the
Who’s Who of financial services Australia & New Zealand
The Circle of Trust The C-Suite Power Shift Mobile, Social and Cloud A Nexus of Forces CHIEF AGENDAS Leaders from ANZ, Allianz, Citi Australia, ING Direct, St George and Westpac NZ share their innovation roadmaps EXCLUSIVE CXO INTERVIEWS Lisa Gray, NAB Michael Harte, CBA Clive Whincup, Westpac Anne Weatherston, ANZ Jeff Smith, Suncorp Lee Barnett, AMP Donna Vinci, IAG + more
the 2013/2014 definitive guide to technology and innovation
The Who’s Who of fINANCIAL seRVICes
Contents
GeNeRAL MANAGeR, edIToRIAL Angela Horvat
GeNeRAL MANAGeR, sALes John Todd
edIToRIAL dIReCToR Natasha David
JouRNALIsTs & CoNTRIBuToRs Jessica Fell Derry N. Finkeldey Kimberley Gaskin Matthew Sainsbury
ART dIReCToR Mark Maric
suB edIToRs Bill Todd Andrew Birmingham
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Reshaping banking for the future
The emergence of a new tech triumvirate is seeing battle lines drawn among Chief Digital, Marketing and Information Officers
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The opportunity of a generation
The convergence of information, mobile communications, the cloud and social media is driving a fundamental power shift
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Simplicity is the ‘next big thing’
Safeguarding against globalised fraud. A private audience with Nick Leeson – the man who brought down Barings Bank
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CoLuMN: PhILIP ChRoNICAN, Ceo, ANZ AusTRALIA
CoLuMN: PeTeR CLARe, Ceo, WesTPAC NeW ZeALANd
CoLuMN: VAuGhN RIChToR, Ceo, ING dIReCT
CIRCLe of TRusT
A Nexus of foRCes
exeCuTIVe RouNdTABLe
sALes dIReCToR Jason Hulme
ACCouNT MANAGeRs Emma Charter Michelle Graves Lily Liu Peter Nejaim Toby Wilcock
Who’s Who CooRdINAToRs Carly Pollifrone Vidya Gopinath
GeNeRAL eNQuIRIes info@fst.net.au
PuBLIsheR FST Media (Sydney office) Suite 602 Level 6, 30 Alfred Street Milsons Point NSW 2061 Phone: +61 2 9376 3200 Fax: +61 2 9376 3453 www.fst.net.au FST Media (Singapore office) #02-07/08 20 Cross Street, China Square Central Singapore 048422
CoLuMN: sTePheN RoBeRTs, ChIef CouNTRy offICeR, CITI AusTRALIA
Digitisation is at the core of evolution
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CoLuMN: NIRAN PeIRIs, MANAGING dIReCToR, ALLIANZ AusTRALIA
exeCuTIVe RouNdTABLe
Staying ahead of the technology curve
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The Who’s Who of fINANCIAL seRVICes
Australia and New Zealand’s most influential technology chiefs are gathered for a portrait of the Who’s Who of Financial Services
Harnessing the power of progress
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Fighting next generation fraud with visibility and data intelligence.
CoLuMN: GeoRGe fRAZIs, Ceo, sT GeoRGe BANkING GRouP Constant innovation the only choice
exeCuTIVe RouNdTABLe
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exeCuTIVe RouNdTABLe
Future-proofing legacy systems
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CoLuMN: ANdy syMoNs, dIReCToR, ReTAIL BANk, BANk of NeW ZeALANd
Transforming invention into innovation
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dIReCToRy LIsTINGs
A concise catalogue of Australia and New Zealand’s leading product, service and solution providers w ho ’ s w ho o f fs i
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www.fst.net.au
Where the Market Meets
Financial Services Technology Media where the market meets
Foreword It gives me great pleasure to bring you the sixth annual edition of the industry-leading publication, The Who’s Who of Financial Services. Innovation is synonymous with leadership, and FST Media prides itself on once again presenting the definitive guide of the leaders who are shaping the industry. Our team of journalists have interviewed the region’s top financial services executives whose mandate is the relentless pursuit of business-enabled innovation. When asked what technologies they are keeping a close watch on, Australia and New Zealand’s top financial executives cited the latest developments in mobility, cloud, social media and the need for 24/7 engagement with customers via the medium of their choice. This was echoed by Gartner’s in-depth look at the ‘nexus of forces’ – the convergence of information, mobile, the cloud and social media − which is driving a fundamental shift in the power relationships between financial institutions and their customers. Big data is also rising on the agenda for most of our CIOs, however this is only part of the equation. Connecting, communicating and collaborating with customers will be far more important than merely collecting information from a wide variety of sources. While big data offers a rich opportunity to enable these goals, it was collectively noted among our interviewed CIOs that information must be overlaid with business intelligence to provide critical insights for business decision-making. Indeed, knowledge is power. The evolution of the financial services industry has always been inextricably tied to the transformation of the customer. The average customer is becoming more sophisticated, more savvy. This trend will become even more pressing with the rise of Gen Y as they embark on financial maturity and demand more solutions tailored to their needs. The emergence of this generation is paralleled by the entry of a new breed of technology executives who are more versatile, with a focus on the role data and real-time analytics play in understanding the new customer. Chief digital and marketing officers are fast becoming hailed as the next technology chiefs along with CIOs. While this new tech triumvirate is seeing battle lines drawn among the top technology chiefs, one opinion was shared among all our executives: the skills needed for success are leadership, communication and the ability to influence others. On behalf of the FST Media team I would like to thank you, our readers of this important publication, for your continued patronage. I also extend my gratitude to those executives who agreed to be interviewed, our columnists, analysts and other contributors who shared their perspectives on the future trends shaping the region. Natasha David Editorial Director FST Media
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Reshaping banking for the future by PhiliP ChroniCan
The long-term sustainability of our business will depend on our ability to innovate . . . address industry challenges, such as fraud, through opportunities such as voice biometrics as a way of authenticating customers as part of our suite of security tools.
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Two big themes will dominate the way we think about financial services in the next few years. The first of these is the post-GFC operating environment: more prescriptive regulation; tougher capital and liquidity arrangements; and a subdued demand environment. The second is one we have in common with other industries: the impact of technology in reshaping the industry’s structure and economics. Technology is advancing at an unprecedented rate and consumers have been very quick to recognise and embrace the flexibility and benefits it brings. For many industries, the fallout has been significant. You need only look at how the growth of online shopping is impacting bricks and mortar retailers and similarly, how online news portals are contributing to the demise of print media. In the financial services industry, we are seeing more and more customers wanting to bank in different ways. Therefore, we need to adapt our business model to re-engage our customers and stakeholders in new ways in line with these trends. Last year, ANZ conducted a Newspoll survey on changing banking preferences that showed a clear increasing demand for digital technology. The survey told us that 88 per cent of people aged 18 to 34 prefer digital technology over a bank branch for day-to-day transactions but generally prefer face-to-face interaction in a branch for life’s big ticket items such as a loan or financial advice. This supports some trends we have been seeing within our distribution network, with three times as many routine retail transactions conducted via online and mobile channels as in branches. Our branches are being used by customers for advice and problem solving rather than just simple transactions. As the population continues to age (and grow in wealth), we can expect to see an even greater need for advice around things like superannuation and investments. Customers are becoming more comfortable with taking a self-service approach to their
day-to-day transactions and want greater flexibility – being able to bank when and where it suits them. We are already responding to these changes as we look to connect with our customers in new ways. Last year we embarked on a $1.5 billion investment program, known as Banking on Australia, to transform the way we do business in Australia. New digital channels such as ANZ goMoney, our market-leading mobile banking app, are growing in popularity. In December 2012, for the first time ever there were more ANZ goMoney logins than internet banking logins. Similarly, there has been growing demand for the ANZ FastPay app, which allows small businesses to process same day credit and debit card transactions via an iPhone or iPad. We are currently trialling a mobile wallet that uses Near Field Communication (NFC) to allow customers to securely make purchases wherever contactless cards are accepted via their android mobile phone. With mobile payments expected to reach 15 per cent of worldwide credit card payments in the next two years, NFC is an important mobile payment channel. The long-term sustainability of our business will depend on our ability to innovate, not only to meet changing customer demand but also to address industry challenges, such as fraud, through opportunities such as voice biometrics as a way of authenticating customers as part of our suite of security tools. This is something we are currently investigating and while still early days, it is looking promising. As consumers become more willing to embrace new ways of banking, the gap between early adopters and mainstream followers is narrowing. It is essential we leverage this appetite for new ways to transact and continue to look for ways to make banking easier for our customers. Philip Chronican is the Chief Executive Officer of ANZ Australia.
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International Finance Technology Specialists
INTERNATIONAL AUSTRALIA
Connecting the Who’s Who +61 2 8270 0000 +61 3 9028 7330 www.iKasInternational.com/au
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The opportunity of a generation BY PETER CLARE
i am truly excited about what the future holds. it will come faster than we think possible and will facilitate many aspects of what being human is all about – the desire to congregate, to tell stories and to connect.
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In this exciting era of change, demand for new technology is outstripping supply and changing the expectations and behaviour of customers. Traditional business models are being upended, damage to a company’s reputation is a mere tweet away and new challenges are being faced around compliance, privacy and security of information. Banking is not exempt to the force of this change. But neither is banking a stranger to change created via technology. The introduction of online banking, ATMs, mobile payments and the associated simplification of back of house processes were all prompted by new technology and its impact on customer needs and behaviour. What is different in this latest change to the distribution channels is that it is being driven by customer demand, a ‘pull’ strategy, as opposed to the ‘push’ strategy of earlier times when banks drove change for business efficiency. Now, the power of the so-called super computers of the 1990s sit in your pocket or briefcase in the form of a smartphone or tablet. Online is doing to banking what it did to newsagents. Some people still want the newspaper in their hands but increasing numbers receive their news digitally. This has opened the door of self-service for customers and they are embracing it fully, and not just via mobile and online. The uptake of our smart ATMs, which provide features such as real time deposits, is a case in point. In September 2012 we had just over 81,000 transactions processed. Three months later that had risen to just over 104,000 transactions. To move with the customer, innovation is essential and Westpac New Zealand is meeting the challenge head-on. The customer is at the heart of everything we do. This is not lip service, but the basis upon which we now view everything we do. Banks have complicated products and systems, developed over decades of multiple layers of legacy systems. Changes had to be made product-by-product at a painfully slow pace causing pain and frustration for
customers. Now, we look at ourselves as a customer does and have begun untangling this web and transforming the way they can interact with us. Shortly at Westpac NZ, customer and staff systems will be device independent, meaning a single platform will pick up what device the customer is using (internet, iPhone, iPad, Android etc), assess its capability (whether it can take photos, has GPS etc), identify whether it is used by a customer or staff member and assign the appropriate functionality. There will only be a single source of information accessible to customers and staff via all devices. We will be able to offer more services, advice and deepen our relationship with customers. In shaping this approach we have looked at the models being used by companies like Amazon and Google where this type of approach is a way of life, because they were established in this era of change and do not have the historical silos that have shackled traditional banks. Technology has improved everyone’s lives. When I was a young child in the 1970s, there was a visually impaired boy who lived around the corner from us who used a ham radio to talk to his circle of friends around the world. That radio seems so 1940s looking back, such has been the speed of progress. Now, my four year old son talks to his grandparents across the Tasman by video conferencing from his bedroom on a device that cost only a few hundred dollars. I am truly excited about what the future holds. It will arrive faster than we think possible and will facilitate many aspects of what being human is all about – the desire to congregate, to tell stories and to connect. And it provides banking with the opportunity of a generation – the opportunity to truly put the customer first and to provide them with the tools and channels to access advice and service in a truly ubiquitous way, anytime, anywhere. Peter Clare is the Chief Executive Officer of Westpac New Zealand.
C o - SponSo r e d a r t i C le
BankPlus Delivers Instant Issuance to Customers at 50 Branches BankPlus customers were facing a lengthy process between applying for Visa cheque cards and receiving them via traditional mail delivery. As a result, the cards were rarely used within the first few weeks after a new account was opened. Existing customers were also affected by the delays in receiving replacements for lost, damaged or stolen cards. According to Dave McLeod, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, the challenge for BankPlus was to find the best solution to get a cheque card into a customer’s hand as soon as a new account was opened. The bank wanted to offer a state-of-the–art, personalised solution that customers would appreciate. Choosing the right card issuance technology was crucial to the decision to move forward. “We wanted the new, flat card printing technology that was coming to the market,” said Cheney Spence, card services manager and physical security officer at BankPlus.
Choosing the Right Technology Partner Following a review of instant issuance systems, BankPlus selected Datacard’s CardWizard instant issuance software and associated card printers based on the features offered by the solution. CardWizard software was both easy to implement and compatible with the bank’s card management infrastructure. The bank also felt that CardWizard offered the best security features. Datacard offered a complete support plan to provide resources for a three-branch pilot, including training and technical assistance for each branch installation.
From Pilot to 50-Branch Rollout Following the success of the pilot, BankPlus now offers instant issuance at 50 of its busiest branches. The strong partnership between BankPlus and Datacard is yielding significant benefits for the bank and its customers. The CardWizard software’s intuitive design and Datacard Group’s experience in launching instant issuance programs have resulted in a secure, reliable instant issuance solution. Both customer and merchant response to the flat debit cards has been overwhelmingly positive.
Significant Cost Reduction With instant issuance, the bank no longer issues temporary ATMonly cards to new customers. Postage and handling expenses associated with mailing new cheque cards and PIN mailers have been eliminated. Cheque processing expenses have also been reduced because new customers can perform signaturebased transactions immediately after leaving the branches, instead of waiting to receive their cheque cards in the mail. The CardWizard software gives BankPlus complete control over the card replacement process for lost, stolen and damaged cards, eliminating special handling expenses associated with express card orders.
Enhanced Customer Experience The CardWizard software has provided an exciting opportunity for BankPlus to differentiate its brand, as well as gain a competitive advantage over other financial services organisations. Datacard Group has delivered an innovative solution that has enhanced the bank’s customer experience. BankPlus is now able to combine personal, in-branch customer education with instant issuance to encourage immediate card usage. This means new customers transitioning from other banks avoid the lengthy wait of receiving their BankPlus debit cards by mail, as well as eliminating security concerns about cards or PINs being lost or stolen in the mail. Finally, the bank has reduced the risk of customer attrition by issuing replacement cheque cards quickly and conveniently in the branch. For further information please contact: Michael Robertson Regional Director – South Pacific Salesadmin_aus@datacard.com
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Simplicity is the ‘next big thing’ By Vaughn RichtoR
technology is moving at a rapid pace. the trick is not to fall into the trap of creating something new just because we have the capability, or using technology just because it is available.
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There is often a misconception that innovation is about inventing ‘the next big thing’, but for me it is about simplicity. Anyone can make things complicated, but it takes real skill to make things simple. Rather than focusing on innovation for innovation’s sake, we should ask ourselves how can we make things easier for our customers? It is easy to say our customers are important, but the real proof is in the delivery. Every decision we make at ING Direct, and that includes investment in technology, is evaluated by how it impacts our customers. First you have to seek to understand what the customer truly values and then deliver that value. Innovation does not require spending lots of money, and it does not require a project team. Our staff are empowered to make continual improvements in their day-to-day work. We have a culture where everyone is encouraged to think differently and look at better ways of doing things, ways of making things easier. If we do 100 things one per cent better every day, then that is innovation for me. My hypothesis is that a successful business is built by having the right people on board, and it is culture not processes that makes an organisation great. If you have great people, it is your responsibility as a leader to get the best out of them – giving them space to learn, grow and contribute. Wherever possible, I recruit from within so people can develop their skills, whilst living the strategy and culture and embedding it through the business. I have learned that people want to be accountable; they want to play a part in building a successful organisation. The traditional management hierarchy, which is process-driven, does not leave room for this – the challenge I see is moving from a management model to a leadership model which fosters creative thinking. When it comes to technology, innovation is often invisible, as the improvements take place behind the scenes. Our Bank in a Box, for example, is technology our customers will not necessarily be aware of, but it delivers a
tangible benefit to them. Firstly, it allows us to develop products and improvements much faster than we used to. It also helps us test our systems more effectively, which means less downtime for our customers. Working within a global network means we can share our learning and experience with the rest of the group, and vice versa. Bank in a Box has been replicated in various other ING offices globally – it is being shared across the group, so we leverage knowledge. Our customers are increasingly active in the social space. Historically, if customers wanted to talk to us they would pick up the phone. Now they are also talking to us via two-way messaging and online chat, as well as social media. I have always listened to customer feedback through the traditional mechanism of phone calls and emails – if social media is where our customers are now, then I need to be there too. I like how Twitter facilitates dialogue between the customer and the organisation. These days customers have a voice and can really influence change. I have always been passionate about communication, and connecting with people. That has not changed; the tools we use to communicate these days are constantly evolving. My preference has always been face-to-face communication – after all conversations are more than just words. But in reality we do not always have that luxury of close geographical proximity which enables us to have those conversations in person. I started blogging and using Twitter (@CEO_INGDIRECTAU) a few months ago, but tweeting is not really a new thing. I have always been talking, listening and having conversations face-to-face and over the phone. Technology has just evolved over time so we can now do this online. Technology is moving at a rapid pace. The trick is not to fall into the trap of creating something new just because we have the capability, or using technology just because it is available. It all boils down to doing what is right for the customer. Vaughn Richtor is the Chief Executive Officer of ING Direct.
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Digitisation is at the core of evolution By stephen RoBeRts
our optimised mobile platforms will allow for seamless movement between channels and a reduction on the dependence of older physical branches which are now also evolving into the digital age.
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The online technology revolution is having a profound effect on the way people and businesses manage their money. In this fast evolving age, the stakes are high for organisations to meet the expectations of clients and customers who continually demand new and simpler ways to do business or have access to their finances. At Citi, digitisation is core to our business growth strategy. Technology drives transformation and is a source of jobs and development to many businesses across Australia. As Citi’s Chief Country Officer in Australia, it is my responsibility to create a culture where our technical teams can flourish and provide our clients with a premium level of service. We employ technical experts in many countries across the world. It is these experts who have been responsible for introducing the next generation of online banking to Australians. Whether it is trading securities in offshore markets, managing cross-border corporate cash flows or simply sending money home, we have the size and scale to introduce the fastest and most comprehensive systems in the market. Advanced technologies are rapidly creating new opportunities for us to serve our customers more efficiently, but they also threaten to upend existing business strategies. In reality, those that innovate remain ahead of their competitors. Globally, Citi has long been known for technological innovation in banking. In 2011 we introduced our primary online corporate banking facility, CitiDirect BE Mobile. CitiDirect BE Mobile provides our institutional clients with the ability to complete secure, high volume transactions wherever they are in the world from their computer, tablet or mobile device. Since its launch, CitiDirect BE Mobile has been made available to more than 50,000 clients and 300,000 users in over 80 countries worldwide. It has been recognised repeatedly on an international scale. The success of this platform is a testament to our vision to provide our clients with flexible, safe and easy to use solutions that address the changing business landscape,
allowing them to transact business while on the move. In our consumer business, we were the first in the Australian market to launch a merchant-based GPS locator service for our credit card customers to use with their smartphones, and the first retail bank to provide a single online view of local and offshore accounts with the bank. What of the future? More than 50 per cent of Australians now own a smartphone and by 2016 one in two Australians will own a tablet computer. Our optimised mobile platforms will allow for seamless movement between channels and a reduction on the dependence of older physical branches which are now also evolving into the digital age. While online and mobile technology remains a key focus for us, the everyday branch experience remains just as important. At Citi, our new ‘smart’ branches, kiosks and instant banking centres are changing the physical banking experience. The instant banking ‘smart branch’ located in Sydney’s CBD is the first of its kind in Australia and sets a new standard with open plan layouts, large media walls and interactive screens displaying Citi’s full range of products. The development of mobile banking through smartphones and tablets may have developed the way customers connect with us, however we also know that they continue to want direct advice from staff on how to get the most from their finances. Our instant banking branches are designed with this specific need in mind and will offer customers a premium face-to-face experience. Our ability to move, adapt and harness the latest technology is critical to our strategy in addition to providing a service that is global, simple, cost efficient and secure. Because of this, our annual investment in technology remains consistent and significant. We will continue to embrace change, adapt to the technological advances laid out in front of us and above all deliver new capabilities that will continue to lead innovation into the future. Stephen Roberts is the Chief Country Officer of Citi in Australia.
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Harnessing the power of progress BY NiRAN PEiRis
A market-leading innovation at Allianz has been the introduction of ‘Allie’, our online avatar who assists customers by answering questions and reduces their need to talk to a call centre operator.
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Insurers face many challenges as we look towards the coming year and beyond. One such challenge is the need to continually improve the efficiency in the way we provide insurance products and the experience our customers receive. This is a story underpinned by innovation, particularly around technology. Allianz has, over many years, put in place a range of initiatives aimed at developing a culture of innovation and customer service. In particular, the use of technology has been a core pillar of Allianz’s strategy and a key enabler to our success. Innovative investment in technology has supported Allianz’s industry-leading customer experience and expense position, with a high rate of no-touch, straight-through processing and highly-automated processes. Technologies such as business process management (BPM) and enterprise content management (ECM) allow us to remove nonvalue add activity so employees have more time to focus on our customers. Through the use of BPM across a number of business units, we have transformed business processes, moving to structured and proactive process management. BPM provides process insights to improving targeting of investments, as well as providing clarity and metrics on individual and operational performance. ECM technologies enhance the management of different document types from a variety of channels through the recognition of forms and fields as well as the application of business rules, opening up the potential for greater automation. ECM has been used to scan post, fax and email correspondence, index the documents, extract data and automate business processes. This has led to dramatically reduced cycle times and lower processing costs, whilst also providing enhanced metrics for driving performance. Another recent innovation that has both cut costs and improved customer experience is the ability to lodge claims online which, particularly after natural catastrophes, takes significant pressure from call centres and dramatically reduces the lodgement time.
A market-leading innovation at Allianz has been the introduction of ‘Allie’, our online avatar who assists customers by answering questions and reduces their need to talk to a call centre operator. ‘Allie’ is our version of the Apple iPhone’s revolutionary Siri functionality and has delivered call centre cost reductions. Product innovation is another area of constant attention and Allianz has recently introduced the option of flood cover to our household insurance policies. Over several years, Allianz has invested significantly in IT, underwriting, risk mapping and other capabilities needed to price flood cover and make it available. One example is the ability to individually risk rate every single property in Australia, compared to the traditional postcode or suburb basis – a capability only available to a small number of insurers. This is critical for flood pricing because flood risk needs to be individually priced. The risk varies significantly between flood-prone properties, but also because more than 90 per cent of homes have no flood risk at all. While individual flood risk pricing is the fairest approach, it highlights the problem of affordability of flood cover, where premiums for an average house can exceed $20,000 per annum. The price of insurance for cyclone risk in North Queensland, particularly for residential strata buildings, has also increased significantly in recent years, and particularly since Cyclone Yasi in 2011. The affordability of insurance for some Australians has become a critical issue and is receiving increasing attention from governments and the media. It is an issue that the industry needs to face and start thinking of ways it can be addressed with minimal regulatory intervention. The solution also involves further innovation around the design and delivery of products. Continued costreducing innovations, like those highlighted above, will help place downward pressure on premiums and will improve the affordability of insurance products for Australians. Niran Peiris is the Managing Director of Allianz Australia.
Brand Loyalty Starts with a Personal Experience
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Constant innovation the only choice By GeorGe frazis
we live in an era where demand is outstripping supply . . . by 2016 digital interactions will outstrip traditional branch banking interactions by 300 to one.
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Innovation has been core to St George over our 75 year history. Some of these include digital signatures in branches way back in 1988, through to introduced savings, and transactional and credit card account opening via mobile late last year. Being first is not the most important thing to us, however. It is more important to be first in the things that really matter for customers. That is what we do best. Our customers are top of mind when we consider that, as a major bank, St George has the dual challenge of dealing with a massive number of transactions whilst also being innovative and responding to the rapidly changing environment. We process over 1.6 billion transactions per year – over five million transactions per day. And with today’s social media, even a single error surfaces quickly. Online, mobile and social media have started to change our business model and also stimulated innovation within our organisation. We live in an era where demand is outstripping supply. For example it has taken only 20 months for tablets to reach 50 million global users, whereas radio and TV took 38 years and 13 years respectively. We estimate that by 2016 digital interactions will outstrip traditional branch banking interactions by 300 to one. It follows that improving the quality of those digital interactions is critical. In terms of adapting to better leverage technology, we have developed a range of responses and I want to call out two of our key programs of work, both focused on digital interaction: our Digital Ambassadors Program and Business Connect. Our digital ambassadors, employees working in branches and call centres right across the country, are advocates within their regions and are equipped with an iPhone and iPad to bring the digital banking experience to life for our customers. Many customers either do not know or are fearful about the mobile or online banking services available to them. Our ambassadors provide a friendly face or voice to guide customers through our services, and the feedback has been outstanding. That has
not been a surprise to me – it was the logical melding of great technology with world-class customer service principles. Business Connect is an innovative and exciting approach we are adopting to support our small-to-medium business customers. Historically, banks have struggled to look after this critical segment of the economy, mainly because the customer does not neatly fit the service model of most banks. We have flipped that, and designed a sales and service approach around these customers. Most small businesses are mobile, time poor and overloaded with information. However, they are tech savvy, tend to have a smart phone and use Skype and other forms to connect. Our Business Connect proposition is built around connecting small business with experienced specialist bankers and business advisors via video conferencing in our branches or via their phone or tablet. This delivers high quality interactions at their convenience. We are bringing together expert bankers, a great service culture, and technology to develop deep banking relationships with these customers. It is important to look beyond today. Genuine innovation requires great leadership, courage and clear thinking. It also requires moving away from thinking about what is happening today, because this acts as an anchor. We are enlisting our digital natives to help shape our thinking and our responses. We kicked off our Emerging Leaders Program, which sees our top under 30-year-old employees involved in our key leadership and strategy sessions. Their insights and energy provide us with a fresh perspective that helps us continue to be an innovator. We are also constantly challenging every part of our business model, to consider how we become the best and continue to improve. We are constantly changing. Constant innovation is the only way forward. George Frazis is the Chief Executive Officer of St George Banking Group.
PAYMENT SOLUTIONS 8 of the 10 largest world banks rely on TIBCO to run profitable and agile businesses.
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opi n i on
Transforming invention into innovation BY ANDY sYMoNs
we are not trying to predict the future anymore; instead we are allowing our customers to take our products and services anywhere they need to.
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We are living in exciting times. As an industry it feels like we are finding our feet in a rapidly changing world. Neither we nor our customers can plan for every eventuality because the pace of change makes long-term planning projects redundant before they are even complete. However, in the midst of an environment demanding constant change, we have to remember that invention without impact is not innovation. Modern banking is about putting customers in control of their money; after all it is their money. Banking today is becoming more personal as it becomes more digital, new products and services are coming to market faster as security across multiplying channels must be maintained. It is a 24/7, multi-channel, international operation. Tomorrow is too late. Banks are reviewing their economic model, because banking today is not about choosing whether to excel in a store-based environment or in digital banking. To be a major bank in New Zealand, we need to be good at both. New business thinking is not about controlling or managing situations, but understanding the many possible outcomes and navigating a path through them. It is about developing capability that is agile enough to respond to both planned and unforeseen needs, and then getting the right balance between leading and responding. In a business and economic environment where the requirements are massive and the only constant is change, we are finding a new way to innovate and operate. It is a way that focuses around people – both inside and outside of the organisation – and it is this focus on people that makes sure we are delivering the impact that ensures we are innovating, not just inventing. Innovation is something larger organisations have not traditionally had a great reputation for. In the past, innovation has been a process of tweaking systems or processes that were already in place. That has changed. We are not just making cosmetic changes at customer interface
these days, we are starting at the core, developing systems and technology integrating customer input every step of the way. We are building in flexibility and customisation capacity to make sure future product development is not limited in any way. We are not trying to predict the future anymore; instead we are allowing our customers to take our products and services anywhere they need to. New Zealand is a fantastic place to build new technology, new functionality and new ways of doing things. It is a country comfortable with adapting to external forces and change, from macroeconomic to climatic. New Zealanders know that resilience, adaptability and an ability to constantly improve on-the-run results in transforming a generic product into a bespoke, fit-forpurpose solution. In a rapidly evolving world with everevolving customer expectations, that attitude has really come into its own. At BNZ we have leveraged Agile methodology and revolutionised the way we work. We have the benefit of incredibly skilled young developers and innovators and we are focusing on developing and nurturing them – giving them the most opportunity to demonstrate how great they can be. We are changing the way we engage with our customers and our people, and not surprisingly that is driving the product and service offerings we are inventing to help our customers be good with money. Banking in New Zealand is in great shape, but it needs more people willing to shake things up. Delivering impact in the new banking environment requires more than a tweak. At BNZ we are turning the way we innovate on its head. And it is working. A new level of engagement with our people, our customers and our community makes everyone an innovator. That is exciting. Andy Symons is the Director, Retail Bank at Bank of New Zealand.
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Clever Growth in Banking, Financial Services and Insurance Extract from Towards a Clever Australia – Industry insights whitepaper By Rocky Scopelliti, Group General Manager, Industry Executive In the modern business world, the concept of growth is changing. Where once growth was measured simply by increases in revenue, it is now viewed as something that is intelligent, efficient and sustainable. It is no longer the pursuit of growth simply to get bigger – rather, it is growth to get better. At Telstra, we term this as ‘Clever Growth’. As part of the research for this year’s Towards a Clever Australia report, Telstra surveyed 1,060 private and public-sector organisations. In-depth interviews were conducted with senior decision makers for an understanding of how their organisations were performing and the plans they have to improve this performance in the future. The result is a fascinating insight into Australia’s corporate attitudes, behaviours and investments. It provides a clear picture of where our organisations are positioned to achieve the goal of Clever Growth. Careful analysis of the research has identified three specific groups of organisations that coexist within our national business landscape. Each group shares specific attributes and, importantly, specific modes of operation. Telstra calls the first group ‘Productivity Leaders’ (Leaders). Its members comprise those organisations that both measure productivity and have achieved substantial productivity improvement over the past year. The second identified groups are ‘Productivity Followers’ (Followers). Members of this group either do not measure their productivity or have not achieved substantial productivity improvements over the past year. For the first time, the research has identified a new group, ‘Growth Champions’ (Champions). Members of this group have measured and achieved substantial productivity gains as well as substantial financial and non-financial growth.
Clever Growth encompasses a range of aspects that go well beyond financial performance. While making a profit remains fundamentally important, a Clever Growth focus ranges more widely to include productivity improvements and capability enhancements. The notion of Clever Growth strikes a chord in organisations across all sectors, however it is particularly relevant for those in banking, financial services and insurance. Buffeted by a combination of global macroeconomic forces and domestic challenges, Australian financial institutions recognise the need for constant improvement. While they might be performing relatively well overall, they know competition is fierce and increasing. From a macro perspective, ongoing weakness in Europe and uncertain signals in the United States mean the prospect for bullish growth remains subdued. Domestically, a softening in resource prices and continued consumer hesitation means local demand is likely to remain constrained for the foreseeable future. Such conditions mean that following a ‘business as usual’ approach is simply not an option. Finding new market opportunities and ensuring they are ready to capitalise on them has become a priority for many organisations. Despite this clear need for proactivity and evolution, it appears only relatively few organisations in the Australian financial services sector are stepping up to the plate. According to Telstra’s research, only a small proportion of organisations (5 per cent) can be included in the Champions category. Of those surveyed in the banking, financial services and insurance sector, just 9 per cent in the are members of this Champions group (compared to 10 per cent overall).
The balance of banking, financial services and insurance sector respondents can be categorised as Leaders (8 per cent compared to 15 per cent overall) or Followers (83 per cent compared to 80 per cent overall). These results indicate there is significant room for improvement when it comes to achieving Clever Growth. Many organisations can be much smarter when it comes to measuring productivity, through the use of key performance indicators (KPIs), and achieving that productivity by embracing new practices and technologies. Telstra’s latest research has shone a light on the practices being followed by financial sector organisations that form part of a Clever Growth group. While they might be offering very different mixes of products and services, they share a number of similar attributes. The research has discovered that Australian financial institutions which are achieving Clever Growth focus their efforts on a number of key initiatives including: • Improving customer experience and satisfaction • Quickly responding to challenges and opportunities • Improving overall organisational productivity.
To find out more visit Telstra.com/CleverAusreport w ho ’ s w ho o f fs i
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Circle of Trust The C-suite Power shift
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The emergence of a new tech triumvirate is seeing battle lines drawn among Chief Digital, Marketing and information officers. By Kimberley Gaskin and Matthew Sainsbury
Who says you need a background in IT to oversee a chief information officer? Certainly not a number of Australian financial institutions – including major banks – who have redrawn their reporting lines and now have their IT chiefs reporting to executives with no technology credentials. It’s a trend that goes to the heart of how technology and business interact. Lisa Gray’s appointment to Group Executive, Enterprise Services and Transformation at National Australia Bank (NAB) challenges the very fundamentals of what it means to be the head of technology. Gray oversees the bank’s technology mandate, yet she has never been a Chief Information Officer. She believes business skills will
equip her for the role. “It is about blending data and intuition to pick emerging trends and then using technology to enable those opportunities”, says Gray. While there are those who believe CIOs will continue to remain relevant, a number of observers believe their days are numbered. The tension between business and IT has always existed, but it has never been so critical for financial services institutions to get IT involved in the larger business discussions. Technology has been identified as a clear opportunity for competitive advantage and the CIO, as head of technology, is increasingly being called upon to adopt a more innovative, strategic approach as a result.
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slice and dice
Not everyone sees the CIO role as a dying swan. Some argue the role of CIO is bloated and needs reconfiguring to help CIOs manage their ever-expanding functions. This can be seen in NAB’s case, where the appointment of Lisa Gray amounted to a division of the traditional CIO role. Adam Bennett, who spent more than three years as CIO, was redeployed to the newly created role of Executive General Manager for enterprise transformation in the group business services division. Bennett reports to Gray and is accountable for driving NAB’s transformation agenda, including the bank’s NextGen program, enterprise architecture and enterprise project services. Meanwhile, Denis McGee, NAB’s General Manager for Application Development and Testing, initially took on the role of Group Business Services Chief Technology Officer, and stepped into the role of CIO several months later. McGee is now responsible for the operation of technology services including applications, mainframe and server infrastructure, data centres, core network and IT security. He also reports to Gray.
[The] Cio’s days are numbered. Cios will disappear.
Tony Dixon, Cio, Tower insurance
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Tower Insurance CIO Tony Dixon is convinced that CIOs are on their way out. “[The] CIO’s days are numbered. CIOs will disappear,” he asserts. Rather than being replaced though, he believes the individual parts of the business will pick up bigger parts of the IT pie in relation to their function. In effect, they will be dispersed, in the end only leaving the back-end function to IT, says Dixon. One example of this can be seen at Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), which in 2012 employed Lisa Frazier in the role of Chief Innovation Officer, Equities and Margin Lending. Again, Frazier boasts no background in technology but rather a wealth of experience as the Founder and Chief Executive of a Silicon Valley start-up. In a relatively short time, Frazier created CBA’s very own start-up. The online hub, known as MyWealth, was launched in February 2013. Targeting self-directed investors, it includes financial services, news, education and a social media platform.
power bubble
Nevertheless, there are concerns that CIOs may simply become irrelevant – a reflection of the rate of change upon us. As such, they will be effectively replaced by the likes of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and the Chief Digital Officer (CDO). Certainly there are signs the CIO’s power as a chief is something of an illusion. A recent Ernst & Young report DNA of the CIO shows CIOs have less than a one-in-five chance of having a seat at the top table in their own company with only 17 per cent of those surveyed by the accounting firm being in the executive leadership team and just 43 per cent involved in executive decision making. “Many CIOs nowadays appear to be C-level in title only,” concludes Ernst & Young. The report further notes there is a perception that CIOs have a higher regard for the value they bring to the business than reflected by their C-suite peers. “For example, while 60 per cent of CIOs strongly believe that they help enable fact-based
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decision making in relation to corporate strategy, just 35 per cent of their C-suite peers agree.”
Joining forces
Others see a partnership evolving between the CMO and the CIO, as both adapt to the fact that technology has moved beyond being a support function to a central part of the business strategy. Says Anne Weatherston, Group CIO at ANZ Banking Group, “The traditional sequence of defining the business strategy first, then asking how technology can support it, is being turned on its head. In this digital era, both business and technology strategies must be developed collaboratively, in tandem, and as a partnership. In a technology-enabled industry like financial services, customers expect anytime, anywhere banking and a seamless experience across digital and traditional channels.” For this reason, says Deepak Jain, Head of Operations and Technology, Citigroup Australia and New Zealand, “the relationship between the CIO and the CMO is key.” At Citibank “the two roles work closely together to deliver business objectives and ultimately satisfy our customers. Both have the same customercentric goals, hence the reason that this is a partnership and not a traditional service model from technology to marketing”. Andrew Henderson, CIO at ING Direct puts it another way: “In many cases, the CIO and CMO roles will converge – simply because the core business engine of the future will soon be the marketing and analytics engine. As technology commoditisation via the cloud reduces our need to manage data centres and, coupled with the critical role that big data will play in finding business opportunities, the skills of both roles will be crucial to the success of the organisation.” However, from research group IDC’s perspective, much of the pressure to adapt will be squarely in the CMO’s court. IDC’s 2013 Chief Marketing Officer Predictions: Today’s CMO Becomes Master of Data report states “This year, the C-suite will demand the CMO produce a strategy and a plan for how market-driven data will significantly contribute to corporate objectives.” If CMOs
fail to respond, their days could well be numbered, it warns. “Even with their new partnership with the CIO, many CMOs will find that their positions are in jeopardy as they failed to produce a robust data analytics function – or even a game plan to get there.”
Who’s the boss?
A number of market observers see the CMO and the CDO as infinitely more relevant in the current environment. The idea is that one or both of these roles might even usurp the CIO’s top dog position when it comes to IT. Gartner predicts that by 2017, CMOs will be spending more on IT than CIOs. Notes Julie Bale, Group Executive, Technology & Operations, at the Bank of Queensland: “I see the role of the CIO as having the potential of being replaced by the CMO, and we are starting to see this happen in some organisations. The role that I do see as a more prominent IT executive role will be the CTO. The scope of this role will be primarily around the foundational architectural decision making, complementing the role of CMO, where they are responsible for the user/ customer experience aspects.” Adds Dixon: “I think that marketing is always an area that tries to push the frontiers of a business. It is always about the words
growth and revenue which are music to the business leaders’ ears, so I think there is leverage.” But Andy Rowsell-Jones, Gartner CIO Research Analyst, questions the extent to which the CMO will take charge of IT. “There is some question about what will happen in financial services simply because IT is such an integral part of the product,” he says. “If you were a retailer or a manufacturer of beer or cars it might be a different story because it’s very consumer-facing.” He points out one of the issues facing CMOs in financial services is regulation, which will prevent them from accessing too much of the IT budget. Furthermore, the technology that runs banks is so integral to the banking products that the CIO’s role will remain safe. “I am not suggesting the CMO does not have a role in the banks because they do, but it is not quite as dominant as you see in other industries. IT is so critical to the product, it has been around for so long, and it is a highly regulated industry,” says Rowsell-Jones. What about the CDO though? Bohdan Syzmanik, Acting General Manager IT at Kiwibank, argues that whoever heads up the digital side of the business will ultimately head the charge. “Digital is really at the heart of what IT needs to deliver in
Key attributes for CIO role Leadership skills Communication and influencing skills
79%
42%
Analytical approach and organisational skills
77%
32%
Project and change management skills
74%
35%
Technological skills and know-how on IT trends
64%
40%
Knowledge on design and execution of business strategy
64%
35%
Financial management skills
31%
Deeper insight into the industry or key geographical markets for your business
Source: Ernst & Young
81%
37%
29%
Importance
51% 48%
Need for improvement
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Technology is one of the most rapidly changing professions in the world. when we stop learning as technologists, we are in danger of losing relevance.
Anne weatherston, Group Cio, ANZ Banking Group
the future. Whoever is leading digital is effectively leading IT.” According to financial services specialist recruiter, Russell MacDonald, Managing Director of RMArecruit, the interest in technology recruitment is indeed all in the digital space now. “Clients and industry tell us the emphasis is on the digital environment, consumer-driven change,” says MacDonald. More particularly, his group’s clients are looking for business analysts with a strong digital understanding and people that appreciate the issues surrounding things like digital security. “Business intelligence is all tied into data and management, or big data, and being able to get a handle on all that information that is out there and converting it into data the business can use is critical.”
