To sustain rapid growth, Fawry wanted to introduce innovative payment services quickly without compromising the rock-solid reliability of its network or jeopardizing data protection and availability.

Fawry selected IBM Storage and Power Systems solutions to accommodate rapid data growth and support data science initiatives that aim to generate deeper customer insights.

With a population of over 100 million people (link resides outside of ibm.com), Egypt is a land of opportunity for consumer services providers. In a country where payment procedures are often slow, fragmented and complex, Fawry identified a gap in the market for a simple, secure omnichannel payment gateway.

Haytham Abbas, Infrastructure Director at Fawry, picks up the story: “When we launched in 2008, the average household had to deal with around 13 separate utility and service providers. Since they typically had to set up payments with each service provider separately, often by visiting a branch, this was a lot of hassle. We created an omnichannel digital payment network to make life easier for consumers and the businesses that serve them.”

Fawry now supports millions of transactions daily for consumers and business through more than 90,000 locations (including groceries, pharmacies, stationaries and post offices), as well as through multiple alternative channels, including online, ATMs, and mobile wallets. The company’s client base and service offerings continue to expand, leading to rapid data growth. Abbas comments: "Our data has doubled in just the last eight months, and we expect it to grow even faster in the years to come.”

The company’s success is built on delivering consistently fast, dependable services alongside continual innovation. Seeing an opportunity to do more with its data, Fawry evaluated its technology infrastructure to ensure it was ready for the next phase in its evolution.

“Not only do we have to cope with more data, we also want to put it to better use,” says Abbas. “We set up a data science team to do more with data, by delving deeper into our transactions and user profiles to better understand our customer needs. To support these new initiatives and continue to provide the responsive, 24/7 services we’re known for, we wanted to step up our technology solutions.”

To accommodate 200 percent data growth while keeping its storage footprint low, Fawry relies on the deduplication and data compression features offered by IBM FlashSystem storage solutions. The technology enabled Fawry to increase storage efficiency significantly. By freeing up headroom and capital to invest in new services, the company can deliver a better customer experience.

“So far, we’ve achieved a 2.5 to 1 compression ratio on FlashSystem, and we believe this may rise to 3 to 1 once we install a microcode update,” says Abbas. “Over the last few years, we’ve exceeded expectations for data growth, so it gives us real peace of mind to know that we have this extra breathing space—and the cost savings that come with it.”

With consistently higher performance from its IT infrastructure, Fawry can raise service levels to customers and accelerate innovation. The project has inspired positive feedback from the company’s employees, impressed by the drop in response times.

Abbas elaborates: “IBM FlashSystem solutions give us 35 percent higher storage performance—staff members were so impressed by the improvement, they came to us wanting to know what had changed! Our overnight reconciliation process used to take five hours, now it’s completed in half the time. More responsive systems translate into more responsive services for customers, which lead to higher satisfaction—and loyalty.”

Fawry now has the freedom to focus on developing new services, confident that its high-availability infrastructure will deliver 24/7 uptime. As a result, the company can provide more seamless customer experiences.

Abbas concludes: “Fawry got this far by offering omnichannel digital payment services that consumers and businesses can rely on, and IBM solutions are helping us continue to deliver on that promise. Our 11-year relationship with IBM is still bearing fruit, supporting us in putting Egypt on the global digital banking map.”

Fawry (link resides outside of ibm.com) provides financial services to Egyptian consumers and businesses through a pioneering electronic payment network, serving more than 90,000 locations and a range of channels. Its payment gateway is based on proprietary technology that is fully compliant with international security standards. Fawry is headquartered in Cairo, Egypt.