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
w w w. s b m g r o u p . m u
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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