Without a strong mainframe infrastructure, a bank faced inefficiencies, increased risks, higher costs, and difficulties in scaling and innovating, which impacted its competitiveness.

Our client faced the challenge of needing to replace an ageing workforce with new talent to support their Core platform for personal banking and credit card services. Their concerns included sourcing experienced developers, talent need fluctuations, skills outdating, and high attrition rates in a challenging market.

To address these issues and ensure long-term retention, they needed a robust mainframe training plan. Known for quickly assigning top talent, FDM was chosen to deliver a solution and proposed providing 25 Mainframe Business Analysts and
25 Developers.

Our Service Delivery Team collaborated with the client’s Tech Team to determine the seniority and skill levels needed. This information guided our Skills Lab and Recruitment Team to effectively attract, coach, and build their talent pipeline. A key advantage of FDM’s model is our pool of talent with prior coaching in diverse core capabilities. Working with the client, FDM’s Service Delivery Team identified candidates for upskilling in mainframes, ensuring rapid deployment across
various teams.

To establish a pipeline of graduate talent with an understanding of all required tech, we built a customized Mainframe training program, primarily focused on COBOL.

A group of our SMEs in mainframe, Development, Business, Infrastructure and Technical Support developed a customized curriculum that included: Mainframe z/OS administration, SMP/E, RACF security, SDSF, REXX scripting, CA 7, DB2, and job scheduling.

FDM employs a rigorous internal assessment process; reviewing candidates’ past experiences, having them interview with an internal SME and viewing their upskilling scores as they proceed through the Skills Lab.

As part of our bespoke service to meet specific requirements, we collaborated with the client to create half distributed, half 
non-distributed Agile Pod projects and assessments to ensure only the consultants fit for the role were signed off from FDM.

On-site visits and social events were also held at the client’s office during the coaching period so consultants could get an experience of the culture before joining the organization.

FDM successfully onboarded 50 mainframe-trained consultants to integrate with the client’s team, exceeding the expected timeframe. A first batch of 20, followed by 30, were assigned within three months to support various bank operations, including personal banking and wealth management, using their diverse skill sets. 


Key benefits included:

• Cost efficiency: Replacing expensive senior mainframe resources with skilled junior to intermediate talent resulted in significant savings. Our pricing model offered a cost-effective solution, with resources onboarded at about one-third of the market rate.
• Talent acquisition: We established a pipeline to quickly deliver skilled talent by deeply understanding the client’s culture
and systems.
• Talent stability: We manage our consultants for the first two years, reducing the risk of talent fluctuation.
• Attrition rate: FDM’s 2021 attrition rate was just 2.7%, significantly lower than the industry average of 25%, with a 90% conversion rate to permanent positions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Skill relevance: Our program includes refresher courses to keep consultants updated on technological advancements and industry trends.

The success with the initial 50 consultants led to increased demand for talent across various departments, including Quality Engineers, Salesforce Engineers and Guidewire Engineers. To support junior consultants, we also integrated senior team leads from our Returners Program for coaching and mentoring.