Building skills
Rather than favouring one position, Russell Jones, Chief Operating Officer at ASB Bank, says the worth of all involved needs to be recognised and given due weight. He
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distinguishes between the demand and supply side. “Chief digital and marketing officers are more on the demand side, using their skills set to determine what innovations would make customers lives easier, while technology executives are more focused on how to create, supply and implement what is needed to meet that customer demand.” He believes both are key roles. “It is vital for companies to invest in these areas and for executive teams to realise the importance of both the demand supply teams working together to produce unbeatable customer experiences.” According to CBA’s CIO, Michael Harte “the titles do not matter as much as the relentless focus on customer and shareholder value.” To achieve this, all groups have to step up to the plate. “Tech folk have to continue to be very business-savvy, constantly increasing their commercial acumen and continue to be very results focused, be it delivering an IT project, or delivering an innovative idea that will support the business. Business folk have to become more engaged in technology so they can make more informed investment decisions and see how technology can be leveraged to better deliver products and services for customers.” At the end of the day, it is clear that technology chiefs interested in retaining their position need to broaden their skills base. Of course this means ensuring they are up-to-date with any advances in technology including the cloud, big data, social media and enterprise networks among others. Never stop learning is the mantra. “Technology is one of the most rapidly changing industries and professions in the world,” notes ANZ’s Weatherston. “When we stop learning as technologist, we are in danger of losing relevance.” This, she says, is not only relevant to CIOs. “Skills development is important to all technology professionals, not just aspiring chiefs!” Nevertheless, she distinguishes between those wishing to stay technical and those wishing to manage or lead. “While some of the competencies will be shared between both paths, the overall career development paths will be very different.” According to Jones, aspiring technology chiefs should cast their “skills net” as wide
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as possible. “I believe that in the early years of your career it is important to build technical skills and competencies, but at more senior levels this is usually taken for granted as a ‘hygiene factor’. At more senior levels the things that are far more influential are your ability to communicate, to listen, to build relationships, to influence and to achieve commercial outcomes enabling your customers to achieve success.” Most agree business nous is key for those CIOs wishing to maintain their position. “Remember it is all very well to be technically brilliant but you must also have a commercial lens,” counsels Donna Vinci, Group CIO, IAG. However, it goes beyond commercial acumen, with many executives citing people skills and communication as vital. Says Westpac CIO Clive Whincup: “It is about finding the right blend of technical competencies and communication skills.” Vinci agrees: “Be rounded in your breadth of business, technical and personal skills you obtain.” Lisa Gray, Group Executive, Enterprise Services and Transformation, NAB, puts it another way: “Just like any other leaders, technology leaders need to create organisations that are self-compelling and self-propelling. As such they need to become great story tellers so their people understand the purpose and the ‘why’ of what they are doing.” This also means shaping people, what CBA’s Harte describes as “effectively creating and driving culture.” Says Harte, “What I have learnt is that success is not just about technology but about the people.” And that means being infinitely adaptable with strong problem solving skills. Says Jeff Smith, CEO, Business Services at Suncorp, “This is a fast-paced industry and increasingly responsive to user behaviour. We need people in the field that are never complacent, that can take on board continuous consumer feedback and design solutions to respond to that.”
doing the numbers
A tall order? Perhaps. Dixon believes it is a very demanding role compared with any other executive. “I think it is probably the most challenging one of the lot.” While those
interviewed listed an array of skills required – as did those surveyed by Ernst & Young – one area of expertise gained little attention. Says Weatherston, “Since IT is one of the major expense lines of any organisation it goes without saying that financial management is another critical skill set.” Yet interestingly enough these kind of skills were overlooked in the Ernst & Young survey. “When asked to identify skills that are crucial for their role, 81 per cent of CIOs cited leadership and 79 per cent named communication and influencing skills. Both scores were well ahead of IT knowhow,” says the report before continuing: “But despite this recognition, it is also clear that too many CIOs do not know what it takes to join the executive management team. One of the most important changes is still often forgotten: the need to discuss technology issues in terms of the business value they bring – whether costs saved, revenues gained, customer satisfaction achieved or similar – rather than in terms of uptime, gigahertz and terabytes.” Nevertheless, the general atmosphere is upbeat. Most recognise that we are living in an era that calls for unprecedented innovation. Lee Barnett, CIO at AMP, echoes the sentiments of many others: “We are in an exciting time right now as technology moves ever closer to the core of the business.”
Remember it is all very well to be technically brilliant but you must also have a commercial lens.
Donna Vinci, Group Cio, iAG
*
The billion-dollar business Cio How does the role of CIO change in the world’s largest companies, those with revenues of at least US$1B? Our survey highlighted some subtle, but important, distinctions: CIOs in large firms typically have a greater recognition of the need for stronger frontoffice relationships. They also see more clearly how such relationships can boost their career. They are, unsurprisingly, usually more ambitious. As such, they are more attuned to the need for leadership in their role, while smaller company CIOs still put more emphasis on their technology know-how.
In terms of barriers, they are far more likely to flag up a lack of C-suite support, while their small business peers typically point to budget restraints. CIOs at bigger businesses are more aware of the need to gain exposure to other parts of the business, to communicate business value and to deliver on major transformation programs. They are also more likely to see the value of having experience in another business. CIOs at large firms are far more likely to recognise the value of a business degree in broadening their skills. Source: Ernst & Young
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Why Banks Globally are Embracing Voice Biometrics Replacing intrusive questioning with voice biometrics to reduce customer effort, enhance security and ensure transparency The increase in banking security requirements on customers to answer intrusive security questions for identity verification is seeing a parallel increase in customer frustration. Innovative voice biometrics deployments globally are enabling customers to simply speak with an agent to verify their voice (their identity) to make the authentication process quick, secure and transparent. Nuance is working with banking organisations using voice biometrics technology to turn back the clock to the days when a customer could be taken at their word when verifying their identity. Importantly, as our increasingly mobile society continues to present challenges to traditional models, voice biometrics technology can be integrated in multichannel authentication – through the contact centre and existing mobile banking apps.
What is voice biometrics? As a technology, voice biometrics offers a very simple user experience for the customer, although how it does this is quite complex. A person’s voice is unique, much like a person’s fingerprint, face or iris. However, unlike the other biometrics referenced, voice biometrics also measures behavioural characteristics, such as accent and speaking rhythm unique to each individual. To identify a person, voice biometrics technologies capture a person’s voice, typically through the microphone of a phone,
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and use software algorithms to compare the captured voice to the characteristics of a previously created voiceprint. If the two match, then the voice biometric software will confirm that the person speaking is the same as the person registered against the collected and stored voiceprint.
If the customer chooses to transfer to an agent, they are already authenticated via voice biometrics and the agent can immediately service the customer.
Reducing customer effort while reducing fraud
Passive authentication refers to authentication of customers as they speak to a contact centre agent. Customers undertaking their regular enquiry with a contact centre agent are authenticated using their voice print as they speak to the agent (refer Barclays’ case study).
Any type of authentication method that requires users to remember something or carry something – PINs, passwords, tokens – is prone to credentials being forgotten, misplaced, shared, stolen or otherwise compromised.
For more information on how banks globally are transforming their customers’ contact experience while dramatically reducing fraud, contact:
This is why banking organisations that have deployed voice biometrics according to best practice, have seen a dramatic reduction in fraud (up to ten-fold) and a significant increase in successful authentication by legitimate users (more than doubling traditional automated authentication rates). The two most common applications for voice biometrics application within the banking industry are active and passive authentication. Active authentication refers to the authentication of customers as they utilise the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system or mobile application. Typically, customers are asked to speak a common passphrase, such as “At ABC Bank, my voice is my password”. Once authenticated, the customer can perform transactions on or retrieve information from their account.
Nuance Communications Australia Pty Ltd Phone: +61 2 9434 2300 Email: enquiries.au@nuance.com Contact: Heath Wilson Website: australia.nuance.com
Nuance Communications chosen as one of MIT Technology Review’s Top 50 Disruptive Companies for 2013. Nuance was selected for creating new, innovative applications for speech recognition – from cars to video games. A disruptive company is considered a business whose innovations force other businesses to alter their strategic course – companies that over the previous year have demonstrated original and valuable technology, are bringing that technology to market at a significant scale and are clearly influencing their competitors.
™
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Barclays streamlines phone banking with voice biometrics
9/10
9/10
For the last nine months, Barclays wealth investment management has been using voice biometrics from Nuance to streamline authentication when clients call the bank. The bank has deployed Nuance FreeSpeech in its call centre, combining it with caller ID, allowing call centre agents to identify each customer within one minute of conversation. Since implementing the voice biometrics system 93 per cent of Barclays’ clients scored at least nine out of ten for the speed, ease of use and security of voice authentication. Currently, knowledge-based authentication is used in the majority of
9/10
organisations to verify the identity of a customer telephoning the call centre. It takes the form of a series of questions, such as “mother’s maiden name”, or “first school”. “Knowledge-based authentication is disruptive and gets in the way of client interaction,” says Matt Smallman, vice-president, global client services at Barclays Wealth. The system is constantly running during a call. Agents ask customers if they want to enrol in the authentication system. If they agree, their ID is associated with the recorded voice print. In terms of security, the system runs background statistical analysis on the live call to
provide agents with a confidence rating of whether the caller is the person whose voice print is held on file. The bank takes on the risk, should someone foil the system and run a fraudulent transaction, Smallman is confident the risk is negligible. The system has already paid for itself, in terms of requiring less agents’ time to manage calls. The bank is now looking at how voice biometrics can be used within the rest of Barclays’ wealth management infrastructure.
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b a n k i n g & i nsu r a nc e // a n a lys is
A
Nexus Of
forces The convergence of information, mobile communications, the cloud and social media is driving a fundamental shift in the power relationships between financial institutions and their customers. By Derry Finkeldey
Financial institutions – whether a bank, securities firm or insurer – have been traditionally viewed as controlling the terms and conditions under which they do business. Moreover, this control of their business has been predominantly exercised in one-to-one transactions passed in a single direction along the value chain. But this is all set to change. The pervasive use of smartphones and tablets, the economies of scale offered by the cloud, big data analytics, and collaboration via social networking are now empowering individual customers in their relationships with financial institutions like never before. w ho ’ s w ho o f fs i
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Connecting, communicating and collaborating with people will be far more important than merely collecting data.
This confluence of technological, social and cultural factors has created a ‘nexus of forces’. Not only is this nexus accelerating a shift in buying and selling power from the financial institution to the individual, it is also dramatically increasing the power of networked groups of individuals or corporate entities to influence, and even decide, where, when, how, why and even whether financial decisions are made and transactions take place. Over the last decade, mainstream public and business adoption of the internet and related technologies has shifted the balance of power more in favour of the customer. Customers – individually and as part of networked communities – have become directly involved in many different aspects of the financial value chain, including marketing, product design, price and product comparison, product distribution, information collection, analysis and distribution and other value-added services. Success in the future will be determined largely by an organisation’s ability to build, manipulate and leverage its value network. Connecting, communicating and collaborating with people will be far more important than merely collecting data.
The value network
The inevitable conclusion is that financial services firms have to act. Financial services firms need to re-engineer business models and technology strategies originally optimised to address the needs of value chains in favour of the requirements of value networks. Value networks comprise four components: 1. Sets of customers; 2. Services that enable usage and interaction between the customers; 3. Entities that provide the services; 4. Terms and conditions of using the services to conduct business. A bank or insurance company will no longer focus primarily on the value created between the individual institution and a particular entity. Instead, the value networks, of which the financial institutions is only one part, will emphasise the value created by direct network interactions among all participants within and between networks.
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By contrast, in the traditional and stillpervasive value chain model, technology development is predominantly intended to reduce the cost of a given product – for example, through process automation – or to increase acceptance of the product and its price through functional enhancement. The challenge for financial services institutions is that this nexus of forces has also enabled a broad range of disruptors with the potential to break apart the traditional financial services value chains and create new value networks. This places tremendous pressure on existing operating models. Those financial institutions that can build, manipulate and leverage value networks will dominate.
changing perspectives
The problem for most organisations is that the full benefit of these changes, or simply recognising their value, will require a fundamental shift in culture. It will also mean the adoption of new and unfamiliar behavioural and social tools. In reality, most financial institutions are deeply reluctant to adopt more open networked models. They prefer closed relationship structures including transaction marketplaces such as securities exchanges, proprietary or quasi-proprietary communication and data networks like Bloomberg and SWIFT, plus industry-specific platforms such as the CLS and Visa Europe. Banks continue to see these structures as a means of maintaining market control. Although this view was almost certainly true in the past, it is no longer viable in the democratised, disintermediated, networked world that is rapidly being created by the nexus of forces. Financial institutions need to view the development of value networks as a way of gaining new customers in new ways. Financial institutions also need to rethink how they evaluate their market position, historically considered in terms of absolute numbers of customer relationships or other direct relationships. The new, larger, moreopen networks include not only customers connecting directly to a particular institution, but also the individuals and organisations they are connected to, including friends,
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family, corporations, data, application and service providers. This broader set of relationships translates into a greater value proposition for a financial institution prepared to tap into its power.
The technologist’s perspective
CIOs must recognise that future business models will involve more than just an individual customer’s use of unconnected – or ‘not networked’ – technologies and services. Success as part of a value network centres on having a strategic vision for external customer and partner engagement, for example, via mobile financial services. CIOs must be prepared to answer some fundamental questions: What is the technology strategy for developing and maintaining customer relationships; business partnerships for fostering open innovation; proactive invention; collaboration; and performance-oriented adaptability? This requires a rethink about required and available skills and resources, as well as how to use technology to enable core business model capabilities. CIOs will need to consider the following:
Combine different types of financial and nonfinancial technologies and services into an amplified customer value proposition, information and communication capabilities, and even software and hardware components Consider alternative business models that make the most of utility-oriented or on-demand/metered usage Introduce trust services focused on explicit codes of conduct, identity and risk management and privacy protection Develop digital identity management Introduce networking services for customers and partners, supported by information and analytics tools Introduce broader content services Facilitate social networking services in the context of financial transactions Provide more accessibility and open content Consider other partner-based revenue sharing opportunities Develop or interconnect with multiproduct/ multiservice marketplace exchanges Create context-sensitive messaging that facilitates reviews, recommendations, rankings and other customer commentary
This broader set of relationships translates into a greater value proposition for a financial institution prepared to tap into its power.
Key trends in Australia and New Zealand The financial services industry – including banking, securities and insurance – is the biggest spender on IT products and services in Australia and New Zealand. The sector will spend A$12.4 billion on IT in 2013, with spending forecast to reach A$14.4 billion in 2016. In New Zealand, the sector will spend NZ$1.4 billion on IT in 2013, a three per cent increase over 2012, growing to more than NZ$1.6 billion in 2016. Australia’s insurers will spend A$4.4 billion on technology products and services in 2013, reaching almost A$5 billion in 2016. In New Zealand, insurers are expected to spend NZ$449 million on IT in 2013, an increase of 4.15 per cent over 2012, and reaching NZ$508 million in 2016. The three key trends are impacting the financial services sector in Australia and New Zealand are:
Digital multichannel enablement Australian banks are aiming to become ‘channel agnostic’. That is, providing customers with a seamless experience across a variety of channels and devices including the PC, phone, click-to-talk and online chat, mobile, tablet and physical ‘stores’ or branches. For example, Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s (CBA) mobile app Kaching lets users pay anyone via near-field communication technology or by an email address, phone number or Facebook friendship. Property apps launched by CBA and others that integrate third-party real estate data with locationbased services and customer service are a perfect example of the ‘nexus of forces’ in action, as cloud-based data services, social platforms and mobile capability
combine to provide a contextualised customer experience. Banks and insurers are expanding Among smaller players, this expansion is focused on broadening reach in the market. Achieving a stronger regional presence is a leading growth strategy among banks (such as ANZ) and insurance players. Regulation and risk management Risk management and regulatory compliance are challenging mature markets with a desperate need to improve the efficiency of existing systems, with a view to providing an enterprise-wide view of risk and compliance.
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It is important to recognise your organisation may be most effective as a facilitator of these capabilities in the broader network, rather than as the sole provider in a single value chain. The value network allows for participation based on appropriate business models and some institutions may derive more value by allowing third-party partners to provide some services. Insurers are more likely to focus on just one of these forces, particularly mobile. However, financial institutions in general need to focus on the intersection between all four of these forces to sustain competitive advantage over the next few years.
The nexus of forces at work
The nexus of forces concept has sweeping implications for virtually every area of business, with financial services no exception. The intersection of cloud, mobility, social and information is driving change and allowing future-thinking institutions to capitalise on these advancements for competitive advantage. Information innovation is one example where the nexus is opening up opportunities that were not possible in the past, especially in areas such as new product development leveraging mobile, more powerful data analysis and fraud management using unstructured data and real-time action, as information is combined with core business processing systems. Not all financial institutions have stood still. Many banks have made good progress pursuing an integrated strategy for leveraging the nexus of forces. For example, using apps that combine third-party cloud-based data services, social platforms and mobile capability to provide a contextualised customer experience. However, customer interactions reveal only a few innovative insurers have built strategies, to date, which identify business opportunities as a result of the nexus of forces and how they can use this to differentiate in areas such as product innovation,
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risk management, customer interaction or operations. Companies can establish new business processes, which use information for improved decisions, process automation and corporate intelligence – for example, including market, competitive, customer, risk, and operational. All of this will help fulfil enterprise agility, therefore helping insurers stay competitive and shift with emerging market conditions during the next ten years. At the most basic level, these converging developments are driving a comprehensive change in the way individuals understand and define mediums of exchange, stores of value and units of account. Businesses that fail to recognise this fundamental change, or refuse to adapt to it, risk being disintermediated by more innovative and adaptable competitors, effectively losing customers, employees, clients and business partners to these more nimble counterparts.
Democracy hits the bottom line
All four of the factors identified in the nexus of forces are working separately and synergistically to drive the democratisation of money, to drive fundamental changes in the nature of valuation and exchange. New forms of money and activities can be monetised in different ways as a result of the nexus. But it is at the nexus – where information, mobile communications, the cloud and social commons converge, interact and reinforce one another – that the most fundamental changes in the future of money are occurring. Innovation in information collection, analysis and representation is giving individuals greater power than ever before to make financial decisions in their own best interests. These innovations also allow businesses to be better informed about, and more responsive, to customer behaviour beyond mere alphanumeric text assessments. Mobile devices are ensuring they can make those decisions and act on them at the time and place of their choosing.
The cloud is giving all types of organisations the computing capabilities previously available only to large enterprises. Social commons are bringing individuals together in communities of interest that promise to level the playing field. The changes in individual behaviours and expectations driven by the nexus of forces and by economic, political and cultural factors, mean businesses and governments must immediately begin developing new strategies to address the democratisation of money. All stakeholders involved in business transactions – from customers and clients to employees and business partners – will expect to conduct these transactions using the means of exchange of their choice. They will have access to massive amounts of information, ubiquitous mobile communications and limitless resources of the cloud and social commons, all of which are combining to shift the balance of economic power away from traditional businesses and towards the individual consumer.
new business models
New businesses and new business models will inevitably emerge to take advantage of this profound shift in economic transactions. If traditional businesses are not prepared to accept or make payments in the mode of the individual’s choice – whether that is game points or alternative currencies – other more innovative businesses certainly will be. These innovative players will gain significant competitive advantage and customer engagement as a result. For most businesses, the transition to a democratised economy will not be simple or easy, requiring an enterprise-wide, strategic realignment that takes into account all four of the nexus forces. However, for many businesses it may mean their survival or, at least, their ongoing viability.
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Derry Finkeldey is a principal analyst and specialises in vertical industry technology trends at research and advisory firm Gartner.
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ways the
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how will changing industry conditions shape the future and what are the potential opportunities? Gartner’s Derry Finkeldey shares her seven predictions for the banking and insurance industry with Who’s Who readers.
The financial services industry is feeling the brunt of a rapidly changing landscape. Social, cultural and technological factors are combining to produce a time of great stress and change. The upheaval won’t settle anytime soon. Over the next few years these factors will have a profound impact on banking and insurance.
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By 2015, non-traditional money will lead to 125 million more people participating in the global economy. Worldwide, approximately 2.5 billion adults do not have individual or joint accounts with formal financial institutions. This absence of financial inclusion – the failure to provide financial services to low-income groups at an affordable cost – represents a huge social problem for governments and an untapped market opportunity. New forms of money let the poor better monetise limited resources to improve purchasing power, resource liquidity and local economic development. In emerging markets, these may include previously non-marketable activities such as domestic chores through a time bank, or non-transferable assets such as unused mobile telephone minutes by way of direct transfer. Non-traditional money creation and exchange have the potential to increase financial inclusion by 125 million people – 5 per cent of the global population – by 2015. Banks should pursue the new market
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opportunities with the unbanked market segment and stop relying on traditional money as the only way to improve financial inclusion.
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By 2014, only 10 per cent of core banking replacement programs will meet cost estimates and objectives. Core banking replacement programs are well underway in Asia Pacific. But in most instances, business-case content for core banking replacement is either devoid of any meaningful metrics to measure success or is overly ambitious without justification. The main reason for this is a lack of accountability, which leads to expectations that follow-up will not be encouraged or required. Banks need to build core banking replacement business cases that possess measurable goals and objectives aligned with bank strategy.
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By 2014, at least 10 per cent of global insurers will have designated a Chief Digital Officer (CDO). Gartner’s definition of digitalisation has two components: one is technically-oriented, focusing on digital transactions. The other is business-oriented; that is, the digital experience. Insurers often fail to embrace digitalisation holistically, mistakenly interpreting the term as simply meaning more Internet sales or more self-service. The nexus of forces is driving the insurance industry to new and radically different
business scenarios. As a result, insurance CIOs have the opportunity to take a leading role in shaping digitalisation strategies. One element of the organisational alignment in insurance will, in some cases, be the establishment of a new CDO to serve as a change agent, leading and coordinating the digital aspects of the corporate strategy and the stakeholder digital experience.
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By 2016, 30 per cent of retail banking customers will have socially integrated products or services. Consumer use of social media has become mainstream. By 2016, the number of users is expected to surpass 1.5 billion, an increase of 57 per cent from 2011. Banks have already begun to respond to this phenomenon, creating a broad range of social presences. Some, such as Germany’s Fidor Bank, have created reputation and customer communication strategies that rely largely on their social presence. Others, such as the India-based multinational ICICI Bank and Poland’s Alior Bank, have begun to deliver access to online banking transactions. Meanwhile, banks such as the Commonwealth Bank of Australia have created areas on their websites where customer feedback on products and services can be crowdsourced. Consumers will be involved in every phase of the product or service life cycle. They will expect banks to use crowdsourcing as part of their
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product development and deployment processes and will expect to be included in those processes.
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By 2015, 40 per cent of all in-person interactions between banks and their customers will be initiated or completed using tablet computers. Gartner research shows consumers already use tablets as often as they use other devices. Banks are continually looking for opportunities to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their branch networks. Migrating customers from higher-cost touchpoints, such as the teller, to lowercost self-service points, such as automated teller machines (ATMs) and video-enabled terminals, will still constitute a key part of these strategies. However, Gartner’s research suggests the deployment of tablet computers to customer-facing staff in bank branches – combined with the increasing usage of such devices by consumers – will result in many customers opting for an “assisted tablet service” approach, rather than full-selfservice ATMs. Future integration of near field communication (NFC) technology into tablet computers will enable “process re-engineering” for a number of branch transactions. For example, customers with NFC-enabled digital devices will be able to share data and information with suitably equipped staff members.
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By 2014, pay-as-you-drive insurance will rise to 10 per cent of overall annual auto insurance premiums. The use of telematics for both personal and commercial auto has been rising steadily during the past five years, especially in mature markets where competition is intense. Gartner has seen an increased number of telematics-related inquiries from customers, as well as announcements from local insurers around the globe, about partnerships they have made with telematics services and technology providers. Little public information is currently available on the revenue generated via pay-as-you-drive products compared with traditional auto insurance. However, the premium generated is minimal, because few providers offer these products. This is likely to change during the next three years. Insurers in emerging markets will also consider the use of telematics in both personal and commercial auto insurance. Pilot projects are likely to be announced in many countries where auto insurance is highly commoditised, such as China. Insurers offering telematics-enabled insurance will have more and better data on customer driving patterns and risks. This data can be aggregated and analysed to enable better understanding of driving behaviours, and thus better risk selection and pricing. This will give them the edge over their peers.
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By 2015, 30 per cent of life insurance policies sold online will be complex. Gartner estimates less than 10 per cent of life insurance products sold directly to consumers over the phone or online are complex insurance products. This is because consumers shop for a lower cost and do not need extensive advice. Complex life insurance products historically require more personal interaction with the customer. They may have a savings component, require ongoing changes to investment alternatives, cover multiple individuals, have an adjusting death benefit, or have complex rules about how and when policy benefits can be used. To effectively match customer needs to product features, agents need tools that can assess client needs and then create recommendations or policy models that demonstrate how those needs can be met. These tools continue to mature and many can now be deployed online for real-time collaboration. Three different trends will lead to an increasing percentage of complex products being sold online: market saturation, growing product complexity and morestringent regulatory requirements. Gartner is not only expecting overall directto-consumer sales to grow over the next three years but also, the percentage of complex products sold this way will rise significantly, to account for approximately one-third of overall direct business.
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Safeguarding Against Globalised Fraud Top row (from left to right): Tara Cahill, General Manager Risk, Group Services, Westpac; Stephen Johnston, General Manager, Finance & Risk Technology, CBA; Basil Foulkes, Chief Risk Officer, AMP Bank; Bart Hellemans, Chief Risk Officer, ING Direct; Grant Potter, Head of Risk, Advice, BT Financial; Paul Hassey, Head of Risk Architecture, NAB; David Harrington, General Manager Corporate Office, CGU; Scott North, Head of Enterprise Operational Risk, GE Capital. Bottom row (from left to right): Michelle James, Head of IT Risk & Operations, AMP; Ruth Kelly, Senior Executive, Risk and Compliance, BT Financial; Sean Carmody, Head of Credit Risk, Group Risk, Westpac; Nick Leeson; Kevin Jury, Partner, IBM Financial Services; Jean-Claude El-Sabbagh, Executive Consultant, IBM; David Spratt, Business Analytics & Risk Leader, IBM Business Services; Asha Puvan, Head of Operational Risk, Macquarie. The executives featured in this roundtable editorial held the above positions at the time of publication.
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Kevin Jury, ibM: I want to discuss several emerging trends in risk management today. Firstly, we see changes in computing power and how this supports the ability for organisations to consume and create new data to assess, manage and review risk. In addition to changes in computing power we see other aspects such as stream computing and natural language processing now coming to the fore to allow organisations to inject both unstructured and structured data into the data ecosystem. This exponentially magnifies the value of the data by interconnecting the various data points. Secondly, we see changes in the complexity of risk. We are seeing more political risks and global shifts, and all of that requires more resilience and responsiveness. Obviously, there is an increased need for realistic enterprise management of risk, both at
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a financial level and an operational risk level. And thirdly, we see fraud prevention as an increasingly important trend that organisations are focusing on. Fraud is a significant cost to the economy; banking in the UK estimates a 25 per cent increase of credit card fraud. In insurance in the US, they estimate about 10 per cent of claims are fraudulent. That is $79 billion. And then in taxation in the EU, they estimate about $100 billion Euro in fraudulent tax claims annually. We often see a reaction to fraud as: “That is the cost of doing business; so get over it”. That is shifting because market conditions are creating pressure on the bottom line, so people pay more attention to fraud. But the other reason for the increased focus is the fact that fraudsters are using technology and becoming more sophisticated. Then there is the response from organisations using predictive analytics to tackle fraud. There are three steps I would like to mention. One step is prevention; how do you stop fraud? It is about examining the vast amounts of data in real time,
then looking at the risks at a transactional level and identifying anomalies. The second step is detection. This is about diving deeper into the detail and using all the available data. In the past, we have been very focused on structured data. There is a massive shift to unstructured data, and the technology is advancing to cope with consuming unstructured data – how we read it and how we then marry it up to the structured data. The third step is to investigate; to use case management and implement entity link analysis (visualisations, dashboards, reporting and the like), to leverage structured and unstructured data. Forwardthinking organisations see those changes in risk. In the past, most organisations were focused on reacting as opposed to pre-emptively acting.
nick leeson: As a brief background, I have been asked to share some of my experiences with you. Like all of you, I grew up wanting success. However much success I got, I always wanted more, and for a short w ho ’ s w ho o f fs i
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“In 1995, Barings was described as a wake-up call nobody would forget. I do not think they were right.” Nick LeesoN
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period of my career I was extremely successful. I also had a huge fear of failure, and I think the combination of the two led me to make some of the decisions that I did. There were very early tests of my basic honesty and integrity, and I hate to admit that I failed those. Fraud is a word that still sends shivers down my spine. I spent four and a half years in a Singapore prison, therefore I am a criminal. I know there was no criminal intent; I made some very stupid mistakes, and I compounded those with even bigger mistakes. None of it was premeditated. It wasn’t that I saw flaws in the system and sought to expose them. A lot of fraud happens by mistake, and I think that is far more difficult to spot and take measures against. In 1995, Barings was described as a wake-up call nobody would forget. I do not think they were right. There have been far too many since that time, and I think we are currently reverberating from the biggest financial scandal, certainly in Europe, or in Ireland where I live now. The only way to describe what happened to me in Singapore is that the fraud I perpetrated was very crude. It was a case of reacting to situations on a daily basis. I might have had a call from somebody in the Treasury Department, who asked me why I needed so much money. I would have another call from one of the directors asking why I was trading so aggressively, or why there were so many big trades going through. If they had compared my answers, they would have seen they were all very different. But nobody did. So I think communication, both from a personal perspective and from a business perspective, is a huge tool. One of the biggest examples I can give you from my own experience at Barings is that I was trading on the Singapore International Monetary Exchange. The trade feed would come into the office in Singapore daily. I would manipulate the data as much as I required. I changed the account numbers and the prices that it was traded at to make the trades look more profitable than they were. Then the trade feed would be sent back to London, and then the information would be disseminated around the group. It was proven after the bank’s collapse – and this is an example of how unpremeditated it was – that the trade feed went back to London every single day for three years. It was received in the IT department in London. There was an account there that they did not recognise, which was my illegal trading account – the ‘five-eights account’ as it became known. And every day for three years an IT professional deleted every single one of the trades. So they had all of the detail
for the trades and the losses that were mounting in Singapore, and they did not act on the information. Morgan Stanley asked me to work for them in a department called Liability Management. Clearly, I did not learn anything while I was there. Then I was headhunted to Barings, looking for somebody who had Japanese Futures and Options experience, which is what I was doing at Morgan Stanley. Comparing Barings to Morgan Stanley was like chalk and cheese. Baring Brothers was a 233-year-old Merchant Bank. Christopher Heath formed Barings Securities in 1985. It was the investment bank inside of the business that was developing in the tiger economies and was the real profit generator for the bank. At Morgan Stanley, the structure was very clear and defined. There were the traders, the settlement department, and in between there was a group called ‘the controllers’, which made sure everything was controlled and was okay before the trading day started. If your positions didn’t agree, you didn’t trade. Throughout the three years that I was in Singapore with Barings, the positions never agreed. We only had two trading accounts. We had a London account and a Tokyo account. If you added the two together, compared it to the position that we had on the Singapore International Monetary Exchange, there would have been a huge difference. That was my illegal five-eights trading account. It was only on 23 February 1995, three years into the losses that somebody did that position check, asked me why there was a discrepancy, and there was no way that I could explain it. So I did the only thing I could at that time and fled to Kuala Lumpur. I was finally arrested in Germany. Barings had many flaws. There was not one settlement system for the whole organisation. There were many. An accountant had the job every month of collating all the information and producing consolidated accounts. That was one of the things that allowed me to survive as long as I did in terms of the illegal trading that happened in Singapore. I was only ever asked for a balance sheet on the last day of the month. So on the last day of the month I knew that I needed to bring the account balance line back down to zero. There were only two accounts. If they had done the simple reconciliation of the balance of the two accounts versus what London and Tokyo had as their balances, there would have been a huge discrepancy. Anybody could have picked up the balance sheet on any given day, but that was not the type of quality testing that was done at Barings at the time.
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I knew that if I brought the account balance back down to zero by the end of the month, then nobody was going to investigate any further. So what I did was simply journal some money from a commission income account into the trading account line, so that brought the five-eights account balance back down to zero. But then the losses became too big. The commission income line was not large enough to be able to withstand it, so I had to think of something else. At that time, the Singapore International Monetary Exchange came to my help. They started to trade options on the Nikkei 225, and they set the product up in such a way that if you sold an option, you received 100 per cent of the premium. So each month, the task would be that I needed to seal as many options as I could, bring the account balance back down to zero, and that would look okay in the balance sheet. Throughout those three years, all I was doing was swapping the P&L item, the balance in the five-eights account for a balance sheet item, which was the margin that was posted to the exchange. But if anybody had ever looked at the balance sheet and looked at the volume of trading that we were supposedly doing – namely, the margin that was posted to the exchange – there would have been huge discrepancies because it was a very small account that was trading and yet there was a huge margin being posted to the exchange. As long as I could get enough money to pay the margin, I could do this forever, and it was not until the end of 1994, when I started to sell options, volatility was at 50 per cent. By the time that I had finished selling off options towards the end of 1994, volatility had crashed to seven per cent. I was the only person who was short on the market. The market makers were all long. They were meeting in Tokyo and discussing how they were going to push volatility higher and squeeze me out of the market place. Everybody had bought into the success story that surrounded me. The guys that worked for me on the trading floor wanted to believe in the success because their bonuses would be paid on the back of it. The guys that I worked for were inclined to believe in the profits that were being reported as well because their bonuses were also dependent on it. So there was this inclination to believe in the profits that I was reporting. I was always the outlier. Being the outlier should have attracted more investigation than it did. It probably did the opposite. It meant that people were scared to ask me questions, and if people feel unable to ask questions or bring difficulties to the attention of others within the group,
then you do not have transparency. So that fear is equally as bad as the fear of failure that I had during my time at Barings. I was taking more and more risks to get the losses back. At the end of 1994 there was massive unrealised profit, but there was no way of unwinding it. I suppose by then I decided that I was not going to go back, but I could not tell anybody what was going on. At the end of 1994, I went with some friends who worked on the London International Futures Exchange to Ireland for the weekend. I made no attempt to hide the loss in the five-eights account, and at this stage it was up as high as $500 million. When I had first arrived in Singapore, there was a lot of expertise among other brokers, especially in the settlements area. We had sought to employ one of those salaries with a premium over people who worked in a normal settlements area, and the guy who ran the settlements department was not prepared to pay that. Rather than employ somebody who had the requisite experience and expertise, I had a fresh graduate from the National University of Singapore, who effectively became a settlements clerk. I taught her that if somebody looks for the five-eights account to phone me. On this occasion, I had not done anything. I was in Ireland and received that phone call saying, “What are we going to do with the fiveeights account?” I wanted somebody to expose me, because it was very much a Jekyll and Hyde type of existence in Singapore. So when she phoned me on 31 December 1994, we ended up booking a journal ‘for seven yards of Japanese Yen’ into the account and then had to explain why I had booked that journal entry. It was a one-sided entry into the account that clearly should not have been allowed to bring the account balance back down to zero. I had no way of hiding it, so I picked up the phone to the Treasury Department in London and asked them for $5 million. I told them that there was an additional margin call from the exchange because the markets were volatile. They were not. And they paid the money to me. The money arrived the day after the year-end, and that is how I managed to survive that audit period. It is a point of record in the board of banking supervision the auditors found a discrepancy between intercompany balances, and they put it down as a foreign exchange discrepancy. But it was not. It was the $5 million I had asked to be sent to me in Singapore. In May 1993, after having losses of $20 million, I managed to get it all back.
“Being the outlier should have attracted more investigation than it did. It probably did the opposite.” Nick LeesoN
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“My main concern is that while technology allows you to do certain things, the one common characteristic that I hear in Nick’s story is that we ignore human behaviour.” Bart Hellemans, InG DIrect
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I was selling straddles because that was the way to receive the biggest amount of premium to bring my account balance back down to zero, and I had sold the 19,000 straddle in size. The market expired at 18,995 on that particular occasion, and I had the opposite problem. I had a quarter of a million dollars that I needed to get rid of, which was far easier to do. Somebody took it out on their trading book, and I went home that weekend genuinely believing that my life could start again. What happened in the intervening period was that the people who worked for me, when they made mistakes, hooted up everything into that illegal five-eights account. Subconsciously I knew that I could not bring any errors to anybody’s attention because it was going to reveal what was going on. Eventually somebody came over from London and sat in the settlements department for four weeks looking at what was going on in Singapore. After four weeks, he did a position check and on the 23 February he came to me and said, “Look, you know the positions don’t agree; can you explain it?” And that was when I fled. There is a phrase that the Wall Street Journal uses often, ‘Knowledge is nothing without understanding’. If you do not understand the business, it is impossible to challenge what goes on in the business. Throughout the three-year period I was never challenged because people did not understand what was happening. Futures and Options for me was a simple business. You should never need funding, and I needed funding on a daily basis. I would be looking for $50 million one day and $100 million the next. So there was a constant flow of money to me. The P&L swings were colossal, and if anybody had investigated those, it would have revealed there were grave problems. The risk managers and the compliance officers at the time were completely ineffective. There was an asset liability committee that met daily in London to discuss the amount of funding that was allocated around the globe, and the majority of it was in Singapore. Risk managers and compliance officers need to be in a position of authority. They need to be able to voice their opinions, and if they don’t you will not have the transparency that you are looking to create. Transparency will outlast charisma. I was the charismatic individual who was supposedly making all the money in the organisation. I think in my final year I was supposedly responsible for 99 per cent of the bank’s profit. Creating the right culture within the organisation is also key. I was not the first person to put something
into an illegal trading account. We can prove that I am not the last. As a young, impressionable person working within the organisation, when I chose to put something into an illegal trading account, it should have been a bigger step than it was.
Michelle JaMes, aMP: The most fascinating thing is that you were such an anomaly. You were a stand out in so many ways and you just did not get attention that was warranted.
nick leeson: Technology has a huge part to play. It certainly did then, and I think it does now. You have new trading techniques that are presenting problems, and you know there is always a new breed of people entering the finance world. It is all about speed, complexity and innovation. Over the past 17 years or more, the regulations for compliance and the technology for those control functions have not occurred with the same speed, complexity or innovation. Hopefully that is something that is changing now because people are far more concerned with their reputation. There is always going to be a human element that you cannot ignore and that is where the oversight usually is. The audits in Singapore were shocking because they were plain vanilla auditors fresh out of school. So when they had a question to ask, they asked me, and I clearly was not going to tell them what I was using the five-eights account for. But it was worse than that. The Singapore International Monetary exchange sent letters to James Bax, who was the managing director of Barings, asking him to explain why he had such a large position and to confirm that the bank was able to fund that type of position. James knew nothing about Futures and Options, so he gave the letter to Simon Jones, who was the head of settlements in Singapore. He knew nothing about Futures and Options either, so he gave it to me. I ended up being the person that responded to the exchange. The monetary authority of Singapore also did audits. Everybody thinks the five-eights account was secret, but it was on every single piece of paper that existed in the office because it was our most active account by a country mile. bart helleMans, inG direct: My main concern is that while technology allows you to do certain things, the one common characteristic that I hear in Nick’s story is that we ignore human behaviour. The danger of technology, while it is a good tool, is that it does not address that point. Somewhere along the line,
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greed gets going. We learn a lesson from it, but bankers and those in financial markets have a very short memory.
david Spratt, ibM: There is a different capability that exists today from a technology perspective regarding structured and unstructured data – the ability, for example, to capture data that exists through social media, Facebook and Twitter. Here is just one example: someone was putting a claim in for a back injury and someone looked at their Facebook account to see them posting pictures of skiing! Capabilities exist today to prevent fraud from happening right upfront.
david Harrington, Cgu inSuranCe: Nick, what controls did you feel you had over your own behaviour and were you incapable of exercising control at that point? What we see in terms of risk and compliance is that people often take a few steps that are opportunistic. It then escalates and moves from being a bit of opportunism and taking advantage of the lack of controls from outside, to being full-scale fraud.
niCk leeSon: I knew what I was doing was wrong. But I did not think it was criminal, and I did not think it was going to end in a criminal sentence. The focus for me was correcting the situation and trying to get back to point zero, where my life could start again. It was not about stealing any money or anything like that. If I had wanted to take money, I could have taken money – I was an A and B signatory on the bank account at Citibank. tara CaHill, WeStpaC: Was there no point after the conversation with Simon Jones where you just had to confide in somebody – your family, your wife, a complete stranger?
niCk leeSon: One of my friends has a fax from me that suggested things were not going as well as they were, without being specific. I think there were two feeble occasions where I tried, but was still totally unable to confide in anyone. Just to give you an idea of how strange the situation was, I had been playing golf with James Bax, who was the chief executive of Barings in Singapore, on the Singapore Island country club. We had been on the 18th green and putting out on the last hole, and James would be fretting about whether I was going to putt the ball and whether we were going to win 50 Singapore dollars. But I knew I had lost $100 million
that morning. So it was constantly dealing with reality versus what you were trying to keep going all the time. James was a guy that I particularly admire, a very successful investment banker, and I was letting him down constantly. But I just could not tell anybody. My wife only found out what was going on after the newspapers started printing stuff. She read more in the newspapers than I ever told her. Again, admitting failure was still difficult at that time, and the unfortunate thing was that many of my friends and family had to deal with the glare of the media while I was in prison in Germany.
Sean CarMody, WeStpaC: You said that if a number of fairly simple controls had been in place, things would have come to light earlier. Do you think any organisation can actually ever be sure that they can protect themselves from that sort of rogue element?
niCk leeSon: You can get very close to being sure if you are continually evolving and challenging what happens. Each institution is different, with different ways of doing things, but everything seems reactive and never proactive. There are regulations that get dated very quickly, and everybody then forgets and goes back to normal, and then you have another scandal and the cycle continues. The challenge for the regulations and the controls is to evolve and continually change and improve, perhaps being more proactive than reactive. But you need good people, and you need to pay them appropriately. You need good systems. And you go back to the old classic difficulty of whether a board is willing to invest in that manner or whether it is the pursuit of more profit that is more important, and that is a difficult equation.
“They are certainly significant, but the human factors, the ability to have people that are capable of asking the right questions and also have the desire to pursue something that is wrong, would seem to be the biggest factors.” Stephen JohnSton, CBA
StepHen JoHnSton, Cba: It seems there were a number of factors that let you get away with it. Regulatory is one, but that seemed like the least significant. There are some technology factors there. They are certainly significant, but the human factors, the ability to have people that are capable of asking the right questions and also have the desire to pursue something that is wrong, would seem to be the biggest factors. Was that the case? And do you think it is still the case now?
niCk leeSon: I live in Ireland now and there were some episodes recently where risk managers have been concerned about things. Jonathon Silverman, who ’ s w ho o f fs i
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who worked for an Italian bank, went through the process of reporting it to his CEO. His CEO told him that his numbers were wrong and that everything was okay. For his own professional reasons, Jonathon then went to the regulator, who was then told by the CEO of the Italian bank that everything was okay. So Jonathon left the firm. He cannot get another job in the industry. From a cultural perspective, you know that sends out the signal that if you’re strong enough to speak up, you are not going to be re-employed. You have to question whether that is correct as well. And that is why sometimes I think non-executive risk management and compliance reporting to the non-exec could be a better process.
