Technology transformation in an evolving industry
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Technology transformation to remain a trusted partner WRIT TEN BY
OLIVIA MINNOCK PRODUCED BY
JA MES PEPPER
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Banking behemoth Santander is undergoing a significant digital transformation in an evolving industry — Andy Pearson and David Hayes explain how this improves the lives of customers and communities
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P
art of the global Santander Group, Santander UK has become a mainstay of British banking, and is
a familiar sight on the UK high street with over 1,000 branches and 50 corporate business centres across the nation. Now, the finance giant is undergoing a significant digital transformation in order to improve the lives of its customers and their communities. Keen to explain this transformation and what it means to the bank were David Hayes, Chief Data Officer and Head of Data Services; and Andy Pearson, Managing Director of Santander UK Technology and Head of Digital Services. We caught up with the pair at Santander UK’s Milton Keynes office. Known throughout the UK as a ‘new town’ built almost from scratch just 50 years ago, Milton Keynes has a reputation for cutting-
edge modernity and so the location, as well as the office itself which has been revamped with colourful open spaces and well-lit breakout areas to promote collaboration between staff, truly reflects Santander’s personality as a decades-old institution which is still tech-driven and keenly keeps up with a changing sector and the rapid development of customer demands.
AN EVOLVING INDUSTRY Technology is disrupting every industry, and banking is no exception – but with organisations like Santander forming such an integral part of everyday life, present at key moments and within communities, this throws up unique challenges and opportunities in the sector. Hayes comments on the recent transformation of the industry: “Data has become prominent for many reasons. Here in banking, there’s a whole world of data at our fingertips that can help us improve the lives of our customers.” The entire industry is adapting to new technology, and indeed Hayes is an active participant in national organisation DataIQ Leaders as well as FIMA, an annual European conference on financial information management. Hayes also recently spoke to the Bank of England about how Santander leverages Big Data among other disruptive technologies. w w w.sa nt a nder. co. u k
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“ Customers are used to using Instagram and Facebook — they’re used to instantaneous responses, so we need to be able to provide that. Our goal is to give a seamless, transparent journey to our customers” — Andy Pearson, Managing Director, Santander UK Technology
fundamental to banking and fundamental to what we do here. Our aspiration is to be the best open digital bank so we need to stay abreast of the latest developments and adapt to new ways of working, and be responsive to what the market and the customer needs.” Pearson cites two key elements of technology transformation: “One is how we interact with our customers – and the changes in the way we’re building applications for mobile… we’re looking to digitise the way we interact with our customers.” However, the second element comes from within: “We also need the right data at the back end, and to explore that data to make
“They’re on a very similar journey to us,
sure those interactions are as mean-
and were keen to discuss some cultural
ingful and insightful for our customers
and principle things Santander is doing
as they can be.
that they can learn from. As a whole, the
“Data is fundamental to both of these
banking industry is really taking these
things, and as we move forward increas-
technologies on,” he adds.
ing our understanding of data through AI and machine learning is key,” he
A TECHNOLOGY FOCUSED INSTITUTION
adds. “Customers are used to using
Santander is taking these industry
Instagram and Facebook – they’re
changes in its stride, all the while
used to instantaneous responses, so
focusing on the most important
we need to be able to provide that. Our
aspect: customer experience. As
goal is to give a seamless, transparent
Pearson explains: “Technology is
journey to our customers.” w w w.sa nt a nder. co. u k
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ALL ABOUT THE DATA Gathering as much data as possible can help to improve this customer journey – but only if the right tools are in place to make use of it. “Data gives us the ability to analyse and understand how our customers interact with us, so we can design processes more effectively,” Pearson explains. Within Santander too, it’s the data that makes the difference. “Big data has been absolutely transformational to us as an organisation. We partner with Cloudera to run our big data platform here in Santander UK. I was able 10
to understand through this collaboration that we don’t need to have silos of data going E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E
Andy Pearson is the Managing Director of Santander UK Technology Engineering and Head of Digital Services. After a successful career in consultancy, he joined Santander in 2006 and held senior roles in IT during Santander’s integration of other UK banks. In 2015 he took the lead of the engineering and delivery division which he brought into the digital era. Now, Pearson is driving the transformation of Santander UK into an agile organisation bringing the business, operations and technology teams together under a domain-driven and service-driven model.
