Source: The Nation by Jirapan Boonnoon
A financial and banking management system produced by a Thai company has reduced the need for imported software and provided a boost to the Thai software industry.
Bonanza Investment, created by Wealth Management System, is software for treasury and asset management-related functions of investment management, including risk management of financial institution such as commercial banks, finance and security companies.
Somkiat Chinthammit, CEO of Wealth Management System, said that Bonanza is also embedded with business process and practices for business management and supports front, middle and back office functions. The system simulates both domestic and foreign financial models, optimising implementation in Thailand.
"Formerly, financial and banking businesses used imported software which is expensive to buy and maintain. The Bonanza will enable businesses to reduce the cost of investment by 20 to 30 per cent, help customers improve their operational efficiency, and reduce risks," said Somkiat.
Bonanza software won the honoured Frit Prize in August 2005 and was winner of the Thailand ICT Award (TICTA) 2005 for financial applications. The firm has a market share of around 44 per cent of the financial and banking market in the country with assets under management of Bt1.2 trillion, which is equivalent to 18.5 per cent of the country's GDP and 55 per cent of Thailand's foreign reserves.
Somkiat added that the company, which has more than 60 programmers developing new applications and providing services to customers, started to sell its financial and banking software to China in 2005. It also plans to expand to Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines this year.
The company received a level two Capability Maturity Model for Software (CMM or SW-CMM) certificate in 2002, which certifies that its software development is secure and of a high standard. CMM is a model used by many organisations to identify best practices and is useful in helping them increase the maturity of their processes.
The firm aims to become a research and development and software house for asset, treasury and risk management in the Asia-Pacific region.