Scott north, Ge capital: If people do not have the knowledge, how can they ask the right questions? Nick exploited the fact they did not have as much knowledge as he did. He knew it would be cycling back to him as that central point. How an organisation breaks that cycle is the key.
david Spratt, ibM: We are actually working right
“Protection technology is an enabler. Ultimately, you’re always going to have somebody whose ego is bigger, or who is doing it on purpose, and it’s going to be a mixture of that.” Tara Cahill, WesTpaC
now with a North American insurance company and as a proof of concept they gave us three years of their last data. We said we would run that through our predictive analytics to see if we could identify transactions that we thought were fraudulent. They said if you could come up with $4 million dollars, we would move forward with the project. We found $197 million of potential fraud at a 95 per cent confidence level, which surprised everybody. That does not necessarily mean that they would have caught all $197 million and prevented it, but it is reasonable to expect at least $100 million. They did not know that this level of fraud was happening. What are your organisations doing for the prevention of protective fields? Are you comfortable you can prevent this type of event?
tara cahill, WeStpac: Protection technology is an enabler. Ultimately, you’re always going to have somebody whose ego is bigger, or who is doing it on purpose, and it is going to be a mixture of that. On all of those occasions when it could have been identified, the culture wasn’t there to identify and report it. So you have to build that resource and capability in the culture around the tools and the technology.
david Spratt, ibM: I agree. Earlier, Kevin talked about the way we view the integrated approach – prevention and detection, then finally investigation.
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That is when you are now passing the information to a human to take action, and it also has a couple of other benefits. If you are doing that properly, you are reducing the amount of false positives. So now you are reducing the strain on that capacity base.
Michelle JaMeS, aMp: If you had known right on that first day that covering up was a criminal activity, would that have changed your behaviour at all?
nick leeSon: I cannot prove it to you, right? But I like to think it would have done. The key component for me is that there has to be an adequate deterrent. When I look back at that period, lots of people were putting different things into error accounts, so it became the norm. While I knew what I was doing was wrong, I am not sure that I knew what the end result was going to be. Whereas if I had been aware that I was risking my personal freedom, I do not think I would have made those decisions. Sean carMody, WeStpac: A lot of those people wouldn’t necessarily think about the ramifications of what they are doing, even though Nick and others had been to jail. I think probably many of them had blinkers on.
bart helleManS, inG direct: One of the things that you see sometimes is that people dig themselves into a hole and they think they can dig themselves out. Most of the time the hole just gets deeper and then that option of getting out no longer exists. david Spratt, ibM: A fraudster is going to go for the low-hanging fruit. If you have strong preventative and protective measures, it is quite possible they will go to your competitor.
Jean-claude el-SabbaGh, ibM: When we talk about unstructured, the first thing people think about is social media and Facebook, but it is everything that is available. And it is how you build your capturing rules – how you build what you want to see and hear from the market. Sean carMody, WeStpac: I’m just not sure what unstructured data you would tap into, because a lot of that is just in the heads of the traders in other organisations.
Michelle JaMeS, aMp: Think of the assets that you own. That tells a story. If you’re a person earning
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$100,000 a year, and you’ve got three homes, two cars and a boat. Then you know there’s something [going on]. But trying to put a position of how this would protect us is probably going to be even more challenging. There is a lot of data out there that could be tapped into, and it’s not just on social media.
asha Puvan, Macquarie bank: It comes back to the point that it is about human behaviour, and what you want to hear and what you do not want to hear. All the products have become more complex, but the fraud is still the same. It is still in futures; it is still in options. bart helleMans, inG direct: When I have had the board answer my question about this, you get the answer, ‘Based on my view of the controls, it could never happen here’. But I know there is going to be some smart kid who is going to find a way around it, and am I going to see it? basil foulkes, aMP bank: Bart, are you saying that it could not happen in the system or it could not happen in your organisation? bart helleMans, inG direct: I think if you are diligent and you pick up on the things that you hear around control failures and so forth, then you have the ability to take that back into your organisation and stop it from happening. You cannot be 100 per cent, but you can be 99.9 per cent. If I went to my board, and they wanted to know what I was doing about customer service error, or fraud error, they would be telling me that they wanted me to be able to say that major unauthorised trade, and anything that could take down the bank, could not happen in this bank. I see control failures every day. Usually they are small ones. So I am not going to stand up in front of a board and say that I have got all the controls in place to make sure that this does not happen. basil foulkes, aMP bank: No, that was not my point. The normal operational losses that would occur and would be expected to occur in all organisations are just normal things that do happen. But what about extreme events, and how much time do we spend as risk people looking for those?
basil foulkes, aMP bank: I would like to say an extreme event would not happen in my bank. I cannot insulate them of the secondary impact of a major event happening somewhere else in the banking system, and I do not think we can eliminate that risk. I try as best I can to balance my time to cover both. Michelle JaMes, aMP: There are the one-off events or ones that you can’t predict. Technology now is continuing to change. We can never protect against malware at day zero, and that is an example of the same thing. So as soon as someone comes up with that great new way of hacking in and being able to steal the data, and it has never been done before, we can’t be protected. It is only at that point you can start protecting yourself.
kevin Jury, ibM: I want to leave you with one thought: it is about the unstructured versus the structured. One of the challenges in insurance companies and banks is that they actually use the data they have got. That is not the data I am talking about. It is the unstructured data, and it is hugely valuable. There is all the technology there today to be able to leverage unstructured data. The concept of natural language processing is really new. That is the ability to actually have a system to understand data and learn about that data. It is the Matrix on steroids. You couple natural language processing together with the data that you have. You create data about the data. That is how you start thinking about how to prevent fraud and risk, and so on. But you never remove the human element, because someone has to make a call. There are several things that tie into some of our discussion: Become informed. Understand what is going on in the organisation. Get aligned, making sure that everyone is on the same page. Look at risk management and enforce that excellence across the whole enterprise, not just in the silos. Use analytics and use what you have at your disposal – actually start thinking broader than the data you have today.
“Technology is now continuing to change. We can never protect against malware at day zero.” Michelle JaMes, aMP
*
bart helleMans, inG direct: There are two components. There is the high frequency, low value risk events. And then there is the low frequency, high value events. You deal with those in two different ways. w ho ’ s w ho o f fs i
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Staying Ahead of the Technology Curve – a Five Year Outlook for the Insurance Industry
Top row (from left to right): Jim Farrell, Head of Technology & Operations, QBE; Johan Reyneke, Head of IT, Real Insurance; Mathews George, Chief Information Officer, Metlife; Sid Kaul, Vice President and Countries Head – ANZ, NIIT Technologies; Anna Gladman, Head of Transformation, Insurance, BT Financial Group; Anastasia Cammaroto, Head of Technology, Platforms and Business Transformation, BT Financial Group; Michael Mitchell, Interim CIO, TAL; Kumar Utpal, Regional Sales Head – Insurance Solutions, ANZ, NIIT Technologies; Rishi Kapoor, Practice Head – Cloud Services APAC, NIIT Technologies. Bottom row (from left to right): Graeme Turner, Chief Strategy, Projects & Technology Officer, AIA; Rebbecca Kerr, Head of Technology – Group Systems, AMP; Denise Montgomery, Research Director, Financial Services – Asia/Pacific, Ovum; Sandra Hill, Head of Retail Advise Services, CommInsure; Simone Dossetor, Group Executive, Services, Calliden; Stephen Lum, Executive Manager, General Insurance BT, Suncorp. The executives featured in this roundtable editorial held the above positions at the time of publication.
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denise MontgoMery, ovuM: I would like to present some thoughts about overall technology trends in the insurance space and then for you to share your insights. First, I would like to mention the environment in which we are all operating. I will touch then on some of the technology trends affecting insurance and finally, offer an Ovum view about where insurance should be focused on in 2012, in preparation for life in 2020. Two key words are: volatile and virtual. A view towards 2020 would predict increased stress for the insurance industry, a period of increasing globalisation, with scale becoming more and more important. As a result, we will presumably see regional players unable to keep up. The increase in digitally armed customers, in an environment of high digital expectation, will add to the environment of stress. The market place will shift from a terrestrial time and distance locked marketplace to the digital media marketplace populated by digital natives (Gen Y and Z cohorts) and digital immigrants. In this environment, it is the innovative company, underpinned by its ability to manage data and information, that is going to survive. If we look towards 2020, what might an insurance organisation be doing and which technologies might they be using? There are many differing opinions, so I will mention a few. An issue facing people at the moment is core administration systems. The implications of multiple acquisitions, common among many life insurers, continues to remain a significant issue. In a global survey conducted by Ovum last year, two-thirds of the insurance companies surveyed had three or more product administration systems; 10 per cent had 10 or more; and interestingly, two-thirds of those companies planned to do nothing about that situation. This is an interesting response, and I am not sure it is sustainable. We will see cloud everywhere in 2020. One dimension of the debate will centre around cloud versus outsourcing. We may see people using cloud onshore to mitigate outsourcing and offshoring risks. Contact will be mobile and increasingly virtual. We will see, as virtualisation increases, customers and staff geographically, even globally dispersed. So collaboration and communication technologies will be important in order to connect them. People will be working far more virtually. Certainly banks are already working on augmented reality and virtual environments. By virtue of being geographically
dispersed, customers may be interacting directly with the policy admin system via their multilingual Skype Lingua-chip. An esteemed colleague in North America commented that insurance companies are generally used to handling change at an incremental rate and are probably complacent. He questions whether they are ready for the barrage of change that is now facing them. Gamification is another trend that, until recently, has been thought to be another fad. But we are increasingly seeing people looking to gamification to make processes sticky and as a method of educating self-service customers. The intuitive understand that big data will have an impact, but the debate is currently confused. When most people discuss big data, they talk about it in terms of traditional structured information, as well as the more varied information that comes from sensor and geo-locational data, for instance. If we look at the strategies and capabilities companies are going to need in order to survive, they divide into three categories. First, is to be effective and efficient. Under that umbrella, companies need to address the issue of having multiple policy administration systems. Endto-end processes will need to be reengineered to be faster and support self-service customers in order to deliver productivity and efficiency improvements. The second is for insurance companies to be adaptive. This will mean using cloud, collaboration, synchronisation and resolving cross-channel communication to achieve a similarity of experience. Third is to be smarter. This is where predictive analytics and big data enter the mix. Companies can use predictive analytics and geospatial capabilities to both monitor potentially catastrophic events as they unfold and to mitigate and manage the impact. For instance, there are tools available now which allow a company to visualise, track and forecast the path of an event and to locate policyholders in relation to that event, whether it is chicken flu or a typhoon. These capabilities allow you to monitor events and alert customers, to better manage risk through preventative or mitigating actions, strengthen loss estimates and better model impact on individual customers and the total book of business.
“We are increasingly seeing people looking to gamification to make processes sticky and as a method of educating self-service customers.� Denise MontgoMery, ovuM
rishi Kapoor, niit technologies: What emerging trends do you see shaping the insurance industry today and in the near future? who ’ s w ho o f fs i
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Graeme turner, aia: One of the biggest challenges we face is that the insurance industry is typically in a reactive environment. At different times we have also embarked on various transformation programs. And it may even come back to why there is a hesitation about moving away from legacy systems. The rate of change is so great that you plan what you are going to do two or more years ahead, but you are not sure what the environment is going to be by the time you finish. People are hesitating because they actually do not know what they need to do. And it is probably more a matter of doing small things, trying pilots to see where the appetite lies and whether that is actually going to lead you on a certain path, rather than undertaking wholesale change to get ahead of what the consumer is really looking for.
Jim Farrell, Qbe: Like it or not, cost is the big
“What will the consumer want? What will the regulator want? It is very difficult to predict and the bigger the organisation, the more complex the question.” Johan Reyneke, Real InsuRance
issue. Everybody recognises we have too many policy administration systems – too many systems in general – and these make the cost of change high. Those legacy applications have been developed over a period of 10 to 30 years and to get that functionality from an out-of-the-box solution is impossible. Those bespoke applications have been developed in such a way that it is just too hard to move. And you need executive support and a great big budget to start that journey. So, yes, we end up doing things like putting front-ends on legacy systems and working around the fringes, but all we are doing is making it more complex.
Greame turner, aia: To counter that, those legacy systems, for their core purpose, are actually quite sound. They may not be sexy or the latest technology, but they do what they need to do.
Johan reyneke, real insurance: I believe the issue is not where you will be in 2020, but where you will be in three years’ time? What will the consumer want? What will the regulator want? It is very difficult to predict and the bigger the organisation, the more complex the question. rishi kapoor, niit technoloGies: Are there
and different people. Your systems have to be able to support that and reduce the cost overall or at least have scale costs.
michael mitchell, tal: One would imagine with the advent of the National Broadband Network (NBN), there will be a lot more self-service; it has happened in every other industry. We have to be ready for it. Now, I think the products will change. The point is, as a someone returning to the insurance industry after 20 years, it astonishes me that the product is the longest-lasting product of any business industry I have ever encountered. The product lasts for 35 to 40 years. You have to buy systems under the premise that they will be terminated in 10 to 15 years’ time or when the products change enough. This is something the industry should do. But to respond to Denise’s earlier point, I think the trend is to a consumer-driven world. Graeme turner, aia: Gone is the old nine to five; it is 24/7 now, whether it be the end customer or an intermediary wants to access information when it suits them.
denise montGomery, ovum: That brings up the security issue and fortress style firewall, because customer self-service requires a whole different model.
rishi kapoor, niit technoloGies: We are hearing terms like BYOD – bring your own device. How practical is this for the insurance business?
simone dossetor, calliden: That will definitely happen because all your new staff are bringing them anyway. Why do they want two iPhones? They want to use their own iPhone. It is a way of saving.
mathews GeorGe, metliFe: We considered whether or not we should do BYOD – we could not find a business case. But you have to do it. You cannot put a dollar value to it, rather do it to improve employee satisfaction and engagement.
any other views on emerging trends in insurance?
sandra hill, comminsure: Affordability is potentially a big trend in this environment. Your systems need to be able to simplify everything you do and allow you to make your product unique in different ways, so you can apply it to different levels
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stephen lum, suncorp: It is trends such as big data where you gain a much better understanding of your customer – they will provide your organisation with the competitive advantage. Many other trends will be considered base capabilities required just to keep up with
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competition. Denise, for your security issue, compared to the banks, insurance has much less risk and Suncorp encounter greater financial loss from activities such as phishing of bank clients.
denise MontgoMery, ovuM: Most people are seeing self-service as a major way to drive down costs, so you have to allow the customer to tunnel in, which means you have to reconsider the security model.
Michael Mitchell, tal: Well, I think given that
sandra hill, coMMinsure: I think people try to over-engineer and in the end it falls over. You have to learn to start small so you achieve the right outcome and pull the right information out. We have massive legacy products. I had an example the other day where I was trying to understand whether something was valid and just trying to get the information, trying to find anything was problematic. denise MontgoMery, ovuM: We have
is what we are selling, it entails a great deal of trust from the customers that we will be in business at the time they need to claim. To think we could lose our name and address files for example, represents not just financial loss, but reputational loss, which is the worst kind of risk.
traditionally been so bad at it that the regulators have started to push the agenda – whether it is demanding traceability, transparency or lineage. But sadly, a lot of the response to the regulation becomes about putting something in to suit the regulator, not solve the problem the regulator was actually trying to address.
siMone dossetor, calliden: There are
rishi Kapoor, niit technologies: While
service providers and partners too, it is not just one organisation. You are going use many different models. How do you make it efficient to link into your partners’ systems?
insurance companies are in the business of managing others’ risks, they also need to look at how well they are managing their own risks. What is your perspective on risk management and are there any tools being used to manage these risks? What is the current adoption rate in your businesses and what challenges do you face in managing your own risk?
rishi Kapoor, niit technologies: The insurance industry has grown through acquisition and there is a lot of consolidation happening. From our experience, knowledge retention and knowledge acquisition are a big parts of this. How do you think a knowledge management system could help the insurance industry? Do you see a business case for knowledge management tools?
graeMe turner, aia: Most organisations are becoming aware that knowledge management is something we have not invested in or spent time on. With changes in organisations, whether through acquisitions, mergers or shifts in the nature of our workforce, knowledge management is of concern to the organisation. Again, it is just a matter of how best you harness that.
denise MontgoMery, ovuM: Knowledge management was a popular topic in the late 1990s, consulting firms were pushing it and organisations started to put knowledge management practices into place. What happened? After knowledge management, came warehousing and structured data; somehow it all became an end, rather than a means. At least big data is giving information back its mojo. We cannot really afford to squander the opportunity this time.
Mathews george, Metlife: Our business is about all about managing risk. And I would say we are pretty good at it. I am sure most organisations here are going through the process of developing a risk appetite statement, which is the new requirement from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). We are complementing the risk management strategy with a high-level risk appetite statement that clearly defines the amount of risk the organisation is prepared to take on. We are working on building that into the culture so the risk management framework is more ground up and people understand how they fit into it.
“With changes in organisations, whether through acquisitions, mergers or shifts in the nature of our workforce, knowledge management is of concern to the organisation.” Graeme Turner, aIa
anastasia caMMaroto, bt financial: Australia is a highly regulated environment, so the level of compliance and regulation we have dictates that to a certain extent as well. Our regulators do not take an observer’s role, but are very active.
rishi Kapoor, niit technologies: How are you extracting value from the increasing data your organisation is receiving? who ’ s w ho o f fs i
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sandra Hill, comminsure: We are exchanging value for having the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and APRA come in and do a big tick, that is number one. That allows you to put more focus into other areas of your business. The actual risk appetite stuff is harder. We do not necessarily have the right tools to capture and manage that. It has become part of the risk profile and people are aware it needs work. sid Kaul, niit tecHnologies: What does big data mean to you? Is it just a buzzword? How do you translate it to something much more meaningful in your own environment and what do you understand by that?
micHael mitcHell, tal: Well, if we do not, someone will listen to intermediators – a Google or an Amazon. We will become commodity providers.
Jim Farrell, Qbe: I view it as making sense of
Jim Farrell, Qbe: Yes, well, Amazon already does
a massive amount of unstructured data. You have so much information out there and to be able to sift through it and provide value to your business through use of that data is what big data means to me.
it. If you are buying something on Amazon, it will pitch similar products based on lots of information that it gathers.
risHi Kapoor, niit tecHnologies: So how is it different from business intelligence (BI) tools?
Jim Farrell, Qbe: BI tools extract data out of your “If we do not, someone will listen to intermediators – a Google or an Amazon. We will become commodity providers.” Michael Mitchell, tal
policy and all your other systems, throw it into a great big repository and then run your reports from that. It does not take into account all the information you glean from the internet, emails and all sorts of other information communication methods.
graeme turner, aia: We have gone from an environment where we had masses of data and we actually knew what it was, to environment where there is so much more data and it is about what our consumers are doing and what their interactions are. We now have a whole other gambit of data that we have not got our head around what we can use it for, let alone how to interpret it and get business value out of it.
denise montgomery, ovum: It seems there is a new area of product innovation – the informationalisation of product design. New capabilities can be created if we co-locate different kinds and different domains of data, geo-locational data being the most obvious one. Financial institutions are currently hopping on that potential in terms of offers in conjunction with retailers. Energy and utility companies are now getting huge volumes of data as a result of smart meters.
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Of course, we have a whole privacy and regulatory regime that is acting as a sea anchor, but in the long run, it is only a sea anchor. Once you co-locate the smart meter data, the geo-locational data and retail or financial data, what are you going to be able to do with it; either by way of product design or risk mitigation? That is quite an interesting topic; thinking of general and property insurance and what those smart meters are telling you about what is going on – somebody is going to dream up something.
denise montgomery, ovum: In fact Google has just launched a price comparison service in the UK with a panel of 120 insurers for creating and comparing quotes on car insurance. It is only one small step for Google.
micHael mitHell, tal: Our problem is that we have so few interactions with our customers, they better be full of value when you get the chance. That is where the usefulness of big data will be, a feed over real time, but we do not know how to do it yet – that is the challenge. stepHen lum, suncorp: Yes, and that is the big advantage retailers like the Amazons and the other retailers in Australia have. They have access to rich customer data such as spending patterns and so on. denise montgomery, ovum: I do not count profitability, structured analysis and lifetime value modelling as big data – you can already do that. Maybe you can enrich and refine it with big data later on. The real big data use cases are the disruptive and innovative ones. Currently nobody has put a business model or a coherent case together.
micHael mitcHell, tal: The airline industry went from more or less nothing to 40 to 50 per cent of its revenue in some cases, coming through real time, last-minute selling of extra product to customers. I am sure that will happen to us if you crack it. If you do not, you just sell a base product.
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denise MontgoMery, ovuM: The other part is that big data is not necessarily fast, because really it is about analysing the huge volumes of unstructured data. The business case comes from the operationalisation of analytics.
KuMar utpal, niit technologies: Insurance companies are trying to deal with legacy systems. Is this something you want to get sorted out first and then look at big data? How are you dealing with this?
graeMe turner, aia: The issue is that data is arriving quicker than we can actually figure out what to do with it. We need to understand how to set ourselves up to identify business opportunities that are clearly there.
denise MontgoMery, ovuM: It is inevitable, certainly in the high transaction environments, that intelligent agents will be needed to sift the volume of information to find the relevance in patterns and have appropriate responses to it. There are already financial institutions trialling that now. The issue is, would insurance need to do it, given the transactions are not as frequent as in banking? You still potentially have a mass of data coming in – or you will be buying the data in.
banking or smart meters are really tracking the day-to-day activity of the customer, which we do not interact with.
JiM Farrell, Qbe: Then again, there is no reason why an insurance company cannot mine social media sites and other internet sites to identify potential customers, cross-reference this with your own customer database and tell a potential customer they look like a person who would really benefit from this product.
Michael Mitchell, tal: Mind you, there are privacy issues. Unless things have changed, you are not allowed to use customers’ information for those purposes. The way others get around this is when you join Frequent Flyer or you sign up for a mobile phone, you are giving permission. But I do not believe there is an insurance contract policy where we have ever been given permission to use that information. rebbecca Kerr, aMp: You might be buying this information, but it is such a small gamut of information. Apart from the privacy issues, does it give you the holistic view? Or are you going to spend all this money on marketing to Gen X, Y and Z, who may have just happened to be on that site once or accidentally clicked on it?
sandra hill, coMMinsure: The problem is the level of under-insurance in the industry. What you want to do is try to identify where you should put your efforts. You need to mine your data now to find out where the best value is. I think banks are probably in a better position, because we can cross-reference across different business units and potentially sell ‘the fries and chips with that’. But my challenge in the insurance industry is actually getting more people to take insurance in the first place. So how do you do that?
siMone dossetor, calliden: Just because social
rebbecca Kerr, aMp: My husband and my sister were having a conversation and he was complaining about Google using his email conversations to advertise. But my sister thinks it is great to have the ads she wants, for stuff she wants. He is totally against it while my sister thinks it is fantastic.
graeMe turner, aia: There is so much we
JiM Farrell, Qbe: That is the difference, is it not?
understand about our customers as an insurer, but that is only a subset of their lives. This big data can give you access to so much more information about a customer, which we do not necessarily have ourselves. There are potentially intermediaries who can ‘sanitise’ that data and start to feed it through. To me, the business opportunities will arise when you can understand your customer better. In the insurance sector, our interaction with our customer is very specific. It is a small part of their life, whereas
There is no way I would want Google or anybody to be mining what they think I want. Yet the generation coming through now expect it, want it and actually relish it.
media exists and people are using it, does not mean insurance is the best product to be sold through these channels.
“You need to mine your data now to find out where the best value is.” Sandra Hill, ComminSure
rishi Kapoor, niit technologies: Cloud is being increasingly adopted globally. What are your views of cloud adoption in Australia’s insurance space? How is it being implemented? Is it private, hybrid or public? w ho ’ s w ho o f fs i
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Johan reyneke, real insurance: It is in insurance significantly. There are lots of offerings now. You can talk to people who can actually explain what they know and you can determine whether it has financial benefits. Mathews GeorGe, Metlife: It has to be fit for purpose. It is ideal for something like stress or performance testing as you do not have to keep a server sitting there unutilised, but what you get has to be similar to what you are running in production. I am a big fan of the public cloud because if you are keeping it private, I have seen they will try to recoup the cost within the first five years. Public cloud is where you start getting the benefits of standardisation. But again, it depends on what you are doing with it. If it is going to be a policy administration system you will have for the next 30 or 40 years, I do not think there is any point putting it in the cloud. The cost of running that for 30 to 40 years will probably be much more than what you will invest in it yourself. So what works depends on what you are trying to do: public, private or hybrid. JiM farrell, Qbe: We do not use a lot of the cloud. “I am a big fan of the public cloud because if you are keeping it private, I have seen they will try to recoup the cost within the first five years.” Mathews GeorGe, Metlife
We have a couple of instances of cloud usage and I guess to this point we have not been constrained from the Opex versus Capex model. For a start, 90 per cent of our insurance data is sitting on a legacy mainframe, so it is hard to find a cloud provider who can do that, because they are mostly built around the Intel space. Where we are likely to go is in the messaging and collaboration area, but it is a work in progress.
Michael Mitchell, tal: We have used cloud services for testing and things like that. I guess the obvious problem is one of integration, which we all face. The other obvious problem is that our colleagues can go off and buy services without telling us. So it will go out of IT’s controls for risk and security.
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stephen luM, suncorp: Many focus areas and many unknowns will arise in the future. If you look at the iPad, it was not around in the corporate environment two years ago. If I had to put my finger on one major piece of investment, it would be around big data and about having much deeper insights about our customers. Johan reyneke, real insurance: There are so many critical things marketers will have to do today that you really cannot forecast the future. The absolute focus is on fixing the fundamentals, like core administration systems. Beyond that, there is understanding the customer and what they want from their insurance and being able to provide them with that solution or product. Michael Mitchell, tal: For me it is about defining and deploying an architectural framework that gives as much manoeuvrability as is sensibly possible over the next few years. It is probably about investing in warehousing and data technologies. It is investing in records management and digitisation of the endless piles of paper, so you are ready with a capability to expose that information to the right people at the right time in the right way. So it is an architectural view rather. Yes, we have to implement customer relationship management systems, finance systems and all the rest, but they come and go. Getting the architecture right is foremost.
is one technology you would encourage your CEO to review in the next five years, what would it be and why?
rebbecca kerr, aMp: I think very similarly. It is the ability to tackle all that architecture and create appropriate insights, because all that data, as you know, is useless if you cannot do anything with it. So it is how middleware comes together with your external and internal data to create insights that are valuable to the business. I think we need to be investing in a tool that is going to be able to create insights for us.
Mathews GeorGe, Metlife: Gamification. We are in the business of life insurance and the health and wellness of our customers is important to us. One good use case I saw is a program we
Michael Mitchell, tal: And it is a lot of process change as well. It is not just the technology in question, it is also recognising the need to change peoples’ behaviours.
rishi kapoor, niit technoloGies: If there
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are trialling. It basically gives you health scores. With the pilot group, health became a topic of discussion, promoting further use of the tool and encouraging a healthy lifestyle. We are currently piloting it internally, but we intend to make it available to our customers.
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anastasia cammaroto, bt Financial: For us it is mobile – it is just everywhere. I am not running an insurance department, I am technology so for us, understanding how mobile plays a role in every financial interaction an end client wants to have is important, and being able to represent that experience to them effectively is really where our focus is. sandra Hill, comminsure: Just about everything everyone else has said, but also being ready to be able to do the virtuals: the virtual office to virtual client and a lot more self-service for the client. Being able to target things, so big data is going to be important, to know where to put your energy and investment. Jim Farrell, Qbe: I agree. Mobile will be increasingly prevalent. I have not decided about big data yet; I think it has a long way to go. Cost is a big driver for us – whether that is mobile technologies driving lower cost, or whether it is global scale.
Graeme turner, aia: The challenge we face is about balancing. What do we want to get involved in and actually do something with? It is about the business application and whether will it make a difference to our business? There is so much noise out there – it is about distilling the things that have a business benefit.
anna Gladman, bt Financial: There are a range of issues and opportunities facing insurance businesses today, but these are changing rapidly. We need to ensure we have the right technologies that fit together in a way that enables us to respond quickly and cost-effectively to future customer and competitive pressures. simone dossetor, calliden: We are an intermediated company, so how to link in with broker networks is important. On the other side, there are things like claims; how do you make them more efficient, how do you automate, how do you improve? So, again, what do you invest in and how much is it going to actually pay off?
sid Kaul, niit tecHnoloGies: How do you decide on time to market? There used to be the whole business case scenario where you would create a pilot, see if it worked and then proceed. As times have changed, has that process undergone a shift?
Graeme turner, aia: We consider the architecture elements you mentioned. There is also a proof of concept, but you have to do things with agility. You have to trial something to see if it is actually any good before you decide to make a serious commitment to it. So there is probably almost an internal prototyping you need to do. Historically, perhaps you would have a very clear idea and do the formal business case. But now you need to do certain elements of that as business as usual to see whether it warrants going forwards.
anna Gladman, bt Financial: The process you use depends on the type of solution, problem or technology you are implementing. Some solutions can enable you to implement pilot and trials and use an agile approach, but other strategic solutions, particularly multi-year programs with significant regulatory impacts, may not enable you to do this without a significant investment. However, if we can find ways to minimise the risk of the investment, either through cost effective trials or pilots, we can significant improve our chances of success, helping to direct where we invest. stepHen lum, suncorp: There are many myths around agile. For Suncorp it is primarily about the way of working and the principles of the team and maximising team productivity. We were a waterfall environment previously. It is around the behaviours of the staff and their working together as a team that has brought the greatest benefits. One of our biggest challenges is when external groups do not work in the same fashion.
“Cloud computing is also becoming more and more important – actually it is going to be a main technology for the next 10 to 15 years.” Rishi KapooR, NiiT TechNologies
risHi Kapoor, niit tecHnoloGies: I think all of us agree that technology is key to shaping and transforming the way insurance business will be done in the future. Some of the key themes we have discussed are risk and compliance management being one of the key drivers for the future. Knowledge management is another area that, although low in priority, is nevertheless an area to look at given the focus on inorganic growth. Cloud computing is also becoming more and more important – actually it is going to be a main technology for the next 10 to 15 years. Legacy modernisation, of course, remains a big thing and then there is big data and analytics.
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who’s who
fsT MediA hAs gAThered AusTrAliA And new ZeAlAnd’s MosT influenTiAl Technology chiefs To provide A porTrAiT of The who’s who of finAnciAl services. here, They shAre exclusive insighTs on eMerging Trends And prioriTies for The yeAr AheAd. EditEd by Natasha david & JEssica FEll
QA &
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l isa g r ay // w h o’ s w h o Q& a
Lisa Gray Group ExEcutivE, EntErprisE sErvicEs and transformation, national australia Bank FsT MEDia: What will be the most significant challenge facing retail banking in the next three to five years? gray: No doubt there has been, and will continue to be, significant change to the industry, particularly as more people embrace 24/7 banking options. We receive up to 1.3 million logins to nab.com.au every day and about half of those are now from mobile devices. This shift in how people do their banking presents us with great opportunities, particularly as we continue to focus on the whole customer journey, from origination to fulfilment. The game is really about
digitisation and the need to make sure our customer-facing channels are aligned with technology to deliver the best customer experience. These changes also mean the demands on infrastructure and underlying platforms have never been higher. That is why NAB is focused on a complete transformation of our technology environment. We believe any bank that does not do that over the next decade is simply deferring the inevitable.
FsT MEDia: What do you consider to be the ‘holy grail’ of financial services that businessenabled technology has yet to deliver? gray: One of our pursuits is to deliver a world for customers where they can do banking on any device at any time. They can start a mortgage query and application online at night when it suits them, call us in the w ho ’ s w ho o f fs i
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morning and continue the conversation and then walk into one of our stores and conclude their application, all without having to start the conversation over and over again. At the same time, our people will be using the same technology, just a different interface, to process and track the customer’s needs.
FST MEDIA: What is your definition of success? GRAY: The only success worth considering is one that is sustainable over the longer term. It is based on making choices that put people and customers at the heart of the business and, in doing so, ensure sustainable commercial returns are delivered to shareholders. FST MEDIA: What are your priorities for the next 12 to 18 months? GRAY: Our focus is on creating an even better experience for our customers. We will deliver this by reducing complexity, simplifying our processes and systems and continuing to execute our whole-of-bank transformation. At the centre of that transformation is the roll out of the NextGen banking platform. I want to make sure we continue to focus on delivering the right outcomes for our customers, making it easier for them to do business with us and making it simpler for our people to give our customers the help, guidance and advice they are looking for.
The future will be about technologies that enable sufficiently granular insight and action that helps ‘you’, not just ‘people like you’.
they can make the best choices when they are helping customers or colleagues. Creating and implementing sustainable transformation agendas through people is what I already do each day.
FST MEDIA: What technology and/or innovation trend are you keeping an eye on? GRAY: We are constantly innovating and experimenting. Innovative payment systems, mobile banking, digital servicing in general and convergence between the customer and merchant experience are some of our focuses at the moment. The future will be about technologies that enable sufficiently granular insight and action that helps ‘you’, not just ‘people like you’.
mandate yet have never been a Chief Information Officer. What skills are critical to success and why is a background in technology not a determinant factor?
FST MEDIA: Banks are primed to harness the power of big data to make superior business decisions, particularly concerning predictive analysis of customer purchasing trends. What are your views on the potential of data analytics and where is NAB in this journey?
GRAY: Sustained business success comes from understanding current and future customer needs and then mobilising people to deliver on the capability and infrastructure required. It is about blending data and intuition to pick emerging trends and then using technology to enable those opportunities. As such, all business leaders must also be technology leaders. In all senior leadership positions, one of our key roles is creating strategic alignment. Ensuring thousands of people understand the context – the ‘why’ and the ‘what’ – so
GRAY: We need to be careful not to get caught up in jargon and fads. The notion of fully using intelligent data to bring insight and action has been around for quite a while. What is exciting is that digitisation and mobility are heightening the immediacy of insight and utilisation by customers. Big data has huge potential to deliver greater experiences for our customers. As internet and mobile banking increases exponentially, so too does our ability to analyse and scrutinise the millions of transactions we process every day. This
FST MEDIA: You oversee NAB’s technology
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gives us the most complete and precise understanding of our customers and their financial behaviours that we have ever had. At NAB we are already using big data techniques to provide highly-personalised products such as Money Tracker.
FST MEDIA: What is the biggest challenge in transferring the face-to-face customer service experience on to a digital platform? GRAY: Customers are changing the way they interact with services in all industries but what businesses must realise is that the fundamentals of customer management have always been the same. People want trusted advice, fairly priced products and equitable return on their investments. Different channels suit different customers. However, banks that do not lose sight of what contributes to satisfaction will benefit most from increased digitisation in the sector. FST MEDIA: What resources do you rely on to stay ahead of the curve in the competitive landscape that is financial services? GRAY: I rely on the natural curiosity of people. Curiosity to seek better ways, to understand what others are doing and then trump it, to challenge the status quo and to look at other industries for great ideas. The key is to be open to challenge, to listen, to see the patterns that hint at new opportunities when others are looking for confirmation that what they are doing is fine. FST MEDIA: Every leader has a legacy they wish to be remembered for. What is yours? GRAY: All leaders are temporary stewards of the teams and organisations they lead. Our role is to continue to create more sustainable, self-propelling and self-compelling organisations. That also means not creating reliance or dependence. One element of success and legacy for me is that the same choices and decisions are made regardless of who is “in the room”. That means everyone understands the purpose and context and has enough data to make similar choices. That is how companies become sustainable.
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w h o’ s w h o Q& A // l e e b A r n e t t
Lee Barnett Chief information offiCer, amP
Fst MeDIA: What notable examples have you seen of financial organisations innovating to acquire and retain the growing Gen Y customer base? bArnett: In today’s hyper-connected environment consumers, particularly young generations, expect to access information on their own terms, where and when they want it. I think UBank and Commonwealth Bank of Australia have captured the Gen Ys well.
Fst MeDIA: How do you encourage a culture of innovation in your team? bArnett: I co-chair the AMP Innovation
Fst MeDIA: What is the ‘holy grail’ that technology and innovation have yet to deliver in financial services? bArnett: The ‘holy grail’ is a truly personalised customer experience based on a deep understanding of the individual customer. Big data is already a game-changer for our industry, bringing new opportunities to create value-adding opportunities to serve customers better. Harnessing this potential provides a real opportunity for financial services organisations.
Fst MeDIA: What are your priorities for the next 12 to 18 months? bArnett: My priorities include completing a number of significant programs relating to integration, Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) and Stronger Super compliance together with a major program to re-platform a number of our wrap products. Other priorities include Infrastructure-as-a-Service, mobile applications, business intelligence pilots and last but not least, Amplify 2013, our biannual innovation festival.
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Board and sponsor our Amplify Festival. Amplify runs for a whole week every two years. From an experiment in 2005, has now grown into Australia’s largest open learning platform for discussing business innovation with some of the world’s thought leaders from a range of disciplines. Throughout the year, my leadership team also take turns to sponsor an innovation challenge through a crowd-sourcing ideas platform called Idea Frontier and we actively help the best ideas come to fruition. We also include targets and metrics around innovation in our balanced scorecard.
Fst MeDIA: How are you leveraging technology to cement AMP’s position in the self-managed superannuation market? bArnett: Advanced technology is making Self-Managed Super Funds (SMSF) easy to establish and therefore a more attractive option for the customer. Technology allows customers to view their investments in realtime and make changes to their portfolios. Technology underpins our SMSF business and our focus is on providing administration services that enable customers to easily set up and manage their SMSFs.
Fst MeDIA: What technology investments
of the most significant changes that will affect our customers. We have more than 100,000 employer superannuation plans and more than one million employer-sponsored members. The eCommerce requirements under SuperStream require very extensive back office changes but these will be largely invisible to customers. We have found investment in our business process management system has positioned us well for FoFA reforms. The platform allows us to automate many of the Stronger Super and SuperStream requirements without having to modify our administration platforms extensively.
Fst MeDIA: What role will AMP’s Digital Governance Board play and what key outcomes does the board hope to achieve? bArnett: The role of the board is to set digital strategy and guide investment in digital for AMP. The board has a broad membership from across the business and brings together people who share a passion around how to leverage digital to deepen our relationship with our customers and advisors. Key outcomes are delivering a next generation amp.com.au as well as a number of new mobile capabilities we are currently designing. Fst MeDIA: If you could impart one piece of advice to young professionals entering IT, what would it be? bArnett: I think the future of work requires depth and breadth. It also requires people to collaborate extensively. I encourage everyone to be the team player that everyone wants on their team because of commitment, energy, curiosity and personal leadership. Do not get stuck. If you are not learning and developing, change roles.
Fst MeDIA: Every leader has a legacy they wish to be remembered for. What is yours?
have you made to prepare for FoFA reforms?
bArnett: There are a number of logistical changes in systems and processes AMP has had to make to prepare for FoFA. MySuper, part of the Stronger Super regulation, is one
bArnett: My legacy will be a talented team of professionals working within a successful IT operating model and business partnership that is the envy of the industry. And yes, some great IT assets!
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W H o’ S W H o Q& A // C l I v E W H IN C U P
approach, be it smartphone, tablet or desktop. We are also continuing to invest in our proven track record of reliable and stable systems. When phase one is complete in 2014, we will turn our attention to simplifying our landscape and further deepening integration across our family of brands.
FST MEDIA: What notable examples have you seen of financial organisations innovating to acquire and retain the growing Gen Y customer base? WHINCUP: Engaging and maintaining relationships with Gen Y is all about connecting in a way that they are comfortable with. This obviously means an increased focus on mobility and availability of service, but also product offerings that are more targeted to their needs. From a Westpac technology perspective, the investment we make in reliable and refreshed infrastructure, along with innovative mobile applications, is key to meeting the expectations of the ‘now’ generation.
FST MEDIA: How do you balance supporting a social media presence with the risk of reputational damage?
Clive Whincup
FST MEDIA: What are your priorities for the next 12 to 18 months?
Chief information offiCer, westpaC
WHINCUP: Our immediate priority is
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completing phase one of the strategic roadmap we laid out in 2009. Our strategic investment priorities are over 70 per cent complete and are delivering real benefits to our customers and people. A key component of these investments is our Online Transformation Program which will deliver an all-new online banking platform to our Westpac customers later this year. We have also worked hard on ensuring our mobile banking platforms retain their market-leading status for customer satisfaction. Our online channels are developed hand-in-hand with our customers and represent how we are addressing their individual needs through a multi-device
WHINCUP: We view social media as vitally important from two angles, as a communication channel to our customers and also as a mechanism for feedback. The key for us is to set a realistic expectation of what you want to get out of social media and choose the right type of conversation to have with customers about their banking. A great example is in providing security alerts. It is not the only channel we have at our disposal but it is very effective at reaching a large number of people in a short space of time. By the same token, it is great to provide customers with a choice of how they want to make an enquiry or provide feedback. This augments our traditional branch and phone channels and we have dedicated teams responsible for getting back to customers in a prompt fashion.
C o - SponSo r e d a r t i Cle
Westpac Banking on Success with Ricoh Westpac turns to Ricoh to put in place a print solution that reduces waste, improves efficiencies, and successfully contributes to Westpac’s environmental and sustainability goals. The challenge Westpac’s workplace print technology environment was in need of a refresh. The bank wanted a single vendor that could provide consistent levels of service and response times; a pricing model that would provide visibility over their print performance; high levels of document security; improved access to document workflow and a reduction in paper and consumables waste. A relaxed policy existed for workplace print, resulting in too many devices per user group, and waste of consumables and paper.
The solution Working in partnership with IBM, Ricoh built a Managed Document System (MDS) to meet the bank’s strategic goals. Ricoh proposed a tailored solution to meet Westpac’s immediate and long-term requirements, comprising a mix of suitable multifunction devices (MFDs), on-site valet staff, fleet management and reporting software, coupled with a comprehensive project and change management approach.The tailored print solution incorporated Follow-You Printing to enforce a stricter printing policy. With Follow-you Printing staff members have realised the benefits of initiating print jobs from their office before a meeting, then simply collect the job from whichever MFD is closest to them.
Understand: What are the real problems? Following a proven discovery process, Ricoh’s MDS project team conducted extensive workshops and interviews with key stakeholders across the bank, to fully understand the drivers for change. These key drivers included: • Identifying current fleet information, service and supply arrangements, and security risks.
“Ricoh is helping Westpac achieve its carbon footprint targets by reducing power consumption and paper waste. Together these initiatives are delivering a simpler, smarter, greener place to work.” Gary Sim, General Manager of Westpac’s Service Delivery Infrastructure Group
• Discovering infrastructure or document bottlenecks and environmental impacts. • Understanding the intent and objectives of the existing WBC print policy and future state business objectives. • Providing a full and complete picture of the current state. • Analysing the total cost of ownership (TCO), environmental options, and any potential hidden costs.
