SBM Bank Brochure 2018

A D I G I TA L T R A N S F O R M AT I O N

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SBM LEVERAGES TECHNOLOGY TRANSFORMATION TO SYNERGISE ITS GLOBAL OPERATIONS

WRIT TEN BY

OLIVIA MINNOCK PRODUCED BY

JUS TIN BR AND

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SBM’S ASHWIN RAMPHUL DISCUSSES HOW THE COMPANY’S DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY IS ALLOWING IT TO LEVERAGE THE LATEST TECHNOLOGY TO SYNERGISE ITS GLOBAL OPERATIONS

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urrently the second largest bank in the country with a 25% market share, SBM Bank (Mauritius) Ltd is part of the SBM Group, a leading financial

group in Mauritius, with over 1,600 employees in Mauritius and a growing international presence. The Group is 04

also present in Kenya, India and Madagascar and, from early next year, the Seychelles. Last year, SBM Group acquired a majority stake in Kenya’s Fidelity Commercial Bank Limited followed this year by the acquisition of selected assets and liabilities of Chase Bank (in receivership), which has positioned SBM Bank (Kenya) Ltd as a top Tier 2 Bank on the Kenyan market, with more than 60 branches across the country and around 700 employees.

SBM is also the first foreign bank in the world to have obtained a Wholly Owned Subsidiary Licence from the Reserve Bank of India to operate as a full-fledged wholly owned subsidiary on the Indian market. SBM is also expected to start operations in the Seychelles early next year. With digitalization as one of its strategic pillars, the bank is working to leverage the industry leading technology platform from Infosys Finacle, to provide the best possible customer experience in a digital world, as well

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as improve its operations from within.

Head of IT Application at SBM, Ashwin Ramphul, was keen to discuss this digital transformation. Ramphul boasts 18 years of experience in IT, and has been heavily involved in the implementation and management of core banking systems and digital solutions for a number of financial institutions across Africa, Mauritius and the Indian Ocean. w w w. s b m g r o u p . m u

Ramphul spent most of his career in the banking and consultancy space,

get the project done and by April, it

where he occupied a number of key

had successfully gone live.

positions in IT, and recently joined SBM

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and his team hit the ground running to

Keenly aware of SBM’s place in the

where he was ready to take on new

banking sector, Ramphul believes it is

challenges within the finance industry.

“imperative” for SBM to implement

At SBM, Ramphul is responsible for

innovative digital solutions in order to

all IT applications used on both the

surpass its main competitors. This is

customer side as well as internally. He

key not only in terms of customer

also heads the Project Management

service (with the likes of SBM’s new

Office and the Business Solutions Group.

mobile banking platform), but also in

“When I joined the bank in January,

the inner workings of the bank itself.

one of the key projects was the upgrade

“If we want to go digital outside, our

of the internet banking and mobile

processes and operations within the

banking platform,” he recalls. Ramphul

bank need to be fully digital as well,”

“ We can’t go digital outside if our processes and operations within the bank are not truly digital” — Ashwin Ramphul, Head of IT Application, SBM

he explains. “That’s why we’re really

With this in mind, SBM has invested

looking at the end-to-end and inside-

in digitalising and improving internal

out processes.”

processes and efficiencies, while also

Part of SBM’s aim is to offer potential

enhancing customer experience.

digital channels to fulfil customers’

Processes within the bank are being

expectations and financial needs. “In

robotised and several avenues are

Mauritius, traditional branches still

now being explored to enable the bank

have a big role to play in serving

to become a “truly digital financial

customers,” he explains, citing the

services institution”.

country’s ageing population who will

“We’re looking at RPA, AI and data

always prefer going to their local

analytics, and at some point we were

branch and having someone to talk

also investigating the use of Blockchain

to, meaning a balance must be struck

technology – our intention is very strong

between digital innovation and the

on these fronts,” says Ramphul. For

expectations of clients.

example, Infosys Finacle RPA is now E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E

Ashwin Ramphul is Head of IT Application at State Bank of Mauritius (SBM). He joined the company in January 2018 and has been responsible for digital transformation at the bank, including the upgrade of its internet and mobile banking platforms.

Previously, Ramphul worked at MCB Group, the largest bank in the country, for 16 years and was responsible for core banking systems.

Ramphul holds an MSc in Analysis, Design and Management of Information Systems from the London School of Economics and Political Science, which he obtained following a BSc in Business Information Systems with Management at Middlesex University. w w w. s b m g r o u p . m u

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used to process inward remittances at SBM – this has reduced processing time from over 15 minutes to just 2-3 minutes, and as Ramphul adds: “The advantage with robots is that they operate on a 24/7 basis.”

With operations spanning in Kenya, India and soon the Seychelles, Ramphul is keenly aware that SBM’s customers will increasingly demand and expect to be able to bank digitally at their convenience. “We’re present in countries where innovations and digital solutions have really hit the roof. India is like 08

a honeypot where digital solutions are concentrated, and Kenya has the highest digital penetration point in the whole of Africa. Our technology partners such as Infosys Finacle have tremendous experience in these markets, and we are constantly leveraging their expertise. One of the key things with technology is user experience, so revamping the user interface for our internet banking and mobile banking customers was a necessity. We really felt they needed to have a proper user experience (UX), which is more modern, more appealing and more user friendly, so it was necessary to move to a more digital-friendly solution for

“ With technology, we are able to deploy our staff to do true value-adding tasks and more revenuegenerating initiatives, instead of getting bogged down with administrative tasks” — Ashwin Ramphul, Head of IT Application, SBM

both internet and mobile banking.

