FlexCube or T24?

I consult mainly for banks. My company specialises in Banking services. My consultants have worked in Iflex projects and t24 projects.

These consultants were t24 specialists and wanted a change in their profile, wanted to add another software experience and opted for Flexcube implementation.
These consultants were in Flexcube implementation for 2 years and they came running back to t24. t24 is a strange product people run away from it and they end up implementing it exactly 2 years later. t24 has all the nice features, flexibility and surprises for any body who work on it.

Ok, back to the subject usual question posted to me from my clients in the process of selection or by the companies trying partner with Iflex/t24 is, which is better product?.

It is difficult to decide or tell which is the best product unless you go through with your RFP. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Both companies work differently. My advice also varies on the company/bank which is asking. In general I will summarise my differences as below,

As a Product....

1. Both are functionally rich
2. Iflex has ability to define accounting events. t24 rather rigid in that.
3. t24 has ability to add local developments/ products without any dependency on the vendor, which is very HUGE advantage in the ever changing requirement. Iflex is rather rigid and you are at Iflex door step for every enhancement. (if you are a company and looking at services and implementation independent of the vendor then t24 is the way you need to go!!).
4. Iflex is on oracle. earlier to t24 (known as Globus), the database was jbase/universe. Currently there are oracle and db2 version. t24 is database independent. (Please note that t24 is yet to prove in Oracle and db2, with their latest release-{read as R7}, but Temenos has more experience with Oracle )

As a company,
1. From the consultants experience - Temenos seems to be more structured then iflex. Product release are more controlled and scheduled with temenos. One functionality done for a bank is defiantly available for other clients. Iflex seem to have client specific versions.
2. Implementation from iflex seem to finish around an year, temenos manages to finish around 2years for a mid size bank (Temenos do have implementations which completed in 6 months). Temenos are trying to finish their implementation with in reasonable time with the help of the Model bank (this from my general experience and please come and challenge me !!).
3. for consultants - Working in iflex projects are very taxing and badly planned(they always plan 3 people work with one consultant), but they finish because of the sacrifices of the consultants. Temenos projects are generally well planned but get's generally delayed because of having a bunch of wrong consultants. t24 product can be implemented in 'n' number of ways and its success depends on having the right knowledgeable consultants.

In summary both products are good. Both have their own can of worms. From IT and functinal perspective t24 can scale up to the business requirements fast, but t24 is yet to prove with their latest offering from the technology front and performance front.

Gp.

P.S. Flexcube is trademark of Ifex solutions and t24/Globus is the trademark of Temenos Holdings. The comments/views are my own and does not represent any company/client I work for.