Govern: Realising the benefits Ricoh’s enterprise-wide MDS solution continues to demonstrate productivity savings for Westpac, as well as improved workflow efficiencies and waste reduction. Westpac management now have greater visibility over performance as well as improved control and governance – thanks to Ricoh’s customised Equitrac reporting and management software. Westpac no longer needs to deal with multiple vendors – everything is managed
under one document services contract, saving time and effort. What’s more, it now has a consolidated device fleet providing the latest technology and improved reliability. Most importantly, Ricoh is helping Westpac manage its end-to-end print environment, with a complete fleet of Ricoh printers that intelligently switch off when not in use. Westpac’s print policy has helped change user behaviour by providing FollowYou Printing, which means users can print from devices across the enterprise. Additionally, if print jobs are not activated within a stated timeframe, they are automatically deleted from the device – saving paper and ensuring a secure green document environment.
Optimise: An ongoing partnership Ricoh continues to manage and control the quality of service delivery and support for Westpac – recommending strategies for continuous improvement, and proactively monitoring and optimising resources so that devices and services are available when required by the end users. The IBM, Ricoh and Westpac partnership has netted significant benefits that allow Westpac to print and manage documents with less waste, less cost, less complexity and less CO2. Most importantly, the solution provides a state-of-the-art print environment that helps Westpac Banking Corporation achieve its business and sustainability goals.
For more information please visit www.ricoh.com.au w ho ’ s w ho o f fs i
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W H o’ S W H o Q& A // C l I v E W H IN C U P
FST MEDIA: How do you encourage a culture of innovation in your team? WHINCUP: We live and breathe five strategic themes, one of which is to provide technology leadership and innovation. It is the essence of our role within the Westpac Group. We are more integrated with the business than ever before and providing technology leadership and innovation are key levers in delivering great business outcomes. A culture of innovation needs to be both a top-down and a bottom-up exercise. Technology leadership needs to provide the opportunity and latitude, and the technology workforce needs to push this to the limits. We are currently working on an internal social media platform that includes a community dedicated to capturing, developing and evaluating innovative ideas. This is in addition to a number of other internal initiatives harnessing the power of crowdsourcing within our own workforce. We are also very lucky to have access to some of the world’s great technology organisations as our key strategic partners. IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and Apple all make regular appearances in our locations to work directly with our technology teams on maximising our collective intelligence.
FST MEDIA: What technology or innovation is proving to be the single biggest game changer for banking? WHINCUP: Over a long career in financial services technology I have seen game changing technologies come and go – 32-bit microprocessors, personal computers and the popularisation of the internet, just to name a few. The proliferation of smartphones certainly fits within the game-changing category for banking. The explosive growth in customer transactions we have seen with mobile banking has fundamentally changed the relationship customers have with the bank. We saw similar shifts with online but the volume comparisons between the two are stark. It took approximately six and a half years to see one million active users of online banking, a milestone reached in two and a
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The explosive growth . . . with mobile banking has fundamentally changed the relationship customers have with the bank.
These releases are in addition to a number of innovative St George mobile apps such as Car Finder and mobile PayWay, a product that allows small business owners to accept credit card payments using their mobile. The unknown quantity in the tablet space remains the uptake in Android tablets and software fragmentation appears to be holding back growth in this market.
FST MEDIA: What tools or references keep you abreast of emerging technology trends? half years in mobile banking. This number continues to grow. We currently have 1.7 million active mobile customers who regularly transact through the iOS, Android or Windows Phone device of their choice. Unlike other financial institutions that report on registered users, we prefer to focus on the ‘active customer’ definition. This provides far more insight into how customer behaviour is changing and measures the quality of their relationship with the bank. Customers use mobile banking at a time that is convenient for them and often use it multiple times in the same day. This increase in volumes is a game-changer not only from a customer touchpoint perspective, but also in terms of capacity planning for both infrastructure and applications.
FST MEDIA: What impact will the rise of tablets have on Westpac’s mobile first development strategy? WHINCUP: The rise of tablet computing is a fact and we already have a head start in this area. Our mobile first strategy is about giving customers access to the latest innovations in the channels they use the most. A great example of this is Westpac Banking for iPad which remains the only Australian app on the market to take advantage of native iPad interface. Since launching in July 2012, there have been more than five million customer sessions and over $2 billion in payments. We are also the only bank in Australia, and one of the first in the world, to have a dedicated Microsoft Windows 8 app.
WHINCUP: I am very fortunate to have an extended leadership team populated by passionate technologists. We also gain great insights from interacting with our many strategic partners and consultants. From a publication point of view, I really enjoy reading specialist periodicals such as New Scientist and The Economist.
FST MEDIA: If you weren’t working in financial services what would you be doing? WHINCUP: I would still be working in technology somewhere! My financial services career has taken me around the world and I firmly believe that the opportunities offered by the technology industry as a whole, particularly in the digital age, are second to none.
FST MEDIA: Every leader has a legacy they wish to be remembered for. What is yours? WHINCUP: If I look back on any part of my career, I always want to be able to point to an area where I can say we have made significant and clear progress. The legacy I wish to be remembered for would be to leave the organisation with a much leaner, engaged and higher skilled workforce than when I joined. The ability of an organisation to deliver against the complexities of the technology landscape, more and more, is going to require mental agility, insight and vision. I want Westpac’s technology to be seen as a key differentiator in crucial areas and able to continue to meet ever-changing customer demands.
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C o - SponSo r e d a r t i C le
Agile in Financial Services, Finding the Right Pilot Project Ronica Roth, CST, SPC, Solutions Evangelist at Rally Software Agile is proven to correlate with successful companies. Top performers harness Agile to innovate faster and create value sooner for their customers. Forrester surveyed 2,438 companies and found those with the largest revenue growth use Agile 53 per cent more often than average or under-performing businesses. In financial services, regulations, traceability and complex dependencies are part of everyday life, but add challenges to Agile implementations. We recommend that Agile transformations start with a pilot project, set up an environment for success, then replicate that success and the associated learnings to other and more programs. The first question then becomes: How to choose which projects should be Agile? There are two key ways to identify which projects should be run using Agile practices. One is to evaluate the project’s uncertainty and complexity. The other is to determine to what extent you have or can create an Agile project environment that will lead to success. First create a ranked backlog of projects – with those best suited for Agile today at the top – by rating the projects along two axes: uncertainty and complexity. Uncertainty can refer to business uncertainty (“we are not sure of the right thing to build”) or technical uncertainty (“we are not sure the right way to build it). Initially, start using Agile on projects that are high on uncertainty – because you leverage Agile to learn as you go – and low on complexity – to avoid the ‘headaches’ of technical risk.
will be cancelled), then accept the technical risk and use Agile for a high uncertainty-high complexity project. Using Agile will help with the uncertainty. It will be important on those projects to increase the discipline level around process and communication. Next step is to determine if you can create an environment for success. The right climate includes a product owner that is embedded with the team, dedicated to the project, and can support the team with constant feedback and can meaningfully interact with stakeholders on the project’s behalf. High performing environments have a dedicated, persistent and crossfunctional team, including testers and UI designers. The unique and exacting demands of financial services development require extensive testing. So a key success factor for these projects is having ample quality assurance as well as a supporting development and build environment. Applying Agile reaps the short and long-term benefits: faster to market, better quality and enhanced competitiveness. Taking the right first steps towards a disciplined approach is a foundation for success in the financial services sector.
However, if the risk to the business is significant (for example, eroding market share, possibility the project w ho ’ s w ho o f fs i
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W H O’ S W H O Q& A // A NN E W E AT H E RS TON
Anne Weatherston Group Chief information offiCer, anZ BanKinG Group
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FST MEDIA: What are your priorities for the next 12 to 18 months? WEATHERSTON: At all times, we are disciplined in our focus on meeting customer service expectations and increasing vigilance on all areas relating to security and risk management. Beyond that we also need to deliver the best technology service to our business colleagues, measured by productivity and efficiency. Specifically over the next 18 months, I will be driving two key priorities relating directly to the two parallel and interdependent change programs currently underway within technology at ANZ. The first is focused on improving the technology function within ANZ and the second is implementing the right technology for ANZ, which is part of our Towards 2017 strategy.
In terms of ANZ’s technology function, in the first instance we are looking at our people. We are taking action to ensure they have the skills and development opportunities they need to perform their roles. We are also taking a close look at our processes, ensuring that we simplify and standardise our ways of working across multiple locations and geographies. My second priority is to keep delivering on our Towards 2017 technology strategy, which we set out in 2011. It has four major components: building the foundations, securing the bank, connecting our customers, and building enterprise capability. The first three components are well progressed. We have commenced the upgrade and replacement of much of our inherited infrastructure, while at the same time standardising, simplifying and virtualising processes. Included in this is the progressive rollout of a new employee experience which will take place over the next two years. In addition, we have given a significant focus to designing a new customer banking experience. You can already see the effects of this with the recent launches of the Android version of our GoMoney app as well as Transactive Mobile. In terms of building our enterprise capability, the fourth component of our strategy, this is something we are approaching on an as-needed basis. Over the past two years we have rolled out new core banking platforms for New Zealand and Asia and implemented cross payments capability. So a busy couple of years and no rest looking forward!
FST MEDIA: What is the Holy Grail that technology and innovation are yet to deliver in financial services? WEATHERSTON: What the technology industry has given financial services is what Good to Great author Jim Collins called “the myth of technology-driven change”. That is, the belief that technology alone can give you the breakthrough you are looking for to leapfrog the competition. In my view, the reality is that there is no silver bullet. When you look at disruptive business models, it is clear innovations have only
A NN E W E AT H E RS TON // W H O’ S W H O Q& A
been successful when they have addressed value generation, simplicity of the customer experience and, perhaps most importantly, the ability to harness the skills and motivation of the people who deliver it, and that is the hard part. If banks can deploy emerging technologies to better meet customer, shareholder and stakeholder requirements, then that is worthwhile. That said, technology alone will not drive this shift. To be successful, any technological innovation will need to be aligned to a very different business model from the traditional product silo organisations of the past. The next stage of change for all banks is critical and very challenging.
FST MEDIA: What notable examples have you seen of financial organisations innovating to acquire and retain the growing Gen Y customer base? WEATHERSTON: There are many out there and they are growing rapidly. One notable example is FRANK by OCBC in Singapore, a brand dedicated to Gen Y customers. They have three FRANK-branded stores located near universities and focus on products relevant to this demographic such as simple transaction and savings accounts, debit and credit cards. Interestingly, they do not provide mortgages, financial planning or other more complex services. They are confident that when their customers are ready they will transition to their main OCBC brand for these products and services. FST MEDIA: How do you encourage a culture of innovation in your team? WEATHERSTON: The vision for technology at ANZ is to be the competitive advantage for the bank. With that vision, innovation forms an important part of our agenda, specifically as a facilitator of the business agenda and as a desire to move faster than the competition. While the last couple of years have been about building foundations we are now able to focus our agenda on more innovative uses of technology. We have a very strong focus on working closely with our business colleagues and
customer needs. As such, in the short to medium term, the need for consolidated product engines is not a priority.
There is no silver bullet . . . [the] next stage of change for all banks is critical and very challenging.
also defining and clarifying the strategic agenda. Supporting this, we have a defined enterprise architecture for the bank and have agreed technology roadmaps for all of our business units. This allows us unique insight into the bank’s business and technology agenda and enables us to anticipate and experiment with new technology propositions that may enhance the strategic plan. While some of this innovation has been a formal review and program of action within established teams, others have been developmental exercises for some of our recent graduate entrants to enable them to build a better understanding both of the business agenda as well as newer more innovative technologies.
FST MEDIA: What significant challenges do you face in executing ANZ’s super regional strategy? WEATHERSTON: The core of our super regional strategy is to leverage, facilitate and extend the growing links between our customers in Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific and Asia. The complexity of the strategy and our technology roadmap has come in recognising that while some activities need to be global, others are only relevant at a local level. This is a reflection of local market differences but also the regulatory environments. At a global level, we have identified a number of key domains that are essential to the core strategy to connect our customers globally. At a more local level, we recognise that there are significant regional variations in the kind of products required to service
FST MEDIA: How do you balance investment in front-end technologies, such as those featured in the Banking for Australia Program, and back-end infrastructure? WEATHERSTON: Our strategy is to build out the new banking platforms end-to-end and delivering an omni-channel customer experience requires this approach. Frontend is the differentiator from a customer perspective but end-to-end service is a core part of that proposition and experience. Front-end technologies must be underpinned by a flexible integration layer and robust, scalable infrastructure. Significantly, investment in the middle tier enables new channel capabilities as without it we would need to duplicate effort and assets for each new channel. By encouraging a holistic, sum-of-theparts view of the technology ecosystem and considering global versus local needs, we seek to keep investments across the landscape in step. FST MEDIA: What tools or references keep you abreast of emerging technology trends? WEATHERSTON: I draw from a wide range of sources, reading a wide variety of articles and reviews weekly. In addition, our business and technology teams continually evaluate emerging technologies to gauge their potential, viability, maturity, and likely adoption. I also engage with people at the coalface, analysts and thought leaders. I have just returned from a visit to California where I spoke to leaders in technology and finance services on this very subject. FST MEDIA: Every leader has a legacy they wish to be remembered for. What is yours? WEATHERSTON: My aspiration is to lead a world-class technology team that plays a critical role in enabling the bank to achieve its vision of becoming a super regional bank. With each step I grow more confident that we are going to make that happen.
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FST MEDIA: With the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s (CBA) billion dollar Core Banking Modernisation program complete, what technology priorities are in line for the bank in the next 12 to 18 months?
HARTE: Our strategy is to deliver the worldleading application of technology. The word many people often miss is ‘application’. This is about maximising our technology investments and building the capabilities of our people to make better decisions faster so we can meet our customers’ evolving needs. It is not just a matter of saying ‘well we have done core’, what it is the next big thing? It is how we leverage the foundational architecture and platforms we have built to deliver faster, better and more insightful products and services for our customers. We have chosen to invest in both the backend and our front-end, because we believe this gives us a distinct advantage. The new core banking platform helps accelerate new products and services to market. We know our real-time platform, innovative new content and applications all improve the customer value proposition. It cements our position as a technology leader. It simplifies and improves the financial lives of our customers and businesses. We continue to invest to help these improve.
FST MEDIA: You have said that CBA’s future
Michael Harte GRoUP EXECUTiVE AND ChiEf iNfoRMATioN offiCER, CoMMoNwEALTh BANK of AUsTRALiA
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strategies will rely on real-time analytics, rather than real-time transactions. What ultimate benefit could real-time analytics present to CBA; and at what stage is the bank in its real-time analytics journey?
HARTE: Do not underestimate the value of real-time banking and all that it delivers – and we are the market leader here. To date we are the only one of the big banks to deliver real-time banking for all our customers. This is important because it is something our customers’ value – whether an individual or a business – it means they have access to their funds immediately, when they need it. Our focus for the future is on extending the benefits of real-time banking into useful tools, products and services that complement the lives of our customers, to
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w H o’ S w H o Q& A // M I c H A E l H A R T E
help them spend more wisely, save more wisely and invest more wisely. To that end, we are certainly well down the track at looking at how we can leverage realtime analytics to deliver deeper customer insights, and most importantly deliver more value to the customer through tailoring our services to them. Real-time analytics offers the opportunity for us to take our existing highly structured and highly ‘relationshipped’ data and use it more effectively to deliver tailored products and services in real-time, on demand, across any device, so we can better help our customers save, spend and invest at any moment in time.
FST MEDIA: You are a staunch advocate of the cloud, despite long-held security concerns over the platform. How did you convince CBA’s executive committee to go against the grain, and have faith in your vision of the cloud?
HARTE: We have always been a strong advocate for cloud computing for many years because we recognise the benefits and cost savings it can bring. We have shifted dozens of on-premise applications to the cloud. We access a wide range of technology functions ‘as-a-service’, including application development and testing, infrastructure, software and storage. We have realised major savings in infrastructure costs and are looking to realise substantially more. As a result, freed up capital can be channelled towards innovation and customer-facing technologies. We do not want to do everything in the cloud, but we want to take advantage of those services which deliver speed, flexibility and efficiency. At the same time, we are very strong advocates for maintaining the privacy and security of customer data – this is fundamental to our customer value proposition. What we do want is a common sense conversation about cloud across the industry rather than knee jerk reactions that, over time, might not be the best thing for business, government or industry. As guidelines and regulations emerge around the use of cloud computing for
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we actually work very closely with the likes of facebook and Google to deliver some of our leading payment apps such as Kaching. so, these companies are also collaborators.
We are rolling out video conferencing to our branches, especially those in regional areas so our customers have access to experts on the spot. We launched MyWealth to cater for the self-directed wealth consumer. We are constantly upgrading and integrating our online offers and we have some of the best and most popular finance apps in the market. While we are already leading in online and mobile, you will continue to see us further enhance our offerings in this space.
FST MEDIA: How do you see the rising government and businesses, it is important that attention is focused on control frameworks that must be implemented to ensure the security of data hosted in the cloud.
FST MEDIA: How much of a competitive threat do companies like Facebook and Google pose in the evolving payments space; and how is CBA placed to respond?
HARTE: We are very respectful of the competitive environment both within and outside traditional financial services. Competition keeps us strong, agile and motivated. We actually work very closely with the likes of Facebook and Google to deliver some of our leading payment apps such as Kaching. So, these companies are also collaborators. Our overall focus is not just on payments, important though they are, but on how we can deliver more meaningful products and services based on our intimate knowledge of the customer so we can help them make better financial decisions.
FST MEDIA: In your view, what is the ‘next big thing’ in retail banking?
HARTE: We will continue to extend our focus on all things local, mobile, social and online. Customers are choosing to interact with us in a variety of different ways, at different times of the day, on different platforms and on different devices – we will continue to cater for their needs and preferences.
roles of chief digital and marketing officers impacting the traditional function of senior technology executives?
HARTE: The titles do not matter as much as the relentless focus on customer and shareholder value. Tech folk have to continue to be very business-savvy, constantly increasing their commercial acumen and continue to be very results focused be it delivering an IT project or delivering an innovative idea that will support the business. Business folk have to become more engaged in technology so they can make more informed investment decisions and see how technology can be leveraged to better deliver products and services for customers.
FST MEDIA: What skills do you think aspiring technology chiefs should invest in now for future success?
HARTE: What I have learnt is that success it is not just about technology – but about the people. Aspiring technology chiefs should not just concentrate on enhancing their technical skills. They should also think about increasing their capabilities around commercial understanding as well as in management and effectively creating and driving culture. When I decided to focus on reaching the C-suite, I went back to school, and what I couldn’t learn at school, I learnt on the job by ensuring that I was well rounded. This has stood me in good stead as I have built teams and managed massive crossbusiness projects.
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w h o’ S w h o Q& a // d onn a V i n c i
improvement in how we respond to natural disasters through targeted alerts for our customers, getting our claims staff mobile so they can be on the ground faster, but also in how we provide more contextual services and information to our customers to help them to increase their awareness to better manage their risks. With our investment in geographical information systems, geospatial, real-time and predictive analytics, as well as digital and social media, we are starting to see the benefits and future potential.
FST Media: Which emerging trend or innovation currently flying under the radar do you feel is destined to make a significant impact on insurance? Vinci: It is more about converging trends
Donna Vinci
FST Media: What are your priorities for the next 12 to 18 months?
GRoUP ChiEf iNfoRMATioN offiCER, iAG
Vinci: IAG has a sound growth strategy, and the technology priorities underpinning the business growth are well understood with the renewal of our IT strategy being completed and endorsed in October last year. The next 12 to 18 months is focused squarely on execution excellence of the strategy and roadmaps.
FST Media: What will be the most significant challenge facing insurance in the year ahead?
Vinci: Specifically to insurance, I believe the challenges will be in the pace of change in how our customers wish to do business with us. The shift of power to customerled channels and customer-insights is accelerating and we need to be ready. With every challenge there is an opportunity, and in this case the digital and informational insights provide a significant
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than just emerging trends that will have a significant impact on insurance. Traditionally, insurers have had an annual relationship with their customers or interacted through a claims process. This is shifting to customer-led relationships, customer choice, customer-of-one pricing, industry concerns about affordability and coverage. To compete in the new norm, we need to change our operating paradigm. Our thinking is shaped by a number of industries, trends and the changing demographics and behaviours of our customers. How these trends are interpreted and converged will be the winning combination.
FST Media: How do you encourage a culture of innovation in your team? Vinci: At IAG we are serious about embedding an innovation culture and increasing the likelihood of sustainable behaviour in everything we do. This can be seen in our IAG operating principles – which underpin what we want to be known for – including ‘innovative and one step ahead’, ‘adaptation and resilience’; along with our IAG behaviour statements, including ‘strong relationships – encouraging growth, innovation and creative thinking’. We make this real at IAG by consciously adopting agile and design thinking models,
C o - SponSo r e d a r t i C le
QSuper Transforms its Business with OpenText QSuper is one of Australia’s largest superannuation funds, employing almost 800 staff and managing more than $36 billion in funds for over 540,000 members. Offering an extensive range of tools, up-to-date information and personalised services, QSuper helps its members make confident financial choices for the future.
with a number of QSuper’s other critical business systems. This workflow system has been implemented in three out of four of QSuper’s key business functions including benefit payments, members operations and the contact centre.
Ageing workflow system
QSuper currently operates the production environment using three OpenText Case360 servers that provides the organisation with a workflow solution that is highly available, robust and scalable. The infrastructure design provides for future up-scaling of the solution to include handling of online forms and process orchestration for other QSuper administration systems.
QSuper recognised its dependency on obsolete technology across a range of work systems was a major challenge to its business, employees, and services. ”We needed a core workflow capability that could keep pace with our company’s strategy and growth objectives. The system we had lacked integration and we did not have any view across the organisation of our customers’ engagement with the business”, says Ian Gream, Application Owner, Change and Service Experience at QSuper. The company previously relied on an existing workflow system, which was only embedded in the benefit payments area of the business. This ageing system provided QSuper with limited functionality, had no disaster recovery capabilities and experienced critical support issues such as frequent down-time, which was causing major disruptions to the business. Administration and reporting also presented challenges for QSuper. Eight different systems were used by operations staff with numerous manual repositories for customer information, which was a mixture of paper and electronic documents.
OpenText transforms QSuper’s attitude towards technology QSuper initiated a strategy to overhaul its ageing technology platforms, starting with its workflow management systems. The collaboration with OpenText was a catalyst in helping to change the attitudes of management towards the role of technology. “We began the project with the intention to embed the OpenText solution into our benefit payments area. Through the analysis of current and future state business processes, it became clear that we could not embed the process in only one business area.” QSuper successfully rolled out workQ, its version of workflow management system, using OpenText case management solutions including OpenText Case360, OpenText Filestore360 and advanced management reporting software OpenText ManagerView, along
QSuper achieves cost savings, business efficiency and improved customer service
WorkQ handles 78 per cent of customer administration processes and is used across QSuper, from knowledge workers processing claims, to business operations and information technology staff, to mid and senior level management. Five of the eight former systems have been decommissioned and historic information has been migrated into the new system, significantly reducing business operations costs by eliminating redundant maintenance and vendor fees. “WorkQ has provided us with a central repository of customer information which helps our employees identify customer information faster and allows them to be more responsive to customer enquiries”, says Gream. From a reporting perspective, there is a 99 per cent reduction in manual effort required to collect workflow management statistics – from 40 hours down to only half an hour per week. Advanced metrics are now captured and fed into the business intelligence platform, giving a clearer view of overall business performance. “It used to take over a week for management to pull together a monthly report manually. Now our senior management has instant visibility of the various business processes with real-time reporting capabilities”, says Gream.
For more information visit www.opentext.com.au w ho ’ s w ho o f fs i
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and continuously improving our practices across the organisation. We also change our language and measures of performance as a key to laying the foundation for the acceptance of innovative thinking and early failure. We support a learning organisation and understand mistakes are opportunities to learn. Finally, we focus on reduction of complexity across the spectrum of small and large innovations.
FST Media: How are you leveraging big data and analytics to meet customer demand for bespoke risk solutions? Vinci: As one of the leading insurance organisations in this region, IAG prides itself on our leading data and analytics capability and customer-centric design service. It is no coincidence these are not mutually exclusive. Our CEO says “information is the bloodline of the business”. It is such a true statement. Big data is the gateway to true business and customer intelligence. We can continue to innovate in this space and respond to our current and future customers’ drive towards the ‘know me, personalise to me and anticipate my needs’ paradigm. We are focusing not just on our targeted response to an unexpected loss event, but also leveraging our collective insights to help our community to be more risk aware. More and more, our customers have the expectation they are not treated as the average in the demographic, but in a segment-of-one who want to deal with us anywhere, anytime across the channel of their choice and have the seamless transition across multiple channels in the one conversation.
FST Media: How will IAG evolve its multichannel strategy over the coming year? Vinci: It is all about convenience – anywhere, anytime. Customers are requiring risk management, services, product and sales or claim information through a variety of new channels. They will switch between these channels even within the same transaction or conversation, and that switch must be seamless.
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Vinci: That is a hard question as I feel with
Big data is the gateway to true business and customer intelligence.
Increasingly customers expect to initiate and in some cases manage the entire quote and claim activities themselves. Providing customers with a self-service capability to initiate common activities is becoming key to customer acquisition, as well as ongoing customer satisfaction. Successfully meeting the needs and expectations of these customers will require insurance companies to have humanistic design thinking at the centre of developing a multi-channel strategy. This will allow for the delivery of personally targeted and consistent and channel-adapted information regardless of the channel of choice. Our strategy adopts a multi-channel approach ensuring a consistent targeted experience regardless of the channel used to initiate or finalise the transaction or conversation.
FST Media: What information sources do you consider invaluable for your job, and why? Vinci: There is no single source. If you rely on a single source you might get it wrong and you would have a very limited growth edge. I believe in diversity of thought, and base my learning and decisions on that. If you looked at my iPad and my businesscard contacts, you would see the business, technology, insurance industry newspapers and journals I read, the research I tap into, the confidence I place in our team at IAG and their deep insurance knowledge and their technical capabilities. I leverage our strategic partnerships. And even by just listening on the street you can learn a lot.
FST Media: What do you consider to be the greatest achievement of your career to date?
each opportunity I push myself to leverage what I know and strive for an even better outcome than before. Currently I hope what I do at IAG will be my greatest achievement – until next time. I have had a few memorable moments that I look back on and say, that was pretty cool. Those achievements include leading the first Australian equities broker into an internet presence; being the first female director at the same broker; being the global technology risk management head for Citigroup and turning the risk management practice around; and leading the Westpac institutional operations and technology team through the global financial crisis.
FST Media: What skills do you think aspiring technology chiefs should invest in now for future success? Vinci: Number one is leadership! Foster an environment of diversity of thought. Be rounded in the breadth of business, technical and personal skills you obtain. Remember it is all very well to be technically brilliant but you must also have a commercial lens. Never take yourself too seriously. You can take your work seriously, but not yourself. We all make mistakes, and all have something new to learn. FST Media: Every leader has a legacy they wish to be remembered for. What is yours? Vinci: The legacy I like to leave in any role is firstly, to create growth opportunities for others to reach their potential and secondly, to create a team of professionals who can interpret how technology can be used to enhance business opportunities and our customers’ experience, ensuring customers’ needs and business strategy are the drivers and IT strategy is effectively aligned and executed. More personally, outside of work, I want to use my energy, position and focus to make a difference for others. If I look back at different intervals in my life and feel that I have achieved these objectives, I am pretty satisfied.
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w h o’ s w h o Q& A // j e f f sm i t h
Jeff Smith Chief exeCutive offiCer, Business serviCes, sunCorp
fst meDiA: What is the ‘holy grail’ that technology and innovation are yet to deliver in financial services?
fst meDiA: What do you anticipate will be the key challenges of your legacy simplification project in the year ahead?
smith: Simple, elegant solutions that allow
smith: The sheer scale of the project is enough to challenge any company. It touches many areas of our business including our insurance teams, marketing and technology. We have to coordinate the timing of process changes, training, new reporting and new documentation for customers. It is a busy time! The opportunity and benefits will be worth it, though. Moving from 14 to two systems for general insurance is just the tip of the iceberg. We will have a single platform across all brands, enabling us to implement customer improvements more rapidly at less cost. We will also be able to leverage a single online platform across our brands and products.
customers to do whatever they want, from wherever they want, through any channel they want.
fst meDiA: What will be the most significant challenge facing banking and insurance in the year ahead? smith: Changes in technology and consumer behaviour mean the business environment is evolving more rapidly than ever before and the pace of this change is going to increase exponentially over the next few years. The challenge is to build flexibility and agility so that we can respond quickly to the market while adhering to increased regulation and ensuring information security.
fst meDiA: How are you leveraging big data and analytics to meet demand for personalised banking and insurance products? smith: Personalised content is high on our fst meDiA: What are your priorities for the next 12 to 18 months? smith: Continuing Suncorp’s simplification agenda is paramount for our shared services team. We are reducing complexity, staying agile and building capability. We have very experienced people in technology, real estate, procurement and finance with a real opportunity to streamline operations and more effectively manage costs.
fst meDiA: What notable examples have you seen of financial organisations innovating to acquire and retain the growing Gen Y customer base?
smith: I think maintaining a diverse workforce that represents your customer base is important. We have a well established graduate and intern program that has attracted more than 250 people in the past five years. The diversity of thought we have achieved is nothing short of impressive. 70
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agenda. We implemented a single view of our nine million customers as part of the Building Blocks program so we have good information available. We are now starting to use that data to improve our interactions with customers across all channels. The highest customer demand is using mobile devices for their financial services needs. As an example, this year our banking customers will access services via mobile more frequently than by a PC.
fst meDiA: How is Suncorp’s insurance arm leveraging monitoring and analytics technology to reduce claims? smith: Using telematics on a mass scale is still relatively new in Australia. It is something we are keeping an eye on but still very much in the investigation stages. Since we have a single claims and pricing platform from our Building Blocks program, we are using that data to help us better manage and price risks for the products we are offering to our customers.
fst meDiA: In undertaking your transformation program, which has been the bigger barrier, culture or infrastructure? smith: Culture is the only unique thing a company has. Everything else can be copied. Our strategy is to attract, develop and retain aspirational talent that enables us to deploy solutions which are globally competitive.
fst meDiA: With respect to career development, what is the best advice you ever received?
smith: You are the company you keep. Surround yourself with the greatest talent, both employees and partners. Challenge these people with a big, tough problem and that will be the best development opportunity they have ever had.
fst meDiA: Every leader has a legacy they wish to be remembered for. What is yours? smith: I want Suncorp to be globally competitive in the areas it chooses to do business and be recognised as such by its global peers. To do this, we will have to continue to invest in those areas where we believe we can be world class, to attract and retain the best talent and continue to learn from the best in the world, whatever industry they are from.
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Customer Engagement Continues to be a Strategic Driver for Financial Services Brian Donn, Senior Vice President & General Manager APAC, KANA Software
In today’s consumer-driven environment companies cannot compete on product and price alone. To survive and prosper, companies must deliver the ideal customer service experience. Easy access to information about competing products or services, and the ability to easily migrate across brands, have combined to make the service experience a critical element of a company’s success or failure. The Australian financial services industry is no exception. From consumer finance to stock brokerages, financial services institutions are under pressure to attract new clients and retain existing ones, while doing more with less. In addition, growing product complexity, shorter product cycles, and the explosion of communication channels has had a real impact on service costs. In order to succeed, service experiences in the financial services sector must be made personalised and more relevant to customers. That means delivering on the expectation that information is accessible and transactions achievable in whichever channel is convenient to, and preferred by customers – like opening an account online, accessing it from the smartphone and getting help from contact centre agents in an online chat forum. Customer engagement trends in 2013 This ability to engage with customers across a multitude of channels is driving some interesting trends throughout the financial services sector. Following a survey conducted at a recent Technology & Innovation Conference for the Australian Financial Services Sector1 in Sydney, which polled 850 attendees about their view on customer engagement trends, there were a number of interesting findings, not least of all that enhancing customer service will continue to be a critical strategic driver for the financial services industry in Australia during 2013.
When specifically asked “How will you use technology to deliver customer value in 2013?” the results – which are showcased in the accompanying infographic – showed that seventy-one percent of respondents reported that they already currently use social media to engage with customers; with forty-five percent indicating that they see new mobile applications as a ‘game changer’ for financial institutions in 2013.
What the financial services industry needs to do to improve customer engagement Integration: Australian financial services institutions must ensure that customer history and strategic business intelligence are optimised in every service interaction. It comes down to making sure your company’s data and service processes are working together, streamlined with customer touch points, fine-tuned to business goals and helping optimise the customer experience. Technology: By leveraging proven technologies for customer experience, companies can break down inefficiencies such as unnecessary steps in the customer interaction process and laborious and costly process coding. Changes made centrally translate immediately to selected systems and processes, making it easy, for example, to keep up with regulatory compliance.
Download infographic here
Interestingly, there was also significant focus on the ability to use multi-channel customer data to predict customer behaviour and customise offerings, which demonstrates that organisations must consider the value of the customer profiling information they already possess, and how it can be expanded to include additional information on their customer from other sources (e.g., social media). This will then enable them to enhance customer relationships, increase market share and reduce risk. Ultimately this will help bring companies one-step closer to achieving a true omni-channel approach to customer service, with seamless integration across all channels.
Customer Journey: Prior transactions and communications with customers in any channel with your company – needs to be incorporated to personalise the customer experience and business intelligence informs the service process and can be optimised across any number of customer segments. By getting omni-channel customer service experience right, financial services institutions can achieve a holistic approach to their service channels regardless of the way they are engaging with customers. Having the ability to model, orchestrate, measure and adapt the customer service experience across multiple channels is a vital element in delivering excellence throughout the financial sector and driving true customer advocacy. 1
FST Media Technology and Innovation Conference –
November 2012: Survey conducted by KANA Software. w ho ’ s w ho o f fs i
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w h o’ s w h o Q& A // j u l i e b A l e
Julie Bale chief information officer, boq
at pace and is now an expected part of our landscape. The greater challenge, however, is balancing regulatory requirements against the need to deal with customer expectation around immediacy.
FsT MeDiA: How do you encourage a culture of innovation in your team?
bAle: Innovation will happen if the team is empowered to challenge the status quo. They ultimately need to believe in the direction we are headed and be given the support and bandwidth to develop new ideas and take risks where appropriate. Innovation will become part of a team’s makeup if they know successes or failures are embraced equally and celebrated as a team. There should be no individual heroes in the innovation arena as everyone ultimately plays a part.
FsT MeDiA: What emerging trend or innovation is currently flying under the radar that you feel is destined to make a significant impact on banking? FsT MeDiA: What are your priorities for the next 12 to 18 months?
bAle: I am keen to explore a more flexible IT sourcing model to support improved customer experience, innovation opportunities and operational effectiveness to make it exciting, yet simple, for our customers to do business with us. Our business portfolio is significant over the next couple of years. The major focus is around improving our channel and product delivery and uplifting our back-office capabilities to support this. We are also focusing on our governance and information management capability. Simplifying our architecture to deliver a seamless and more ubiquitous experience, while being able to provide security, scale, cost reduction and stability, is also a priority.
FsT MeDiA: What will be the most significant challenge facing banking in the year ahead? bAle: The volume of compliance and regulatory change will undoubtedly continue
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bAle: Undoubtedly, secure and safe banking is what our customers are looking for. With the growing presence of the cybercrime threat, the whole biometric space is an untapped opportunity and will gain greater momentum over the next couple of years. In particular, voice biometrics not only has the potential to improve security, but also improve customer experience by removing the frustrations of the traditional methods of verification. FsT MeDiA: What steps will you take to strike a balance between online engagement and the face-to-face banking BOQ is praised for? bAle: A seamless and ubiquitous customer experience is what we aim for, regardless of channel. We are investing in improving our online offering while improving our ability to aggregate our customers’ financial activities in a single view. As a bank, we pride ourselves on building deep customer relationships, really getting to know them and tailoring the products, services and engagement channels to suit their needs. We believe we can do this just as well online as we can in our branches.
FsT MeDiA: Social media is a strategic priority for BOQ. How do you balance supporting a social media presence with the risk of reputational damage? bAle: Social media is incredibly important to us and our customers. While we recognise there may be an element of risk associated with social media, our customers choose the method by which they want to engage and we happily support that. We have a great social media team who are well-versed in engaging with our customers in a risk averse yet customer-focused manner.
FsT MeDiA: The first year in a leadership position is crucial. What challenges will you be tackling first? bAle: My immediate focus has been on getting to know the team and my colleagues within the wider business, understanding the challenges and opportunities ahead of us as an organisation. My 90-day plan has helped me for the short, medium and long term as I get the team set up for the future. I have spent a great deal of my time meeting with a wide range of vendors and understanding their offerings as they are an important part of our overall operation.
FsT MeDiA: With respect to career development, what is the best advice you have ever received? bAle: Firstly, to work hard and not be afraid to put your hand up to help. Secondly, to always be willing to take on feedback. If you choose to dismiss it, it is a missed opportunity to improve.
FsT MeDiA: Every leader has a legacy they wish to be remembered for. What is yours? bAle: It is very early days at BOQ but, if I was to look back in two to three years, I would expect the IT team will have developed to the point where they are highly respected, dynamic and empowered. The ability to have delivered on the mainstay of our strategy will build credibility and confidence that will give us the mandate to really push the boundaries in regards to innovation.
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TechnologyOne
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SGE Credit Union finds success with TechnologyOne The Challenge
SGE’s incumbent solution was antiquated and could not meet its reporting, budgeting, forecasting and analytical requirements into the future given its strategic growth aspirations. SGE was looking for a partner who had a proven track record in delivering solutions to the mutual sector, to deliver a solution that would provide better reporting, improve practices and make it more productive.
The Solution
SGE implemented OneBanking, TechnologyOne’s preconfigured enterprise solution for the banking and mutuals sector. The solution has enabled SGE to interpret accounting and financial information more efficiently and provides a fully integrated supply chain solution from purchasing to replacement. The in-built budgeting solution breaks down the barriers between the operational and the finance sides of the business, and the system provides an asset management approach that integrates all organisational functions.
The Outcome
A mere three months after implementing OneBanking, the benefits are impressive explains Angus McBean, SGE’s Chief Financial Officer. “We have realised enormous efficiency gains. Our reporting is streamlined, not only is the data more accurate, but our productivity has dramatically increased,” said Mr McBean. “OneBanking has reduced duplication and allows greater visibility over the fixed asset holdings so the asset life cycle is managed more effectively, making planning for the replacement of assets over the years far easier.
TechnologyOne has been working for more than 20 years with banks, credit unions, building societies, insurance, superannuation and wealth management organisations. Through our customer relationships and access to proven industry practices, we have developed OneBanking, OneWealth and OneInsurance - leading edge enterprise solutions developed specifically for the financial services industry. These solutions enable organisations to easily report on and manage core financial and non-financial information, as well as meet regulatory reporting requirements including the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) and the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Our sophisticated software integrates with our client’s third party systems, is simple to use, supports an organisation’s growth and addresses the everyday issues around forecasting, budgeting and cost reductions, contract management, program management, real time reporting and the facilitation of people management and staff retention.
“Having better cost transparency across the entire business has solved the problem of having information reside in disparate systems,” he said. The software’s capabilities can be easily adapted over the long term to meet organic and non-organic growth. “That sort of flexibility is truly invaluable to our operations,” Mr McBean said.
For further information, please contact Sean Tuckett on sales@TechnologyOneCorp.com or +61 7 3167 7300
TechnologyOneCorp.com TechnologyOneCorp.com Australia NewcZealand | SouthKingdom Pacific | Asia | United Kingdom Australia | New Zealand | South|Pacifi | Asia | United 1800 671 |978 (within Australia) | +617 3167 7300 (outside Australia) Freecall 1800 671 978 Freecall (within Australia) +617 3167 7300 (outside Australia) w ho ’ s w ho o f fs i
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w h O’ S w h O Q& A // S T E v E C OL ES
Another focus is on increased scalability and robustness. As our colleagues and customers become more dependent on IT and as volumes start to increase, it is critical that we provide both reliability and performance as we grow. We started an internal program in 2012 to address this with an increased focus on logging, monitoring and strengthening redundancy across the environment. It has been pleasing to see the organisation shift towards proactive management of the environment so we can take preventative action to stop incidents before they occur – 2012 saw a 30 per cent year-on-year improvement on what was already a stable environment. We will also focus on our colleagues, to collaborate and operate more efficiently through the provision of better tools. We are in the process of transforming our desktop and migrating to a new DigiDesk environment.
FST MEDIA: What will be the most significant IT challenges facing insurance in the next few years?
COLES: This is an exciting time to be in
Steve Coles
FST MEDIA: What are your priorities for the next 12 to 18 months?
ChiEf iNfoRMATioN offiCER, ALLiANZ
COLES: A number of years ago we developed
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a component-based architecture. Since then we have followed our roadmap and progressively rolled this out across the business. This has enabled us to use best-ofbreed technologies and achieve economies of scale and skill. The focus over the next 18 months is to continue to harness this architecture to support digitalisation. Our goal is to be a leader in sales and distribution, claims management and product transformation. Additionally, we will maintain our focus on business process management and enterprise content management to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
insurance and IT and there are a host of opportunities for insurance companies to create more IT-enabled commercial value. The key challenge is to respond to these opportunities quickly whilst maintaining a competitive IT expense structure. In the last seven years we have focused on reducing run-the-business expenses and redirecting these savings to improving our business whilst maintaining our IT expense ratio at two per cent. This has established a great platform for us to focus on business change. While the outlook is extremely exciting it is also likely that threats will increase, especially around information security. This already has a strong focus but we are expecting investment in this area to continue to increase.
FST MEDIA: What technology or innovation is proving to be the single biggest game changer for insurance?
w h O’ S w h O Q& A // S T E v E C OL ES
COLES: That is a tough question and I would say we have been through a couple of phases of applying IT to start changing the game. The first phase for us happened more than five years ago where we focused on simplifying and automating our processes and enabling our customers to self-serve with us. This gave our customers control while reducing costs. Our next phase was the application of business process management technology, moving to a paperless office and providing process insight to enable us to manage our business more effectively. What will the next game changer be? It is likely that those organisations that achieve actionable insights from their own and third party data will be the most successful.