“Nowadays, everyone has a smartphone and most companies use corporate banking through the internet – so the issue of security is getting a lot more attention,” he adds. “We felt we needed more secure internet and mobile banking solutions than our competitors, so we came up with some security features no other banks have in Mauritius.”

One such solution has been the use of biometrics – fingerprint recognition – to access mobile banking. This is a first for Mauritius, and for Ramphul this is a strong message to our customers that SBM values security.

Ramphul also comments that to work for a bank which innovates it is imperative to ensure that an optimal level of security is in place. “When I joined SBM, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the level of cybersecurity, and even the level of general IT security, are incredibly strong. Everything is properly controlled and the right tools are in place.”

The IT operating model of an organisation also plays a significant competitive role. “Most of our systems are managed by a system integrator,” says Ramphul. “Having said that, we do realise that we cannot rely solely on w w w. s b m g r o u p . m u

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system integrators with the expertise

especially when it comes to customer

and technology that are so vital to

service and innovation. The most

development. SBM is therefore working

innovative banking ideas normally

to rebuild some internal capacity for

surface from within the organisation

strategic innovation, and looking at how

and that’s where you get flexibility

to utilise the best technology that will

and rapidity rather than going fully

truly add value to its operations. “For

outsourced. For this, one requires

example, the implementation of robotic

a capable, agile team; flexible technol-

process automation (RPA) in some of our

ogy platform; and reliable partners,”

key processes has yielded good results

he adds.

– this was done with a third-party provider

It’s therefore a careful balancing act between those who work within the

in collaboration with our team.”

This kind of collaboration is vital in

bank and understand what it needs and

building the partnerships that make

what the customer expects, and those

SBM work. “If you don’t have a good w w w. s b m g r o u p . m u

“ We always do our market research and have a proper business case in place to ensure that any solution we bring in will truly add value” — Ashwin Ramphul, Head of IT Application, SBM

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be at its optimum operating capacity, otherwise it doesn’t work. We really need to be on our toes and make sure everything is being developed in the proper way – it’s not about being a watchdog over them, but being collaborative and guiding them as well as them guiding us and making sure that the relationship is working.”

With a well-established international presence, a key challenge for the bank going forward will be to maintain levels of quality and brand expectations whilst also catering for the local communities it serves. “The market context is very working relationship with the service

different in Mauritius, India and Kenya,”

providers, everything goes down the

Ramphul comments, “so before we

hole,” Ramphul comments. “You need

bring in any kind of solution or innova-

to be agile. It needs to be a two-way

tion we always do our market research

working partnership. We can’t just

and have a proper business case in place

expect a system integrator to do every-

to ensure that any solution we bring

thing for us. We need to understand our

in will truly add value.”

customer requirements and communicate those to our service providers.

Already, SBM has launched a plethora of digital solutions and the bank’s digital

“This relationship needs to be devel-

transformation journey is still ongoing.

oped and nurtured, not only in terms of

It has been vital to keep staff on board

contractual agreements – there needs

with all the new developments and

to be trust. We need to understand each

implement proper change manage-

other properly. That’s where a true

ment. “When we launched the new

vendor-customer relationship needs to

internet banking and mobile banking w w w. s b m g r o u p . m u

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for instance, we had to train all our front-end staff,” Ramphul explains.

Corporate customers were accompanied with small teams of experts to ensure they understood the new platforms and the value the changes were adding. “We were present with our corporate customers before and during the launch, guiding them through the new system.”

When it came to individual customers, SBM’s customer service centre was vital. “Our contact centre played 14

20%

Domestic marketshare

1973

Year founded

1,500+

Approximate number of employees

an important role in this – we had to ensure that all staff were up to scratch in terms of competency, knowing what the platform was all about. One of the ways of doing this was to involve them in our user testing. They were an integral part of the project,” he says.

Ramphul is confident that the bank

trative tasks. The second aspect of

is already reaping the rewards of

technology is in terms of reducing

implementing new digital solutions,

human errors – the cost of errors can

both from a customer service perspec-

be really huge, like a manual error

tive and through automating operations

where a transaction is duplicated and

within the company. “With technology,

processed twice… the risk of this with

we are able to redeploy our staff to do

solutions like robotics is mitigated and

more value adding tasks and more

minimised, so the cost of errors goes

revenue generating initiatives, instead

down significantly.”

of getting bogged down with adminis-

Moving forward, SBM will look to

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synergise its digital solutions across its key markets in order to grow in a sustainable, successful way. “The most important strategic initiative we should really be focusing on is to leverage our group digital offering in Kenya, India and Mauritius, have this digital ecosystem in place and work toward making it a success,� says Ramphul.

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SBM Tower 1 Queen Elizabeth II Avenue Port Louis Mauritius T +230 202 1111 www.sbmgroup.mu