Atelier consulting · Engineering and delivery
Working software early, live in stages, and yours to run.
Atelier is the team that implements the Zoral Finance Operating System (fOS) and its solutions. Our solution and data architects, engineers, data scientists, and programme and project managers take a programme from first requirements to live operation and hand-over. They apply a tested delivery discipline, adapted to your bank, across the technologies you already run, and alongside your project office, advisers and integrators.
The technology is seldom what holds a banking programme back. Going live is.
Most delivery leaders will recognise the pattern:
Requirements are seldom complete or agreed, so scope moves during the build.
Everything goes live at once, so problems surface when they cost most to fix.
Old and new systems run side by side for longer than planned.
Legacy stays switched on after go-live, because nobody owned its retirement.
Knowledge leaves with the vendor, so every later change needs the vendor again.
AI tools reach delivery before anyone has agreed what data they may see.
A heavier method does not solve this. A disciplined one does, applied with judgement by people who have delivered banking systems before.
One delivery discipline, adapted to each bank.
Our method has been refined across many Zoral programmes. The stages stay the same. Their depth follows the size and risk of the change and how your bank governs projects.
- 01
Requirements and scope
We start from a Solution’s complete starting picture, not a blank page, so workshops with your business, risk, operations and technology teams focus on what is different about your bank.
- 02
Design
Solution, data, integration and security architecture, and the non-functional requirements, agreed with your architects and security team.
- 03
Build and configure
Products, rules, workflows and screens configured on Zoral fOS, with readable JavaScript where configuration ends, all versioned and approved. You see working software early and in regular releases.
- 04
Test
Functional, integration, performance, security and recovery testing, then your user acceptance testing, each traced to the requirement it proves. Recorded defects become regression tests.
- 05
Cut-over
A rehearsed plan with a fallback route, and parallel running with reconciliation wherever a system is replaced.
- 06
Hypercare
The people who built it support you closely after go-live and track issues to closure.
- 07
Hand-over
Runbooks, documentation, the delivery knowledge base and training, so the support model you choose works from the first day.
Senior people who understand banking as well as technology.
Solution and data architects
They design how Zoral fOS fits your systems and data, and keep the architecture coherent as products are added.
Engineers
They know many technologies, not only Zoral fOS, and work with the tools your teams use.
Data scientists
They build and tune decision models with your risk teams, on data whose quality is measured first. See Data, AI & Automation.
Programme and project managers
They run delivery rather than administer it, managing plans, risks, dependencies and decisions and reporting clearly to your steering committee.
On your infrastructure, connected to the systems you keep.
Our engineers work on AWS, Azure and Google Cloud, and in banks’ data centres. Zoral fOS runs on AWS or Azure in the region you choose, or in your own data centre. Through Zoral Integration Gateway, we connect it to the systems you keep: your core banking system, cards, CRM, credit bureaus, payment rails and data platforms such as Databricks. We have worked alongside modern cloud cores as well as traditional ones, integrating with them and maintaining their product configuration. Connections use APIs, events, batch or files. Your core stays in place, and new products can run alongside it.
Modernise Around Your Core · Loan Origination (LOS) · Digital Banking
AI that speeds up delivery, held to the same controls as the rest of the work.
AI for Zoral supports the work inside our delivery methods: AI-enabled DevOps for applications, and the Data Product Engineering and DataOps Management Methodology for data programmes. It is guardrailed and compliant, and runs under human-in-the-loop supervision. It rests on:
agent skills and instructions that encode our delivery standards;
a delivery knowledge base in which every fact carries its source;
tests generated from recorded defects, so a problem fixed once stays fixed;
a person who approves every artefact before it is used.
The assistants are configured but not trained on your data. They work within the environments and agreements you control. The result is a smaller, more senior team that moves faster and spends its time on the judgements that need experience.
Go live in stages, and retire the old system on purpose.
Start with one product
One product, channel or business area goes first, chosen with you for value and manageable risk. Later products reuse what it built.
Decision points you control
Each stage ends with evidence, such as working software, test results and reconciliations. Your steering committee decides whether the next stage begins.
Dual run and reconciliation
When a system is replaced, old and new run in parallel, but only for the products that are moving. Results are reconciled before the switch.
Legacy decommissioning as a deliverable
Retiring the old system is planned and delivered, not left for later. Data is migrated or archived under your retention rules, interfaces removed, and the system switched off when your teams agree.
Built to stay available, recover when tested, and keep data under your control.