FST MEDIA: How do you encourage a culture of innovation in your team? COLES: Innovation is in our blood and I am fortunate to have a team that is constantly looking at better ways of leveraging IT. We have a company-wide program that focuses on encouraging and rewarding innovation and I am pleased to say the IT team topped the leaderboard last year. We also use techniques such as FedEx Days to drive innovation in a more intensive environment. We have established a business alignment team to ensure we drive innovation, but I would say there are good examples across the whole team. It is interesting that the most innovative areas are those that really understand the business we operate in. We have a continued focus on building commercial awareness across the team.
FST MEDIA: Allianz was an early adopter of virtualisation on the Mainframe. How does this support future innovations? COLES: The mainframe is key to our infrastructure strategy. We made a conscious decision in 2009 to invest in the mainframe to provide our key platform for growth and stability. As part of this we have consolidated nearly all our key workload onto the mainframe running z/OS and z/Linux.
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organisations that achieve actionable insights from their own and third party data will be the most successful.
This initiative provided savings of more than $1million per year as well as meeting our carbon reduction target. As a business we have seen transaction growth of around 30 per cent per year, as well as having to respond to unusual peaks in demand through catastrophic events such as bushfires, floods and cyclones. Our successful marketing campaigns have also driven transaction growth. The mainframe has delivered us the robustness and scalability to meet this demand. We expect that supporting transaction growth, maintaining reliability while delivering high performance, will continue to be a fundamental requirement for us and our mainframe strategy facilitates this. The consolidation onto mainframe technology also enables us to make a step change improvement in resilience and flexibility to change.
FST MEDIA: How do you build and retain the right skills to address your business needs? COLES: We have steadily insourced activity that was previously outsourced. The team is pleased that we underwrite our own technology decisions and own the execution and management. Over the years we have developed strong centres of competence around BPM, Java, testing, integration, architecture, project management and business analysis. We measure employee engagement closely which has steadily improved each year and I think the technology focus and accountability of the team has been a major
influencing factor, alongside the consistency of our strategy. As a result colleagues enjoy working here, stay longer and build some excellent careers.
FST MEDIA: What tools or references keep you abreast of emerging technology trends? COLES: This is a challenge as the market is moving so quickly. As well as subscribing to researchers and advisers, I also make an effort to meet providers across the market to keep abreast of new developments. I also benefit from being part of a large global organisation which provides me with the opportunity to tap into experience from our many thousands of IT colleagues in more than 70 countries around the group.
FST MEDIA: How do you switch off and achieve work-life balance? COLES: Always tough but I have learnt that you need to work more on the life bit as you get older to achieve the balance. Personally, I could think of nothing better than an early morning bike ride, a game of golf and then fishing in the evening.
FST MEDIA: What skills do you think aspiring technology chiefs should invest in now for future success? COLES: I think that the most successful chief information officers are those that understand the business. I have been in insurance my entire career and am still learning and enjoying the challenge.
FST MEDIA: Every leader has a legacy they wish to be remembered for. What is yours?
COLES: I want to leave a sustainable IT environment that enables our business to realise its full potential. Personally I would also like to be remembered for helping people grow and building some excellent careers. Our culture of empowering people to apply and develop their technical and leadership skills works as a win-win for everyone and builds the talent for tomorrow.
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Hyperactive Cyberthreats: The New Normal By Keith Price In his book The Black Swan, IMF advisor Nassim Taleb describes a ‘black swan’ event as having three attributes: rarity, extreme impact and retrospective predictability. So convinced am I of the relevance of these attributes to information security that I named our consulting company Black Swan Group. Cyberattacks have been around since systems first began connecting to what would become the Internet (think Creeper virus in 1971), but few could predict how prolific they would become. The rise of ecommerce, increased network connectivity with business partners and employees, the complexities of bespoke applications and legacy systems, and the increasing threat from nation-states, cybercriminals and cyberactivists make black swan events inevitable. Just ask Sony. Cybersecurity is now top of mind for many directors in businesses of all industries and sizes. If preparing for a black swan security event is not on your agenda, it should be. Today’s cybercriminals are highly skilled and deeply resourced. A sophisticated underground economy provides both the malware to enable hackers to commit their cybercrimes and the ecommerce facilities to sell the financial data and intellectual property they steal. Nationstates who use their intelligence agencies for cyberespionage and cyberactivists such as Anonymous (who attacked Sony) are also formidable adversaries. Systems most vulnerable to cyberattack are laptops and desktops, which provide a gateway for attacks on other internal systems. Today, everything is interlinked. We are predictable to the criminals and their offence is easier and less expensive than our defence. In security, everything fails to the lowest common denominator so there are no trivial systems.
“Your security architecture should be based on strategies like least privilege, defence in depth, diversity of defence, choke point and systems segmentation.” Along with the volume, variety and velocity of cyberattacks, organisations report that the most significant threat to protecting their sensitive information is data leaked accidentally or intentionally by employees. Employees’ lack of adherence to security policies, standards and procedures can be the greatest challenge to your information security. Indeed, people are not only the weakest link in security but also our last line of defence. Given this, any defence strategy needs to assess the effectiveness of your people, process and organisational controls as well as technology controls. Once you have determined where gaps exist, you can develop a prioritised risk improvement roadmap to get to your desired future state of information security. In achieving information security objectives, my advice is to focus on bigger picture business processes rather than just the three pillars of confidentiality,
integrity and availability. Business process assurance is the ultimate objective of information security. Current attack scenarios should be shifting your security environment away from the fortress model of security strategies. Your security architecture should be based on strategies like least privilege, defence in depth, diversity of defence, choke point and systems segmentation. It should include concentric layers of protection that provide multiple, diverse and complex protection barriers that an attacker (or automated malware) must penetrate one at a time. This dramatically increases the difficulty of exploitation and the time it takes, giving businesses an increased opportunity to detect and stop attack activity. Remember, you can’t prevent all attacks so you must detect and respond quickly. Today’s cyber landscape requires us to rethink our position and start viewing information security more like a counterintelligence function, of which technology plays a major part, but is not the whole solution. With the high number of data breaches we are experiencing, and mandatory data breach notification laws on their way, now is the time to rethink your approach to information security and close those risk gaps. Keith Price is the Director and Principal Consultant at Black Swan Group
For more information please visit www.blackswangroup.com.au w ho ’ s w ho o f fs i
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w h o’ S w h o Q& A // B o h DA N SZ Y M A N I K
Bohdan Szymanik
activity with the slightest financial connection.
chief technology officer, KiwibanK
FST MEDIA: What notable examples have you seen of financial organisations innovating to acquire and retain the growing Gen Y customer base? SZYMANIK: Xero are doing a good job. Through the use of their integration platform for consumers across the world, it creates an ecosystem for small companies to provide value. Clearly, integration out into the external world is a key enabler for financial institutions in the future.
FST MEDIA: How do you balance supporting a social media presence with the risk of reputational damage? SZYMANIK: We put a lot more emphasis on our fraud team. Banking has necessarily become a much more risk adverse activity in the last ten years, something which will certainly impact customer banking interactions in the next few years.
FST MEDIA: What are your priorities for the
FST MEDIA: How are you leveraging big data
next 12 to 18 months?
and analytics to meet customer demand for personalised banking products?
SZYMANIK: My focus is on positioning our people, processes, skills and technologies for the following five years. That is pretty broad so what is actually top of mind for me is dealing with new entrants using cloud and online integration platforms to enable ecosystems of applications. We need to get in there and join the game. That means we need to get much smarter at our use of Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service and Software-as-aService, cloud offerings, secure identity management and delivering programmable interfaces to our partners and customers. The whole idea is to position Kiwibank at the heart of a transaction.
FST MEDIA: What is the ‘holy grail’ that technology and innovation are yet to deliver in financial services? SZYMANIK: Easy! Programmable interfaces and inserting ourselves into any electronic
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SZYMANIK: Top-down and bottom-up. Like all banks, we are investing in quantitative capability across credit and market risk assessment at the top, but at the bottom we are taking a real grass roots focus on gradual analytical capability development. It is the simple stuff that counts here and we are putting a lot of effort into understanding how to generate customer propensities, determine regional differences and figure out better metrics for customer behaviours.
FST MEDIA: What impact do you expect tablets to have on the retail banking sector in the year ahead? SZYMANIK: Actually, fairly big. We are going to see devices everywhere and it will change customer interactions in retail, via our sales force and at home. For me, though, it is the subtle impact of the marketplaces for app delivery.
This is really driving the creation of programmable interfaces to banks. It is where the innovation is really going to come, whether banks understand it or not.
FST MEDIA: What technology investments has Kiwibank made ahead of the introduction of anti-money laundering legislation this year? SZYMANIK: We have made lots of investment in improving customer due diligence and risk measurement – you cannot avoid it.
FST MEDIA: What information sources do you consider invaluable for your job, and why? SZYMANIK: It used to be subscribing to a number of blogs. Now it is Twitter, which points me to the detailed write-ups, typically still blog articles. Twitter lets me discover more quickly.
FST MEDIA: What skills do you think aspiring technology chiefs should invest in now for future success? SZYMANIK: To be able to make the most of everyone else.
FST MEDIA: How do you see the rising roles of chief digital and marketing officers impacting the traditional function of senior technology executives? SZYMANIK: Marketing will stay strong but I am not sure about digital. It really is at the heart of what IT needs to deliver in the future. Whoever is leading digital is effectively leading IT.
FST MEDIA: If you weren’t working in financial services, what would you be doing? SZYMANIK: I have considered boat building. FST MEDIA: Every leader has a legacy they wish to be remembered for. What is yours? SZYMANIK: Leaders all say the same thing – creating a great team. So, in an effort to be different, I am going to say for building narratives. But this is a bit aspirational. I have a long way to go.
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w h o’ s w h o Q& A // pe t e r f l e tc h e r
Peter Fletcher ChiEf iNfoRMATioN offiCER, wEsTPAC NEw ZEALAND
will have a significant impact. Banking and financial services is core to a lot of activities – such as purchasing and searching – and our ability to integrate our services into those offerings in an easy, seamless way is not talked about as much. For banks, it will be about gaining a sufficiently strong understanding of customer demand. It will also be about how much of the chain you want to control. All institutions will have a slightly different view – whether they want to be all the way through the chain or open themselves up to being a small part of the chain. That is the challenge.
fst MeDIA: What technology investments have you made ahead of the introduction of AML legislation in June? fletcher: We have made big investments in our transactional checking capability to meet requirements. We have also worked on our ‘know your customer’ and on-boarding activities with the aim of simplifying them to a point where we will be able to do these activities across multiple channels in a very consistent way. fst MeDIA: What are your priorities for the next 12 to 18 months? fletcher: Continued focus on mobile development is a big area for us so we will do a lot more of that. In the short term, complying with the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) legislation by June is a priority. We are looking at driving modernisation and simplification across our whole application estate. And finally, agility with quality – speeding up the metabolic rate of the organisation to generate quality IT deliverables. fst MeDIA: Which emerging trend or innovation is currently flying under the radar that you feel is destined to make a significant impact on banking?
fletcher: It is an interesting one. A lot of the big trends around mobility and big data are well understood and different organisations are taking their own stance on that. I think integration into the wider supply chain and information management chain 80
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fst MeDIA: Last year, Westpac ran a mobile wallet trial with Telecom and Auckland Transport. Where are you with the trial and what results are you seeing? fletcher: We are still working through the trial. It has had one or two hold-ups outside of Westpac. In terms of results, it is about understanding how mobile wallets will evolve across the industry. We think a lot is going to happen in this space so it is important for us to be in there early with big players to start understanding customer adoption patterns. fst MeDIA: As mobile banking continues to grow, what functionalities and features will emerge as a necessity for mobile applications in the next three to five years? fletcher: The customer demand will grow for instant, on-the-spot payments. It is about customer preference, the ability to be able to pay via mobile is going to be very important. It will also be about integrating the wider
retail and commercial services, and personal activities people are conducting online, with financial elements. If you look at what we are doing with home loans, for example, we are integrating the financial services element with searching for houses.
fst MeDIA: How do you decide which mobile innovations to pursue? fletcher: It is a combination of things. At the end of the day, there is a customer experience we are trying to create and align with. That is the primary driver. There is obviously a market element which means the services we provide need to be competitive. It is about making sure our customers can do what customers at other institutions can do. It will continue to be driven by customer preference. Across banking in general, there is certainly a shift to meeting customer demand rather than driving activities because they suit the bank internally. fst MeDIA: How are you leveraging big data and analytics to meet customer demand for personalised banking products and services? fletcher: It is all about having relevant and personalised conversations. We are using big data to create personalised communications. You would have seen our advertising asking the big questions around finances – that is about understanding behaviour, playing a relevant message back to our customer base and engaging in the conversation. fst MeDIA: With respect to career development, what is the best advice you have ever received? fletcher: To quickly ascertain who your A-players are and surround yourself with them, and to make the tough calls early. fst MeDIA: Every leader has a legacy they wish to be remembered for. What is yours? fletcher: I would like to be remembered for bringing the passion we see for customers in our front-line to our IT shop every day and really trying to realise the full value of quality investment to support our front-line people.
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de e pa k Ja in // w h o’ S w h o Q& a
Deepak Jain head of operations and technology, citigroup australia and new Zealand
FST Media: What opportunities do you see for partnering with technology challengers to the financial services sector, such as Google and Apple? Jain: There is a natural partnership with
Jain: Our core consumer banking platform will receive a significant upgrade, designed to enhance a number of our systems and facilitate a customer-centric view across products and geographies. This will result in increased functionality for our customers. For our corporate businesses, we will deploy higher performance systems including lower latency end-to-end connectivity between clients and exchanges. We will also enhance controls for consolidated anti-money laundering and trade filters which apply across a range of systems. We need to ensure our infrastructure supports both businesses with low marginal cost and end user environments that support flexible methods of working.
Jain: Citibank Australia has been at the forefront of innovation for physical customer access points as we have evolved beyond traditional branches to new smart branches, kiosks and instant banking centres (IBCs). Our IBC located in the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney is a prime example and a flagship for our business. Our Citibank Express next-generation devices will also form part of this architecture and we will be rolling this technology out across Australia in the near future.
FST Media: What is the ‘holy grail’ that technology and innovation are yet to deliver in financial services?
Jain: Security technology focused on multifactor authentication such as biometrics, dynamic pins, firewalls and intrusion detection continue to be a focus for us. I believe we can do more as an industry and community to educate customers on how to securely use each channel.
Jain: We have not yet mastered the ability to manage stable large core systems while delivering innovation on a regular cycle. Over longer periods we swing between multi-year upgrade projects and the rapid development of individual functions. To overcome this we need to architect our systems with open interfaces and evolve our business technology teams into the equivalent of the Apple Genius Bar experts, who leverage this innovation on a regular basis. FST Media: How do you encourage a culture of innovation in your team?
these companies, as long as we allow ourselves to be open-minded about some of the challenges that it creates. Our core strength is built on our banking capabilities such as treasury functions and international payment systems supported by a value proposition centred on trust. We develop systems which conform to a myriad of regulatory requirements and are difficult to build at scale alongside operational processes. Google and Apple do not have these systems so they will want to partner directly with banks to offer their customers new facilities in the same way they currently work with other service providers.
Jain: While we live in such fast evolving times, it is important not to rush innovation for the sake of it. It is too easy to run brainstorms and select two or three ideas to work on alongside day-to-day activity. Not all of these ideas are likely to deliver business value. I encourage my team to spend time working with other business units and experience direct customer interaction. I like them to consider what our customers’ needs are (beyond their immediate expectations) and how we can ultimately make their lives simpler through harnessing technology.
FST Media: What are your priorities for the
FST Media: What is the future of next generation banking machines at Citibank Australia, such as those rolled-out by Citi Asia?
next 12 to 18 months?
FST Media: How are you leveraging emerging technologies to deepen customer trust in Citibank?
FST Media: With respect to career development, what is the best advice you ever received? Jain: When a new career opportunity arises it is important to remember to not spend too much time justifying to others why this opportunity opened up for you. By simply committing yourself it will very quickly feel like you have always been part of the furniture both for yourself and everyone around you. FST Media: Every leader has a legacy they wish to be remembered for. What is yours?
Jain: I want people to say operations and technology drove our business priorities by defining and delivering them, not just supporting them. The function is as responsible for revenues as it is for costs and has evolved from what may have once been seen as a back-office facility to an imperative part of the business. At Citi Australia and New Zealand this is definitely in progress and is very achievable.
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FST MEDIA: Which emerging trend or innovation is currently flying under the radar that you feel is destined to make a significant impact on insurance? FORWARD: Figuring out the next big thing has an element of speculation and if I were better than average in this respect I would be working in venture capital! A great deal of technology change is being driven by consumers, and consumer expectations are driving technology investments in businesses of all kinds. Mobility is an obvious one but not just in the mobile browsers or applications we might build. An example of thinking beyond the obvious here would be enabling interactions with customers by video on whatever end point they choose to use. So-called cloud computing is another obvious example, not only in enabling us to leverage scale in things such as infrastructure and existing applications but also in buying and selling end-to-end services in a manner that improves our distribution reach. FST MEDIA: What notable examples have you seen of financial organisations innovating to acquire and retain the growing Gen Y customer base?
Tony Forward
FST MEDIA: What are your priorities for the next 12 to 18 months?
Chief information offiCer, it serviCes, QBe australia
FORWARD: QBE is working on a program of operational excellence, both in Australia and the organisation globally, and IT has a strategic part to play both as an operating centre in its own right and as a supporting service for a rapidly evolving business. This will require us to change how we work and will require investment in new systems, whether in core revenue systems such as ratings engines or employee productivity platforms such as collaboration suites. We are still in the planning stages but this will enable us to improve productivity and customer service.
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FORWARD: I am not convinced innovation is only required for the growing base of Gen Y customers. For example, in financial planning the growing customer base is the generation planning to retire. That said, electronic distribution and service strategies are innovations directed at Gen Y, especially tools such as mobile apps in the sectors where customers interact frequently with those institutions. There are a lot of disruptive forces occuring in electronic service and distribution. BPAY is the most obvious example, but we have seen the US start-up Square which appears to disintermediate the banking system. We must also be alert to disintermediation in insurance. A Gen Y preference in one area can create opportunities and threats in another. FST MEDIA: How are you leveraging big data and analytics to meet customer demand for personalised insurance products?
TOn y F OR WA R D // W h O’ S W h O Q& A
FORWARD: I am not at all sure that the hype around big data is all that it is cracked up to be, especially in a largely intermediated business such as QBE. Big is a relative term. If you want to analyse the endorsements of people using social networking in real-time – ignoring whether they statistically represent the demographics you are targeting – then that is big data. However, there are many things companies ought to be doing with the data they have.
The hype around big data is [not] all it is cracked up to be . . . there are a lot of things companies ought to be doing with the data they have.
FST MEDIA: How do you encourage a culture of innovation in your team? FORWARD: Necessity is the mother of invention. Innovation must be directed at things the company needs to get done and it needs to be commercially-focused. Innovation as an end in itself does not get far within an in-house IT organisation. To that end, we have to be careful about modelling ourselves on pin-up organisations such as Google or Apple. Their business is technology innovation but ours is insurance. There is tremendous scope for innovation within the commercial constraints of a business such as QBE and we actively look for people who are alert to these opportunities and reward them when they find them and deliver them.
FST MEDIA: How is QBE leveraging the opportunities of mobile, including video and images, in the claims space?
FORWARD: We are investing in mobility in the usual ways with mobile browsers and applications. There is an interesting debate on how far mobile applications can work in our industry. A customer who has just had a car accident may be unlikely to download our claims app while they are standing at the side of the road in a possibly emotional state. They might take a photo of the accident site with their smartphone though, and we need to further facilitate using this information for claims. There are subtle advantages to this since most smartphones attach geo-codes to photographs.
FST MEDIA: How is QBE modifying the structure of its technology department to meet the evolving needs of the business? FORWARD: The structure of our organisation, and more broadly the operating model, is changing to address the operational excellence that is a core business theme. Plans are still being finalised but these are designed to position us to make strategic investments to facilitate the future success of QBE. FST MEDIA: How is QBE progressing with
FORWARD: Technology keeps evolving and spinning off new disciplines and titles such as chief digital officer, or finding ways to re-invent old ones in the marketing realm. But these are entirely complementary to the senior technology executive function. For all the opportunity that technologies such as cloud computing and mobile platforms are presenting to us, there remains a core of technology issues that are far from being a commodity. We might choose to buy them as services from a third party provider, but the integration of all those parts must deliver an appropriate customer and staff experience. FST MEDIA: What tools or references keep you abreast of emerging technology trends? FORWARD: There are many sources for monitoring trends. One of the best is IEEE Spectrum which is across technology innovation from its most basic to its application in diverse fields. Then there are a number of conferences, including those organised by our strategic vendor partners, which are also useful.
the roll-out of its centres of excellence and what benefits will this deliver to the Australian business?
FST MEDIA: The first year in a leadership position is critical. What challenges will you be tackling first?
FORWARD: We are progressing these both here and globally, whether these are business centres of excellence or technology ones. A global company such as QBE has the advantage of being able to leverage the experience of any of its business units anywhere in the world. We have a mandate and an opportunity to re-use whatever makes sense and to utilise whichever resources are appropriate. There is an efficiency goal, but there is also the opportunity to deepen career opportunities for our people by providing scale that could not be achieved at a local level.
FORWARD: I believe you need to start with the team you have and work to getting the best from it. Having the right people in the right job is not the only thing you have to do but nothing else is possible without it. A number of strategic investment decisions need to be made and I will certainly be focusing on those.
FST MEDIA: How do you see the rising roles of chief digital and marketing officers impacting the traditional function of senior technology executives?
FST MEDIA: Every leader has a legacy they wish to be remembered for. What is yours? FORWARD: It is a little early in my tenure to be specific about it. That said, the test I would apply is: will the strategic decisions we are making today prove to be the correct ones in ten years time? Fads come and go but a rigorous strategy will stand the test of time.
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This allows for smaller and more frequent releases of new functionality cheaper, faster and with less risk.
FST Media: How do you balance supporting a social media presence with the risk of reputational damage? Weir: Social media is firmly established as a customer communication channel and, as such, needs to be taken seriously. While it remains a challenge to monetise the investment necessary to maintain an effective presence, most organisations have woken up to the need to be relevant in this channel. At Bankwest, social media is already firmly part of the fabric of the organisation, with a growing presence on Twitter, where we are Australia’s most followed bank outside of the big four. Facebook is particularly beneficial in promoting our community activities and communicating with customers. While the risk of reputational damage will always be present, these channels also present a great opportunity to turn direct negative feedback into a positive customer experience by having experienced colleagues ready and equipped to respond rapidly to the individuals involved.
Andy Weir
FST Media: What are your priorities for the next 12 to 18 months?
Chief exeCutive enterprise serviCes and Cio, Bankwest
Weir: Customers are increasingly looking
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for a truly seamless experience anytime, anywhere and on any device. We are focused on differentiating Bankwest by moving towards an integrated digital experience for our customers, irrespective of channel. Secondly, we will be leveraging improved customer data analytics to deliver increased value for our customers through precision marketing. Finally, we are focusing heavily on driving organisational productivity and process excellence. For us in technology, this means continuing the transformation of our delivery capabilities through agility and moving towards a continuous delivery environment.
FST Media: What notable examples have you seen of financial organisations innovating to acquire and retain the growing Gen Y customer base? Weir: There have been some terrific developments in the mobile payments space, not least from our parent, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), with its Kaching app and Facebook page. The linking of payments capability with social media is another clever way to tap into this generation of customers. At Bankwest, we are rapidly expanding our mobile and payment capabilities to increase our appeal to the Gen Y demographic and are excited to be launching the next generation of our own mobile application shortly. Elsewhere, I was really impressed with Moven’s exclusively-online bank proposition, which mixes social, mobile and gamification
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Are You Sending Mixed Messages? Unfortunately, You Probably Are. By Scott Draeger, HP Exstream Customer Communication Strategist
At many points in the customer lifecycle, many banks and insurance companies confuse their customers. Surely, this cannot happen when leading enterprises obsessively monitor the performance of every customer interaction. Customer interactions are generally implemented and measured by narrowly focused project teams. These teams rarely connect to an enterprise-wide customer communication strategy. If you evaluated your communications projects as a portfolio, it is likely that you will find that many of your projects are working against each other. Before the first sale to a new customer, your marketing campaigns attract prospects to your brand over the web, mobile devices, and mailboxes. Then, proposals, account opening, policy documents, and welcome kits convert your prospects into customers. After the sale, customers are serviced and supported with statements, policy updates, compliance letters, and correspondence generated from call centres. Customer relationships are grown through up-selling, cross-selling, and loyalty programs. These communications are designed to collect revenues, grow share of wallet, and reduce customer churn. From the perspective of your customer, you send a lot of mixed signals. Before the sale, the customer feels very important, interacting with well designed communications with high production values, funded by an acquisition-driven marketing department. After the sale, the operations team struggles to deliver communications operating to cost reduction metrics. As a result, post sale interactions in the call centre, web, and print communications have low production values. Customers feel least important at one of your locations, where they fill out their details
Critical coordination of customer communication projects within the enterprise
multiple times to interact with an enterprise that knows their private financial information. Unfortunately, channel-based project silos create these problems. They are also more costly to operate. Expenses creep into your organisation when well-intentioned project teams choose to buy or build singlepurpose tools that offer benefits tailored to the single project. Additionally these disconnected projects create barriers to sharing content, design assets, data, and ideas across an integrated portfolio of well managed communications. Project focused communications make it nearly impossible to effectively execute on any type of holistic customer communications strategy. As a result, any strategy you set is limited in speed to the slowest project team in your portfolio. In the end, the capabilities of your entire Customer
Communications Management portfolio are limited by the performance of the least capable tools. Taking a higher-level Customer Communications Management perspective can deliver a unified customer experience, eliminating confusion while managing costs. Key elements of Customer Communications Management solutions enable integration with a variety of current and future data sources, enable content sharing across multiple projects, and allow content experts to easily author and update customer communications. A unified customer communication strategy can even share effort across channels. Effective Customer Communications Management can help you eliminate the confusion, improve your customer experiences, and reduce your operating costs.
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technology. They ask customers to complete a personality quiz which recognises positive or unique behaviour and rewards customers with a badge or CRED for reaching a savings goal, paying off outstanding bills or for donating to charity.
FST Media: What technology or innovation is proving to be the single biggest game changer for banking? Weir: There is no doubt the dramatically improved customer analytics made possible through big data will deliver step changes in innovation, productivity and ultimately customer satisfaction. The potential is enormous and overlaying the rise of digital interactions, mobility and social media only increases the size of the opportunity. Developing the skills and capabilities to exploit data effectively has already become a critical success factor. The most successful organisations will be those who swap outdated silo-based operating models in favour of highly collaborative, multi-disciplinary teams who can use the data to quickly develop and deploy customer solutions. FST Media: You recently deployed an app to locate staff in your new activitybased working environment. What further technology investments are you making to facilitate internal engagement and collaboration?
Weir: As well as a completely wireless office environment and the latest video capability, our colleagues have developed a range of capabilities to increase collaboration. Our colleague locator tool not only pinpoints colleagues and their immediate team but also highlights the location of meeting rooms, available equipment and first aiders. This tool has quickly taken over from the corporate phone directory as the primary means of making contact with other colleagues. We have also developed an auto phone login which enables colleagues to be immediately logged into the phone on their desk as soon as their laptop connects to the network. 86
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The most successful organisations will be those who swap outdated silo-based operating models in favour of highly collaborative, multi-disciplinary teams.
Finally, we developed an iWall, which is a virtual wallboard enabling remote colleagues to be part of daily stand-up meetings and key team briefings. As well as technology, we firmly believe the way people physically work together is the key to effective collaboration, which is why we believe so passionately in both agility and activity-based working.
FST Media: What adjustments are you making to Bankwest’s application development strategies in response to the consumerisation of IT? Weir: It is a reality that the internal organisational deployment environment is starting to look more like the external customer landscape, in particular around device diversity. Increased corporate use of tablets, the rise of BYOD, more mobile and home working, as well as a new ‘touch aware’ Windows 8 environment, have created a new set of organisational considerations. In terms of apps development, we have to increasingly use ‘common platform’ thinking in which we converge the way we build internal colleague facing apps with the way we are building external customer facing apps. At Bankwest, our internal customer management system is actually a clone of our external internet banking system. We have also optimised some of our customer sales system screens for mobile use to support our mobile sales force. With other sectors starting to use solutions which bring together things like corporate instant messaging, phone and
voicemail into a single app which can be accessed from anywhere, we certainly see this trend continuing.
FST Media: What tools or references keep you abreast of emerging technology trends? Weir: I read a lot! Just about anything that sounds interesting: blogs, industry press, articles. One of the fantastic things about Twitter is the ability to gain access and visibility to what other thought leaders are reading and what they think is interesting. This certainly helps to point you in the right direction, then assess and access the really good stuff from all the noise! FST Media: What skills do you think aspiring technology chiefs should invest in now for future success? Weir: It is imperative that technology leaders have spent time in business and in customer-facing roles, learning how the broader organisation works and where value is created. They must become familiar with progressive delivery techniques and methodologies to remain relevant. From a behavioural perspective, it is important to be a great listener, display humility and remember to always be true to yourself. FST Media: How do you switch off and achieve work/life balance? Weir: My team at Bankwest has recently undertaken the Flip the Switch program from personal performance expert, Andrew May. This has helped me achieve a better balance across all aspects of my life including personal productivity, fitness, recovery and psychological needs. Overall, I am pretty good at switching off and I love keeping fit. Time with the family is always a great way to relax and I am also a recent convert to meditation. FST Media: Every leader has a legacy they wish to be remembered for. What is yours? Weir: To have helped transform Bankwest into one of the most customer-focused, agile and productive organisations in the world!
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Joe Cunningham GLoBAL hEAD of TEChNoLoGY sTRATEGY AND iNNoVATioN, VisA
uses of new technologies. We centre our work on a number of research themes, and we aim to form new alliances in Asia over the next year or so and emulate the success we have seen in the US.
FST MEDIA: How do you see the payments industry in Asia evolving over the next 12 months? CUNNINGHAM: Asia is an extremely diverse region with countries at differing stages of economic development. This requires tailored solutions in terms of payments technology as markets mature at different rates. I believe that we will see new and innovative ideas from young, entrepreneurial start-ups in Asia over the next few years and this will influence the payments landscape in the longer-term. Right now, we are working in both developed and emerging markets across Asia to bring relevant and innovative services such as mobile payments to consumers. FST MEDIA: How is Visa looking to overcome the technological challenges in reaching new customers throughout emerging Asian markets? FST MEDIA: What are your priorities for the next 12 to 18 months? CUNNINGHAM: Our global technology strategy links technology planning and decision-making with Visa’s corporate and business strategy, ensuring Global Technology is oriented to enable our business and advance Visa’s capabilities. As the technology arm of the world’s largest retail electronic payments network, our highest priorities will always be to protect the Visa brand values of reliability, security and global interoperability. The last 12 months have seen one of the initiatives that I am responsible for, VisaLabs, expand into Asia with regional headquarters in Singapore. VisaLabs reviews and tests emerging technology with the potential to make our solutions and products even better in the long-term. We have an ‘open innovation’ approach which enables us to work with third parties globally including universities, government agencies, venture capital firms, start-ups and technology incubators to determine the possible 88
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CUNNINGHAM: The diversity within Asia means that different approaches are required depending on the maturity of the technology and payments landscape in a particular market. I would not say that it is necessarily about overcoming challenges, more about tailoring the approach to provide people with access to secure digital currency, wherever they are. For example, the objective of our acquisition of Fundamo is to drive the development of products and solutions which integrate Fundamo’s mobile financial services platform with Visa’s global payments network, VisaNet. This is in line with our focus on bringing more payments services to developing markets, as Fundamo is one of the leading providers of mobile financial services for unbanked and under-banked consumers in more than 40 developing markets. FST MEDIA: How do you balance the need for ROI with the desire to invest in new technologies and innovation?
CUNNINGHAM: In terms of the work being done by the VisaLabs team, our view is very much long-term. Our research themes are focused on emerging technologies and investigating how they could be utilised within Visa to develop or improve products for our clients. We also have a role in ensuring we are aware of technology trends and hold an opinion on how they may shape the industry in the future. Consequently, at this stage of the process the focus is not on ROI in the traditional sense, but rather how new technology can enable innovation within the business. That said, at the heart of all our R&D programs is an approach that is pragmatic, accountable and aligned to our technology research themes. FST MEDIA: What is the ‘holy grail’ that technology and innovation are yet to deliver in financial services? CUNNINGHAM: Innovation within the financial services industry is essential to enable consumers to pay for goods and services in the most efficient way possible, at any time or place. This includes both new and improved consumer-facing products. It also involves ensuring the system that handles electronic payments is reliable, fast and secure. I do not think in terms of one particular technological innovation, but how technology emerges and matures, and how products and services integrate to give consumers the best experience possible. At Visa, we refer to this as responsible innovation – ensuring that new solutions are brought to market only when they are completely ready. Trust is at the core of everything we do and we will never sacrifice this to increase the speed of a product to market. FST MEDIA: Every leader, particularly at your level, has a legacy they wish to be remembered by. What is yours? CUNNINGHAM: I am very lucky to have had the chance to work with some great people and organisations. I do not think about legacy very often. Right now, I am focused on making a positive difference for the people I work with, and in the role I play at Visa. That is enough for me.
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R I c H A R D H OL M ES // w H O’ S w H O Q& A
Richard Holmes Chief information offiCer, Bt finanCial Group
mobile and wealth offerings. As an example, a customer could start their engagement with us through one channel (such as a tablet) and then finish in another channel (such as a phone) without having to repeat themselves.
FST MEDIA: What notable examples have you seen of financial organisations innovating to acquire and retain the growing Gen Y customer base? HOLMES: Every organisation, and in particular financial services, has the Gen Y customer base on their radar. Gen Y does not want to be sold to – they want to engage and social media channels are how they communicate. We are using social media to help Gen Y customers start engaging in superannuation. This is an audience our traditional media does not typically speak to and a topic a Gen Y customer typically may not start to engage in until later years. FST MEDIA: How are you leveraging big data and analytics to meet demand for personalised wealth products? FST MEDIA: What are your priorities for the next 12 to 18 months? Business Transformation program – a wealth platform broadening direct access and supporting our advice models. Ultimately, our priority is all about the experience our customers have every time they interact with our business and ensuring we are the ‘accessible expert’ be it for super, insurance or advice. Our role in technology is to partner our business to facilitate the best possible customer experience.
HOLMES: Customer information and insights, and therefore analytics, are key to really understanding our customer needs. The challenge we face is integrating data from our different heritage data warehouses. We constantly strive to maximise the use of our data and are currently investigating, testing and monitoring how big data can improve these outcomes. We are still in the early stages with big data – at the moment we notice a certain amount of hype around this trend and we need to ensure any investment we make will deliver value.
FST MEDIA: What technology or innovation is proving to be the single biggest game changer for wealth management?
FST MEDIA: What major technology challenges have you overcome in preparation for Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) reforms?
HOLMES: Enabling our business to deliver to the increasing digital customer base is an absolute game changer. Our Business Transformation program will provide a seamless customer experience across platforms and will link our internet banking,
HOLMES: On the surface it looks like a regulatory change that only impacts our financial planners. In reality it has impacted the full suite of products we sell, the relationships we have with our distribution channels, the method by which we pay
HOLMES: A significant priority is our
our employees and the way we deal with customers in our branches. The large and complex nature of the reforms – coupled with regulatory guides and late legislation – has meant we have needed to be flexible to changing our business solutions as the regulations have become available.
FST MEDIA: How are you driving the ethos of Agile – adaptability, flexibility, spend – beyond the IT department? HOLMES: Combined teams of technologists and business delivery specialists are fundamental to Agile delivery so this, by nature, broadens the profile of Agile. We have stretched this ethos further by combining it with customer centric design to drive teams to engage with each other rather than working in their functional units. Our IT teams are passionate about driving Agile within our projects. We have worked across Group Technology to put tools in place so we can embed Agile in our DNA. FST MEDIA: What information sources do you consider invaluable for your job, and why?
HOLMES: Customer needs, trends in financial services and the technology industry are essential information sources. I read the commercial press and technology journals to stay informed and garner insights on where the market may be heading. I work directly with our partners and advisory firms and the counsel of my management team is always a valuable resource. FST MEDIA: Every leader has a legacy they wish to be remembered for. What is yours?
HOLMES: Ensuring the investments we make in our systems build on BT Financial Group’s reputation as a company that delivers innovative solutions and exceptional customer experiences. Also, building a talented team – you can never lose sight of the fact that it is our people who are essentially the key drivers for any success and any legacy that may come as part of that.
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Capitalising on Change 1. Which emerging trend or innovation currently flying under the radar will make a significant impact on financial services? A key trend we are noticing is the rapid surge in adoption of smartphones, tablets and cloud-based social applications, fuelled by increased access to high-speed data services via the rollout of fast fibre and mobile networks. This is driving change in the workplace, with users expecting access to business and personal information at anytime, anywhere and on any device. Many financial organisations are under pressure as they deal with the security risks and lack of control associated with having business information scattered across multiple devices. The proliferation of smart devices and easy access to high-speed data will continue to drive up-take. By 2016, mobile devices will outsell PCs four-to-one, and Gartner estimates that there will be 40 billion connected devices in the world by 2020. There is one question I ask the clients I meet: “If you and your customers had access to unlimited data for free, or at significantly lower cost, would you change your business model?” Invariably, the answer is “yes”. Businesses should be thinking about what they need to do to prepare for and capitalise on this change – and they should do it now, because if they don’t there are other companies out there that will.
2. How does Gen-i’s trans-Tasman strategy better service the needs of financial services’ CIOs in Australia and New Zealand? Despite Australia and New Zealand being physically close, the transfer of information and data in a timely and secure way can be fraught. Our focus is on the enablement of business between Australia and New Zealand by delivering integrated
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technology solutions that are cost-effective, secure, reliable, and aligned to our clients’ current and future requirements. We provide consistency of service through a single account management team and service delivery structure spanning both markets. Our role is to ensure our clients are never prevented from making a business decision because of their network or IT infrastructure. We work with our clients to ensure they have the technology they need to either immediately capitalise on a business decision, or have a very clear line-of-sight as to when they can.
3. Gen-i’s key offering is consistency, yet regulation across Australia and New Zealand is inconsistent. How do you support these inconsistencies? There are very specific requirements around accounting and regulatory compliance in the two markets, necessitating very different solutions while still supporting a holistic approach across both countries. CIOs within our financial services clients are focused on supporting a number of compliance programmes to ensure they meet industry regulations, which have proliferated in the wake of the global financial downturn. We have specialists with a deep understanding of the finance industry’s compliance requirements, and this enables us to deliver services that capitalise on our clients’ regulatory, commercial and organisational compliance requirements. For example, when we worked on the design and delivery of a new data centre for a large banking client, we worked closely with regulatory people in both markets to ensure our services met the respective Government standards. While many ICT providers regard compliance as an obligation, we see it as an opportunity to work with our clients to create successful compliance outcomes for their business.
4. How are you boosting morale and strengthening an internal focus on customer-centricity, in light of Gen-i’s recent restructure? In March, we announced a change in focus for Australia where we now concentrate on supporting our large corporate clients with specific trans-Tasman requirements. As part of that change, we strengthened our focus on key industry verticals, including our delivery of specific, tailored solutions for the banking and finance sector. Our people are very positive about this renewed focus on key vertical markets and the clarity and focus it gives to their roles. We have a renewed focus on collaborative working practices that enable us to execute with speed, and empower our people to challenge the status quo. For example, I host a daily audio conference with our trans-Tasman team to discuss opportunities and challenges, and I commit to a 24-hour turn-around on key decisions. This has sped up our decision-making and fast-tracked service improvements, so our clients benefit from a high quality, reliable and responsive service that allows them to confidently plan for the future.
5. What challenges can financial services CIOs expect as they consider BYOD programs? A key challenge is the increased pressure IT departments are under as they deal with the security risks and loss of control associated with BYOD. Many teams struggle to keep ahead of the increasing pace of change and are looking for assistance to enforce security policies across a wide range of mobile devices and operating systems. BYOD can also lead to a plethora of devices and network bills, with spreading data borders and spiralling costs potentially creating an IT and administrative headache. We help our clients to manage, secure and support their fleet of mobile devices and operating systems, and ensure they
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are securely managed, monitored and supported. Updating usage policies, processes and training for their people, as well as IT support staff is key to reducing the business risk.
6. What is the future of technologyenabled workplace collaboration? New mobile and fast fibre networks are extending access to high-speed data into rural areas, where declining populations once led to widespread branch office closures. Our clients are focused on leveraging this capability to deliver innovative new collaboration services that place more decision-making in the hands of local bankers to enhance the local customer experience. Financial services organisations are developing regional hubs or centres of excellence staffed by local staff, often with specialist expertise. This allows them to maintain or increase their regional branches, while taking advantage of new mobile, online and social technologies to make front-line people accessible to customers across Australasia. When they are not serving local customers face-toface, they can be helping other customers across Australasia using call centre and online services. New collaboration technologies are also improving their delivery of seamless integrated experiences across all service channels, including online, mobile, ATMs, call centres and local branches. This means their customers can choose the most appropriate channel for each communication.
7. How does Gen-i help its financial services CIOs to move from a delivery and support function to a more strategic role in the business? CIOs play a critical role in keeping network and IT infrastructure up at all times, ensuring sensitive customer information is adequately protected, managing the quality of the end-user experience, and ensuring that compliance requirements are met – all with dwindling resources. And now they
are under increased pressure to capitalise on new cloud, mobile, data and social technologies for growth and innovation. We help our clients relieve this pressure by giving them the option of outsourcing the management of their network and IT, and the challenge of proactively maintaining and optimising their ICT. Gen-i’s managed services provide end-to-end capability that span networks, security, communications and IT infrastructure, through to desktops, mobility and applications. This means we can be extremely responsive and effective in maintaining a high level of service delivery, which is critical for financial organisations that depend on their ICT for business continuity and to create a platform that scales for future growth. Greg Mikkelsen is responsible for delivering integrated end-to-end services for Gen i’s largest Australasian clients with complex ICT needs. His responsibilities include sales, service, solutions and operations management to ensure Gen-i delivers outcomes based, integrated solutions for clients using a combination of Gen i and partner provided services..
