NAB still won't say when its NextGen computing platform, now being designed in association with software giant Oracle, will go live across the bank. But it has promised to launch the platform via its UBank subsidiary in the New Year. UBank - founded on an Oracle platform - has always been touted as the test-bed for the NextGen program. Christine Bartlett, the executive programme director for the NextGen project, says that, after NextGen's introduction via UBank, it will be rolled to NAB's retail bank and then progressively rolled out throughout NAB. But, beyond the New Year start-date for UBank, NAB hasn't indicated what its roadmap is for the rollout of the platform across NAB.Bartlett, speaking at FST Media's Technology and Innovation Conference in Sydney yesterday, said NextGen was addressing 40 years' worth of legacy systems. Those systems were developed when banks had "nice big batch-processing windows" which no longer existed, she said. The commitment to the new platform was right across the bank, with all members of the executive team now having NextGen KPIs they were obliged to meet.In order to avoid investing in next-generation legacy systems, and to take advantage of Oracle's future releases of the product, NAB has sworn off any customisation of NextGen.Gavin Slater, group executive for NAB Group business services, told the conference that NAB was moving away from being an organisation that builds its own IT systems, to one that, instead, had an influence on how systems were designed. "The upside of being the first mover is that you have the opportunity to influence product design," he said.Slater explained that all banks had been wrestling with the risks associated with ageing technology and that it was no longer possible to upgrade technology with add-ons. A more strategic approach to IT investment was needed to meet customer expectations and be able to compete.NextGen, he said, represented a total overhaul of the "heart, lungs and spleen of the bank". It involves the replacement of more than 100 legacy systems, with 10 integrated applications, and has also involved the migration to an SAP general ledger, which was completed in August.The new banking platform is being designed to allow NAB to boost the number of self-service internet banking offerings from 10 to 100.It is also intended to streamline processes. NAB has signalled it hopes the platform will cut the time taken to achieve a loan from 19 days to less than an hour. And the bank aims to have a single integrated and reconciled source of finance, risk and treasury information - which will be critical as it complies with Basel III requirements.Slater made clear that the investment being made in new technology platforms was not a one-off item. In order to remain competitive in the future, "we are buying into a cost curve that goes on into perpetuity," he said. There would be the need for ongoing and transformational change in order to meet rising customer expectations.Getting the system right "will take a long time and sustained effort",