This was despite managing 3,000 home-based developers around the region to work undisrupted on innovating and improving on customer experience.
With many businesses in the region shifted to home-based work, one bank has turned to a secure virtual desktop platform to keep pace with the unprecedented times without disruption for its team of 3,000 IT developers.
Instead of the three months typically needed to migrate to such a platform, the process took UOB only 21 days—one of the fastest organizations in ASEAN to do so.
The UOB DevTop provides IT developers with a secure sandbox to test and to implement upgrades to the bank’s digital services and solutions. This enabled its IT developers to meet software development schedules without disruption or delay as they moved to work from home within weeks.
Benefits of safer remote-working
Through safer remote access to the bank’s development environment, UOB’s developers have achieved significant milestones for several software development projects this year.
Within the last three months alone, UOB managed to has launch three industry-leading innovative solutions: the ASEAN digital bank in Indonesia; an all-in-one mobile banking app in Malaysia; and a new mobile app that provides a customizable desktop, cash management capabilities and trade services to businesses.
UOB attributes the achievement to UOB DevTop, creating by integrating VMware’s virtual desktop solution VMware Horizon with the bank’s own IT and hybrid cloud infrastructures. This was done without the need to install hardware servers on its premises even as it expanded its computing capacity to meet the surge in load with so many IT developers working remotely.
Said Susan Hwee, Head of Group Technology and Operations, UOB: “As the majority of our colleagues across the Group shifted to home-based working during the pandemic, we prioritized equipping them with the right tools and resources to enable a quick and seamless transition as we continued to serve our customers without disruption. Tapping our technology and cloud infrastructure, coupled with VMware’s solutions, we developed and deployed a more secure virtual desktop solution at an unprecedented pace and scale. This enabled our team of 3,000 IT developers to continue to support the Bank’s business activities and innovation drive without compromising on security.”
According to VMware’s Managing Director and Vice President (Southeast Asia and Korea) Sanjay K Deshmukh: “Digital technologies have shone through during this period of uncertainty as an effective enabler for organizations to conduct business, engage employees and connect with customers. We are excited to continue our partnership with UOB, supporting their operational needs while enabling them to comply with the stringent security and data privacy requirements.”