Greg Mikkelsen is Gen-i’s General Manager for Enterprise, Commercial and Trans Tasman business
For more information please visit www.gen-i.co.nz / www.gen-i.com.au w ho ’ s w ho o f fs i
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Alex Twigg General ManaGer, UBank
FsT MediA: What are your priorities for the next 12 to 18 months? Twigg: NextGen continues to be a key priority. We will continue to build our digital banking proposition with the launch of USaver Ultra, our new everyday transaction account. This will have all the features you would expect from a transaction account plus a couple more we think will change the game again. On top of that, we are planning further developments to our peoplelikeu.com.au big data offering and experimenting with a range of other innovations.
Our 100 per cent online, ten minute savings account process and UHomeloan application tracker, for example, were both originally discounted as gimmicks by many but are now multi-award winners and setting the benchmark for digital consumers.
customers do not require the same dayto-day touch points that mobile is great at facilitating. We have already launched our mobile site and are well progressed with iOS and Android apps to partner the USaver Ultra transaction account.
FsT MediA: What notable examples have you seen of financial organisations innovating to acquire and retain the growing Gen Y customer base?
FsT MediA: What business benefits have you realised from your investment in big data, such as UBank’s spending comparison tool, PeopleLikeU?
Twigg: I never like to think about Gen X, Gen Y or any other age-based segment because that gives people an excuse to dismiss consumer trends as not mainstream and therefore not important. If we have learnt anything over the last few years, it is that new technologies are not adopted by age, because they are already mainstream in other industries by the time the technology has matured sufficiently for banking purposes. However, I was really impressed by Societyone.com.au with their five minute mobile personal loan application. Also ”la Caixa” in Spain, OCBC Bank in Singapore, DenizBank in Turkey and Alior Bank in Poland are all creating some great Facebook banking integrations.
Twigg: Firstly the non-transactional engagement we have with customers and non-customers alike. Users of peoplelikeu. com.au have probably spent more time learning about their finances in an enjoyable way than ever before, which builds great brand affinity for UBank. Secondly, peoplelikeu.com.au has shown the art of the possible and opened peoples’ minds to the incredible value big data creates in the customer proposition, not just in the back office.
FsT MediA: What is the ‘holy grail’ that technology and innovation are yet to deliver in financial services?
FsT MediA: How is NextGen, National Australia Bank’s [NAB] transformation project, facilitating innovation within UBank?
Twigg: Simplicity and transparency. I have been a banker for over 20 years and I have yet to meet a person who wants to bank. Everyone wants the result of banking. They want the mortgage that lets them buy their dream home but nobody wants the hassle of applying for a mortgage. The Holy Grail therefore, is to create a banking experience that truly delivers what customers need and want without customers having to bank, whether in-branch, online or otherwise.
Twigg: NextGen allows us to take a bottom-
FsT MediA: Is developing a mobile
up approach to all our customer interactions. It makes us question the customer value at every step, enabling us to create true customer experience driven propositions rather than the traditional system constrained offerings.
presence a key priority for UBank in 2013? Where and when will you make the initial mobile deployment?
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Twigg: Our product range to date has been savings and mortgages which for most
FsT MediA: What information sources do you consider invaluable for your job, and why? Twigg: UBank is a fast follower of digital businesses and an innovator in financial services. I always try to take an outside-in view of the world, scanning everything and anything for digital pioneers to join the dots to create new possibilities for UBank and NAB. However, the world is a big place and the information available is even bigger so my favourite tool is Google Alerts. Interestingly I think Linkedin must have been doing some clever big data analysis because a lot of my recent random surfing has started with a Linkedin tailored news email, presumably based on my profile information and group registrations. I generally click on at least two of the links in every Linkedin email. FsT MediA: Every leader has a legacy they wish to be remembered for. What is yours? Twigg: My legacy wish is still to build the world’s best digital bank and every year UBank continues to go from strength from strength.
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JONES: Significant innovation is happening in payments as a result of an increasing number of non-traditional businesses making an entry into the payment space. We believe the key to success is translating this innovation into products and services that enhance the customer experience. FST MEDIA: What notable examples have you seen of financial organisations innovating to acquire and retain the growing Gen Y customer base? JONES: We have seen a wide range of financial services organisations introducing a strategic focus on innovation. One of the key drivers behind this focus is enhancing the customer experience and making things simpler, easier and more accessible. Increasingly, customers want banking services delivered through non-traditional channels relevant to their daily lives, including mobile and social media. What is also interesting is the huge number of start-up businesses trying to acquire the growing Gen Y customer base by venturing into various parts of the financial services value chain, especially the payment space.
Russell Jones Chief operations offiCer, asB Bank
FST MEDIA: What are your priorities for the next 12 to 18 months?
JONES: Our top priorities over the next year include: continuing to build on our realtime, online banking system and mobile apps; working with our parent company Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) to maximise opportunities and leverage each other’s capabilities; and continuing to develop our people by providing growth opportunities. In addition, we will be supporting ASB’s areas of strategic focus by delivering quality cost-effective services, strategic initiatives and developing our technology assets to support new, flexible ways of working. FST MEDIA: Which emerging trend or innovation is currently flying under the radar that you feel is destined to make a significant impact on banking?
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FST MEDIA: How are you leveraging big data and analytics to meet customer demand for personalised banking products? JONES: During the normal course of our business we engage with our customers and collect a wide range of data. We spend a great deal of time ensuring we are using that data to make things simple and easier for customers by offering relevant products and services. To us, it is about being innovative and trusted to come up with things that enable our customers to make informed and relevant decisions. After all, it is about focusing on the future and how we can anticipate their needs and achieve success together.
FST MEDIA: Your parent company, CBA, launched Kaching for Facebook last year. What are ASB’s plans for providing transactional banking services on social media?
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JONES: At ASB we are fortunate to have a well-established and very productive relationship with CBA, which is built around the focus of both organisations on customer service and leadership in innovation. That drive and passion means we continue to learn a lot from each other. By maximising opportunities and leveraging each other’s capabilities we have invested considerable time in developing plans to enhance our respective mobile offerings. In New Zealand, our award-winning ASB Virtual Branch on Facebook has gone from strength to strength with a very active and engaged community of which we are immensely proud. The focus is on having two-way conversations with customers to ensure it is a natural part of daily life, with the bank presenting options and service offerings before customers even have to think about it. We also have very active social media and brand experience teams. Thanks to their hard work, passion and focus on innovation, we are constantly reviewing and upgrading our use of digital channels. The pace of change means it is difficult to predict where technology will lead us in the long term, but the possibilities are endless! FST MEDIA: What technology investments has ASB made ahead of the introduction of anti-money laundering legislation (AML) this year? JONES: The introduction of AML legislation has been one of our larger projects over the past year, but it has not stopped us from continuing to innovate and invest in a number of products and service offerings. We have seen the legislation as an opportunity to focus on the future and our customers, to ensure we make the process easier, more simple and transparent.
FST MEDIA: How has your investment in video technology delivered value to the business and how have you measured success? JONES: We have made a significant investment in video technology and every branch now has a number of video conferencing devices. This has improved
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The pace of changes means it is difficult to predict where technology will lead us in the long term, but the possibilities are endless!
the customer experience as now they can connect with a specialist from anywhere in the ASB network. Plus it is always nice to put a face to a name! The feedback from customers has been resoundingly positive and up-take continues to grow. In addition, we are currently piloting a cutting-edge video technology product called FaceMe. This New Zealand first allows customers to connect to the bank via video conferencing from a place that suits them. The service also offers secure sharing of documents so it is a great time saver for our customers. When they have some quiet time to have a quick discussion, they can connect and have a two-way conversation via direct video. While it is still early days, the feedback has been very positive.
FST MEDIA: How are you using the results of the tap-and-go trial under the Trusted Service Manager joint venture to advance ASB’s contactless payments strategy?
JONES: While progress has arguably been a little slower than expected, there is no doubting the increasing appetite for banking via contactless payments. With this in mind, helping customers become increasingly connected has led to a number of contactless payment trials underway in New Zealand, including our own. We are looking forward to adding this capability to enhance the payments experience that New Zealanders currently enjoy.
We continue to work with Trusted Service Manager partners to develop the industry’s capabilities in the mobile contactless space so the process is easy and simple.
FST MEDIA: What information sources do you consider invaluable for your job, and why?
JONES: There are a considerable number of information sources that I consider valuable including general and specific technical publications or journals, but the two most important and invaluable sources are our customers and our staff. FST MEDIA: What skills do you think aspiring technology chiefs should invest in now for future success? JONES: Aspiring technology chiefs should cast their skills net as wide as possible. In the early years of your career it is important to build technical skills and competencies, but at more senior levels this is usually taken for granted as a ‘hygiene factor’. At more senior levels your ability to communicate, listen, build relationships, influence and achieve commercial outcomes are far more influential.
FST MEDIA: What do you consider to be the greatest achievement of your career to date?
JONES: I have been fortunate to have had a varied and interesting career and have been in leadership positions on a number of great initiatives in a number of successful companies in different industries. On reflection, the achievements you remember first are always to do with people achieving success. Seeing people with whom you work achieve something they never thought they would and go on to create success in their future ventures is always really special. FST MEDIA: Every leader has a legacy they wish to be remembered for. What is yours?
JONES: I would like to be measured on my results and hope they speak for themselves.
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Bridging the Divide Between Personal and Professional Mobility An evolving financial services sector and changing consumer needs mean the shift from mobile communications to true mobile computing is more important than ever. In this interview, Scott Totzke, Senior Vice President, BlackBerry Security, BlackBerry shares his insights on how BlackBerry 10 is tapping into a new hyperconnectivity trend to create devices that facilitate the personal mobile experience and safeguard corporate data.
How has the BlackBerry evolved alongside changes to the telecommunications industry? BlackBerry changed the face of communication when it launched the first smartphone in 1999 and enabled management of email and data. Over the last decade we have witnessed telecommunications moving from narrowband to broadband; from analogue to digital. This evolution placed power into the hands of consumers – mobile users now have the power and functionality of a laptop computer in a portable device. This has changed expectations about how consumers engage and interact with their financial services provider. Our strategy is to lead the next paradigm shift, from mobile communications to true mobile computing.
What does true mobility in business mean? The goal of mobile computing is to simplify and enrich the user experience by automating financial services organisations’ systems to interact with customers. By increasing the connectivity of devices and people we can improve productivity. It is a world of mobile-connected cars, trains and planes but also one of remote health care delivery, more efficient energy management, secure mobile finance and much faster, more efficient businesses. This kind of mobile computing can boost productivity, spark economic growth and improve the quality of life of people across the planet.
What are the key trends in mobility for financial services? There are two dimensions to what mobility means for financial services organisations. The first is how they interact with customers; the second is how they manage and govern the use of devices within their own businesses. Financial services organisations are now dealing with a very empowered customer. Smartphones place the power to transact and the benefit of contextual services into consumers’ hands through virtual branches and a concierge-style experience on mobile. These customers expect a high level of responsiveness. Differentiating through customer service is a new challenge within this environment. The new BlackBerry 10 platform can
work with other machines to extend information beyond a mobile device to a car, home, or wherever a customer chooses. This enables financial services organisations to consider new services and new ways to reach and transact with customers, across multiple touch points.
How can BlackBerry 10 solve the challenges of mobility? Scott Totzke, A key challenge is managing the Senior Vice President, wide spectrum of mobile devices BlackBerry Security at across disparate environments. BlackBerry The financial services industry is one of the most heavily regulated in the world, with organisations facing significant concerns about protecting intellectual property and priceless customer data. The BlackBerry 10 provides a secure personal and work device in one. It offers protection of intellectual property and corporate data by separating personal information, apps and content from corporate information. IT admin has control over corporate data and access to the network and applications. At same time, it enables the use of personal functions, including access to social media such as Facebook and Twitter.
What does mobile computing mean for Asia Pacific? Asia Pacific is a major growth centre for financial services, but it is also a crucible of ideas and innovation. Financial services organisations are delivering new services and interacting with truly mobile customers across diverse geographies. For example, in India 25 per cent of the population is under 25, so there is a huge focus on ensuring connectivity to rural parts of the country. Not everyone has a broadband connection, so mobility delivers a new way to connect and interact with customers.
For more information visit blackberry.com w ho ’ s w ho o f fs i
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Tony Dixon ChiEf iNfoRMATioN offiCER, TowER iNsURANCE
you can look forward to indirect outcomes. Customers will be more loyal and, as a result, sales will increase.
Fst MEdiA: What are your priorities for the next 12 to 18 months?
dixon: Firstly, the separation of the sold health and investments business units – we will have to right-size the IT group. This is followed by the execution of the first phase of our digital strategy. We want to run our whole business online. Finally, we will work on the biggest part of any insurance company – making a claim, managing a claim, people being able to go online and see where in the process their claim is. This is what we call ‘the moment of truth’ in insurance.
Fst MEdiA: What will be the most significant challenge facing insurance and wealth management in the year ahead?
Fst MEdiA: What role do you see for emerging mobile-based technologies, such as video and cameras, in the claims process? dixon: People are already starting to use these technologies. It is still in what I call the ‘Wright brothers era’ because people have to start right-sizing their corporate data and voice networks. Most companies’ corporate networks and IT infrastructure have a costeffective, rather than performance-effective focus. As bandwidth gets bigger and costs decrease, you will probably see much more use of these technologies.
Fst MEdiA: What is the ‘holy grail’ that technology and innovation are yet to deliver in financial services? How will you get there?
dixon: A complete online ‘virtual business’. It will take commitment to get there. When you have a vision, you have to be committed to it, give it dedicated resources and go and do it. You cannot always create a business case in terms of dollars and cents but
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dixon: The ever-changing compliance landscape. Various financial services providers failed to successfully deliver to customers on investments, mainly due to a general lack of governance and bad practices. This resulted in large losses for ordinary New Zealanders. The huge increase in premiums, caused by the Christchurch earthquake will also pose a challenge for insurers going forward, along with changes to how houses will be insured, effective from the middle of this year. Fst MEdiA: What potential do you see for usage-based insurance technologies, and what investments are you making?
dixon: This is under review currently but we have no new services as yet. By their very nature, insurance products and the wording of contracts can be quite complex. As a business we can make that simpler. To some people, the words “we have you covered” mean they do not have to worry about anything so they will sign anything. I think we will end up simplifying products. Insurance products will become segmented so customers will insure a specific item for a specific price and specific excesses. It will end
up being in an online, virtual space where customers can pick-and-mix.
Fst MEdiA: How have your recent investments in legacy simplification delivered value to the business and how will you measure success? dixon: We embarked on a replacement of our general insurance platform last year and have one business up and running. Turnaround times in claims and improved cashflow are some of our measurements and we have seen significant improvements in our customer service and client claims area already. It is anecdotal, but in our claims area we have probably cut several days off our claims times.
Fst MEdiA: How are you leveraging mobile and digital platforms to realise efficiencies in claims processing? dixon: We have one mobile application in play at present, specifically for claims. We have not seen much by way of results – we are ahead of the curve. With our digital strategy, there will be more mobile applications to follow. The applications will, in part, be educational to drive customer awareness of what they are buying and how they are doing that.
Fst MEdiA: With respect to career development, what is the best advice you ever received?
dixon: “Do or do not. There is no try.” – Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back.
Fst MEdiA: What information sources do you consider invaluable for your job, and why? dixon: Roadmaps from strategic industry leaders, global business trends in our industry segment and forecasts based on emerging trends, rumours and gossip.
Fst MEdiA: Every leader has a legacy they wish to be remembered for. What is yours? dixon: I was here. I made a difference in peoples’ lives that I touched and I did it well.
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w H o’ S w H o Q& a // a n dr e w H e n de rSon
every day. Organisations that can gain rapid insight from divergent data sources and transform this into customer value will win. The entrepreneurs of the future will be the leaders who can connect a number of disparate data dots and see an opportunity. The innovators will be the ones who sieze those opportunities.
FST Media: What will be the most significant challenge facing banking in the year ahead? HenderSon: We must continue to provide outstanding security, value and service to customers and ensure we meet their expectations. We must also continue to manage our risks but we must not go into our shells, particularly in technology. Technology presents significant opportunities to simplify our operations, and at the same time deliver smart and effective customer solutions. To do that we need to keep challenging the status quo and holding ourselves accountable for outcomes. FST Media: What notable examples have you seen of financial organisations innovating to acquire and retain the growing Gen Y customer base?
Andrew Henderson Chief information offiCer, inG DireCt
FST Media: What are your priorities for the next 12 to 18 months? HenderSon: Our focus stays in three key areas. Firstly, ensuring we keep delivering stable and secure services to support our customers. Secondly, ensuring that we continue to improve the agility and quality of delivery. Finally, ensuring we continue to be a great place to work.
FST Media: What will be “the next big thing”
HenderSon: This is an easy one – I can look no further than ING Direct Australia’s Living Super innovation. This has gone a long way to putting control back into the hands of our customers, while also providing a huge amount of value. It is no surprise that our Gen Y customers love it and are signing up in numbers. Imagine seeing your super balance growing every time you log in to check your Orange Everyday account. By making a complex product very simple to use and available online, we have certainly opened up an industry that was not easy to understand.
in banking?
HenderSon: There will continue to be a number of innovations in banking as we invest in providing better services for customers in the areas of mobility, social media and payments. However, the game changer will come from the organisations that best leverage the data they collect
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FST Media: How are you leveraging big data and analytics to meet customer demand for personalised banking products? HenderSon: Like most Australian companies, we do not have data volume issues but we do have a lot of variety in both internal and external data sources. This can
w H o’ S w H o Q& a // a n dr e w H e n de rSon
be used to personalise products, but we pride ourselves on being a bank for everyone, with customer service core to our DNA. As such, our big data initiatives are not around personalising the products – although a lot of our data insights do feed into product design. Rather, they focus on making sure the customer experience is the best we can make it. This means manipulating data from the details of every web click and phone button press, to national customer demographic data, to customer satisfaction survey results, through to social media and complaints analysis.
FST Media: 2013 will see ING Direct deploy a new private cloud infrastructure. What key challenges do you foresee and how will you overcome these? HenderSon: We are in the process of cloud-enabling our production data centres, which means we will replace our entire core infrastructure and platform services with a latest generation, highly elastic, highly commoditised ‘on premise’ architecture. In short, we are taking our award winning Bank in a Box solution to production. We will more than halve the core platforms needed to run the bank, significantly simplifying our architecture, while at the same time dramatically reducing our risks and costs. We will increase the technology capability we can offer our customers whether it is in the workplace, core banking, analytics or mobile channels. This is the most significant transformation of technology since we launched and the most complex since our data centre migration in 2008. The technology challenge is significant. However, the area that keeps me awake at night is the change required by our people. We need to learn new skills and new processes. There will be new roles and some roles will change significantly. This will take time and a lot of leadership focus and support to ensure we manage this well and our staff are fully engaged along the way. To do this, we have a clear change management plan in place, we are working closely with excellent partners and we have our teams contributing to the project across the bank.
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The technology challenge is significant. however, the area that keeps me awake at night is the change required by our people.
environment, where we experiment with new products and ideas. This helps us get past the marketing material and straight into experiencing the technology. It is fast, fun and very engaging for all stakeholders.
FST Media: How do you see the rising roles of chief digital and marketing officers impacting the traditional function of senior technology executives? HenderSon: In many cases, the CIO and
FST Media: ING Direct has an established customer service presence on social media. What opportunities do you see for extending the role of social media beyond customer service in transactional banking? HenderSon: Our colleagues at ING Direct globally are piloting a number of interesting ideas in which they are extending the social media context into transactional banking, for example, the ING Direct Canada launch of Facebook banking. We will be watching to see if customers get value from these initiatives and factoring those back into our own plans where appropriate. In the meantime, we are working very hard on our new mobile channel, with the underlying bank application programming interface that will allow us to rapidly deploy new services to social, mobile or traditional channels.
CMO roles will converge simply because the core business engine of the future will soon be the marketing and analytics engine. As technology commoditisation via the cloud reduces our need to manage data centres, coupled with the critical role big data will play in finding business opportunities, the skills of both roles will be crucial to the success of the organisation.
FST Media: If you weren’t working in financial services, what would you be doing? HenderSon: I love technology, being creative in solving problems and working with great teams. The beauty of a career in information technology is that we can take these skills and go anywhere. I have no idea what industry or what country I would be in if I were not in financial services, but I do know that I would be enjoying myself leveraging what technology can do!
FST Media: What information sources do you consider invaluable for your job, and why?
FST Media: Every leader has a legacy they wish to be remembered for. What is yours?
HenderSon: I am very practical so I like
HenderSon: Leadership roles are sometimes
to hear real stories of success or failure from teams that have given things a go themselves. This is the only way you can solve real customer problems – by learning from teams that have been fearless enough to give great ideas a try. Analyst or industry information sources are valuable as a starting point, but to understand how to make things happen in reality, you need to talk to teams that have been there and done it or work directly with the vendors’ engineers themselves to understand what makes things tick. An example, I am a huge fan of our Direct Lab
quite lonely as you need to maintain that level of objectiveness and distance to make tough decisions. It is a balancing act achieving results in a way that is consistent with your own values such as trust, respect and authenticity. It can be done, and I hope I have done so, in a way the team also appreciates. I also hope the team has grown in skills, confidence and appreciates the fantastic results that have been achieved. We have created space, I have trusted them immensely and they have won awards for their results. The team should have the belief in themselves to continue the legacy.
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Delivering a Universal Payments Agenda What is driving payments innovation in Australia and New Zealand? The entry of new participants to the payments market is significantly disrupting the industry dynamic. In response, banks and payments providers are breaking down silos and shifting to an enterprisewide approach to payments. Banks’ attitudes to core payments infrastructure – historically viewed as a utility, rather than a profit centre – are shifting as they look to deliver payments in a consistent, scalable way. In doing so, banks are integrating existing infrastructure with new technology to proactively respond to competitive threats. The threat of regulation in the region is also driving innovation. The Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) 2016 mandate for real-time payments will help control risk, promote efficiency and increase market competition for payment services.
How is ACI Worldwide leveraging these opportunities in Australia and New Zealand? ACI Worldwide has launched its Universal Payments Platform, a central hub allowing banks and payments providers to re-use existing payments infrastructure to accommodate new forms of payment. It allows banks to rapidly respond to any type of payment, in any currency, to any payee. We expect our Universal Payments Platform to play a significant role in the Australian and New Zealand market and are excited about the possibilities – we expect to see new innovation and competition in the Australian payments space. New Zealand is a smaller market that is innovative and engaged. The size and flexibility of New Zealand banks means the future of payments is very forward-thinking.
Platform globally. ACI also acquired S1, which significantly enhanced our product offering and provided access to markets we had not traditionally participated in. Most recently, ACI acquired Online Resources (ORCC), enabling us to extend our product offering to include the provision of online bill payment capabilities.
How is ACI bolstering fraud detection and prevention capabilities in payments for financial institutions and regulators?
Paul Henaghan, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, ACI Worldwide
Fraud is a moving target and is a significant focus across the financial services industry. Occurrences of wide-spread fraud should always be a wake-up call for organisations to continually evaluate and enhance their fraud detection and prevention capabilities. As such, ACI is introducing a global managed fraud service to help our customers manage the complexity and ever-changing nature of financial crime. We also continue to expand the features and functions of our industry-leading fraud solution, Proactive Risk Manager (PRM). The integration of fraud detection and prevention capabilities across the ACI product range is a key component of our Universal Payments Platform strategy.
What is the future of payments? How will existing customers benefit from ACI’s Universal Payments strategy? The strategy is one of the key components in ACI’s ongoing product and market development roadmaps. It will play a significant role in all our strategic products, including our best-in-class payment engines, Postilion, BASE24-eps and Money Transfer System (MTS). Existing customers are already reaping the benefits of our strategy through our Universal Payments Platform, enabling more efficient product development processes and procedures.
ACI has acquired five companies in the last 18 months. How has this impacted your product roadmap? Acquisitions have broadened and deepened ACI’s product roadmap, enabling the company to add significant value to existing and prospective customers by offering thought leadership, product enhancements and new features. Our most important acquisition was Distra, an Australian company that was ahead of the curve in understanding the RBA’s approach to real-time payments. This acquisition laid the foundation for ACI’s Universal Payments
The ability to transact any payment – regardless of type, currency, payee or method – in real-time. I look forward to the day I can have all my cards and payment types on my smartphone for all my transactions. Level 2, 50 Margaret Street Sydney NSW 2000 Phone: +61 2 9512 0200 Fax: +61 2 9512 0299 Email: mbox-ap-marketing@aciworldwide.com Contact: Ann Cook Website: www.aciworldwide.com Twitter: ACI_Worldwide
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Fighting Next Generation Fraud with Visibility and Data Intelligence Top row (from left to right): Dinesh Anand, Head of AML/CTF/Sanctions – Institutional, ANZ; Terry Killen, General Manager – Project Delivery Services, Medibank Private; Ben Yuen, Divisional Head – Project Risk, ANZ; Trevor Collins, Leader, Business Solutions Systems Support, Suncorp; Ian Jamieson, Solution Architect, CGU; Martin Engberg, Leader – Fraud Strategy, GE Capital; Jason Wood, General Manager – Security Strategy, CBA; Nigel Phair, Director, Centre for Internet Safety, University of Canberra; Cornel Viljoen, General Manager – Architecture, Design & Security, Medibank Private; Adrian Anderson, General Manager, Account Services – Collections and Fraud, Members Equity. Bottom row (from left to right): Julie Orr, General Manager – Operations, IOOF; Mike Stockley, Executive General Manager – Banking Fraud & Investigations, NAB; Rita Gatt, Fraud Strategy Leader, GE Capital; Shane De Kauwe, APAC Business Unit Executive – Financial Crime, Law Enforcement & National Security, IBM; Mitra Minai, Head of Governance, Technology Business Services, ANZ; Richard Collard, World Wide Business Development – Fraud, AML, Risk, IBM; Murat Binyazar, Head of Intelligence & Solution Design Services, Financial Crim CoE, NAB, Tony Vitiello, ANZ Sales Lead, IBM. The executives featured in this roundtable editorial held the above positions at the time of publication.
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nigel Phair, university of Canberra: Let us wind the clock back to April 2003, nearly ten years ago, Australia had its first phishing attack. I led that investigation. We were a brand new organisation, the Australian High Tech Crime Centre, based in Canberra. It was a rudimentary Commonwealth Bank spoofed website – there was a Russian guy behind it. We thought we were all over it, so we locked him up. A few little things happened after that, there were a few little problems. Firstly it was a lack of evidence. That is always a killer in law enforcement terms. Needless to say he got off. Then phishing just exploded, and it has not stopped to this day. But phishing, at its core is just social engineering. And that is still the leading online crime type today. If I had any decent technical ability, combined with a desire to make some criminal proceeds, that is how I would do it. It is pretty much as simple as that. People put so much of themselves out there on social media. At the Centre of Internet Safety we do
a number of surveys to get consumer attitudes. We did one surveying PayPal and eBay customers on their attitudes to passwords. Needless to say they were pretty poor. You get all these people out there who say, “Yeah I am really interested in my online identity,” but they never put that into practice. They get on Facebook and Twitter and YouTube and they put so much identifying information out there that it enables targeted spear phishing. Winding the clock back to April 2003 all these police were saying, “These investigations are so hard. People are anonymous online. You know there are no avenues of enquiry.” Today I would argue it is the exact opposite. I would argue you are more anonymous walking down the street and doing cheque fraud than you are doing online crime. There is so much that we leave about ourselves out there, and it is all out there. I would not say readily available, but it is available. Basic stuff like IP addresses. You can correlate that with information on Facebook and other social media. who ’ s w ho o f fs i
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At most financial institutions you pretty much need to go to your respective fraud squads with a brief, already done and dusted, with witness statements almost already taken. That is just the reality because the official channels are under resourced. Whilst from an investigative perspective we can use all this rich data that is out there, the crooks obviously also use it themselves. And for people who are quite frankly a whole lot younger than us, the motto is I will provide information myself because I know I am going to get it back from other people. And that is what social media is. My son does not even have an email account because he does not see the point of it. If he wants to talk to his friends, he will just Facebook them. So I am going to throw it open for the group. How is it we can evaluate transactions and risk?
shane de kauwe, ibM: I would be interested in your thoughts on the changing definition of fraud and risk. nigel Phair, university of Canberra: There is
“We need to change behaviours within institutions that our thought leaders hold dear.” RichaRd collaRd, iBM
traditional fraud. People have been ripping off banks since there were banks. You know you can argue that phishing is just another way of doing that for example. But as far as risk goes, if risk does not augment every decision, then you know there is obviously a number of failings. The question for financial institutions is if you are holding data, do you know what it is? Why it is? How it is? And you know we are going to view this in the context of the data breach legislation which is coming along. It started off in California in 2003, it has gone through most of US and Europe.
shane de kauwe, ibM: We have a few banks at the table. Are these fines [for data breaches] changing how banks think about the issue? Murat binyazar, nab: If you think about the fine itself, then you have to think about all the investment you will need to make to impose that whole control environment. You need to consider all the technology and process, and investment in culture and change.
riChard Collard, ibM: We are actually changing a behaviour. We need to change behaviours within institutions that our thought leaders hold dear. These behaviours are held as paragons within the industries with which we represent around this table. 106
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ian JaMieson, Cgu: I think the fine certainly will get peoples’ attention, and it hurts businesses’ bottom lines. I used to work with KPMG Global who had operations in Japan and the breach legislation was adopted quite early in Japan. It was more the loss of face and the reputational damage that was a major determinant for how we addressed that issue. Accountants came in and audited client data. This was a very big exposure for a lot of organisations. That is one of the other dimensions beyond the punitive fines and the shaming that comes with it.
shane de kauwe, ibM: If you look at legislators across the world, no one has had their licence taken away. And in the financial market, that financial regulatory licence is actually their whole business. I wonder if there is a view around the table that organisations need to protect themselves from the risk of losing the licence? Or is it considered that simply will not happen. dinesh anand, anz: Consider that, though the regulators may not have taken away anyone’s licence yet, they have started excluding banks out of the US clearing system. Some of the Iranian banks, for example, were frozen out of the clearing system. That has a similar effect. A lot of the banks here have offices in the US so it is more than a question of whether you take away a licence. If you are frozen out of the clearing system, that actually is almost as potent a weapon. Seven or eight years ago, there was not really that strong an implementation of sanctions; and then suddenly without much warning the regulators upped the ante and started penalising banks that breached sanctions, with fines – or rather – settlements. Now they have upped the ante again and taken it to the next level which has raised the question about whether it should be settlements versus penalties/ fines. At the same time, more banks have been excluded out of the clearing system. The implications of this are actually quite severe. Once you fine an organisation (instead of settle with it), the next step could be criminal prosecutions; not just the organisation, but also the individuals involved. This was done with banks such as BCCI in the past. The consequences of all these changes are hence extremely serious, particularly if the bank involved is a major trading bank. The US Dollar is probably still the currency of choice in international trade, and being frozen out of the US clearing system may result in the bank no longer being able to operate effectively.
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shane de kauwe, ibM: Do the people around the table see that their budgets are increasing for new risks or if there is loss of market? terry killen, Medibank Private: I think it is more difficult to make a case for potential threat or one that is not yet realised. Fraud in business is understood and it existed long before computers came along. So there has always been a commercial tolerance for a degree of fraud in the business model. I think until there is a greater appreciation of the consequences of not having the improved detection or the risk management in place it is going to be a difficult uphill battle to justify for those investments.
Mike stockley, nab: I think certainly the fines and the settlements focus attention on the low probability/high impact consequences, and certainly from an NAB point of view it has made advancing the arguments around why we should invest a lot easier. It is like, “Oh well I have not changed the tyres in my car for two years and I have not had a crash yet. Then my neighbour crashes his car and all of a sudden it is about time I got new tyres.” That argument is definitely progressing and it is a lot easier to sell, but to Terry’s point, that does not mean more investment. That means something else gets shunted to the back of the queue instead.
shane de kauwe, ibM: The interesting trend I have seen in financial institutions around the Asia Pacific is that resources to investigate those offences are stretched. There seems to be this compliance cost for financial institutions where they have to create the brief of evidence themselves. You have to almost hand it to local authorities in whatever country that you are dealing with so they can understand this complex fraud, or money laundering, or phishing scam. Before, organisations had a reliance on law enforcement to come in and understand the event, nowadays the industry is becoming more self-reliant. You have to, if you want to continue to trade. I would be interested in what the view is around the table on what is happening with that self-reliance?
rita Gatt, Ge caPital: I think from my perspective it is not just the amount of effort that you have to put in to get involvement from law enforcement. If the outcomes are so soft in contrast to the crime, there is no motivation to put the work in. A good example, and I will not mention names. There was an incident a year and a half ago at a very large
organisation involving internal fraud that affected many of the financial institutions in Australia. After all of the evidence was collected – after one of the companies worked directly with the police to set up a whole sting – the result was 12 months home detention. If the penalty for that type of person is 12 months home detention, then you do not really have motivation to collect all of this because what type of benefit do you get out of it in the end?
shane de kauwe, ibM: I think Rita you bring another point to the table and that is there is a thing called the fraud triangle, and I apologise to the people on the table who know this. The first thing is opportunity. So your business processes and systems have some problem that someone can exploit. There is a need and you could sometimes just as easily say greed. And thirdly there is the belief that they will not get caught. If you were to look at money laundering it is the same triangle right? It is the same three motivators. IBM’s viewpoint on this is that a mature fraud and or risk business has three basic facets. One is analytics. You need to be alerted and you need all of your employees to know that unusual behaviours will cause a question. So we have to break that fraud triangle right? The second thing is case management. What I find is there are lots of organisations investing in state of the art fraud identification or money laundering analytics. But they are not so good at making sure that they have some risk score that then says, “When we find something, we are going to manage it to a certain level of risk.” Thirdly we have to make it simple for law enforcement to understand it. Because in the majority of cases you are not going to be dealing with experts in fraud. If you cannot visualise that fraud you cannot explain it to someone else and then your costs of recovery actually goes up?
“The fines and the settlements [system] focus attention on the low probability/high impact consequences.” Mike Stockley, NAB
niGel Phair, university of canberra: I am an ex-police officer, we love to tell war stories. Some years ago in Melbourne there was a guy called Derek – I will not name the company he worked for. He was a contractor. After he was given his marching orders he hacked back into his system, stole a whole lot of company secrets and data. The company made a complaint and we investigated it. It was a relatively simple investigation, all based on IP addresses, time and date stamps and the like. This this was in about 2004. We did up who ’ s w ho o f fs i
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our brief and went to the Melbourne County Court. Anyway over a two and a half year period we went through eight magistrates who always thought of a reason why they could not hear the matter. It was all because they did not understand the evidence. This was a really quite simple matter, it only involved one jurisdiction. We had seized the computers, and we did the analysis. It was not that hard. But the average police officer looks at something, calls it high tech and goes, “Well that is for the high tech crime guys,” when it should not be. After all it is just an offence with avenues of enquiry. Any detective should be able to do it. There is no point having a great investigation if you do not have a prosecution service that can lead the evidence and examine and cross examine witnesses. Or a magistrate or judge who can understand the evidence and make decisions on statements of law. We are yet in Australia to have any sort of cybercrime matter go before a jury. One day we will get there I am sure. One day there will be a sufficiently serious enough case.
“When companies are breached, they would not want to have a public case go forward.”
richard collard, ibM: Is there not a case that says you do not want that going to the jury. There was a case in the UK recently (not cybercrime) where the jury was discharged because they had actually failed to grasp the basic concepts of the case. Do you really want those cases to be tried in special courts? It is not very democratic, but there has to be a case for that surely.
Rita Gatt, GE Capital
rita Gatt, Ge capital: When companies are breached, they would not want to have a public case to go forward because they do not it want it known they have had their database breached. That is the other problem as well. You have to have a company that would want to put up their hand and say, “Hey, our security is not as tight as you think it is. Let us have this go to trial.” niGel phair, university of canberra: A couple of points on that one. The first is that we will have data breach legislation one day. So, you will be forced to, but the whole thing with the data breach legislation, unless it is actionable, it is pointless telling me. If I cannot do something about it then it is of little comfort to me. Late last year CERT Australia, part of the Commonwealth Attorney General, commissioned us to write a survey, known as the 2012 Cyber Crime and Security Survey. AusCERT, which is still going at
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the University of Queensland, did a similar survey in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. This was a survey focused on 450 critical infrastructure projects at identified organisations. We had a nearly 60 per cent response rate. But we asked a range of questions to do with online security. It was not really fraud-related. One of the questions towards the end was for those people who suffered a breach, and there was about one in five of the organisations that suffered a breach of their confidentiality, integrity, or availability of their systems. Very few told the police. So that is an incredibly low take up when only one in five organisations were going to tell the police. And so we asked why. A third of those organisations that did not tell law enforcement made the choice because they did not want the reputational damage. They did not want it in the public realm. It was easier to bring in consultants, mop up the problem and brief in-house council. And that is fine. The other thing is obviously when you pursue civil versus criminal remedies, there is a complete change in the process. There is a lower burden of proof for a civil matter. It is judged only on the balance of probabilities. Secondly you also get to control the outcomes. You can have gag orders, you can have a financial settlement, whereas if you go before the court, once there is a set of facts made, they are in the public.
shane de kauwe, ibM: In terms of the data breach legislation that is coming, you have a data breach where there is inadvertent exposure of data, but you can also have fraud. If you were subject to a major fraud, then there is no data breach obligation, I presume. What we do not know is how the legislation is going to look. Lots of organisations put submissions in. They have not made the submissions public, which I think is a bit of a shame. But who knows where it will all go. We will end up with something but unless it is actionable, what is the point? Are any of your financial institutions taking an enterprise-wide view across the different silos of your business of risk and fraud? ian JaMieson, cGu: Within IAG it is quite siloed in terms of cross-sharing because there are different insurance licences. There are privacy constraints as well. I know that the insurance council has made a submission about removing some of those constraints so that we can cross-share information within a group
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like IAG, that spans New Zealand, Asia and British operations as well. So, that is a challenge and it is still somewhat siloed at the moment. I know that IAG business units are actively working on this space, but it is a work in progress. Is anyone doing a cross business enterprise view of risk or siloed fraud?
shane de kauwe, ibM: I am a lawyer but I am not an expert in this space, but you see, the privacy provisions were never there to let crime happen and in fact at an information management level, if I put my IBM hat on for a second, you can have anonymous data to the point where you still pick up fraud across your silos. And I think there is a multiplication there. I do know of financial institutions in Australia that have taken the view that fraud in multiple silos is not subject to privacy. In their own business, if they are owned by an umbrella organisation, because it is a bottom line loss to the parent organisation. The only area I am seeing that challenged is when it goes outside one country’s borders. nigel Phair, university of Canberra: As we know banks are often seen as victimless in the eyes of the community. People think they can afford it.
shane de kauwe, ibM: I am glad you bring it back to that because that was my central point. If an organisation does not try and break the fraud triangle then they are just going to have to price that into business more. And where are you going to stop? If margins start to get tight, or competition starts to tighten what will happen is the organisations which will be making profits are the ones that are the least susceptible to fraud, because crooks are just going to move to other organisations. nigel Phair, university of Canberra: Going back to our survey, nearly a third to a quarter of all breaches are internal. The insider threat is still a bit of a sleeper. Education plays a big role. Too many people across all institutions think security is just the responsibility of the IT side of the business when I would argue it is everyone’s responsibility. I think a lot of things are happening in financial services. You have two weeks leave, you have workplace systems that enforce checking. You have rotation of staff to ensure that people do not stay in roles too often, you have the opportunity to direct
the internal auditors to areas that you think are high risk. And you have a whole training program around staff to say, “Fraud happens all the time and it is your responsibility to help us pick fraud going on around you with your own co-workers.”
Mitra Minai, anZ: From our perspective in recent years we have invested quite a lot of money in ensuring we detect and prevent risks from occurring as well as detecting them when they do occur. So we make sure we have sufficient controls in place to continue to prevent risks. In recent years we have invested in our operational risk management framework to identify operational risks as well as manage compliance obligations and requirements. We have invested in educating our people both from a first line and second line perspective in risk management, and in the controls you need to have in place to prevent a risk from occurring in the first place. shane de kauwe, ibM: I think you raise a good point. So, ANZ is trying to learn from their past experiences. At an industry level is that happening? Are you sharing those experiences so other organisations can, in a sense, benchmark themselves and set standards? ian JaMieson, Cgu: In the insurance space we had the Insurance Reporting Service which provides a big data style service we all subscribe to and we share data. I presume there may be something similar in the banking space. There is a collaboration around the IRS service.
“I think there is good collaboration across the big four banks.” Ben Yuen, AnZ
Mitra Minai, anZ: There are not any formal industry gatherings to discuss fraud across the big four banks, Ben might know more seeing as you work in the risk space. What I have seen is a more informal approach, where industry professionals do come together from various organisations and discuss what is happening in those organisations. They share the lessons learnt as well as risk information. ben yuen, anZ: Informally, I think there is good collaboration across the big four banks. For instance I know the person at NAB who does my role and we share useful information. I would argue it probably works well informally. Once we formalise it, things tend to run slowly. If you want to get things done quickly, or if you need information, you tend to call on your relationships instead of relying on the organisational chart or peoples’ titles. w ho ’ s w ho o f fs i
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It is all relationship-based. And I think across the big four we tend to know who each other are, and we do share information.
tony Vitiello, ibm: The insurance sector in the UK has a very good collaborative model for sharing persons of interest who have tried to, or who have, perpetrated a fraud. I know that the Insurance Council of Australia is looking to create a similar model. The data privacy legislation means they cannot share names but they can share attributes. But I take your point – it is the informality behind this that is probably working the best at the moment.
murat binyazar, nab: The better we collaborate, whether it is formally or informally, and the less the lead times for collaboration, response and practices, the bigger impact it is going to have in pushing back fraud. The key for me is not talking about it from an organisation’s perspective, but talking about it from an industry and regional perspective and working to make those marks.