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forward – and if you get rid of silos, you
A TRUSTED MEMBER OF THE COMMUNITY
can truly transform the way people
“Communities are really important to
across the organisation behave.”
us in Santander,” Hayes emphases.
Santander’s use of data reflects its
“Santander has targets to make sure
commitment to its customers, as well as
everyone takes part in community work,
how integral a part the bank plays in
be that abroad or locally.” Indeed,
people’s everyday lives and in wider
recently a group from the Milton Keynes
communities. “The human element is
office returned from building classrooms
really key, particularly if you’re making
in Cambodia, whilst raising money for
difficult financial decisions,” says Hayes.
charities closer to home, Age UK and
“If you’re going to take out a mortgage
Barnardo’s, and last year Hayes himself
which is going to shape your life and your
spent some time helping a local food
spending for the next 25 years, you need
bank. “The motivation you get from
to trust and know that you can rely on us.”
making a real difference in your local w w w.sa nt a nder. co. u k
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘TRUST IN BANKING AT SANTANDER UK WITH CDO DAVID HAYES AND MD ANDY PEARSON’ 13 area is great, and is very healthy for an
in different parts of the organisation.”
organisation like Santander,” he adds.
This commitment to communities
In addition, Santander as a global
reflects the trust which Pearson is keen
organisation is busy strengthening its
to emphasise as integral to Santander.
commitment to the UK with a revamp
“Trust is a really strong foundation – secu-
of its Milton Keynes site and a brand-
rity is important because our customers
new £75mn office in Bootle, Liverpool,
have entrusted us with their information.
which is set to house 2,500 staff. “These
Security is fundamental for any bank,”
are historic sites for Alliance and
he explains. “We have a design principle
Leicester and Abbey National. The UK
of building security from the bottom up,
bank is one of the biggest elements
and going forward the banking industry
of the Santander group and we’re very
has the opportunity to build on that trust.
committed to our UK base,” Hayes
There are new value propositions we can
explains. “We’ve got 14mn active
explore here, and indeed for the wider
customers here and over 20,000 staff
banking industry, to provide identity w w w.sa nt a nder. co. u k
management for the wider market. “Customers are trusting us with their data. We need to verify identities for a whole variety of regions – so there are opportunities for a bank as that trusted partner within the wider industry, and that’s something we need to look at going forward.” This strong culture of trust, community and collaboration runs through every aspect of the business, not least the relationship Santander maintains with its vendors and partners, all of which have equally stringent principles on security and much more. 14
“When we work with a third party, we try to make sure we work in partnership with them,” he emphasises. “We spend a fair bit of time making sure they have the right fit for us, both culturally and architecturally.” “Part of our methodology is to see, experiment, improve concepts, test and learn before we take a leap into particular technologies,” says Pearson. “Experimentation and building that collaborative relationship is important in understanding we’re working with the right partners moving forward.” Alongside Cloudera, a leading platform for Big Data and data science which enables Santander to become data driven, the bank works with a variety of carefully selected partners that have been critical for its ongoing digital transformation.
This includes Microstrategy, which provides an enterprise wide platform for Business Intelligence (BI) and analytics; NuoDB, a cloud database for digital applications that can run on premise; Pivotal, a technology development company that provides platforms and tools enabling organisations to develop digital experiences; and Everis, a consultancy providing business and technology solutions for mission critical challenges.
THE RIGHT CULTURE Throughout the significant technology transformation Santander continues to undergo within a changing industry, its E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E
David Hayes is Santander UK Chief Data Officer and Head of Data Services. He is a recognised leader in the data industry with a long career in different areas of Santander UK. He has been driving the cultural change about data in Santander UK since he was appointed as CDO in 2014. Hayes is passionate about what data can do to create value for customers and communities and thus is transforming data into a commonplace asset that everyone in Santander can use to help customers, always with the utmost awareness to governance, privacy and security.
