Brazilian Central Bank

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Customised by NEXTech, the Cimage Fusion solution
will control more than 5 million documents per year
and will bring security and ease of access.

The Challenge

All companies and organisations possess a series of important documents that need to be stored and accessed periodically. In the case of a federal public institution, such as the Central Bank, the quantity of documents in existence is enormous, requiring control tools that guarantee secure storage and access. There are no less than 5 million documents per year that need to be controlled by the Brazilian Central Bank.

To manage such a quantity of documents, the Central Bank decided to implement ECM (Enterprise Content Management) technology that permits the capture, storage, management and publication of digital content in various formats such as text documents, images, web pages, reports, and even audio and video. "We have millions of processes in transit and we need agility when collecting information" explains Augusto Omelas Filho, the Deputy Chief Representative in the Department of Information Technology (Deinf) at the Central Bank.

The Solution

The Cimage Fusion suite from NEXTech, a subsidiary of the SWORD Group in Brazil, was chosen through a tendering process and will support the Central Bank's ECM technology. Fusion is a 100% web based, multi-layer solution which integrates document management, content management and process automation in only one application module.

The Project

At the moment the project to integrate the systems connected to the ECM platform is being developed by teams at NEXTech and the Central Bank. Initiated in May 2006, this phase has been completed in 12 months and the benefits can already be felt.

"The documents that we produce and use as regulatory norms at the Central Bank for the financial system are already divulged electronically, however, previously the entire process was paper dependent," explains Reinaldo Wielewski Division Head at Deinf.

The Benefits

For the citizen in general, the system will offer principally greater transparency in the circulation of information. "This type of system has a major effect on the efficiency of administration and internal management. This will also benefit the citizen who will be able to access reliable information more rapidly," affirms Wielewski.

As a regulatory organ of the national financial system, the Central Bank issues and maintains various norms that today are stored in Sisbacen Electronic system of collection, storage and exchange of information.

"Today there is the possibility of researching norms via the Internet but the interface is still textual. With ECM we are going to have control over the life cycle of the norm, including the flow of collaboration from the initial studies to their publication, alteration, and final revocation," explains Wielewski.

The system still counts on an advanced collection tools which permits the visualisation of any existing law/norm or one invalidated by the publication of new regulations in a model which is similar to the President of the Republic website.

However there is the additional possibility of consulting the existing norm at any given date. "The information contained in these documents is not being lost, but stored only on paper. We need a more agile way to consult them," believes the Head of the Division.

System Integration

In accord with NEXTech, the project also involves the nine regional branches of the Central Bank. Six previously connected systems, utilizing different platforms, such as Mainframe, Client/Server and WEB Applications are being substituted.

With Fusion, all originals produced and received by the Central Bank, will go to a central repository.

The first phase will include the following technologies: DM, DI, form processing and Workflow. "There will be integration with other systems because the information has to be shared throughout the national financial system," explains Rodrigo Vinicius de Jesus, Sales and Marketing director of NEXTech.

All work is being carried out with the accompaniment of NEXTech's commercial and project departments both of which meet periodically with those responsible for the project at Baceri. According to NEXTech's commercial manager, Joao Nacif, the first benefits will soon be felt. "There are a series of systems envisaged which will start as a pilot, for example those that are a priority and that during this phase, according to the schedule, were placed ahead of others," he explains.

System implementation will bring the aggregated advantages of Security, agility and cost reduction.

"If today the Central Bank receives an external letter that needs to be dealt with by four or five departments, this letter is going to circulate serially or it is necessary to take five copies and send each one to its respective department. (With the new system) there is a reduction in costs, paper and process time because you can organise it in an electronic form thus allowing parallel document analysis by different departments. And all this with greater security," explains Wielewski.

"If only the electronic version of the document is in circulation, you guarantee that only authorised people have access" , explains Ornelas.

Access is permitted through logging on to the network and every work process allows only those authorised to enter. There are staff that can see information related to currency exchange, as occurs in the area of human resources and supervision of Bank resources amongst others.

The contract signed between the Central Bank and NEXTech envisages, beyond development and implementation, the guaranteed maintenance and modernisation of the system for 48 months.

The value of the investment is R$ 2.12 million or US$1.06 million dollars including consultancy. With more than 10 years experience NEXTech will be active in all phases of the project from process consultancy, implementation and system support, to management of content information (ECM), Workflow and systems integration.