“Often it takes years before [silos] are willing to find funds or engage in a meaningful debate about something that is enterprise wide.” Martin EndbErg, gE Capital
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shane de kauwe, ibm: If we are talking about investing, what is the level of investment? Do we want to do just enough to counter a perceived threat or an existing threat, or do we want to be the best of the best? I have been talking to one of the major banks in the anti money laundering space that by their own admission have not made very full use of analytics up until now. There is a mandate based on meetings that they were having in Singapore a couple of weeks ago. Now there is agreement from the board to invest and to allow them to become the best of the best. They do not want to be mediocre; they want to put down a flag. The fact is that they are an institution tainted by fines around anti money laundering, but that has actually driven them to this desire for excellence. I am not sure that every organisation around the table here would have the inclination or budget to go to the board and say, “We want to be the best of the best.” “Why? What does that do for us? Does that actually help us to sell more policies?” So again, it is the different drivers as such. But I do get the feeling that there is a wave waiting to come, once we actually see how a few of the major organisations tackle this. They do not have the option of getting it wrong. That causes a reluctance. “Okay, who has done this before? Who can help us? Who can guide us with this?” I think there would be a lot of fast followers.
I think those that have incurred reputation damage are in remediation mode so they are happy to invest significant amounts of money, I do not think there would be any lack of those who want to put their toe in the water with an outsource provider who can provide a service to demonstrate value. From there they can build a business case with something on premise, perhaps. But there are a lot of internal capabilities which would struggle with the amount of data. They already have tools in-house but they may not be able to actually apply it. And it is always easier to engage an external agent for that change because external change agents are far easier to actually work with.
martin engberg, ge Capital: In fraud management it is pretty common for an incentive to be created by an unanticipated event before you can get any momentum or any initiative. Quite often in an organisation which is siloed, when you approach those silos and even mention the problem they are in denial. It takes a while to convince them it is worth having a look at. Often it takes years before they are willing to find funds or engage in a meaningful debate about something that is enterprise-wide.
shane de kauwe, ibm: You go to the bank’s default on loans area or credit cards area and you actually take account of all the bad debts, and then you ask them, “Okay, how many of those are bad debts, because banks just do not write off a debt.” They try and contact these people and they find they do not exist. From working with insurance companies I know their goal is to take premiums from everyone, they just do not want to pay out on frauds. With banks, it is about how to stop the money leaving at the start. tony Vitiello, ibm: What is the motivation at the board level around this? Is it “If we managed fraud better we can return two per cent to the bottom line” or is it, “We have a brand to protect and we do not want to be in the papers for fraud theft,” or is it “We want to put this capability into place so that we protect our image and at the same time harness the power of the detection analytics at the front-end to really stop it happening in the future”? I am just wondering what motivates organisations today to do anything significant about locking down fraud a bit tighter.
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rita Gatt, Ge Capital: What usually motivates us is an event. So something is happening either to us or another company. But the interesting thing related to the deterrent concept mentioned earlier is the “fast following” concept, where companies wait for it to happen to someone else, before implementing something and putting the investment in. A problem that we see at that level is the fast following concept does not work when it comes to system level changes to put in deterrents. I do not know how other people go with putting in systems or new detection methods quickly. But if we have noticed a new issue or heard something on the grapevine we cannot just go to our executive board and ask for funding for a project. There is lots of systems involved. For a problem that we saw in January we are lucky if we can get it in by November and by then you have just spent all that time and effort solving a problem from last year. So I guess that is really the types of decisions and conversations that are happening from our level – discussions about where do we invest.
I think the mistake a lot of organisations make is to fix it with a technology solution exclusively but it is really going to be a hybrid. It will certainly be helped by predictive analytics and a range of different modeling techniques but it is not one or the other. You talk to the operational people on the ground and they will say, “Well that is interesting, but I know how this works and I am an investigator, I know how human beings operate.” It is always a combination of things. You need the right internal capability.
ian Jamieson, CGu: If it was a $30,000 to $50,000
ian Jamieson, CGu: From a risk management
a month subscription that you were paying another organisation, as long as you had the controls in place, that would be a fairly easy step for organisations to make, assuming the payoff was there. And that would be a means to be a fast follower. Then you can work out what you want to do with low risk. You are not investing in infrastructure, you are handing out data to a provider that has IP to add to that process. You can get a result and you can prove whether it is going to add value or not. You do not want to make a $100 million commitment to something and then find that the problem has changed. I think there is an opportunity for providers in the market.
standpoint you could say, “I am not going to try and in-source that capability. I am going to get that as a specialist service that I will pay for and I will probably pay very handsomely for. But they have to innovate and they have to put the R&D money into being ahead of the game.” Whereas, I want to just stay in business and minimise my exposure.
riChard Collard, ibm: But it is then a question of how can we actually capture knowledge which exists within our organisations or import knowledge from a service provider. I think that is really the key. So maybe the picture is not quite as dark as you paint it. All of us around this table have some interest in fraud detection. The question is how do we take the knowledge that we actually have? Can we pool it? Is it possible to pool it? That would be absolutely terrific. But it is like fitting specific knowledge to generic capabilities and that is something that mitigates capital expenditure there.
martin enGberG, Ge Capital: I think the point is that most organisations are not that agile. They cannot quickly change tack as fast as the technology. Like you said at the start, Nigel, it started with one Russian guy that you apprehended and within 18 months there are thousands of guys doing spear phishing and pond phishing. So what solution is going to fix those types of phenomena. The fraudsters are probably in the next room talking about how they are going to outsmart everything we think about right now. It almost feels like you are always playing a bit of catch up.
shane de kauwe, ibm: Here is an example of something unique. There was a bank in Singapore that lost about $55 million on skimming. IBM has this whole business around facial recognition and biometrics which we have done for law enforcement and national security for years. And one of our scientists said, “Well you know we could have it so every time someone uses an ATM card, it would take ten images of them using it and we could make a biometric composite that could not be fooled.” And the cost is miniscule.” So, thank you so much for investing your time. I hope it was an interesting discussion.
“The mistake a lot of organisations make is to fix it with a technology solution exclusively but it is really going to be a hybrid.” RichaRd collaRd, iBM
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The Focal Points of Success in Self-Service Banking IDC Financial Insights analysis of the world’s progressive banks’ self-service channel strategies reveals several common trends and issues that cut across all markets. Here are five key areas that any bank that wants to distinguish itself with self-service banking should consider.
1. The ROI for new channels needs to be revisited Providing a new channel does not guarantee immediate customer adoption, if any. History has shown that it can take a long time for customers to not only arrive but also settle at the new location. The consequence of measuring return on investment (ROI) has been adverse on both ends. On one hand, since the benefits of new channels are difficult to objectively measure and predict, banks are tempted to conduct post-project ROI evaluations only. Potentially viable ideas are thus not given due investments. On the other hand is the tendency to use traditional ROI metrics, against which many new channel projects do not appear to demonstrate returns. Banks should consider using new metrics that emphasise customer engagement, customer experience, and enhancements to brand value, to measure success.
2. Self-service is relevant to corporate banking channels In most institutions, corporate banking channel strategies have lagged those in retail banking. This is mostly because such initiatives are directed to markets fastest to respond − the retail customer. However, there are still commendable corporate banking channel projects worldwide. Most of these are meant to align with a bank’s roadmap for more sophisticated
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working capital solutions that link webbased cash management, trade finance, corporate payments and investments with treasury. In doing so, treasurers would have the ability to execute online corporate payments − both domestic and overseas − to monitor and manage liquidity levels internationally via a single portal at near-real-time. We are also seeing examples where banks are either seeking to or are currently implementing portals to facilitate certain transactions such as Swift. Furthermore, mobile devices – tablets in particular – are playing a larger role in the delivery of digital corporate banking. The anticipated launch of HTML5 is expected to boost banks’ proposition of excellent customer experience for business customers. Another initiative to watch, with clear self-service implications, is corporateto-bank integration. This is potentially a game changer as it is a platform for banks to link directly with their clients, extending the financial workflow functionality of ERP systems all the way to the bank. In this model already launched by leading corporate banking players worldwide, no manual intervention is required in encrypting and transmitting payment and receivables data. In another part of the corporate business, banks are discovering that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) want mobile-based banking to help run their businesses smarter. As more competition for the SME market appears from nontraditional players such as the peer-to-peer lenders, banks will look at new ways to generate value-added services to balance the higher collateral requirements.
3. Social is the next battlefield – but the terms of the battle are largely unknown The social channel, which has been in the background at many institutions (or absent completely), will become prevalent in 2013. Initial forays into social, such as creating an official Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn profile, will be built upon in 2013 and beyond. Banks will attempt to make better use of the social channel and include it as one of the many touchpoints throughout the customer relationship lifecycle. Several banks will look to ‘social media as a service channel’ programs. Here, financial institutions will use social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter for customer interactions, especially for common enquiries such as branch locations and branch opening times. In the process, they will divert traffic from supposedly more expensive channels such as the contact centre. However, banks will quickly move to activities that are clearly designed for this new channel. Examples include gauging customer behaviour through sentiment analysis tools, identifying influencers (and possibly dissenters) through social network analysis, and undertaking targeted campaigns using social media information. In 2013, leading Asia Pacific banks will associate their important customer segments to social media accounts. Finally, the immense volumes of unstructured data over social media are inherently valuable, but extracting such value will be a challenge.
4. Disruptors abound A comprehensive look at the mobile channel alone underscores how banks are increasingly under threat from different types of players – device
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manufacturers, telco carriers, payment schemes, transportation companies, and retailers. This threat is clearly seen in the experience of African banks, which have through time partnered with mobile phone operators (MNOs) to provide mobile banking services. The business case is built upon the greater customer reach of MNOs through their networks compared with traditional branches. Strategically, the benefit is that financial institutions are now able to reach both currently banked and unbanked customers. An additional benefit is that partnerships with mobile operators facilitate the delivery of cheaper financial services. The downside is cross-industry competition, with mobile operators possibly infringing on the ownership of financial institutions’ customers. In another set of possibilities, banks’ revenue from fees in consumer payments are increasingly vulnerable as consumers increasingly move away from the current payment modes where banks still have a dominant function (debit and credit cards) toward those where banks have a limited role (examples include new Point-of-Sales (PoS) models such as Square or PayPal Here), or where they have no role at all (virtual currencies). Further technology phenomena provide the occasion for disruption − for example, the interaction of digital banking and big data, where both go hand-in-hand as success in the former relies heavily upon prowess in the latter. In short, banks need to become much better at interpreting trends and responding accordingly.
5. Changes in regulations could be disruptors themselves The industry needs to get a clearer sense of pending regulations (or at least a sense of where regulation is headed), which could potentially impact new channel strategies. For example, regulations concerning which players can do mobile financial transactions. India has limited this to qualified banks, whereas other jurisdictions have allowed
non-banks to dabble in mobile remittance, mobile money, and so forth. For the Middle East and Africa, regulations in the mobility market are still relatively underdeveloped. This is ironic since the region has contributed to the massive up-take of mobile financial services across the globe. Nevertheless, in certain countries, such as Saudi Arabia, a high degree of regulation has inhibited the up-take of mobility technology. This is starting to change, as financial institutions are actively seeking to develop their mobile banking propositions. Some MNOs have been reportedly on the lookout for bank acquisitions or applying for banking licenses themselves to circumvent rules on who can do financial transactions. Other regulations that pose a barrier include those around multi-factor authentication, cloud, outsourcing, and managed services. These have implications to banks’ and nonbanks’ channel strategies moving forward. Financial institutions will need to be aware of the critical areas that will receive much focus: customer protection, Know-YourCustomer (KYC) considerations, and interoperability across different systems and processes. Furthermore, some of the disruptive technologies that are just over the horizon could change channel strategies drastically: Near-Field Communication (NFC), mobile wallets, new PoS devices, and more smartphone features. As these technologies gain usage, regulation will have to scale up as well.
Essential Guidance for a World of Self-Service Banking Throughout the many banking channel projects that IDC Financial Insights analyst team has evaluated, the most successful channel projects have one common strategic objective: a consistent customer experience across a growing number of access channels, including mobiles and tablets, browsers, PoS devices, and text messages, in addition to the traditional branch, call centre, and ATM. The most progressive
banks believe that a disconnect between the channels will be damaging to the customer experience, especially if selfservice is the ultimate goal.
Oracle and Self-Service Banking Oracle gives banking customers choice. Oracle’s offerings allow banking executives to design channels that are appropriate to the targeted customer segments and their organisation’s strategic intentions. The ability to launch and maintain channels that are ‘in context’ is valuable so that a bank’s channels are not just good for mindshare, but rather are actually used by the intended beneficiaries — the customers themselves. Oracle has helped Chinatrust Commercial Bank, Jibun Bank, HDFC Bank and UBank, among others, see some of the highest usage and return on investments of channel offerings. Furthermore, Oracle’s converged channel platform is an asset, giving it an advantage over an approach that integrates so-called best-of-breed applications. Its service-orientated architecture (SOA) approach to channel integration ensures that channel investments have long-term viability, ready to quickly accommodate new types of channels and channel functionalities that may be developed in the future. Anil Jaggia, CIO HDFC notes, “visibility and control are vital for the end-user banks, and a unified channel and service framework enables just this.” Extracted from A Reality Check: Self-Service Banking in the World’s Progressive Banks, by Michael Araneta, Alex Kwiatkowski, Bijendradas Ramdas, Roberto Gutierrez and Sui-Jon Ho, An IDC Executive Brief commissioned by Oracle, April 2013, GMS Doc (Doc#AP772302W)
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Future-Proofing Legacy Systems
Top row (from left to right): Kylie Kelly, Country Manager, Micro Focus; Michael Zyznik, Group Manager BI & DW, Allianz; Rashik Pal, Head of Technology Insurance Systems, BT Financial; John De Angelis, Director Shared Services IT, AMP; Glenn Vade, Head of Technology – Financial Protection, AMP; Stuart McGill, Director, Micro Focus UK; Jim Burke, CIO Institutional Bank, Westpac; Anthony Bishop, Account Director, Micro Focus Australia; Glenn Myers, CIO, Insurance Commission of Western Australia; Kerrie Dyson, Senior Manager Application Development Business Technology, IAG. Bottom row (from left to right): Tony Craddock, Head of Information & Integration Technologies, IAG; David Pik, Head of Strategy, CommInsure; Brett Death, Head of ASP Life & Investments, Zurich; Mick Young, Head of Institutional & Wealth Architecture, CBA; Donna Vinci, Group CIO Onetech, IAG; Tony Kesby, CIO, VEDA; Gary Sim, General Manager Service Delivery Infrastructure, Westpac; David Zufic, Head of Technology Group Systems, AMP. The executives featured in this roundtable editorial held the above positions at the time of publication.
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glenn myerS, InSurance commISSIon of WeStern auStralIa: I started at the Insurance Commission of Western Australia in August 2010. At that time the business strategy was to move our core insurance applications off the mainframe. The rationale was predominantly found around the fact our core applications underlying the business were all written in Common Business Oriented Language (COBOL) and were considered to be tied to the mainframe platform. The organisation considered there to be risks in relation to the ongoing availability of COBOL developers, other mainframe resource availablilty, the ability to be Agile, the costs associated with the mainframe, and disaster recovery (DR) capability. When I started we had two initiatives underway. One part of the organisation was effectively looking to replace the core insurance applications with a new development using Business Process Modelling (BPM) capability. Another part of the organisation was looking to replace their core COBOL applications with offthe-shelf product. After reviewing the initiatives the organisation realised that it was looking to achieve the same outcome for both business divisions, but taking diametrically opposed approaches. When we had a good look at what they were doing we agreed that the outcome we were aiming to achieve was the same for both divisions.
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Approximately 18 months of work had gone into both projects at that time. Both had determined future states that they wanted to achieve and we engaged an external organisation to do a comparison of those future states. It soon became apparent that about 80 per cent of what they were trying to achieve was common. The conversation then changed from, “Oh, we need to move off the mainframe” to “What is it we want at the end of the day as an outcome?” The business was still firmly of the view that we needed to migrate off the mainframe and the rationale behind replacing the core insurance applications was also to move off the mainframe as a platform. As a result, we put the idea to the organisation as a whole that if we were able to move off the mainframe, would that satisfy their concerns regarding all the risks that had been identified as well as provide the Agility that they were looking to achieve as a consequence? And they agreed. We looked at whether or not, in an automated way, we could determine the business rules in our COBOL applications and then compared the results to a manual exercise using a developer-based review. This assisted us understanding what was needed to affect the transition, as we were looking to do a like-for-like replacement. That led to our introduction to Micro Focus. One of the toolsets they have is an automated business rule analysis query product. After we finished the comparison, and the results from the automated tool were very good, I asked my team to look at what other toolsets Micro Focus had to offer which might assist our organisation migrate off the mainframe. This led to our introduction to the Micro Focus COBOL product set which represented an opportunity for our organisation to re-host our COBOL applications on an open systems platform. The rationale behind progressing with a rehosting initiative was primarily to reduce our IT operating costs and enhance our DR capability. It also represented an opportunity for us to do things differently moving forward for business transformation type initiatives. Effectively, this option represented an opportunity for us to leverage our existing COBOL back-end applications for the foreseeable future. We agreed we would look at a like-for-like future state with the mainframe effectively removed from our environment. One point I would like to make is that I am not a mainframe antagonist or opponent. My personal view is that there is not one size that fits all. I think that the mainframe has its place for organisations that require mainframe processing capability – our organisation does not. The primary
rationale behind this thinking is our scale. We are not a huge organisation. We do not warrant the processing capability that a mainframe offers. Our mainframe was implemented because of legacy issues. It was a platform that we had initiated our business on 30 years ago and we had never looked at whether or not it made sense for us to stay on that platform. We then engaged Micro Focus to conduct a proof of concept whereby we recompiled all of our applications on a Micro Focus COBOL platform to see whether there was any difference, any limitations, any major barriers, any issues that we would encounter in taking a significant cost component, as a percentage of our IT costs, out of the business. The proof of concept was completed over a three month timeframe and we then developed a business case to effect the full migration off the mainframe. The business case justified the Insurance Commission of Western Australia to re-host its applications on an open-systems platform with less than a twelve month payback. The difficulties experienced in migrating had nothing to do with the mainframe or the COBOL applications. It was really about the interfaces between the core COBOL applications and the other systems in our environment. Just by way of example, we converted all of our data from EBCDIC to ASCII. Data integrity post conversion was key for us and we developed some good verification techniques to ensure the integrity of our data was intact post-migration. My team felt we would face technical issues around proprietary mainframe utilities and functions inherent as part of the mainframe environment. These related primarily to the Query Management Facility (QMF) reporting and Access Control Facility (ACF2) security utilities. The reality is that those things were relatively easily solved. We moved the ACF2 functionality to open Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). For QMF reporting we introduced Cognos. At the same time did a significant cleanup of all of our reporting. We did not touch our data sources or data models. Rather, we replaced our QMF reporting with Cognos. It came with some issues but we worked through those. We effectively recompiled about 1,200 COBOL applications on the Micro Focus COBOL platform. There were configuration changes that were required but absolutely no functional changes to any of the COBOL systems we hosted. Approximately 12 COBOL systems needed some configuration changes and that was it. Our objective was to cut approximately 12 per cent of our IT spend and we have exceeded that. We were
“The mainframe has its place for organisations that require mainframe processing capability – our organisation does not.” Glenn Myers, Insurance coMMIssIon of Western australIa
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“We embarked on a business project and not a purely IT project and that was key to setting this project in the right direction from the outset.” Glenn Myers, Insurance coMMIssIon of Western australIa
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looking to simplify and enhance our DR capability as we did not have a mainframe in DR – we used to lease a Logical Partition (LPAR) on a mainframe from IBM in Melbourne and this had posed issues for us in successfully conducting a full DR test for this part of our technical environment. We now stand up our full DR environment in approximately six hours. Some other benefits relate to DR costs and redeployment of our IT resource to focus on higher value work. The initial concerns that we encountered were predominantly from the business regarding performance post-migration. How could we guarantee that the systems performance would be as good as it was prior to migrating off the mainframe? We had a business case for a nine-month project, which actually took 12 months, and the project had a 12 month payback. the reasons for the delay in project delivery had nothing to do with the technical delivery. The key lessons for me are that we embarked on a business project and not a purely IT project and that was key to setting this project in the right direction from the outset. We had the most senior management representing the business on the project steering committee, actively involved and engaged in ensuring that it was driven forward with committed resources. Functions that were impacted by the change in platform were pretty important things like re-insurance and sending out our annual premiums. The other key lesson came from a like-for-like re-hosting of COBOL applications. Once we completed this, our Board had one key question for me around risk — are COBOL developers getting scarce? What we have experienced since completing the migration is that any developer can sit in front of a Visual Studio or Eclipse User Interface (UI) on Micro Focus COBOL and effect change to the COBOL code at the back-end, because that is the nature of what we have moved to. Other benefits we have achieved were moving to a more service oriented architecture, so a number of applications sit on services grids. We have got a repository of all of our services, there for re-use, modification and/or leverage. We have been able to expose quite a few services from the COBOL code and include those in the repository of services we have as enterprise services. From a Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) perspective, we have improved our agility which enables what the business is looking to do. It has made our lives a lot easier and the business has commented on the speed with which we can now deliver enhancements compared to the past.
Stuart mcgill, micro FocuS uK: You have taken your system off the mainframe and described your ability to accelerate new features. If you had not done the re-hosting, could you have delivered exactly the same capability through a different mechanism, or is it inherent to the platform? glenn myerS, inSurance commiSSion oF WeStern auStralia: I think in some respects we could have but I do not believe we would have been able to be more Agile if they were still sitting on the mainframe. Our systems development life cycle would be more cumbersome than it is now.
david ZuFic, amP: From a data warehousing perspective, does it change any thoughts around core data and the set of rules that guides and runs that?
glenn myerS, inSurance commiSSion oF WeStern auStralia: We still replicate to a data warehouse. It has helped us better understand our legacy data structures. As a result we have been able to streamline or deliver efficiencies around how we expose that data.
brett death, Zurich: Did you start with a relational database on your mainframe or move that to some other form of data structure? glenn myerS, inSurance commiSSion oF WeStern auStralia: We did start with a relational database in DB2. We had an outdated version of DB2 and it did not have all of the disciplines and controls that are present in more recent or current databases. We did have to address some issues, around queries and calls to the database which we were allowed to do on the mainframe but not with the more recent release of Universal Database (UDB). Having said that, there were no technical issues that were insurmountable. We did have technical issues, certainly around the database and certainly around some of the interfaces, particularly with a proprietary application that we developed in Foxpro, an unsupported application development toolset bought by Microsoft in the early 2000s. It was decommissioned by Microsoft in about 2007 but is still in use. Nothing prevented us from migrating. The biggest issue faced was from the business around things like performance, security and testing. It took time to explain to the business that this was a re-hosting exercise and that there was very little that was changing regarding business functionality. In fact, a key success
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criteria for the project was that post migration the systems all functioned in the same way as they did prior to migrating off the mainframe. This is because we were not changing any of the core applications. When it was decided what level of testing the business needed to do they were pleased to find that things worked the way they did before on the mainframe.
John de angeLiS, amP: The historical problems of the mainframe have been mainly about resourcing and people. This is one way of doing it. The other way is outsourcing. One of the other things emerging is getting these mainframe applications onto technology that can be simpler to put into the cloud.Is that something you are thinking of? Do you think you are closer now to achieving that goal, considering you have moved to contemporary infrastructure? gLenn myerS, inSurance commiSSion of WeStern auStraLia: Establishing multiple environments is close to what we have now and one of the reasons we did what we have done. Establishing additional environments with our core back-end applications sitting on a Micro Focus environment is easy. It is a simple exercise and a cost-efficient way of establishing more environments. Moving applications into the cloud is a whole different discussion and I am sure sensitivity of data, data sovereignty, privacy, all of those sorts of issues come to the fore in those sorts of discussions. For us it is not about the technology, as it is already easy with Micro Focus, it is about the fact that we are a government owned trading enterprise. The risks associated with having any claim details in the public domain is just not something we are prepared to accept. From a cloud perspective, the market is a lot more mature in the US than Australia and, as such, the controls provided by cloud brokers and the like are yet to reached the same level of prominence. The other issue for us is that an integral part of our environment sits on IBM Advanced Interactive eXecutive (AIX), so we have IBM pSeries Servers. Until recently, we have not had any vendors offering AIX in the cloud.
Stuart mcgiLL, micro focuS uK: Are the applications cloud-ready?
John de angeLiS, amP: Well more so that you have removed the mainframe and I assume it is going onto the pSeries? What sort of infrastructure does it move to?
gLenn myerS, inSurance commiSSion of WeStern auStraLia: We have moved all of our COBOL applications onto a blade server in our Linux environment which sits in the VMWare farm.
John de angeLiS, amP: That environment can easily be pulled back to the cloud, assuming you can meet all those other requirements. There seems to be an emerging trend to come back to the mainframe for those reasons as well. Jim burKe, WeStPac: What was the variance in costs? Your run costs, your whole support costs, your upgrade costs? gLenn myerS, inSurance commiSSion of WeStern auStraLia: With the mainframe removed we have effectively removed approximately 12 per cent out of our total IT operating costs.
Stuart mcgiLL, micro focuS uK: Is that sustainable going forward, or is it then just dumped in a different bucket? gLenn myerS, inSurance commiSSion of WeStern auStraLia: We had new CEO start in June last year he asked the same question after we migrated off the mainframe in July. What I did was take him through our IT costs and show him exactly where all the cost-savings were and absolutely it is sustainable.
david Zufic, amP: What is the feel now within the IT portfolio with the mainframe removed and this new world?
“The historical problems of the mainframe have been mainly about resourcing and people.” John De Angelis, AMP
gLenn myerS, inSurance commiSSion of WeStern auStraLia: 1,200 COBOL applications sit on a single blade. We have proven that the security, source code and repositories we have moved to are as secure and efficient as we had on the mainframe. It took a couple of months, at the inception of the project, for some of the application developers to see what it was that we were looking to achieve. It is not as if there were redundancies as a result of what we did. There is now the ability for these staff members to focus on higher value work than what they had been doing, while from the infrastructure perspective we outsource the facilities management of our production environment. Originally we required 24/7 support for our batch processes running overnight and for our systems to be up and available. Now we do not require support beyond 8pm. Our batch processing takes 30 percent of w ho ’ s w ho o f fs i
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the time it took before when we were on the mainframe. We have effectively removed a lot of the work that we used to do and it has allowed us to become a much more efficient IT organisation.
donna Vinci, iag: You mentioned this is a businessled initiative now; was it a business-led initiative when you were going two pathways?
glenn myerS, inSurance commiSSion of WeStern auStralia: Yes. Except it was business led by each of those divisions. We have an IT governance board and they had agreed the two divisions would continue on the paths they were going, with a view of understanding where they got to. The senior managers that were driving those initiatives had a high degree of ownership and this effectively enabled us to lift that up and to look at it from an organisation perspective as a whole.
donna Vinci, iag: What were the main changes of lifting it up? How did that change the way they made decisions? How did they make changes differently?
our business at all, there would be a slight risk reduction and cost reduction.
Kerrie dySon, iag: We have just started our COBOL development off mainframe, and we are going through the COBOL development pain of doing things differently. How did you go through that change cycle with your developers? tony KeSby, Veda: That move pre-dates my joining Veda so I can’t comment on that transition.
glenn myerS, inSurance commiSSion of WeStern auStralia: Do you have any concerns around resource availability for mainframe specific capability?
tony KeSby, Veda: Whenever we have had to bring in two or three or four PL/1 guys, we get them in two weeks. Try and find a good Java guy or a .net guy, it can take you months.
Stuart mcgill, micro focuS uK: Was that a conversation you had to manage?
glenn myerS, inSurance commiSSion of WeStern auStralia: To be honest it was a little bit “It sorted itself out in a number of ways – we took costs down by hard negotiations with our outsourcing partner, our new builds are off mainframe.” Tony Kesby, VeDA
fortuitous, a new CIO who came in with a different set of glasses and had a good look at it. It was that opportunity to put an external view on it which made our executives sit back and listen. I think it is fair to say we have put a lot more commercial discipline into our investment decision making in the last couple of years.
Stuart mcgill, micro focuS uK: There are many approaches to improving our capability of innovation. Tony, have you got any points about your organisation? tony KeSby, Veda: I joined Veda four years ago, and a common question was, where are you going to find your PL/1 people? Also there were questions around cost of the mainframe speed and demand. It sorted itself out in a number of ways – we took costs down by hard negotiations with our outsourcing partner, our new builds are off mainframe. I do not have a real problem with the PL/1 skills – our current team does not turn over much at all. And they can find colleagues; if needed extra workload here can be outsourced. Speed of the market is the real driver for us. We do 90 per cent of our product build, off mainframe platforms; we build in Java or .net. Still, it would be a nice exercise for us to go through to take some cost out, to take away some of that risk, but it is not critical. It is not impacting
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glenn myerS, inSurance commiSSion of WeStern auStralia: We had different initiatives or projects that we were investing in at the same time. Those business transformational, functional, enhancement type pieces of work were done outside of this particular project and were managed discreetly from this project (re-hosting the COBOL systems). It was absolutely vital that these were kept separate because otherwise it would have been really hard for us to remain focussed on what we were trying to achieve. The benefit of keeping things like-for-like is when it came to testing as the business got their heads around the fact they did not need to test everything to the nth degree as they were essentially getting what they previously had from a functional perspective. Sure, from a performance perspective, we needed to do some other work around ensuring that we could deliver the same level of performance, the same scalability, those sorts of issues, which is the concern when moving off the mainframe. From a business perspective, that is why we kept it as like-for-like, otherwise it would have been very difficult to manage. In regards to managing ongoing business change, our COBOL applications are predominantly processing engines. The business functionality resides in the middle layer in our architecture. We effected changes in that middle layer and we left the COBOL code alone.
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Stuart mcgiLL, micro FocuS uK: So you had a good layered architecture model and plan? gLenn myerS, inSurance commiSSion oF WeStern auStraLia: Absolutely, and this was critical for us to move to a service-orientated architecture which was key anyway. The other thing that we did was to remove a lot of the business rules from the front-end of our applications and put them back into that middle layer. We have made a decision to standardise on Google Web Toolkit (GWT) so that we can deliver the Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML5) capability through that mechanism as well.
david ZuFic, amP: From a delivery perspective, what sort of partners or toolkit did they bring to help you to deliver these changed programs?
gLenn myerS, inSurance commiSSion oF WeStern auStraLia: When we started this particular project, we thought we should do it internally and just use the Micro Focus resource that we needed to fill the gaps. In fairness, they do not understand our environment to the same extent as we do. We only really had one Micro Focus person working for an elapsed time of probably five or six months. The rest was all done by our team. We have a distinction between our core COBOL applications and the other application sets, so those teams stayed intact to continue with all those other enhancements and business changes.
david ZuFic, amP: So they got up to speed with the
we experienced. I would probably do more analysis work around our data sources, data structures and how we look to publish data. Finally, I would probably spend more time at the start of the project ensuring that the businesses understood what the initiative was about and what it was aimed to achieve. That way we would have had a better understanding of what testing needed to be done from the outset.
donna vinci, iag: You said it is a business-led program, but the business did not understand what they were undertaking.
gLenn myerS, inSurance commiSSion oF WeStern auStraLia: For the first two to three months it was a business led project in name, because they understood the potential impact on the business. After two to three months they understood what their contribution was to the project and what the outcome was. The dynamic changed in terms of their involvement.
Kerrie dySon, iag: When you flicked the switch in production, what was the end-user experience? Did they notice any difference? gLenn myerS, inSurance commiSSion oF WeStern auStraLia: No. That was the test. The test was if the business came into work on a Monday morning and we had flicked the switch on the Sunday night, there should be no change to how the systems functioned. The risk in doing these sorts of initiatives is to over test.
Donna Vinci, iaG
Micro Focus toolkit relatively quickly?
KyLie KeLLy, micro FocuS: The next generation
gLenn myerS, inSurance commiSSion oF WeStern auStraLia: We went through a two to three
wants instant information. You talked about the security issues you perceive. How are you moving forward with your innovation strategies now you have made that transformation?
week program of planning and traning and probably another couple of weeks working with it after which they were up to speed with the Micro Focus toolkit.
donna vinci, iag: When you do large transformations, there is always an opportunity to reflect back. What would you have done differently? What were some of your three lessons learned?
gLenn myerS, inSurance commiSSion oF WeStern auStraLia: When we did the three month proof of concept, we only effectively proved the concept of recompiling the COBOL applications on the Micro Focus platform. If I had my time again we would extend that to incorporate the interfaces and some of the other applications in our environment because of the issues
“When you do large transformations, there is always an opportunity to reflect back.”
gLenn myerS, inSurance commiSSion oF WeStern auStraLia: We move forward without worrying about the COBOL applications. We are exposing the services we can, out of the back-end, and focusing on our Business Process Management (BPM) toolset to deliver a lot of that innovation. They are not integral to what we do, they literally sit at the back-end and just process, so it has freed all of that up.
KyLie KeLLy, micro FocuS: One of the questions we see every day from our customers is: When can we and how do we? To see customers that have made that full transformation and extend services back to the user is important in our messaging. w ho ’ s w ho o f fs i
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glenn myerS, InSurance commISSIon of WeStern auStralIa: It is interesting because we did not do this in isolation. It was part of deploying our enterprise architecture so it was an integral component of our moving from where we wanted to be to where we are headed. It could probably have justified itself in a business case purely on the savings, but that was a factor; it was not the determinate factor of what we did. When I started with the organisation one of the core divisions was progressing down a path of looking at off-the-shelf solutions. The other part of the business was looking at BPM enablement. What they have today is not that different to what they would have got had they gone with another solution.We had a look at all of the industry recognised claims management tools and got to the point in a tender process where we had evaluated all the solutions. In reality, another solution would have delivered a lot of the capability through its own BPM instead of using our existing BPM capability. That was one of the key questions, because that BPM layer is critical for our environment and our preference was to leverage existing toolsets in our environment. We didn’t want to have that IP diluted into another application which was being customised.
JIm burke, WeStpac: Did you consider outsourcing at all? “The issue of whether we move to technology that can be put into the cloud is becoming more pressured now rather than the resourcing.” Jim Burke, Westpac
glenn myerS, InSurance commISSIon of WeStern auStralIa: Yes we did. However, we would not outsource the core of what we do.
JIm burke, WeStpac: We did look at some of the tools around conversion or migration to different platforms, but financially at that point the tools were not that mature and it was not a cost benefit to us. We went down the outsourcing path in a structured and risk-adverse way and decided to go with Infosys. They documented the system for us as a starting point. They started developing with that documentation then eventually got into production support. In the end it was a cost-neutral position and was more of a risk play. Right now we do not have any issues with people knowing COBOL or people knowing the underlying DB2. The issue of whether we move to technology that can be put into the cloud is becoming more pressured now rather than the resourcing. They document the system more so than we would have ever done. They are very structured that way. glenn Vade, amp: We still have some key subject matter experts. One of them has been with us 51 years.
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We want to move to exposing services to mobile technology and other channels that are out there. When you went through transformation, you mentioned creating some services in the middle layer rather than at the back-end. Does your back-end system consume those services or have you replicated the code into two spots?
glenn myerS, InSurance commISSIon of WeStern auStralIa: A combination, which is probably not the answer you want. I am talking less about consuming services in the back-end as against exposing services from the back-end. We are literally just exposing services from the backend for reuse. I think when we work out how to use those services better with the back-end we will truly start innovating a lot more. We are not there yet. We have taken the easier task first to be honest with you and that is to just expose the services and reusing them in other parts of our architecture.
glenn Vade, amp: What I do not want to do is rewrite half the system again with all that logic for all these services to sit out there. I want the core back-end to use it as well. glenn myerS, InSurance commISSIon of WeStern auStralIa: We have a services repository using a toolset from Tibco. Effectively what that does is it allows you to check in and out services. When you develop new services or look at new services or expose services, it does comparisons to what you already have. It tells you if you already have something that will do what you are wanting to do. From an innovation perspective, in terms of Agility, speed to market, speed to deliver, certainly we are getting those sorts of benefits. In terms of consuming the services within the backend, that is a challenge for another day.
Stuart mcgIll, mIcro focuS uk: Are you realising the benefits now or have you yet to see those benefits come through? JIm burke, WeStpac: We can see the embryonic re-use in terms of validating the theory and the practice, but you need to build up that repository of services and realise as you go through that journey you are going to have to rewrite them two or three times to get it right. I think what the challenge is, is the cultural shift. glenn myerS, InSurance commISSIon of WeStern auStralIa: I am envious of some people around the table because the opportunity to leverage service-orientated architecture is greater for
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organisations the size and scale and diversity that some of you have in comparison to our organisation. That level of potential reuse and consumption of services across multiple lines of business and multiple functions is limited for us in comparison but it is certainly, I would imagine, where the benefits and potential lies for for some of you.
John de angeLiS, amP: The problem is to have a unified organisation that speaks the same language and is on the same page. tony craddock, iag: When I was at Westpac we wanted to modernise our technology but we had hard-coded the front-end and the back-end systems together so you could not do any significant modernisation without changing everything. It was fundamental to start that journey in separating frontend, back-end, middle-end systems in order to be able to start. That was the driver. You start off with the consultants and they come up with these theoretically purist ideas but next you end up with a bloated and sub-optimal first cut on your services. Then you get rid of the consultants, try and do it yourself and come up with the second cut, which is more pragmatic and practical but probably not there. gary Sim, WeStPac: It really has paid great dividends for us. I think we have 30 or 40 applications running on the enterprise services bus and the amount of point-to-point it is saved us is significant. I do not think we could see a next phase yet. We are continuing to exploit what we have and move as many applications as we can into the enterprise services bus. Now we have a global Customer Master, running on a mid-range platform being kept in sync with another global customer master which runs on the mainframe. donna Vinci, iag: Those that have been on the journey longer can adapt to that faster. We are all going to have to adapt to that but it is around the maturity level of the services bus you have, and how the mindset is changing in the organisation around adaptability to develop those access points’ hooks into the core and share that across the organisation.
Jim burke, WeStPac: We have a real business case we can take to the business and say this is of value now, because for you to be in the market you have to be able to have this capability.
gary Sim, WeStPac: Do you focus on the front-end, the channels? Or do you focus on the back-end, the core
banking? Where is the pressure coming from? Where is the interest? Where is it coming from? It is all coming from mobility. Our growth in mobility is huge, it is enormous. I think first where the customer may start their conversation and where they finish, it is through the services bus. You will be able to keep that information flow without having to key it in again. That makes the back-end a little bit clunkier, so we are heavily dependent on a mainframe and we will never see mainframes disappear out of Westpac. When you consider we process a hundred million transactions a day, it will always be part of our business. Thirteen years ago Westpac outsourced to IBM for that reason – skill levels. IBM is sourcing those skills out of India and China, so they have solved that problem.
Jim burke, WeStPac: We have a significant platform that runs a big part of our superannuation book on a language called Lancer. We have given manuals to the Indian outsourcers and suddenly you have 300 people that know how to develop in it. So that becomes an attractive proposition. Stuart mcgiLL, micro FocuS uk: Could using the cloud service increase productivity throughout the implementation process? gary Sim, WeStPac: The more cloud providers that come into the marketplace, the greater the dependence on the capabilities of the service management provider to control and manage multiple providers (who are delivering into what could be an end-to-end service) will be. What we are seeing is an emerging trend of a strong dependent customer having a strong service management governance capability across all the disciplines. There is a shift emerging in outsourcing too. I had a conversation recently with the head of infrastructure for American Express. His view on outsourcing is 50 per cent [should be] in-sourced and 50 per cent outsourced; of the 50 per cent outsourced, half will be cloud providers. This is a very interesting shift, one we are keeping a close eye on.
“When I was at Westpac we wanted to modernise our technology but we had hard-coded the front-end and the back-end systems together so you could not do any significant modernisation without changing everything.” Tony CraddoCk, IaG
brett death, Zurich: Australia is a relatively small player, globally we have outsourced a lot of our infrastructure and application development. In Australia, it is largely in-sourced, so for me to consider changes to the outsourcing, I have to consider what does our local business expect compared to our global business? Often they are not the same. That is one of the challenges for us. We cannot just jump on board.
