The IT Access and Payment Applications Unit conducts software development activities for Risk Center products.

Software Development Unit

Operating under the Department of Information Technologies and R&D, this unit is responsible for developing software in line with modern technologies and product development requests received from the entire organization. There are nine separate units operating under the Directorate, all of which serve in different areas of responsibility.

Basic Bureau Applications Unit is responsible for office software, which is the main area of responsibility of the institution, and Limit Control System (LCS) application. The Corporate Bureau System (CBS) is planned to be transferred to a daily notification system in the coming period.

The Digital Platforms Unit is responsible for the development and maintenance of all KKB websites. The same team is also responsible to develop the Central Billing Registration System (MFKS) offered for the Association of Financial Institutions (FKB). This year, new improvements were put into practice to enhance customer experience on member portal websites, namely findeks.com and kkb.com.tr. In addition, customers’ operational costs have been decreased thanks to new applications such as Bilgiç and Chatbox.

The Risk Center Applications Unit is responsible for Risk Center software development activities. Important projects commissioned this year by the team include the Foreign Currency Risk Notification Project, Foreign Currency Appeal Assessment System, Risk Center (RC) Application Improvement, and the e-State Report Enrichment project.

The IT Access and Payment Applications Unit is responsible for developing software for RC products and the software of KKB’s payment systems infrastructure. Major projects implemented by this team in 2020 include the Daily Notifications of Legal Entities Turkish Lira Cash Risks, Legal Entities Credit Monitoring Application Notifications, the establishment of data collection platform on behalf of Birleşik İpotek Finansmanı A.Ş., and the Fraud Prevention Project.

The IT Findeks and Real Sector Applications Unit is responsible for Findeks application & development activities. The QR code cheque report service offered within Findeks was enriched in 2020 with the addition of important features such as bankruptcy information, and UYAP and MERSIS integration. Additional features were introduced to increase the prevalence and boost the performance of the new Findeks mobile application, which was launched in 2019. In addition, integration of the Message Management System (MMS) has been completed, making it easier for Findeks customers to manage their notifications. In order to make Findeks customer communication more effective, secure and traceable, the transition to the new SMS, OTP, and PUSH notification platform is planned to be completed in January 2021.

The Mobile Technologies Unit is responsible for developing applications for the Findeks Mobile Project. Important projects successfully completed by the team include the development of dual-component verification infrastructure for RC and KKB FTP applications, and the GSM verification project developed using open code technologies such as MySQL/Tomcat.

The IT Decision Support Unit is responsible for developing software for KKB products. Important projects implemented by the team this year include the Credit Guarantee Fund (KGF) project; integration of the Electronic Letter of Guarantee with Takasbank; SABAS; DYS envision integration; and the TarımKart Score Project. IT Ankara Data Center Software Unit is responsible for the development of the Systemic Risk Data Tracking System (SRVTS) presented to the CBRT, and of KKB’S NOVA platform. The team has successfully completed the software development efforts for the data collection form module of NOVA in 2020.

Data Warehouse Applications

The Data Warehouse Software Development department consists of two separate units: The Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence Applications Unit, and ERP Applications Unit.

The Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence Applications Unit is responsible for the reporting and analytical applications that the organization provides to both internal and external customers. Business intelligence solutions are applications that enable companies’ decision-makers and employees to reach the right information, at the right time and place, in the fastest way possible, thus ensuring strategic decisions are made in the most accurate way. With the most recent arrangements made in 2020, works have commenced renewing the services offered on this platform. The Risk Center Interactive Data Platform was established, allowing members to access reports quickly from a central platform, and in a dynamic and secure way. In today’s world where access to data is of great importance, the team obtains data from its source and processes it to make it available for use in all different areas such as data engineering, data mining, and data analysis. In order to increase the service quality in this field, the team has also started to work on integrating its services with new big data solutions by preparing an RFP. They carry out intense efforts to put the new platform into service in 2021.

The ERP Software Development Unit is responsible for software development activities related to all workflow systems of the organization. This unit is responsible for providing software support for the ERP application used by the Procurement and Contract Management Department, and the Financial Affairs and Human Resources Department. It is also responsible for the new development and maintenance services offered on this module. As a result of the works carried out in 2020, the ERP system has been integrated with many modules used in the organization, such as the Document Management System, Budget Reporting, Customer Contracts, and R&D Platform modules.

The Mobile Technologies Unit carries out the development efforts for the Findeks Mobile Project.

