MEDIA RELEASE PR39408
Standard Chartered Bank Selects Akamai Technologies to Create Efficiencies and Open New Markets
for On-line Banking
SINGAPORE, May 5 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --
Akamai Technologies provides improved speed of Web delivery by
500%; accelerates secure Internet banking for Standard Chartered Bank by up
to 100%; and grows online transactions by approximately 20%
Akamai Technologies, Singapore (Nasdaq: AKAM), the leader in powering video, dynamic transactions and
enterprise applications online, today announced that it is helping Standard Chartered Bank deliver faster and
more secure Internet banking applications worldwide.
Akamai is enabling the global bank to centralize its IT infrastructure to
drive economies of scale, while ensuring that the streamlined model can
deliver new online banking services to customers and generate growth
opportunities in new markets.
As a global bank, Standard Chartered aims to be the leader in each of the
markets in which it operates by providing quick, efficient and secure online
services to customers. This model requires data centres in each geography,
which is costly and complex to manage. Akamai Technologies enables Standard
Chartered to adopt a model of centralised Web hosting supported by Akamai's
globally distributed platform of over 65,000 servers in 1,600 locations in 70
countries globally. This means that, using Akamai's network of servers,
Standard Chartered can streamline its operations to a single data centre in
Asia, while actually delivering secure content more quickly and securely than
local hosting.
Furthermore, now that Standard Chartered is able to increase speed of
secure content delivery with a streamlined IT infrastructure model, the bank
can offer improved online banking services to customers, and open up new
markets more quickly, with little additional cost. When evaluating solutions,
Standard Chartered discovered that Akamai Technologies reduced the time it
took Indian consumer banking customers to complete a five-step banking
process from 70 seconds to 20 seconds. Corporate banking customers in Asia
saw a 25% improvement in online performance for Standard Chartered's
Straight2Bank application. These improvements led to a 20% increase in the
bank's online wholesale banking transaction volume worldwide.
Robert Hughes, executive vice president of Global Sales, Services and
Marketing at Akamai said: "Internet banking is now a core requirement for
many customers, and because of this demand, banks are looking to expand and
improve their offerings. However, the pace of change in this sector places
more pressure on the infrastructure, making services slower and more costly
to administer. Standard Chartered is making a commitment to its customers to
deliver the most efficient, secure services in the market and we're proud
that Akamai is underpinning that."
Akamai has worked with Standard Chartered since 2007. Akamai delivers
Standard Chartered's public Web site and Straight2Bank commercial banking
application. As it rolls out this new retail banking platform, it was only
natural to turn to Akamai.
"Akamai Technologies' acceleration solution was a natural choice for us
given both the performance and cost benefits," said Aman Narain, Head of
Remote Banking, Consumer Banking for Standard Chartered Bank. "Its
capabilities and massive global computing platform have lived up to our
demanding performance and availability requirements. We now host our
corporate Web site content on Akamai Technologies' platform for superior
availability and fast delivery, globally."
Using Akamai Technologies' platform Standard Chartered Bank has been able
to significantly reduce its annual operating costs for hardware, bandwidth,
maintenance and disaster recovery, while allowing IT staff to focus on
mission-critical tasks. Standard Chartered Bank can now quickly set up
services in new global markets at lower costs, giving the bank a distinct
competitive advantage as it expands.
About Akamai
Akamai(R) provides market-leading managed services for powering video,
dynamic transactions, and enterprise applications online. Having pioneered
the content delivery market one decade ago, Akamai's services have been
adopted by the world's most recognized brands across diverse industries. The
alternative to centralized Web infrastructure, Akamai's global network of
tens of thousands of distributed servers provides the scale, reliability,
insight and performance for businesses to succeed online. Akamai has
transformed the Internet into a more viable place to inform, entertain,
advertise, interact, and collaborate. To experience The Akamai Difference,
About Standard Chartered Bank(R)
Standard Chartered PLC, listed on both London and Hong Kong stock
exchanges, ranks among the top 25 companies in the FTSE-100 by market
capitalisation. The London-headquartered Group has operated for over 150
years in some of the world's most dynamic markets, leading the way in Asia,
Africa and the Middle East. Standard Chartered aspires to be the best
international bank for its customers across its markets. Leading by example,
the Group is committed to building a sustainable business over the long term
and is trusted worldwide for upholding high standards of corporate
governance, social responsibility, environmental protection and employee
Maninder Kaur/Adam Koh
Waggener Edstrom
+65 6303 8465 /+65 6303 8461
mkaur@waggeneredstrom.com
adamk@waggeneredstrom.com
Mylinh Cheung
Akamai Technologies (Singapore)
+65 6593 8724
mylinh.cheung@akamai.com
SOURCE: Akamai Technologies, Inc.
CONTACT: Maninder Kaur,
+65 6303 8465 ,
mkaur@waggeneredstrom.com
or Adam Koh,
+65 6303 8461,
adamk@waggeneredstrom.com,
both of Waggener Edstrom;
or Mylinh Cheung of Akamai Technologies (Singapore),
+65 6593 8724,
mylinh.cheung@akamai.com