Accenture awarded contract from Hong Kong Housing Authority
The Hong Kong Housing Authority has signed an eight-year contract worth $30 million with Accenture to design, develop and maintain a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. The Authority plans to improve efficiency in its financial management and procurement processes with the system. It replaces more than 20 legacy systems currently handling the functions.
"The Hong Kong Housing Authority's current systems are no longer able to meet evolving user requirements in terms of performance, flexibility and reporting capabilities," said Bruce Liang, Accenture's Greater China health and public service lead, in a statement. "Accenture will design and deploy an integrated ERP system that is aligned with the business goals of the authority, drive new efficiencies through their organisation and put them on a patch to high performance."
Accenture will deploy the fully integrated system in two phases during the next three years. Phase one will upgrade the authority's finance and procurement capabilities and phase two will involve the implementation of individual modules to provide support. Upon its completion, the new system will support more than 8,000 users.
Citi introduces new service for China's small enterprises
Citibank China has launched a new service to allow its small business clients access to commercial banking services through its retail branch network. The bank will offer instalment loans, cash management services and opportunities for express trade under the new service.
"The launch of this service reflects a pressing need among small businesses for banking services that are better tailored to their specific needs and our intent to continue to invest to provide the very best in banking solutions to our growing customer base in China," said Anand Selva, executive vice-president of Citibank China, in a statement.
Nancy Zhang, head of Citi China's commercial bank added: "We believe the new 'branch model' we are launching today will enable us to reach a wider cross section of companies operating in this space, and in doing so will enable us to build upon momentum we have achieved over the last six years." The service will only be available in Shanghai initially before being gradually rolled out to other cities in China.
Avaloq expands presence in Asia
Avaloq, an integrated banking software provider, has opened an office branch in Hong Kong to meet growing client demand in Asia. The Switzerland-based firm has already won mandates from DBS, Nomura and RBS Coutts to use its banking system for private banking capabilities in Hong Kong.
"By opening a new branch office in Hong Kong we are broadening our footprint in the Asia-Pacific market. This is also to the advantage of our fast-growing community," said Mathias Schütz, managing director of Avaloq Asia-Pacific, in a statement.
The firm expects to secure several further mandates in Hong Kong by the end of this year.
IPC extends core networking infrastructure reach in Asia
IPC, a provider of financial trading communications, extended its core networking infrastructure to Equinix International Business Exchange (IBX) data centres in Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo in a move to support increasing demand for its portfolio of electronic connectivity services.
"A growing customer base here in Asia-Pacific means there is a need to enhance IPC's infrastructure within the region," said David Dodd, managing director of IPC Asia-Pacific, in a statement. "Our network extension within the Equinix Asia-Pacific region can propel our service offering to new heights, allowing us to better support the demand for scalable and high-performance connectivity in the region."
Customers of the Equinix-enabled financial ecosystems can reach out to more than 2,400 trading floors and around 4,000 market participants and exchanges that are connected globally through the IPC network.