IT Service Management Unit

In the 2020 operating period, the availability reports of KKB products and services continued to be shared with related persons on a weekly and monthly basis. Meanwhile, the same reports were also shared on the Risk Center products and services side for weekly, 15-day, and monthly periods. The KKB product/service catalog was updated and new services started to be reported to the related units and the management. The product/service catalog updates made on the Risk Center side were concluded, mutually agreeing with TBB Risk Center. The availability reports continued to be shared through the updated product/service catalog.

A catalog for internal services was updated on the KKB side. The availability measurement and reporting of the Risk Center Member Audit Tracking System (MATS) are continued. On the infrastructure side, server availability reporting is notified instantly and reported on a weekly basis. In addition, detected warning and critical alarm messages are sent to the relevant teams immediately to enable them to make the necessary interventions. The monthly SLA report of the SAP service offered to TBB by Itelligence, and the monthly SLA report of the SAP service offered to TBB by KKB continued to be delivered to TBB Risk Center.

Special monitoring systems and methods are used and robotic monitoring activities are carried out in order for members to use the products and services offered through KKB’s strong infrastructure without interruption and at the highest quality. We make continuous investments in methods that will help us notice problems as early as possible without letting them affect our members and resolve them without turning them into larger problems. As part of these monitoring activities, the most elaborate details of applications and infrastructures, and also capacity management efforts are carefully monitored.

KKB Anadolu Data Center transmits SLA performance reports, energy consumption data, and cabin logs to 21 different customers every month. KKB Anadolu Data Center also continued to share the Service Bulletin, which is prepared with data received from the KKBBY and Alpha applications, with related department managers via monthly reports. The Daily Service Quality Status Report is sent to the relevant teams at the end of each working day. As regards the KKB and KKB Anadolu Data Center, the works are ongoing concerning the carrying out of the SLA measurements by third-party firms and sharing the results with companies.

IT Project, Analysis and R&D Management Unit

Thanks to three different disciplines it incorporates, the IT Project, Analysis, and R&D Management Unit have implemented not only information technologies and R&D governance studies in 2020, but also the analysis, planning, and execution studies for the needs of all departments within KKB.

The unit operates in 2 different locations: KKB Istanbul R&D Center and KKB Anadolu Data Center. As it has been serving in two different locations since 2018, the remote working methodology has been partially adopted by the unit ever since. However, remote working has been extended to cover most of its activities since the first four months of 2020, due to the pandemic. The unit’s experience and know-how in remote working have enabled it to quickly adapt to the digital working environment, creating an increase in productivity.

The Unit contributes to the timely implementation of KKB’s objectives at the right cost by developing a three-year IT and R&D Strategy Plan and updating it in line with KKB corporate strategies. With its active role in IT and R&D governance, it ensures transparent and up-to-date information flow by detecting, identifying, and managing risks. In addition, as a result of the cooperation carried out with universities and institutions as part of R&D activities, it takes an active role in the management of the reporting provided to the Turkish Republic Ministry of Industry and Technology and relations with the same Ministry.

Due to the pandemic in 2020, KKB Istanbul R&D Center and KKB Anadolu Data Center have expanded the application of the remote working model

IT Project and R&D Management Office

The IT Project and R&D Management Office ensures that projects (which have been scoped by the senior management, evaluated in terms of legal and legislative compliance, scaled by the relevant business unit, deemed eligible for project design, and forwarded to the IT and R&D Department) are planned, executed and coordinated according to the PMI-based Project Management methodology and internal corporate standards.

The IT Project and R&D Management Office ensures that: all requests/projects carried out within KKB are handled according to a plan and prioritized correctly; resources are used appropriately and efficiently; a common language and methodology are used in all projects launched within the organization, and project performance measurements, risks, and lessons learned become part of the organizational memory.

The Turkish Republic Ministry of Industry and Technology approved KKB’s application for the Istanbul R&D Center in early 2020. In addition to its current tasks, the IT Project and R&D Management Office has also undertaken the responsibility for the management of R&D activities.

In 2020, it continued working with the aim of ensuring compliance between IT and business unit objectives with a value-oriented governance perspective which is in line with corporate strategies, facilitating and accelerating decision-making processes with a data-oriented approach, and increasing the visibility of IT and R&D efforts.

It completed the adaptation of the project portfolio management tool and master planning tool to ensure the automation of portfolio and project management processes in line with international standards and methodologies. Thanks to adapted applications, measurement of all IT and R&D resources’ existing capacity, its transfer to the right projects, and its planning and use can be carried out in end-to-end integrity. Thus, the Information Technologies and R&D Governance Transformation Program was launched. Thanks to this program, KKB was awarded second prize in the “Digital Trailblazer” category of the IDC DX Awards 2020.

