On April 13 BC Card announced its nationwide launch of the BC Card Global Payment System, or BC-GPS, which integrated the BC Card New System (BCNS) with the BC Card Intelligent Contact Center System.

The main purpose of this recent system integration was to improve the efficiency of credit card processing and customer service operations, while helping member business partners and merchants to reduce the time it takes to process card transactions.

The existing client/server-based BCNS was built around the Sybase-developed PowerBuilder application, which had some problems in terms of the limits of distribution and versioning, and system scalability. The new system, employing MiPlatform* based on the X-Internet†, which supports more efficient web-screen development, has improved the manipulability of the screens while receiving and incorporating screen improvement suggestions in real time. It has also enhanced the user interface with additional functionalities and short-cut keys.

Unlike the existing system, which assigned authentication for data downloads per each individual user, BC-GPS utilizes a more sophisticated authentication scheme by which the system is capable of making much finer distinctions for rights management], thereby improving security and thwarting possible data theft.

With as many as 105 screens reserved for BC Card business partners, the system makes it look as if each member company has its own personalized domain. It is expected that the new system will give a big boost to customer service quality, and enhance the image of member companies.

An official at the BC Card call center said, “Until now, we have had to rely on two separate systems for credit card processing and for customer service. But now the fully integrated system makes it much easier for us to deal with customers more quickly.”

The BC-GPS installation project, which started early this year with the launch of a task force team to improve the system, will be completed by the end of the year, when the internal system screens are replaced with new ones. In addition, the company will keep pressing ahead with the introduction of new improvements, such as the web pages related to internal card processing, customer service functions, and member company transactions.

BC Card Chief Information Officer Lee Jung-Kyu said, “The BC-GPS initiative has been part of our ongoing commitment to improving user systems while taking full account of flexibility, scalability, and fast response to the constantly changing IT business environment.” “The launch of this BC-GPS service will undoubtedly improve our customer service quality while fully supporting our member businesses,” he added.

This domestically-developed system based on the X-Internet is the most widely used one in the banking industry.