On November 17, 2015, ACLEDA Bank, the largest commercial bank in Cambodia, announced that it has opted to migrate to a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement, in order to adopt a more cost efficient model, while enhancing productivity, assuring upgrades, against security vulnerabilities and improving overall customer experience.
Due to ACLEDA Bank's rapid growth trajectory, the Bank increasingly needed to support employees who did not use English as their primary nor secondary language, necessitating software that is adequately localized for the country. The swift expansion of the Bank's operations caused a mix of different software versions, which resulted in incompatibilities that have proven to be counterproductive.
Against this backdrop, ACLEDA Bank had turned to Microsoft Office which it has dubbed a mission-critical tool, for its employees for work productivity. Localization is a key component of usability for the Bank employees and Microsoft Office being a mature product is an advantage. However, given the Bank's growth momentum, upgrading licenses every time there was a new release would entail a very high cost.
In partnership with Microsoft and Softline (Cambodia) Co Ltd, ACLEDA Bank considered several choices in upgrading its license appropriate to its volume needs. Between a perpetual license and a recurring subscription, the Bank decided to opt for an enterprise subscription with the potential to give more value over the long term.
The enterprise subscription will allow the Bank's over 11,000 employees gain a consistent user experience that enhances exchange of information and documents throughout the organization. Simplified IT management with a predictable recurring cost structure, is enabling ACLEDA Bank to invest more resources in revenue-generating core businesses.
Mach Terry, Senior Vice President and Head of IT Division, ACLEDA Bank Plc., said: "The predictable nature of the annual Enterprise Agreement subscription is far better than an up-front license payment, enabling us to put our money in revenue-generating activities rather than pay hefty one-time licensing fees."
Bharat Mirchandani Sales Director, Southeast Asia New Markets, Microsoft Asia Pacific, said: "We believe that empowering workforce through technology can be a major driver to enhance the overall productivity, achieve more and set new benchmarks. The banking sector in Cambodia is expanding, offering tremendous opportunities and we stand committed to further our presence and contribute to the country's growth story."
As a public limited company, ACLEDA Bank was originally founded in 1993, as a national non-governmental organization (NGO) for micro and small enterprise' development and credit. As a commercial bank since 2003, ACLEDA Bank is the first bank in Cambodia that was assigned ratings by Standard & Poor's. It was nominated as a World Economic Forum Global Growth Companies 2014 candidate, and has become the member of the World Economic Forum. Today, the Bank employs more than 11,600 employees across 257 branches, using about 7,000 computers.