The IT Project and R&D Management Office have successfully implemented the following works as part of its R&D management activities in 2020:

• Organizing the infrastructure for external mission forms,
• Conducting and reporting monthly R&D TZ personnel measurements,
• Establishing the Academic Advisory Board,
• Regular convention of the Academic Advisory Board to assess R&D activities and coordinate new suggestions,
• Developing cooperation with universities and institutions,
• Monitoring and reporting of R&D efforts and sharing the results with the Turkish Republic Ministry of Industry and Technology,
• Internal and external monitoring and planning of R&D training programs,
• Enhancing R&D processes.

The unit also organized training courses and workshops to increase the maturity of project and R&D management processes and encourage the widespread use of current project management techniques and tools.

IT Business Analysis and Test Management Unit

The IT Business Analysis and Test Management Unit provided analysis and carried out testing in all project and software change requests submitted during 2020 by taking into consideration the current functional and technical business requirements; screen requirements and operations; their impact on other systems; authorization structure; information that needs to be accessed; targeted service level; performance criteria; domain controls in screen and web services; and data requirements.

In the previous years, a test automation infrastructure was put into use in order to ensure the continuity and sustainability of service quality and to increase the quality in the software development life cycle. In 2020, a mobile application test automation product has been added to this infrastructure to ensure the automation of mobile application tests. Furthermore, a mobile device pool was established to help run mobile regression tests on different devices. A separate testing environment was established in 2020 to ensure all test automation scenarios are run periodically and in a stable environment.

To this end, an automated and integrated system was planned throughout the entire software development lifecycle, from the analysis phase up to the transition into reality. A test automation infrastructure was established for all actors in this cycle to contribute and its continuity was ensured.

In order to maintain total quality, regression sets for applications have been created and documented, and these regression sets have been automated on the test automation tool. An 80% increase was achieved in test automation scenarios, and all scenarios have been revised and updated. In all types of infrastructure, software, and configuration changes, regression sets were regularly run with an “end-to-end test” perspective, and the results were shared via e-mail.

Infrastructure has been created to allow for the test automation of applications integrated with the mainframe.

Test automation scenarios have been integrated into the tool that manages the software development lifecycle, creating an infrastructure where they can be triggered at each versioning.

For all applications developed within KKB, an inventory of external dependencies has been created to ensure continuous usability.

A robot application that runs in the real environment was designed in previous years to ensure service continuity and help prompt monitoring of real environment interruptions. In 2020, its Emergency Center automation deployments were completed, and it was used in the Emergency Center exercises held during the year. It is aimed that this study will bring along significant added value, including automation of the tests, reduced reliance on individuals, and faster opening times of services.

New applications were added to the robot application operating in a real environment, which was designed in the previous years, and thus it is aimed to increase the traceability of systems.

As part of the master plan studies carried out in 2020, the Analysis and Test Costs Template, which was developed to use a more transparent and systematic method in the calculation of project analysis and testing costs, was used in all project-related cost assessment works. New processes were formulated for test automation, load tests, and audit trail developments to guarantee effective use of resources in line with the continuous development and improvement perspective.

Analysis and testing processes have been restructured to ensure standardization by improving the quality and efficiency of the relevant processes. Test automation and load test processes have been integrated into the test processes. All analysis processes have been merged after reviewing Data Warehouse and ERP analysis processes and renewing templates used in related processes. An analysis template focusing on the “usage scenario diagram” method was prepared in order to adapt the analysis documents to various software development models and pilot studies were conducted.

In order to ensure instant tracking of test cases, new instant status reports were designed on the Demand Management System and standard test status and closing reports were created. In the newly designed test processes, it was aimed to increase the test maturity level. As part of this goal, preliminary studies have been carried out for a new test management tool that will meet the needs of the Analysis and Test Management Unit. This tool is planned to become operational in 2021.

To ensure continuous usability, an external dependencies inventory was created by analyzing the risks and impacts of external dependencies posed by all the applications developed at KKB. External application dependencies included in the external dependencies inventory were also examined and an external application test data dependencies inventory was created to assess the dependency of test processes.

Presentations on new technologies and products were carried out within the team to ensure continuous development.

Technology Architecture Management Unit

The Technology Architecture Management Unit continued its intensive operations in 2020 in line with its mission to guide the application, infrastructure, and information architecture. The unit has researched and evaluated many technologies that can support the institution’s goals and has carried out necessary efforts to implement eligible ones. In parallel, it has made necessary assessments in terms of application, infrastructure, and information architecture in all projects carried out within the institution, and has supported the creation of products and services that comply with institutionally determined standards.

