Also of the same type is the "unified payment platform", which He Tuber  refines and integrates payment transactions within the bank and across banks;

The "Comprehensive Wealth Platform" abstracts and summarizes financial management products such as financial management, funds, insurance, and deposits;

The “intermediary business platform” summarizes and unifies various collection and payment transactions;

"Marketing platform" classifies and configures marketing scenarios for various customers and channels;

"Extranet connections" manage and coordinate the standards for interaction between systems within and outside the industry.

Each business system will generate a lot of business data, and the data processing is divided into data products with different dimensions such as data warehouse, reporting platform, and customer unified view (ECIF).

Through integration, focusing on certain types of goals will not only make the structure clearer, but also support business development for many years in the future through technical and business scalability.

Of course, the systems mentioned in the above introduction are only a small part of bank IT business systems. There are also many supervision, management, risk control, scenario finance, bank-enterprise cooperation, capital, and asset management systems. , peers and other business applications.

However, from the perspective of the entire architecture evolution process, there is not much difference in specific businesses. It is more of a "rational iteration" based on technological development, system stability, business trends and other aspects.

This article does not mention the value and access mode of ESB (Enterprise Service Bus), but as a non-business system, ESB will not have any impact on product design.

So far, the article has introduced the three stages in the process of bank IT architecture changes: heavy core, thin core, and platformization , which ultimately form an architectural model similar to the figure below.

The specific architecture and system names of different banks will be different, but the essential structure and correlation are similar.

4. Business challenges in the era of digitalization and digital intelligence

After introducing the changes in application architecture, let me finally talk about what it means for me to understand the overall architecture.

If we want to add a new system to the current architecture, there are still many factors to consider, because no system is an independent individual, so we must consider the linkage between this system and other systems in the business scenario, and also Consider the reusability of functions and the "carrier" of the functions (that is, where to put them).

At present, banks are relatively strict in considering and reviewing new systems. First, in order to avoid duplication of construction, those that can be reused and integrated still adhere to the goals of reuse and integration.

Second, after many systems are put online, the actual application effect is not good, so they need to be clearer, more feasible and of business value.

Third, the bank's operating efficiency has also been experiencing great challenges in recent years. The cost of building a new system is a lot of money, so it will not be as smooth as in previous years.

Based on the above reasons, in many cases new requirements put forward by business departments may need to be developed in existing applications, or a business may be split into different modules and placed in different applications.

Therefore, product designers will be put to a new test. They must not only design product solutions, but also communicate across departments, collaborate with multiple departments, and make system trade-offs.

In addition, even if a new system is agreed to be built, the new system must comply with the bank's development specifications and architecture specifications during the design process.

For example, does user login need to be connected to the unified authentication module within the industry? Does password encryption need to be connected to the security key module in the industry? Do online contracts or receipts need to be connected to the electronic signature module within the bank? Do marketing SMS or notification SMS need to be connected to the SMS platform within the industry?

For example, is the connection with other systems directly connected to the system, or through ESB, or other service buses that have similar functions to ESB? (Because many banks not only have one ESB, but also have many front-end systems and gateway systems, which also play the role of unified docking between systems)

For another example, does the system build its own channels, or is it attached to existing channels? If you mount an existing channel, you must also follow the design specifications, access specifications, and security specifications on the channel side. Does the system involve financial transactions, and if so, through which payment system are financial transactions processed? How to store the data generated by the system?

For example, we need some data, where do we get this data from? Number of warehouses? Core system? Card system? Or where? I don’t know, you have to ask one by one.

All of the above, as well as many problems not listed here, are all problems that will be encountered in the actual advancement of digitalization.

Therefore, the digitization of banking business is not simply a matter of product design. More focus is on how to form an execution plan recognized by many parties in the current environment.

I feel that these problems are the biggest "stumbling blocks" that will affect banks' rapid implementation of digitalization and digital intelligence in the future. What's even more frightening is that there are no standard answers to these questions, and there are no processes or systems to follow. We can only rely on our communication and communication again and again. Discuss, weigh, and even compromise.

5. Write at the end

Since I started working in August 2015, I have somehow stepped into the wave of bank digital transformation. In the past eight years, I have worked on projects and pre-sales in dozens of banks across the country, from test execution to project control. From demand analysis to product design and solution formulation, it is increasingly felt that most practitioners lack knowledge and understanding of the overall application architecture, so they often encounter "uncontrollable" obstacles during execution.

As the work progresses, I feel that the so-called "uncontrollable" is actually the result of poor cognition and poor information. When we try to consider these issues from an overall perspective or from the perspective of the other party, we seem to be able to understand it. .

In fact, banks are in great need of professional product managers to promote digital strategic transformation.

However, traditional bank practitioners lack Internet thinking and product thinking, and product managers in the market lack understanding of the banking industry. Many of Party B's demand analysts have also changed careers halfway, or are limited to execution and lack top-level design capabilities.

Therefore, current banks, especially city commercial banks, rural credit cooperatives, and rural commercial banks, are in urgent need of supplementing professional digital talents.

In the past year, I have read many bank-related books and articles, but I have not found an introduction that is truly suitable for bank IT practitioners, business personnel, product designers, and new entrants to understand bank IT application architecture, so I summarized my understanding into this article.

We hope to help more bank practitioners understand the application architecture, and then more effectively promote digital innovation in the financial field, and write a good future for "inclusive finance", "green finance", "pension finance", "technological finance" and "digital finance". "Finance" five major chapters.

This article is a personal opinion and has nothing to do with the organization or partners I work for.

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