in detail, Krome confirmed that the StorARCH architecture was capable of addressing all of the Bank’s regulatory, information and data security requirements. Krome were also able to commit to a challenging delivery timeline which allowed only six months to ‘go live’ with the first set of data sources.

“We searched the market for a solution to meet our needs, but nothing quite hit the mark. When we spoke with Krome, we were impressed both by their technical expertise and flexible approach. StorARCH enabled us to meet all requirements without compromise.”
Head of Architecture, UK Retail Bank

Solution Overview

Our client elected to go with a Private Cloud (Data Centre) based StorARCH solution, with Data Backup and offsite Disaster Recovery. Data migrated to the solution covered a large number of different structured and unstructured formats, including raw data, images, documents and call recordings. Paper documentation and microfilm was also digitised and indexed ahead of ingestion into the StorARCH solution.

Raw audio and mainframe AFP data transmitted to Krome was extracted using enhanced techniques to optimise the data ahead of storage within the StorARCH solution. This created significant efficiencies in both the speed of conversion and the data recovery, whilst preserving the integrity of the data.

The user interface was fully configured in accordance with the Bank’s brand guidelines and utilised a powerful and client-configurable search engine across all migrated data sources, ensuring fast response times. In addition to viewing or listening to retrieved data, the in-built StorARCH redaction functionality allows users to remove sections of data or audio files, if required.

Intelligent purge functionality was developed to enable our client to target the removal of records in line with their data retention policy and in compliance with GDPR.

Implementation

The project team adopted an agile approach to delivery, with multiple design, development, testing and data migration work streams running concurrently in order to meet the challenging 6 month delivery schedule.

StorARCH was made available to the Bank’s end users within the original delivery timeline of six months, with additional data sources released as new data sources were delivered to Krome over subsequent implementation phases.

One of the main challenges faced with the delivery of the solution was the quality of the data. The source data had accumulated within the original systems over many years through both systematic and manual processes, and was therefore subject to human error. The project team worked collaboratively to thoroughly interrogate and cleanse the data, ensuring the best possible outcome for our client.

“When challenges presented themselves, the Krome team collaborated with us to deliver innovative solutions,” said the Bank’s Programme Delivery Manager; “I have been impressed with Krome’s professionalism, their willingness to go the extra mile and the dedication of their staff to resolve issues within the committed timeframe.”

Benefits

One of the primary uses of the StorARCH data archiving and retrieval solution delivered by Krome is in support of customer Data Subject Access Requests (DSARs). Under the previous model there was a manually intensive, lengthy and costly exercise to locate and collate all customer data from numerous systems and in many formats. With tightened timelines and new data portability requirements for DSARs introduced as part of GDPR, the solution delivered by Krome provided a single platform for immediate access to all historic customer data held by the previous partner Bank.

Our client’s Service & Delivery Manager commented; “The system is intuitive to use and the fact that so many different data formats can be accommodated is extremely valuable, as it means that users only have to look in one place. The data redaction functionality also speeds up the process of getting data into a suitable format for onward processing, which helps us to deliver operational efficiencies.”

In addition to the operating efficiencies, the cost of running a single solution for the storage of data from 23 source systems represents a significant cost saving.

Finally, the StorARCH data archiving and retrieval solution provided our client with an increase in control over historic data content and governance, supporting the more stringent data retention and deletion requirements under GDPR.

Benefits experienced

• Improved business efficiency, leading to lower operating costs
• Automation of previously manual processes, such as document and audio file redaction
• Increased speed and usability with sub 3 seconds search time achieved
• 100% data accuracy
• Increased control and compliance with GDPR and all required data security standards

Not every client requires the same StorARCH solution. Krome’s StorARCH data archiving and retrieval offering can be tailored and designed specifically based upon your organisations individual requirements and your specific data archive, compliance and recovery objectives.

To find out how StorARCH can help your business achieve regulatory compliance, improve operational efficiency and reduce costs, get in touch with us today or visit www.storarch.co.uk for more information.