CIO HandBook 2011 "Only 60-70% of the services offered are utilized by the customer"

Do you think it is necessary to offer an array of services to ensure customer happiness?

First of all, we need to understand that there is a tendency to build systems based on only a limited understanding of what customers really need. Often then when it comes to rolling out a system, only 60-70% of the services offered are utilized by the customer. We have found that the customer actually uses only basic core services and not the plethora of different services that we sometimes build into our systems. The challenge is not to just copy what other banks are doing, each offering a wide array of services that are never used, but instead figuring out how to avoid building so many services that require a lot of effort and investment and at the end of the day are not used. We believe that it would be better to avoid building services that arent going to be used, and rather spend the funds and efforts saved to make the core systems more robust and ensure that they function accurately and quickly which is usually what the customer really requires.

By offering them extra services, they are being offered frills which are low on their priority list. So, we believe we need to build less features and only those that are focused on what is more important to the customer, which is usually availability, speed of access, and accuracy. This way we are able to utilize our resources and investments much more effectively.

What were the major ICT implementations you made last year?

We have come a long way in rolling out a comprehensive CRM system across the bank, which is working well and we are using it for both our Wholesale bank and Consumer bank. For Transaction banking, we have rolled out our financial trade services product, Tradeport, globally and we are rolling out smart phone applications alongside this, to allow our sales staff and our customers to interact with each other more effectively. We have substantially upgraded our Internet channels for both individual customers and corporate clients. In doing so we are making it easier for customers to provide information to us directly, avoiding the keying-in challenges of paper-based services.

At the end of the day, the customer is the one who knows his own data and the easier you make it for him to provide the data, the better. So, we are paying a lot of attention to this aspect. Knowing your customer is important, we have been rolling out systems that allow us to ensure that our customers pass the various suitability tests that we are required to implement, this is especially important for an international bank like Standard Chartered Bank (SCB). We are also rolling out systems that ensure the customer can work with us seamlessly across multiple parts of our business and in multiple countries. This has been ensured by our customer relationship system and we are inter-linking all these together to add value to our system. We are also rolling private banking services across many of our countries where we have a strong presence. Then in our Financial Markets business, we are rolling out trading systems covering FX, Equities and Derivatives.
We have also rolled out Instant Messaging services for 30,000 employees globally, helping us to collaborate better, enabling quicker turnaround to customers and also improving our interaction with business partners. We are also converting our Blackberry users internally to the iphone to take advantage of the versatility that the iphone offers us.

How can innovation help a company in its growth path?

We are in a business where it is highly important to innovate and we see technology as a key source of innovation. In technology we are required to manage costs and risks and now increasingly to implement projects that will bring in revenues. One of our challenge is not to be a follower of trends but to set the trend. But there are no SLAs for innovation, to innovate we need to think and act differently. Our move to utilize the iphone internally and to offer value-added services like Tradeport on the iphone which are innovative and ahead of what other organizations are doing are some steps that need a mention. Apart from the benefits from improving services to our customers and clients we also gain from positive publicity which attracts customers and also ensures existing and potential staff to see us as a forward thinking employer.

We are currently actively exploring and trailing social media concepts, as we see the capability of the medium to offer insights as to what customers need and how they view our services. With innovation you have to be prepared and willing to fail and then you need to try again. That is how you succeed to innovate.

How would you describe the impact of banking regulation?

Regulation affects much of banking including technology, as it is an important component of our banking services. We work proactively with financial regulators to ensure we are able to provide safe and secure banking services for our customers and clients.

What are SCBs future plans?

In 2011, our focus will be on revenue generating projects across financial markets, wholesale banking and consumer banking. We are creating new capabilities for our customer offerings in improved wealth management services. We will further expand our equities capability across many of the markets in which we do business today. We are also implementing a large core banking project in Malaysia and Singapore. In India, specifically, we are looking at improved generation Y banking including video chats and enhanced choices for rewards.

Shilpa Shanbhag
shilpas@cybermedia.co.in