May 2019, Sofia – BULPROS in partnership with IBM and NDB organized a joint event on API Economy and Open Banking called “Leverage the Next Wave of API Economy and Open Banking”. It took place on 29^th May and was hosted by BULPROS in the company’s new technology towers in Business Park Sofia.

The event gathered experts and partners from banks and telecommunication companies, who had the chance to learn more about the most innovative technologies and current trends on the market. The main topics of discussion were technologies such as the Cloud and AI as well as industry trends such as Open Banking and the way all these are enabling the transformation of traditional business models into digital platforms.

Radoy Stoyanov, Business Development Manager, Industry Digitalization at BULPROS, put the focus on the idea of Bank as a Platform (BAAP) as a new business model that is expected to become more and more popular in the future. He presented different scenarios of innovative services that banks can offer to their end customers using a partner ecosystem. Radoy also talked about the different challenges that banks are facing today such as legacy technology stack, regulatory pressure, long time to market, and organizational culture. He asked one important question: „Are banks technology companies?” and shared his opinion that “The time is now for banks to embrace fully the API economy, both as platform providers and consumers of APIs. The Open Banking movement has grown and it is so much more than regulations such as PSD2. It is a complete paradigm shift and a great opportunity for banks to embrace digital from the inside.”

Hristo Melnikliyski, Business Development Manager at BORICA, together with Radoy Stoyanov presented the PSD2 XS2A Framework – a joint project by BULPROS and BORICA that is aimed at supporting banks during the PSD2 adoption and helping them fulfill the regulatory technical standards.

During the second presentation, Alexander Madzhirov, Integration & Development at IBM Europe spoke about the need for modern integration capabilities. He presented IBM’s modern integration platform and gave several client’s success story examples.

Pavel Yosifov, Business Development Manager, Cloud and Support at BULPROS, put the focus on the Hybrid Cloud with his presentation “Embrace the Hybrid Cloud, Microservice architecture and unleash the power of Kubernetes with Cloud Private”. He discussed current market trends and real client case studies, sharing his opinion that Multi-cloud is the key to organizational agility.

During the second part of the event, Dimitar Dimitrov, Senior Consultant, Financial Services at BULPROS, and Ivo Penev, Software IT Architect, IBM Sales & Distribution, Software Sales talked about customer experience and security focusing on the IBM Safer Payments and drawing the attention to the need for safer customer experience and digital consent management as topics of great importance and challenge to banks.

In the final presentation, Emil Galabov, Business Development Manager, Digital Workspace at BULPROS, discussed the main challenges of launching cognitive value-added services such as voice bots based on IBM Watson and also presented the great opportunities that they offer. Emil demonstrated several scenarios, showing how Banks and Telecoms can benefit from using voice bots and how this innovative service can create added value for their customers.

About IBM

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is an American multinational information technology company founded in 1911 and headquartered in New York. The company has currently operations in over 170 countries and more than 380 000 employees worldwide.

IBM produces and sells computer software, middleware and hardware, and provides hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology.

About BULPROS

BULPROS is an innovative global IT and BPO services, solutions and products provider, repeatedly recognized as one of the fastest growing IT companies in prestigious rankings such as Deloitte’s „Technology Fast 50 in CE“ and „Technology Fast 500 in Europe, Middle East, and Africa“, Inc. 5000 Europe, Financial Times 1000 Europe, and McKinsey’s 2018 report “The rise of Digital Challengers”.

Our offerings are focused on Cloud and Support Services, Industry Digitalization, Cyber Security, Digital Workspace, Technology Services, and Sales Services. We have extensive vertical expertise in the Financial and Professional Services, Telecommunications, Manufacturing, Healthcare, and Retail industries.

BULPROS operates on a global scale and has more than 19 offices, located in Europe and North America. The company has a team of more than 1200 experts and consultants.

BULPROS has established successful customer and partner relations with Fortune 500 IT companies such as Cisco, Microsoft, IBM, Unisys, VMware, Siemens, T-Systems, SAP, Hortonworks, Oracle, Red Hat, etc. BULPROS is a co-founder of the Bulgarian Outsourcing Association and a member of the American Chamber of Commerce, the German Outsourcing Association and the Indian-Bulgarian Business Chamber.