The Technology Architecture Management Unit has completed the “Automatic Feeding of uCMDB - Product Impact Analysis” R&D project in 2020 to establish a connection between product and service, application, infrastructure, and data. This project has enabled an institution-wide detailed impact analysis to be conducted on the uCMDB database to determine the product/service, the infrastructures on which the product/service runs, the applications on relevant infrastructures, and the data produced IT Infrastructure and Operation Unit

A master plan project commenced in 2020 to spread the use of the API PORTAL product developed for APIs within the organization, which have become increasingly important for the use of KKB products and services by members and the real sector. The project was completed within the 2020 operating period. Thanks to this project, determining the APIs offered by products and services, and the APIs called by them to use the data of other products and services has become IT Infrastructure and Operation Unit

Business units’ demands, such as fast transferring of products and services into the production environment, and having uninterrupted and high accessibility; and the ever-increasing efficiency of cloud technologies have led to the worldwide adoption of a new application development approach called “microservice.” The Technology Architecture Management Unit has launched the “Corporate Microservice Framework” R&D project to spread the use of this approach organization-wide. With IT Infrastructure and Operation Unitlanned to determine the microservice development practices to be used in KKB and to add these practices to the backend framework to facilitate their use within the institution. This project will continue in 2021.

In addition to the abovementioned studies, the inclusion of a MySQL database support to the power designer (data modeling) product, and JIRA’s integration with the model changes conducted on power designer have been completed as part of the Information Architecture activities. Software Development and Data Warehouse teams have been updated about codes affected by data model changes. Thus, any errors in different applications caused by model changes will be prevented. Also, “database modification” process flows for MsSQL, MongoDB, and MySQL databases IT Infrastructure and Operation Unit

Maintenance works have been completed for products managed by Infrastructure Architecture and DEVOPS Management Team (Nexus, Nexus IQ, Sonarqube, Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket, Crowd, Bamboo) and the servers these products worked on. The necessary integrations between the NETA product, which was completed in 2020, and Jira have been established. The project management product and IT processes have been associated. The Nexus IQ finding process and the Nexus IQ Waive process have been implemented in relation to the dependency vulnerability IT Infrastructure and Operation Unit and services that had not been covered by SDLC flow have been included in the SDLC streaming in 2020. Code quality scans and code dependency vulnerability scans were carried out continuously for source codes developed by external companies. Thus, it has been ensured that the codes developed by external companies working at KKB also meet the predetermined quality and security criteria. The Infrastructure Architecture and DEVOPS management team’s SDLC approach that prioritizes security and quality was presented at the vShield 2020 Conference. The team also received an invitation to present at the All Day DevOps event in 2021.

The corporate backend framework created by the team in previous years was continuously updated and fortified with new features in 2020. Besides, the graph database technology necessary for various projects has been researched and a sample application architecture has been created. Research has been conducted on data transfer with CDC (Change Data Capture) technology and sample applications have been developed. Assessments were submitted about how the applications, which are developed by third-party companies and used in KKB, comply with the organization’s application architecture criteria. An ELK infrastructure was established for varied log inspection needs and necessary analyses were conducted. Efforts to improve code quality and eliminate application vulnerabilities of the applications implemented under the responsibility of the Application Architecture team continued throughout the year. In 2020, on the API management side, the transition of internal web services onto the API Gateway product continued. All these efforts supported many critical activities such as API authentication, authorization, transaction log records removal, and error tracking. IT Infrastructure and Operation Unitnue to make it an uninterrupted and highly accessible product.

IT Infrastructure and Operation Unit

KKB Anadolu Data Center Studies

In the KKB Anadolu Data Center, which was established by KKB to serve the finance sector, the entire energy/cooling and data infrastructure of a 120-cabin area in A-VM WS3 was designed and transported for the İşbank Active - Active Data Centers operating projects. During the year, all infrastructure preparations were completed and a 50-cabin area was allocated to Halk Bank so that the bank can also start using the center as an Emergency Center. In addition, Şekerbank’s system was transported to a 10-cabin area allocated in the WS2 at the center.

As a result of a lengthy planning phase, all MV/AG, Transformer, MDP, and Busbar infrastructures of KKB Anadolu Data Center, which has 800 cabins, were maintained without interruption. Thus, as part of the SLA provided to members, actions that are necessary to avoid possible downtime were completed beforehand.

Mainframe

The operating system in the mainframe was upgraded to zOS 2.4 and necessary security updates were completed in 2020. The transaction server running KRM, KRS, LKS, and Telko applications has been upgraded to the CICs TS 5.5. version, which is more up-to-date and superior in terms of security and performance.