Zoral fOS is designed for high availability, and recovery is tested rather than assumed. Security testing is part of every release. Access follows least privilege, sign-on goes through your identity systems, and logs flow to your security monitoring. Delivery and test environments use pseudonymised or synthetic data unless you approve otherwise. Zoral Document Fabric, our intelligent document processing (IDP) service integrated with Zoral fOS, runs in your own AWS or Azure account, or your private cloud, in your region and under your control. Our controls are independently audited under SOC 2, with details on the Zoral Trust Portal.
Ways to start.
Implementation assessment
Before you commit, we review scope, architecture, integration and the plan with your teams, and set out a first release and the risks that matter.
First release into production
One product or channel delivered end to end and taken live, so you judge the team and the method on a working result.
Senior counterparts to your leaders
Senior Zoral delivery and architecture leads work alongside your programme, technology and business leaders, to keep the programme on course and the teams coordinated.
Your team, ready to run it
Your engineers and analysts join the delivery team from the start and take on more with each release.
Inside your governance, alongside your partners.
We work to your project office’s plan, reporting and stage gates, and to your risk and change governance. Where an advisory firm leads strategy or programme assurance, or a digital and engineering firm leads a wider transformation, we deliver to the same plan and take the specialist banking work. Local systems integrators and advisory firms bring presence, relationships and delivery capacity in their market, often local project management and business analysis. Zoral brings domain expertise, the platform and the solution implementation team. Some partners introduce Zoral to their clients and deliver loan origination, decision engines and digital banks with us. Roles are agreed at the start.
Founded in 2004, Zoral has delivered over 100 projects, and our people bring 350+ years of combined experience. We have built and launched the complete platform for a Shariah-compliant digital bank, as well as multi-product loan origination (LOS), credit decisioning and robo-underwriting systems. We have worked with clients regulated by the FCA in the UK, the CFPB in the US and the central banks of Malaysia and Thailand, and have a long-standing relationship with KPMG. References are available in confidence.
Frequently asked questions
Technology and integration
Do you work only with Zoral technology?
No. Our engineers work across many technologies and cloud platforms and follow your teams’ tools and standards, so what we build fits your estate. Some engagements use no Zoral product.
Your team is smaller than we expected. Is that a risk?
Large programmes need the right people more than they need more people, so we keep teams senior. AI for Zoral takes on routine drafting under the controls above, so experienced people spend their time on design, testing and decisions. Team size is set in the plan with you.
Going live and afterwards
How do you avoid a big-bang go-live?
We start with one product, channel or business area, release working software regularly, and close each stage with a decision point. Replaced systems run in parallel and are reconciled before anything is switched. Your bank decides when.
What happens to our legacy systems?
Their retirement is part of the programme, planned and delivered like any other release. Where a legacy system stays, Zoral works alongside it.
Who supports it after go-live?
You choose. Zoral can run and support the platform for you, your own technology team can run it, or we share the work and hand over as your team grows. Your people run the banking operations.
Can our team learn to run it?
Yes. Your people can join the delivery team from the start, with training, runbooks and the delivery knowledge base handed over. Because products and rules are configured rather than coded, business teams can make many changes themselves, each versioned and approved.
AI, data and control
How do you use AI in delivery, and how is our data kept safe?
AI for Zoral drafts routine work, such as configuration, code, documentation and tests, inside guardrails and under human-in-the-loop supervision. A specialist approves every artefact. It is not trained on your data, works within the environments and agreements you control, and passes your security and data protection review before use. Test environments use pseudonymised or synthetic data unless you approve otherwise.
How does this fit our outsourcing and third-party risk reviews?
We provide what those reviews typically ask for: hosting and data location, access, recovery testing, and SOC 2 details on the Zoral Trust Portal. Your data, product definitions and audit history remain yours and can be exported in standard formats. Requirements differ by jurisdiction. Your obligations remain yours, and we give you the evidence to meet them.
Working together
Our own teams build our apps. Can they keep doing so?
Yes. Where your teams build the customer and branch screens in your existing apps, Zoral fOS can work behind them. We provide the integration endpoints, a test sandbox, data mapping templates and business analysis, including screen concepts, to guide your designers and developers.
Bring us the programme you need to land.
A new product, a system to replace, or a plan you want tested before you commit. A senior Zoral delivery lead will work through scope, integration and risks with your team, and propose a first release you can judge.
Contact Us
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Automate lending, banking and finance operations.
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+44 20 3963 2002Miami
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