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CLICK TO WATCH : ‘ANDY PEARSON, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF SANTANDER UK TALKS TECHNOLOGY TRANSFORMATION’ 17 people remain key, and managing the significant culture changes transforma-
brought together to drive change.” Ensuring that these skills are in place
tion brings is vital. “It’s easy to underes-
across the organisation, Santander is
timate the amount of impact that cultural
also committed to diversity, such as
change has on the ability to make
ensuring a mix of men and women in the
technology change,” Hayes reflects.
tech-led organisation. “Gender diversity
“We run change management pro-
is very important to us,” says Pearson.
grammes and provide training, but of
“We were a founding signatory of the
course we have some way to go. We’re
HMRC Women in Finance Charter. We
on a journey. One thing we have to do
know that in the industry about 17-20%
is to articulate data as a profession;
of roles in technology are filled by women.
understand and appreciate the different
We’re fortunate that we have about 30%
elements of that. There are very
of our roles filled by women – however,
different skillsets that come in – soft
we currently only have 19% in senior
skills and technical skills need to be
roles, so our goal is to get that to 25% w w w.sa nt a nder. co. u k
Cloud. Containers.
Culture.
Transform your business, not just your IT.
19 by 2022. Role models are very important,” he adds. “We are participating in the Thirty Per Cent Coalition where we have role models, both men and women, to mentor women in our organisation, and women at Santander are being mentored by those from other organisations.”
TECHNOLOGIES OF THE FUTURE In addition to Big Data being fundamental to Santander’s offering and the care it can provide each and every customer and community, the bank will continue to explore other technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning w w w.sa nt a nder. co. u k
capabilities and more. “Machine learning
learning. Now we have that core data
is a technology we’re exploring with some
platform, that’s going to allow us to
gusto at Santander,” says Hayes. “So far,
explore these new technologies
it’s been important from an operational
increasingly as we go forward.”
efficiency perspective. It’s going to change the way we work, the way we
community all keep a finger on the pulse
think, the decisions we go through, the
of new developments in the evolving
speed at which we interact with our
industry, with Open Banking set to take
customers and the offering we can give
centre stage. “That changes the game
them – but to embed machine learning
for us,” says Hayes. “Data is an asset
we need to make sure it’s built with great
and this allows competitors to build on
data engineering to sit behind it.”
assets we’ve got – when you then throw
Pearson adds: “Establishing our big 20
Hayes, Pearson and the Santander
in the capability to build AI or run machine
data ecosystem is key to us. We’re still
learning algorithms, the opportunity
early on in our journey of AI and machine
through technology is massive.”
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘DAVID HAYES, HEAD OF DATA AT SANTANDER UK TALKS CHANGE CULTURE MANAGEMENT’
“ Here in banking, there’s a whole world of data at our fingertips that can help us improve the lives of our customers” — David Hayes, CDO, Santander
21 Pearson, too, cites Open Banking as one of “a whole series of regulatory activities that are changing the face of
customers are and how to be more relevant in their day-to-day activities.” Overall, Hayes concludes that the
the banking industry”. He adds: “The
centuries-old banking industry will
making available of information about
fundamentally transform with Santander
customers to a whole range of new
at the fore. “I firmly believe that technol-
players is going to fundamentally change
ogy will completely change banking in
the way customers interact with financial
the next 20 years. The challenge for
organisations. There will be new players
the industry will be to embrace those
– and as a bank, we need to respond to
technologies – and the winners will be
that. We need to measure the experienc-
those who can do that in a way which is
es we build, and remain relevant for our
right for the customer.”
customers as we support their goals in life. Opening up banking data gives us opportunities to understand who our w w w.sa nt a nder. co. u k
Santander UK plc 2 Triton Square Regent’s Place London, NW1 3AN United Kingdom www.santander.co.uk