During the 2020 operating period, security definitions in products such as RACF and zSecure, which are security products in the mainframe environment, were fortified. In this respect, many unnecessary authorizations were restricted, and stricter policies were put in place according to the segregation of teams’ duties principle.

The hardware works of Mainframe EC Automation – zOS and zSeries have also been completed in 2020. BCPii scripts have been activated for enabling the automatic closure of Istanbul systems and automatic opening of Ankara-EC systems in EC transitions.

Efforts for the improvement of the uninterrupted and highly accessible API Gateway product continue.

Database Management

With the use of open source databases, a total of $2 million was saved (5-year TCO). After the EC switchover transition, closed-circuit tests have also been automated. The use of new NoSQL databases has paved the way for the rapid development of applications with variable data types.

Central IT Operations

The following studies have been conducted as part of Central IT Operations: Alpha CSM transition and the closure of KKBBY, installation of the Automic product for EC automation and monitoring, the transition to Forescout’s new version and high available structure, the new Windows image work, preparation and implementation of IDLC processes, and SolarWinds Synthetic monitoring. During the COVID-19 outbreak, the focus on the Teleperformance and Headquarters side was on VDI dissemination. The creation and pilot deployment of the VDI PAW infrastructure was also completed.

IT Open Systems

With the completion of the Corporate VDI infrastructure preparation project in 2020, the singular operations of the Help Desk have been centralized, providing both a safe environment and a higher operational efficiency.

As part of the Symmetrical Datacenter Project, a separate hardware line for critical environments from storage level to application level has been created using KKB Headquarters DC facilities. This study was aimed at increasing the level of accessibility of the services offered by KKB.

The installation of the Red Hat OpenShift platform has paved the way for the organization to develop CloudNative applications.

This project resulted in high-level productivity gains for all open system teams. Besides, operational activities were centralized and the duration of middleware (WebLogic, Tomcat) patch operations that had taken days before were reduced to hours.

KGF’s online relocation and the infrastructure building work of Birleşik İpotek Finansmanı A.Ş. has been completed during the year.

The practice to use vehicles to carry cartridges between cities has been discontinued, making the backup environment more isolated and secure. KKB’s backup/restore speeds and business efficiency have increased significantly.

All storages where KKB stores the data of RC infrastructures have been renewed online/without interruption. KKB Anadolu Data Center was scaled up to the KKB Headquarters standard. Outdated switches were decommissioned and single-point management was ensured.

Compliance with standards has been achieved in complex environments such as Oracle Siebel and EBS. Dependency on consultants in internal works has been eliminated, and efforts have been made to raise the standards to KKB levels.

The RM interactive reporting system project was executed and commissioned with KKB’s own resources. Operational risk and cost have been reduced by transferring the reports, which RM used to publish statically to its members using traditional methods, into an interactive environment.

Some critical applications were put into service through KKB Anadolu Data Center in 2020. In this regard, some middleware applications in KKB Anadolu Data Center were also put into operation through Istanbul, and the service level offered to members has been improved.

KKB Anadolu Data Center infrastructure segmentation studies have brought the entire datacenter infrastructure to the KKB Prod datacenter standard, making it convenient for not only DR but also prod workloads to run.

Network and Network Security

As part of network and network security studies carried out in 2020, the EC site switch operation was supported. In addition, with the EC segmentation efforts, the EC environment was equipped with the same segmentation and security structure used in KKB Headquarters DC and thus made suitable for providing prod services.

During the year, KKB’s consulting efforts for future infrastructure design were supported.

The entire datacenter infrastructure has been upgraded to the KKB Prod datacenter standard thanks to KKB Anadolu Data Center infrastructure segmentation efforts.

As COVID-19 cases began to emerge in Turkey, the infrastructure necessary for remote working was established. VPN and internet capacities have been increased, and a large number of firewall rules have been activated for VPN access. Webex started to be widely used. Infrastructure support was provided for teleperformance users to work with VPN and VDI.

As part of user networks segmentation and Firewall Identity Awareness studies, different user groups were separated on a VLAN basis to increase the security of KKB. In addition to IP address control, user information control has also been added to Firewall rules.

The Cisco ACI structure deployed at KKB headquarters was also deployed at Ankara EC. A high-capacity infrastructure has been thus created to meet KKB Data Center’s backbone needs for many years.

Besides, the purchasing phase of infrastructure, PoC, and design studies that can solve SSL traffic was completed and their installation started in order to make security controls more effective.