* who ’ s w ho o f fs i
121
The Who’s Who of Financial Services 2013/2014 directory AustrAliA And new zeAlAnd's top product, service And solution providers
Agile/Lean Software Development
123
Enterprise Linux Distribution
143
Banking Technology
123 –125
Financial Application Platform
143
Big Data
125–126
Funds Management Systems
144
Business Intelligence
127–128
Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
144
Identity & Access Management
145
Infocommunications Technology
145
Information Management
146
Insurance Software
146 147
Business Process Management Cloud Cloud Accounting Software Consulting & Systems Integration
128 129–130 131 131–132
Core Systems
132
Mainframe Connectivity Solutions
Customer Engagement
133
Managed Services
Customer Experience
133–137
Mobile Banking
147–148 149
Customer Interaction Management
137
Mobility
149–152
Customer Relationship Management
138
Multi-Channel Communications
152–154
Data Centre Operator
139
Outsourcing
154 –155
Data Management
139
Payments
156
Data Management & Outsourcing
140
Performance Monitoring
156
Decision Management
140
Risk
157
Enterprise Applications Enterprise Information Management 122
Who ’S Who o F FS i
141–142 142
Security
157–159
w h o’ s w ho Di r ec to ry
Agile/leAn softwAre Development
BAnKing technology
rally software
ABnote Australasia
In a world driven by software, we are convinced Agile can help accelerate the pace of innovation so companies create products users love. At Rally, we are absolutely dedicated to making your entire company faster, leaner and more Agile – because no matter how fast things change, you will have the speed and agility to create your next generation of growth. Rally helps you go Agile. And we really mean help. We are not just an award-winning software vendor whose cloud-based products and platform give companies what they need to steer corporate strategy, run their development lifecycle and expand team collaboration. We are an Agile partner with a team of Agile coaches and comprehensive training services that help teams and leaders navigate the organisational change required to become a great, innovative, Agile business. Forrester Research summed it up more modestly, saying: "Rally's leadership rests with its breadth and depth of capabilities for Agile teams, combined with a strong and focused corporate strategy." We think holistically about the collaboration it takes to get valuable ideas to market. A more traditional view of Rally comes from important industry analysts who describe us (in the nicest terms) as helping disrupt their technology categories of application lifecycle management (ALM) and project/program portfolio management (PPM). Find out more: http://www.rallydev.com/about/what-is-rally
ABnote is one of the world’s longest established and trusted suppliers of secure transaction products, including credit and bank cards, smartcards, PINs, membership cards, gift and loyalty cards, ID solutions, cheque books, passports, barcodes and labels. Our innovative solutions include a multi-channel approach where clients connect with their customers via Near Field Communication (NFC), SMS, ePINS, mobile solutions, email and archival systems. We also provide print solutions including letterheads, carriers, renewal and reminder notices, statements, invoices, mail house services and fulfilment. Our origins in Australasia date back to 1837 when John Sands started the business, supplying specialist stationery and engraving printing plates for secure documents. Our parent company, ABnote Group, based in the US, was founded in 1795 by American patriot Paul Revere. ABnote Group is a global supplier of secure documents, services and systems and operates in five countries on four continents. The Group employs more than 2,000 people, with over 600 in Australia. The company's success over almost 200 years is due to its continuing focus on new methods, new products, new technologies and a partnering approach to client relationships. ABnote positions itself as a ‘total solutions supplier’. This modern business practice has worked well for the company and its customers. Being able to fully integrate many steps in the supply chain means ABnote's customers benefit significantly from reduced administrative costs and simplified logistics processes.
rally software level 2, 710 collins street Docklands vic 3008 Australia
ABnote Australasia pty ltd 1144 nepean highway highett vic 3109 Australia
phone: +61 3 9097 1727 email: info@rallydev.com contact: Nat Tanner twitter: RallySoftware website: www.rallydev.com
ABnote new Zealand level 10 Union house, 2 commerce street Auckland 1010 new Zealand
phone: +61 3 9556 9417 fax: +61 3 9553 3306 email: sales@abnote.com.au website: www.abnote.com.au
phone: +64 9 304 1273 fax: +64 9 304 2185 email: sales@abnote.com.au website: www.abnote.com.au who ’ s w ho o f fs i
123
w ho’ s w h o Di r ec t o ry
Banking technology
Banking technology
clear2Pay
Datacard group
Clear2Pay delivers payment solutions that help banks and financial institutions rationalise legacy systems and transform payment infrastructures of any type – from point of sale (POS) and ATM to domestic and international payments. We are a global company with headquarters in Brussels and operations in more than 20 countries around the world. With a strong 25 years' heritage in Australia and New Zealand, the company facilitates the provision of payments services for many banks and financial services organisations. Clear2Pay is an innovative payments technology company focused on delivering globally applicable solutions for secure, timely and streamlined payments processing. Clear2Pay’s Open Payment Framework (OPF) enables financial institutions to improve internal payments processing efficiencies whilst providing their clients with better payment services that are faster and have richer payments-related information. The company also offers a complete range of testing tools for POS, EMV, ATM, host and other recurrent payments testing needs, complemented by a comprehensive range of consulting services. Our products and services include: • Open Test Solutions: Clear2Pay offers the widest range of test solutions in the industry for electronic transactions in payment, transport and mobile applications. • Open Card Solutions Chargeback: Processor solutions for banks, card processors, issuers and acquirers. • Consultancy: Consulting services and expert co-sourcing based on deep domain expertise and extensive international know-how. • Open Payment Systems: A library of component building blocks from which payments solutions can be derived.
Datacard Group collaborates with customers to create highly secure financial card programs and government ID initiatives, as well as secure ID programs for education, corporate security and many other markets. We bring unmatched experience and expertise to every engagement, including industry best practices and a deep understanding of complex operational issues. This enables Datacard to deliver innovative solutions and services that help customers address critical challenges. Datacard made secure, high-volume issuance of credit cards possible more than 40 years ago when we introduced the first highspeed card personalisation system. Today, we continue to develop patented technologies that help customers improve productivity, profitability and cardholder satisfaction. Our portfolio supports high-volume and instant card issuance, secure credential issuance and management, passport production, delivery, fulfillment and packaging. The Datacard Group’s product and solutions portfolio offers a truly integrated platform that combines Datacard® hardware, software, supplies and global support.
clear2Pay level 9, 132 arthur street north sydney nsw 2060 australia Phone: +61 2 9026 0000 email: info.aunz@clear2pay.com website: www.clear2pay.com 124
who ’s who of fs i
secure issuance anywhere™ Secure Issuance Anywhere™ combines central and instant issuance, along with emerging mobile issuance capabilities, in a single platform. This gives organisations the flexibility to issue secure cards and credentials anytime, anywhere. Secure Issuance Anywhere™ gives issuers the freedom and flexibility to manage their card and credential program exactly as they want, with exceptional physical and logical security.
Datacard south Pacific Pty ltd 56a, (BlD 5) 195 wellington road clayton Vic 3168 australia Phone: +61 3 9535 0300 email: Salesadmin_aus@datacard.com contact: Michael Robertson twitter: datacardgroup website: www.datacard.com.au
w h o’ s w ho Di r ec to ry
Banking technology
Big Data
oracle Financial services
iBM australia
Oracle Financial Services Software is a world leader in providing products and services to the financial services industry and is a majority-owned subsidiary of Oracle. With the experience of delivering value-based IT solutions to more than 900 financial institutions across 135 countries, Oracle Financial Services Software understands the specific challenges that financial institutions face. We offer the combined benefits of interoperability, extensibility and standardisation along with best-of-breed functionality for institutions that need to operate flexibly and respond rapidly to market dynamics in a fiercely challenging business environment. Our award winning portfolio encompasses retail, corporate and investment banking, funds, cash management, trade, treasury, payments, lending, private wealth management, asset management, compliance, enterprise risk and business analytics, among others.
Everyday, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data – so much that 90 per cent of data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone. This data comes from everywhere: sensors used to gather climate information, posts to social media sites, digital pictures and videos posted online, transaction records of online purchases and mobile phone GPS signals, to name a few. This data is big data.
oracle Financial services software riverside corporate Park, 4 Julius avenue north ryde nsw 2113 australia Phone: +61 2 9491 1000 or 1300 366 386 email: financialservices_ww@oracle.com twitter: oraclefs Facebook: oraclefs website: www.oracle.com/financialservices
Big data spans three dimensions: Variety, Velocity and Volume. • Variety: Big data extends beyond structured data, including unstructured data of all varieties: text, audio, video, click streams, log files and more. • Velocity: Often time-sensitive, big data must be used as it is streaming in to the enterprise to maximise its value to the business. • Volume: Big data comes in one size: large. Enterprises are awash with data, easily amassing terabytes and even petabytes of information. Big data is more than a challenge; it is an opportunity to find insight in new and emerging types of data, to make your business more agile and to answer questions that, in the past, were beyond reach. Until now, there was no practical way to harvest this opportunity. Today, IBM’s platform for big data opens the door to a world of possibilities, giving organisations a solution that is designed specifically with the needs of the enterprise in mind.
iBM australia Pty ltd 601 Pacific highway st leonards nsw 2065 australia Phone: +61 2 9407 9601 email: rlm@au1.ibm.com contact: Andrea Espinosa website: www-01.ibm.com/software/au/analytics/ w ho ’ s w ho o f fs i
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w ho’ s w h o Di r ec t o ry
big Data
big Data
tibco software australia
opentext
Backed by decades of innovation in infrastructure technology and a customer roster of leading global banks, TIBCO offers a unique, event-driven approach to growing revenue and solving the operational challenges of 21st century financial organisations. From our early days digitising Wall Street, to our proven record in helping banks execute successful marketing and business transformation initiatives, TIBCO has deep experience working with financial services businesses. TIBCO's record in capital markets is demonstrated by more than two decades of leadership in innovative, high-performance infrastructure technology that enables capital markets players to compete in a world where success is measured in milliseconds. TIBCO can assist your organisation with massive volumes of events and data flowing across your operations through: • A customer-oriented, event-driven architecture that aligns your operations to customers and customer opportunities. • Innovative event-processing technologies that leverage in-memory computing to capture and correlate millions of events, allowing you to identify opportunities and risks in real time. • A standard way to perform integration and create new services, resulting in significantly greater agility and reducing the time and resources needed to add new applications, capabilities and partners. • Operational efficiency gains and significant cost savings resulting from automation and workforce optimisation.
OpenText provides enterprise information management (EIM) software that makes it possible for companies to manage, secure and leverage their business information on any device, either on-premise or in the cloud. We work with more than 50,000 organisations, helping them unleash the power of information to gain better business insight, capitalise on opportunities to positively impact the business, improve process speed, reduce risks related to information governance and protect sensitive information from internal leaks and external threats. Financial services organisations operate in one of the most competitive and highly regulated business environments. Not only are these organisations subject to intense global competition, but they are also vying to carve out differentiated niches of business and consumer products or services. Agility, speed, determination, accountability and dependability are frequently the chief success factors by which they are measured. There is little room for error in executing strategies aimed at striking the perfect balance between achieving goals of revenue growth, customer retention and improved service levels within the mandates of shareholder accountability and regulatory compliance. A sound approach to content management is essential for organisations looking to thrive in the dynamic financial services market. With OpenText solutions, financial service providers can rapidly deploy a holistic EIM strategy to increase efficiencies, improve customer service levels, mitigate risk, accelerate product development cycles, streamline deal-related processes and generate a competitive advantage.
tibco software australia Pty Ltd Level 11, 100 Pacific highway North sydney Nsw 2060 australia Phone: +61 2 9458 2100 website: www.tibco.com 126
who ’s who of fs i
opentext Level 6, 80 Pacific highway North sydney Nsw 2060 australia Phone: +61 2 9026 3400 email: marketinganz@opentext.com contact: Tammy Vorster-Jones website: www.opentext.com.au
w h o’ s w ho Di r ec to ry
business intelligence
business intelligence
technologyone
tibco software Australia
The financial services sector faces a range of complex and challenging issues. To keep ahead of the game, forward thinking organisations must look for opportunities to gain efficiencies and improve services by using innovative systems that increase financial transparency, simplify reporting, streamline processes and consolidate information. TechnologyOne has been working for more than 20 years with banks, credit unions, building societies, insurance, superannuation and wealth management organisations. Our deep understanding and engagement with this market has enabled us to develop OneBanking, OneWealth and OneInsurance – leading edge enterprise solutions developed specifically for the financial services industry. These solutions enable organisations to easily report on and manage core financial and operational information, as well as meet the regulatory reporting requirements of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and the International Financial Reporting Standards. Our sophisticated software integrates with our client’s third party systems, is simple to use, supports an organisation’s growth and addresses the everyday issues around forecasting, budgeting and cost reductions, contract management, program management, real-time reporting and the facilitation of people management and staff retention.
Backed by decades of innovation in infrastructure technology and a customer roster of leading global banks, TIBCO offers a unique, event-driven approach to growing revenue and solving the operational challenges of 21st century financial organisations. From our early days digitising Wall Street, to our proven record in helping banks execute successful marketing and business transformation initiatives, TIBCO has deep experience working with financial services businesses. TIBCO's record in capital markets is demonstrated by more than two decades of leadership in innovative, high-performance infrastructure technology that enables capital markets players to compete in a world where success is measured in milliseconds. TIBCO can assist your organisation with massive volumes of events and data flowing across your operations through: • A customer-oriented, event-driven architecture that aligns your operations to customers and customer opportunities. • Innovative event-processing technologies that leverage in-memory computing to capture and correlate millions of events, allowing you to identify opportunities and risks in real time. • A standard way to perform integration and create new services, resulting in significantly greater agility and reducing the time and resources needed to add new applications, capabilities and partners. • Operational efficiency gains and significant cost savings resulting from automation and workforce optimisation.
technologyone level 11, technologyone hQ, 540 wickham street Fortitude Valley QlD 4006 Australia Phone: 1800 671 978 (Australia) or 0800 174 091 (New Zealand) email: sales@TechnologyOneCorp.com contact: Sean Tuckett, Financial Services Solution Manager website: www.TechnologyOneCorp.com
tibco software Australia Pty ltd level 11, 100 Pacific highway north sydney nsw 2060 Australia Phone: +61 2 9458 2100 website: www.tibco.com who ’ s w ho o f fs i
127
w ho’ s w h o Di r ec t o ry
business intelligence
business Process MAnAgeMent
Verint systems
opentext
Verint® (NASDAQ: VRNT) is a global leader in Actionable Intelligence® solutions. Its portfolio of Enterprise Intelligence Solutions™ and Security Intelligence Solutions™ helps organisations Make Big Data Actionable™ through the ability to capture, analyse and act on large volumes of rich, complex and often underused information sources – such as voice, video and unstructured text. With Verint solutions and value-added services, organisations of all sizes can make more timely and effective decisions. Today, more than 10,000 organisations in 150 countries, including more than 80 per cent of the Fortune 100, count on Verint solutions to improve enterprise performance and make the world a safer place. Headquartered in New York, Verint has offices worldwide and an extensive global partner network. In the enterprise intelligence market, Verint solutions help organisations use the voice of their customers to drive operational excellence, increase customer satisfaction and loyalty and optimise enterprise performance. Verint Enterprise Workforce Optimisation Solutions, including our fifth generation Impact 360® Workforce Optimisation™ suite, enable organisations to capture, analyse, and act on customer, business, and market intelligence. Verint Voice of the Customer Solutions unite customer feedback on expectations, preferences and experiences across communication channels, enabling organisations to drive business strategies and corporate performance. Our solutions help contact centres, customer sales and service operations and financial compliance environments address a wide range of goals, including workforce performance, process adherence, product/service enhancements, business process improvements, revenue generation, cost reduction, liability management, financial regulatory compliance and a world-class customer experience.
Business process management (BPM) by OpenText unleashes the power of information to give employees, customers and partners what they need to quickly and consistently deliver exceptional results. As part of the rich portfolio of OpenText enterprise information management (EIM) solutions, BPM helps organisations work more efficiently, improve the optimisation of complex processes, and outperform their business goals with real-time business insight. Financial services organisations operate in one of the most competitive and highly regulated business environments. Not only are these organisations subject to intense global competition, but they are also vying to carve out differentiated niches of business and consumer products or services. Agility, speed, determination, accountability and dependability are frequently the chief success factors by which they are measured. There is little room for error in executing strategies aimed at striking the perfect balance between achieving goals of revenue growth, customer retention and improved service levels within the mandates of shareholder accountability and regulatory compliance. It is essential to ensure the right application and resource support is in place for processes across the industry’s entire value chain. By enabling smart process applications, OpenText is able to accelerate deployments and deliver value much faster than traditional approaches. With OpenText BPM solutions, financial services providers are able to increase efficiencies, improve customer service levels, mitigate risk, accelerate product development cycles, streamline dealrelated processes and generate competitive advantage.
Verint systems level 5, 76 berry street north sydney nsw 2060 Australia Phone: +61 2 8907 0300 email: marketing.apac@verint.com contact: Zwicka Ben-Zion, Managing Director twitter: Verint website: www.verint.com 128
who ’s who o f fs i
opentext level 6, 80 Pacific highway north sydney nsw 2060 Australia Phone: +61 2 9026 3400 email: marketinganz@opentext.com contact: Tammy Vorster-Jones website: www.opentext.com.au
w h o’ s w ho Di r ec to ry
clouD
clouD
cloud sherpas
technologyone
Cloud Sherpas – a Platinum Salesforce.com Partner, the Google Enterprise Partner of the Year 2011 and 2012 and a ServiceNow Preferred Partner – is a leading enterprise-focused cloud services brokerage helping organisations leverage cloud technologies globally. Through strategic partnerships with salesforce.com, Google and ServiceNow, Cloud Sherpas has successfully migrated more than two million users across all industries from legacy to financial services. Cloud Sherpas’ comprehensive catalogue of solutions, advisory services and integration services enables organisations to seamlessly move to the cloud. Cloud Sherpas offers a broad portfolio of cloud platforms that suits every business’ needs, from infrastructure via web-based solutions for social collaboration to sales automation (CRM), secure data management, IT service management and a host of additional custom solutions for mobile integration. Cloud Sherpas serves its global customer base with offices located in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Cloud Sherpas holds a prominent presence in Australia and New Zealand with four offices located in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Wellington. Cloud Sherpas received the distinction of Salesforce Platinum Partner status in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Being recognised as a Salesforce, Google and ServiceNow trusted partner, has enabled Cloud Sherpas to successfully help 5,000 clients adopt cloud computing technologies worldwide.
The financial services sector faces a range of complex and challenging issues. To keep ahead of the game, forward thinking organisations must look for opportunities to gain efficiencies and improve services by using innovative systems that increase financial transparency, simplify reporting, streamline processes and consolidate information. TechnologyOne has been working for more than 20 years with banks, credit unions, building societies, insurance, superannuation and wealth management organisations. Our deep understanding and engagement with this market has enabled us to develop OneBanking, OneWealth and OneInsurance – leading edge enterprise solutions developed specifically for the financial services industry. These solutions enable organisations to easily report on and manage core financial and operational information, as well as meet the regulatory reporting requirements of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and the International Financial Reporting Standards. Our sophisticated software integrates with our client’s third party systems, is simple to use, supports an organisation’s growth and addresses the everyday issues around forecasting, budgeting and cost reductions, contract management, program management, real-time reporting and the facilitation of people management and staff retention.
cloud sherpas level 5, 151 castlereagh street sydney Nsw 2000 Australia
technologyone level 11, technologyone hQ, 540 wickham street Fortitude Valley QlD 4006 Australia
Phone: 13000 CLOUD or 1300 025 683 email: info-aus@cloudsherpas.com twitter: cloudsherpas website: www.cloudsherpas.com
Phone: 1800 671 978 (Australia) or 0800 174 091 (New Zealand) email: sales@TechnologyOneCorp.com contact: Sean Tuckett, Financial Services Solution Manager website: www.TechnologyOneCorp.com who ’ s w ho o f fs i
129
w ho’ s w h o Di r ec t o ry
clouD
clouD
NetApp Australia
thunderhead.com
NetApp creates innovative storage and data management solutions that deliver outstanding cost efficiency and accelerate business breakthroughs. Our dedication to the principles of simplicity, innovation and customer success has made us one of the fastest growing storage and data management providers today. Customers around the world choose us for our ‘go beyond’ approach and broad portfolio of solutions for business applications, storage for virtual servers, disk-to-disk backup and more. Our solutions provide non-stop availability of critical business data and simplify business processes so you can deploy new capabilities with confidence and get to revenue faster than ever before. You can rely on our industry-leading solutions to lower the cost of protecting your data, business and reputation. We bring together the industry’s best partners and technology to deliver services that help you maximise what you are getting from your infrastructure. Our collaborative approach – working as one team with one goal – means you get a solution that is just right for you, on time and on budget. To support your global business, we provide highly responsive support in local languages. From London to Austin, Bangalore to Tokyo, we will work with you to solve your problems and help you reach your goals.
Thunderhead.com is a global provider of enterprise engagement and customer experience management solutions. We help our customers succeed by providing them with powerful Software-as-a-Service solutions that allow them to better engage, connect, communicate and trade – reshaping the way companies do business with their customers and partners. Some of the world’s most demanding companies trust Thunderhead.com to help them build customer engagement and create enduring relationships. All our solutions, from large scale enterprise solutions through to our AppExchange applications, are leveraging our rich heritage and expertise in personalisation, multi-channel communications and usability. They are built to empower and liberate business users through design-led technology focused on ease of use. With Thunderhead.com, businesses have more power to drive revenue, brand strength and differentiation through superior customer experience. We serve our global customer base from offices located in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Visit www.thunderhead.com.
NetApp Australia Pty ltd level 16, 100 Miller street North sydney Nsw 2060 Australia
thunderhead.com level 8, 99 york st sydney Nsw 2000 Australia
Phone: 1800 780 996 (Australia) or 0800 442 742 (New Zealand) email: anzinfo@netapp.com contact: Amy Ngian twitter: NetAppANZ website: www.netapp.com.au
Phone: +61 2 9299 4560 email: marketing_apac@thunderhead.com twitter: Thunderheadon linkedin: Thunderhead.com website: www.thunderhead.com
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who ’s who o f fs i
w h o’ s w ho Di r ec to ry
clouD accounting software
consulting & systems integration
Xero
capgemini
Xero is beautiful online accounting software that connects small businesses to their advisors and other services. Xero provides business owners with real-time visibility of their financial position in a way that is simple, smart and secure. At its core, Xero is a powerful and comprehensive accounting system, complete with accounts receivable, accounts payable, credit notes, budgeting, accounts reporting, payroll (Australia), management reporting, expenses, fixed assets, GST returns and more. Xero operates on a single ledger platform, where the adviser and client view and work on the same data in real time in the cloud. The single ledger platform has changed the game for accountants when it comes to providing real solutions for business clients and becoming what is termed ‘the trusted adviser’. The company has more than 150,000 paying customers across 100 countries around the world and is listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange and the Australian Securities Exchange. See www.xero.com for more details.
Capgemini, one of the world’s foremost providers of consulting, technology and outsourcing services, enables its clients to transform and perform through technologies. Capgemini provides its clients with insights and capabilities that boost their freedom to achieve superior results through a unique way of working, the Collaborative Business Experience™. Locally Capgemini’s focus is to provide consulting and systems integration services to enable businesses to exploit best of breed solutions and gain the next level of productivity and quality. Our experience with the top four banks and leading insurance and capital markets organisations, combined with the equal importance we place on what we have to offer and how we work, ensures long lasting partnerships. Our group relies on a global delivery model called Rightshore®, which aims to get the right balance of the best talent from multiple locations working as one team to create and deliver the optimum solution for clients. Present in 44 countries, Capgemini reported global revenues of €10.3 billion in 2012 and employs more than 125,000 people worldwide. Capgemini’s Global Financial Services Business Unit brings deep industry experience, innovative service offerings and next generation global delivery to serve the financial services industry. With a network of 24,000 professionals serving more than 900 clients worldwide, Capgemini collaborates with leading banks, insurers and capital market companies to deliver business and IT solutions and thought leadership that create tangible value.
Xero australia Pty ltd 1/6 elizabeth st hawthorn Vic 3122 australia Phone: 1800 22 55 93 twitter: Xero website: www.xero.com
capgemini level 7, 77 King street sydney nsw 2000 australia Phone: +61 2 9293 4710 email: capgemini.marketing.au@capgemini.com twitter: capgemini_aust website: www.capgemini.com/financial-services w ho ’ s w ho o f fs i
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w ho’ s w h o Di r ec t o ry
consulting & systems integration
core systems
infront
oneshield
Infront is evolving the way IT is built, consumed and managed. Founded in Australia in 1998, Infront works with CIOs and IT professionals in enterprise and federal government to transform IT systems and create value for the organisation through technology. For more than a decade, Infront has specialised in virtualisation and the design, implementation and support of efficient data centre solutions. Providing end-to-end delivery, Infront helps clients transform infrastructure to enable the introduction of innovative technologies, including cloud, IT-as-a-Service and mobility strategies. With improved simplicity and ease of management through consolidation, virtualisation and automation of redundant tasks, IT can become a more valuable service to the business with greater efficiency from streamlined operations, business agility and end-user satisfaction. Infront’s ICT strategies and solutions efficiently manage data growth, minimise security risks and maximise the performance and agility of an organisation's IT resources. At any stage of the cloud journey, Infront is the ideal partner for its depth of technical expertise, understanding of business drivers and solutions consisting of best-of-breed technology from market-leading vendors EMC, VMware, Cisco, Microsoft and VCE. Infront have received a number of industry awards. They are currently EMC Partner of the Year, ANZ and have previously been recognised for their backup, recovery and storage expertise.
OneShield delivers flexible, enterprise-class core systems including policy management, billing, rating, product configuration and business intelligence/analytics solutions to the global general insurance industry. Based on an open, tool-based architecture, OneShield Dragon® streamlines product creation, management, underwriting and distribution. With Dragon, general insurers gain a competitive advantage for improving operations and profitability and meeting increasing customer and market demands. OneShield Dragon® is a proven industry solution in production across a combined 44 commercial, personal and specialty lines of business for more than 20 customers worldwide. Insurers are choosing Dragon for: • Established policy administration capabilities with features and functions completely adaptable to global markets. • Market expansion flexibility for all lines of business to enter new markets and introduce products and services quickly. • Proven self-sufficiency through powerful and collaborative configuration capabilities. • Implementation methodology advantage with OneShield’s proven practices and methodologies. • Streamlined upgrade path delivering the most current capabilities and technology advancements. • Flexible data conversion options to turn data into a strategic asset. OneShield has a track record of delivering core solutions to the general insurance industry. We pride ourselves on developing innovative technology to better serve the needs of the industry and more importantly, our customers.
infront systems Pty ltd 8 hunter street sydney nsw 2000 australia Phone: +61 2 9216 6900 email: admin@infront.net.au website: www.infront.net.au 132
who ’s who of fs i
oneshield level 27, 101 collins street melbourne Vic 3000 australia Phone: +61 3 9988 4123 or +1 774 288 0166 email: lsmith@oneshield.com contact: Liza Smith, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing twitter: OneShield website: www.oneshield.com
w h o’ s w ho Di r ec to ry
customer engagement
customer exPerience
thunderhead.com
Backbase
Thunderhead.com is a global provider of enterprise engagement and customer experience management solutions. We help our customers succeed by providing them with powerful Software-as-a-Service solutions that allow them to better engage, connect, communicate and trade – reshaping the way companies do business with their customers and partners. Some of the world’s most demanding companies trust Thunderhead.com to help them build customer engagement and create enduring relationships. All our solutions, from large scale enterprise solutions through to our AppExchange applications, are leveraging our rich heritage and expertise in personalisation, multi-channel communications and usability. They are built to empower and liberate business users through design-led technology focused on ease of use. With Thunderhead.com, businesses have more power to drive revenue, brand strength and differentiation through superior customer experience. We serve our global customer base from offices located in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Visit www.thunderhead.com.
Backbase delivers Bank 2.0 Portal, software that provides a new user experience layer on top of underlying infrastructure and IT systems. It gives financial services organisations the opportunity to create interactions that link customers to relevant information and applications to fit their needs and preferences. With its modern, widget-based architecture Backbase's Bank 2.0 Portal provides flexibility and speed to create modern portals that empower the customer. Unlike traditional IT portal vendors, Backbase has created a contemporary, business-driven portal solution that makes portal management easy for e-business professionals. This means faster time to market and more flexibility to optimise online channels with less IT support. The unique Backbase approach enables financial services organisations to drive self-service, fuel online revenues and turn their online banking channel into a true customer engagement platform. Global financial services organisations such as ABN Amro, AIG, Al Rajhi Bank, Bank of America, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, ING, UOB, UBS and Visa have improved their online customer interactions and maximised online customer experience, retention and conversion by leveraging Backbase’s Bank 2.0 technology. Backbase was founded in 2003 and is privately funded with operations in Singapore, New York, Moscow, London and Amsterdam.
thunderhead.com Level 8, 99 york street sydney nsw 2000 australia Phone: +61 2 9299 4560 email: marketing_apac@thunderhead.com twitter: Thunderheadon Linkedin: Thunderhead.com website: www.thunderhead.com
Backbase asia Pacific 3 church street, Level 25, samsung hub singapore 049483
Backbase europe Jacob Bontiusplaats 9 1018 LL amsterdam, the netherlands
Phone: +65 6692 9110 email: Singapore@backbase.com
Phone: + 31 20 465 8888 email: sales-eu@backbase.com who ’ s w ho o f fs i
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customer experience
customer experience
iBm Australia
JooB
It all starts with the customer. In business, this has always been true. Now a new breed of customer is dictating a new set of terms in the dynamic between buyers and sellers. Customers approach a sale empowered by technology and transparency, with more extensive information from more sources than ever before. They expect to engage with companies when and how they want – in person, online and on the go – and they want these methods to tie together seamlessly. IBM Smarter Commerce is a unique approach that increases the value companies generate for their customers, partners and shareholders in a rapidly changing digital world. For financial services, this means managing a web of channels and interaction points – traditional Internet, mobile, physical, social and more – to profitably exchange services and account based information. It also means engaging buyers as their expectations change – whether consumers, citizens or business customers – for relevant, personalised and consistent interactions. Catalysts like social media, real-time access to information and the growth of mobile devices are redefining what customers expect. IBM’s Smarter Commerce solutions provide: • Seamless selling • Order management • Supply chain management • Decision optimisation • Cross-channel campaign management • Marketing resource management • Digital marketing optimisation • Web analytics
compelling digital experiences to drive engagement and business results. JOOB specialises in mobilising customer experiences for financial services organisations with one key focus: delivering the business results required. We combine expert digital and mobile insight with powerful enterprise technologies to deliver market leading innovation and brilliant customer experiences for our clients. We offer a range of professional services, including digital strategy, solution design, rapid and responsive deployment and ongoing managed services. Part of the Jade Software Group, our advanced methodologies have been developed over 30 years of experience providing innovative technology solutions to leading organisations globally. Our approach is to start with people, not technology. We work with you to understand your business strategy and your customers’ needs. Then we apply deep insights based on our industry experience and expertise to develop innovative mobile and digital customer engagement solutions. No matter what stage you are at with your digital planning or implementation, JOOB has the specialist resources to help you achieve your objectives. We partner with our clients on short and long-term projects, such as developing strategy and solution prototypes and designing and deploying complex end-to end solutions. Our clients include ClearView Wealth, AMP, JBWere, TAL, CUA, Shadforth Financial Group and Macquarie Group. JOOB is headquartered in Melbourne, with offices in Sydney, Christchurch and Auckland.
iBm Australia pty Ltd 601 pacific highway st Leonards nsw 2065 Australia
JooB Level 12, 409 st Kilda road melbourne Vic 3004 Australia
phone: 1800 557 343 email: smtrcomm@au1.ibm.com contact: Sruthi Krishnan website: www.ibm.com/smartercommerce/au
phone: 1800 734 760 email: info@joobworld.com twitter: JOOBworld website: www.joobworld.com
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customer experience
customer experience
KAnA software
pegasystems
KANA understands the value of great customer service experiences. We know every channel through which a customer communicates with – and about – your brand. We provide on-premise and cloud solutions for large enterprise and mid-market organisations. By unifying and maintaining context for customer journeys across agent, web, social and mobile experiences, KANA solutions have reduced handling time, increased resolution rates and improved net promoter scores at more than 900 enterprises, including many of the Fortune 500 such as Admiral Group, American Express, Australian Unity, Barclays, Citibank and Standard Bank. At KANA, we help create differentiated and personalised customer experiences that count. KANA is based in Silicon Valley, California and has offices worldwide including in Sydney, Australia.
engage your customers. empower your Business.
KAnA software Level 28, 1 market street sydney nsw 2000 Australia
pegasystems Level 6, 19-31 pitt street sydney nsw 2000 Australia
phone: +61 2 9275 8300 email: apac-info@kana.com twitter: KANASoftware website: www.kana.com
phone: +61 2 9251 0566 email: apac.marketing@pega.com twitter: pega website: www.pega.com
Businesses and organisations now know the fastest path to growth lies in empowering their customers. Today, global organisations that win no longer compete on product and price alone, but on the quality and consistency of the customer experience. Pegasystems delivers the ideal software solution for customer centricity. With Pega's revolutionary technology, every customer interaction can be a catalyst for innovation, growth, cost savings, driving measurable gains in revenue, enhancing the customer experience and advancing operational efficiency. Even better, while Pega helps you become an adaptive, customercentric organisation, it helps you get more from your current technology investments. Pega cloud and on-premise solutions provide a dynamic, intelligent business layer that complements existing technology, renewing and extending the use of core systems. With Pega, you gain a faster and proven solution for successfully addressing key goals of every organisation: • Drive revenue growth. Pega intelligently optimises every customer interaction so customer needs are aligned with business objectives, enabling increased and profitable growth. • Enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. Pega predicts and anticipates customer interests and dynamically addresses each situation to engage and delight customers with personalised interactions across all channels. • Improve operational efficiency. Designed for today's global businesses, Pega combines real-time insight with end-to-end business process automation and the ability to intelligently adjust and adapt processes to foster rapid, continuous improvement.
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customer experience
customer experience
nuance communications
pitney Bowes software
Nuance Communications is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers. The company rapidly advances voice-recognition technology and has more than 120 natural language deployments globally across 18 different languages, while automating over 11 billion customer service interactions yearly. Nuance is one of MIT Technology Review’s Top 50 Disruptive Companies. Three key Nuance technologies are being adopted by banking and insurance organisations to heighten the customer experience:
There was a time, not so long ago, when most people knew their bank manager personally. This rarely applies today. With increasing automation and greater product sophistication, the challenge facing financial institutions is how to align their products and services with the individualised needs of their customers, while meeting stated financial objectives. Pitney Bowes Software enables financial institutions to engage with each of their customers as individuals. By fully understanding each customer’s needs and preferences, organisations can ensure every interaction enhances loyalty, whether it be delivering superior customer service or maximising appropriate cross-selling opportunities. This insight is especially critical with respect to contact initiated by the customer, regardless of the touch points, where businesses must capitalise on limited customer contact opportunity. Through a combination of data, business rules and customer analytics, accurate and targeted sales or service offers can be presented at the specific moment of interaction, adapting the message to the context of the contact. The end result: Financial institutions deploying solutions from Pitney Bowes Software have been able to accurately predict future customer needs and expectations in order to influence their buying behaviour. The ability to act on this insight in a timely manner has helped to build loyalty and value, which results in reduced churn and ultimately, increases profits.
Voice biometrics is the only security technology that eases the customer’s login process while validating the user’s identity. Banking organisations that have deployed voice biometrics have seen a dramatic reduction in fraud (up to tenfold) and a significant increase in successful authentication by legitimate users (more than doubling traditional automated authentication rates). Call steering with Natural Language Understanding (NLU) provides automated natural conversations with customers. NLU reduces misrouted calls, minimises the need for call transfers and drives self-service adoption while reducing customer effort. NLU enables customers to use their own words because their intent is understood, allowing a human-like interaction to take place. Nuance Interactive Natural Assistant ‘Nina’ enables companies to add speech recognition and NLU to an existing mobile application so the app can converse with the user, enabling faster, more convenient navigation. Nina knows you. She knows your voice. She also understands what you want based on your natural phrasing.
nuance communications Australia pty Ltd Level 11, 124 walker street north sydney nsw 2060 Australia (melbourne and Brisbane offices)
pitney Bowes software Level 7, 1 elizabeth plaza north sydney, nsw 2060 Australia
phone: +61 2 9434 2300 email: enquiries.au@nuance.com contact: Heath Wilson website: australia.nuance.com
phone: +61 2 9437 6255 email: pbsoftware.australia@pb.com contact: Sales Management, Financial Services website: www.pitneybowes.com.au/software
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w h o’ s w ho Di r ec to ry
customer exPerience
customer interaction management
sitecore
Pitney Bowes software
Sitecore redefines how organisations engage with their customers online, powering experiences that can sense and adapt to a customer’s needs to increase revenue and customer lifetime value and satisfaction. Sitecore was the first web content management (WCM) system to incorporate marketing automation, intranet portal, e-commerce, web optimisation, social media and campaign management technologies into a cohesive, integrated open platform. Sitecore’s software makes it easy for businesses to identify, serve, engage and convert new customers online. Sitecore’s broad choice of capabilities enable marketing professionals, business stakeholders and information technology teams to rapidly implement, measure and manage a successful website and online business strategy. Its powerful development platform, integrated marketing automation tools and intuitive editing workspace enables successful websites of all types. Thousands of public and private organisations have created and now manage more than 30,000 dynamic websites with Sitecore including Coles, Nissan, Blackmores Ltd., CSIRO, Australian Institute of Chartered Accountants, Panasonic, Goodman and the Australian Government.
In the age of social networking, the ‘connected consumer’ and highly competitive environments, it is imperative every customer interaction results in a positive customer experience. Poor customer engagement not only erodes satisfaction and loyalty, but also leads to negative word-of-mouth which can damage the opportunity for future sales. By fully understanding each customer’s needs and preferences, organisations can ensure every interaction enhances loyalty, whether it be delivering superior customer service or making the next best offer relevant to each customer’s circumstance. This insight is especially critical with respect to contacts initiated by the customer, regardless of the touch points, where businesses must capitalise on a limited customer contact opportunity. Through a combination of data, business rules and customer analytics, accurate and targeted sales or service offers can be presented at the specific moment of interaction, adapting the message to the context of the contact. Pitney Bowes Software combines advanced customer and market analytics with a multi-channel customer communications platform that fuses all inbound and outbound customer contacts under a unified customer engagement communication platform. With real-time predictive analytics, you can anticipate the needs of your customers when they engage on their terms through their chosen channel of communication. Merrill Lynch has improved customer retention by 26 per cent using this approach, resulting in a 35 per cent lift in incremental revenue.
sitecore Level 4, 50 Pitt street sydney nsw 2000 australia
Pitney Bowes software Level 7, 1 elizabeth Plaza north sydney, nsw 2060 australia
Phone: +61 2 8014 8857 email: sales-au@sitecore.net twitter: sitecoreanz website: www.sitecore.net
Phone: +61 2 9437 6255 email: pbsoftware.australia@pb.com contact: Sales Management, Financial Services website: www.pitneybowes.com.au/software who ’ s w ho o f fs i
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customer relationship management
customer relationship management
intergen
maximizer software solutions pty. ltd.
Intergen is recognised across the region as a leader in the implementation of Microsoft solutions. Over the past 12 years, many leading financial services organisations have engaged us to help them with: • Improving customer engagement • Embracing mobility • Improving employee access to information • Modernising and integrating legacy systems By using Microsoft technology, Intergen can help your organisation evolve to meet changing market conditions. We are an experienced provider who calls it as we see it, using our local teams to provide project-based services or by complementing your existing teams with our capable resources. Recognised by Microsoft Australia and Microsoft New Zealand as a member of the Microsoft Partner Network with Gold Certification across six competencies, we can help you select, implement and evolve your Microsoft solution.
For the last 20 years Maximizer CRM has had a singular focus – delivering powerful customer relationship management (CRM) software, cloud CRM technology and mobile CRM solutions that small and medium businesses actually need and want to use. Taking our 20 years of industry knowledge and development expertise, we deliver a comprehensive customer relationship management solution that matters to the small and medium enterprise.
one easy investment: powerful, complete crm • All-in-one solution: Sales management, marketing campaigns, full mobility and customer support management • Faster ROI: Easy and quick to implement with access across any tablet or smartphone device • Easily adaptable: Fully customisable to fit the exact needs of your business • Local: Sold, supported and hosted in Australia for simplicity, safety and security Whether you are a small-to-medium business or a larger enterprise with hundreds of employees and thousands of customers, Maximizer Software has the right solution for you – cloud CRM, on-premise CRM software and mobile CRM. Simple, intuitive and easy to deploy, use and manage, Maximizer comes complete with sales force automation, CRM for marketing, custom reports and dashboards and full contact and customer management capabilities. Maximizer delivers CRM software and solutions to effectively manage lead and customer databases, while automating sales and marketing processes, optimising marketing initiatives and improving customer support and client service management.
intergen level 8, 39 martin place sydney nsw 2000 australia phone: 1300 556 001 email: michael.morgan@intergen.com.au contact: Michael Morgan twitter: teamintergen website: www.intergen.com.au 138
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maximizer software solutions pty. ltd. level 10, 815 pacific highway chatswood nsw 2067 australia phone: +61 2 9957 2011 email: sales@maximizer.com.au contact: Marketing Manager website: www.maximizer.com.au
w h o’ s w ho Di r ec to ry
Data centre operator
Data ManageMent
neXtDc
triforce
NEXTDC is an ASX 300 company and is the only independent data centre operator with a strategic footprint in all major growth markets in Australia. NEXTDC offers a range of highly flexible, scalable, resilient and secure data centre colocation services to corporate, government and IT services companies. With five locations, potential for 35MW of power and capacity for over 9,000 racks, we are the ideal partner for your business. NEXTDC’s purpose-built, enterprise-class, ISO9001:2008 certified* facilities have been designed to meet the market’s growing appetite for energy-efficient, independent data centres in which organisations can host their critical IT infrastructure. As a cloud enabler, our data centres address the challenges of security, connectivity and neutrality that have hindered the wider acceptance of cloud computing. Our innovative Data Centre-as-aService (DCaaS) offering includes a secure rack containment solution which is backed by the revolutionary management portal ONEDC®. ONEDC® comes with mobile capability and provides customers with real-time access to their critical infrastructure and control through one simple interface. Through our national ecosystem of carriers and IT vendors, customers have access to one of the most highly connected, diverse networks of service providers in the region, allowing you to structure your IT framework in support of your business growth. At NEXTDC we are future focused, ensuring our customers are always ahead of the game.
Delivering technical innovation, where anything is possible
*Applicable only to M1, B1 and C1.
neXtDc Level 4, 88 creek street Brisbane QLD 4000 australia phone: +61 7 3177 4777 email: sales@nextdc.com contact: Robin Khuda twitter: NEXTDC website: www.nextdc.com
Organisations’ expectations are changing with the need to use data more intelligently and gain easy access to it. In many cases, legacy systems will not be able to meet the challenge. The financial industry has intense compliance regulations around data management and we have the experience to help you with these complex requirements. Triforce has worked closely with clients in the finance industry for over a decade and is dedicated to architecting and delivering sophisticated infrastructure solutions, resolving complex technical issues and helping to align your IT to business objectives. The data you hold can give you enormous competitive advantage if used wisely, but could cost you dearly if you do not protect it sufficiently. Triforce can help you achieve business growth, as well as a reduction in risk and cost, utilising our expert solutions architects and storage specialists with experience across multiple vendor technologies. Triforce has real world, hands-on big data experience in the Australian finance industry. We have the experience that others only talk about. Our IT infrastructure solutions include: • Storage/server consolidation, recentralisation and replication • Disaster recovery and business continuity, data protection and back-up • Big data consulting and implementation, infrastructure and managed services For more information on our full range of services, download our Storage Solution Brief at www.triforce.com.au. For a free consultation, please call us.
triforce Level 1, Building a Lexington corporate a13/24-32, Lexington Drive norwest Business park Bella Vista nsw 2153 australia phone: 1300 664 637 or +61 2 9659 6822 email: info@triforce.com.au website: www.triforce.com.au w ho ’ s w ho o f fs i
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Data management & outsourcing
Decision management
hexaware technologies
iDiom Limited
Hexaware Technologies is a leading IT and business process outsourcing services provider, listed among the top 20 Indian global IT services organisations. We have more than 75 active customers in the financial services space. Hexaware’s capital markets practice offers clients a broad range of services with a strong domain focus, primarily on the buy-side, for institutional money managers, pension and superannuation funds, mutual fund managers, insurance money managers and wealth managers. Based on our experiences, we have built multiple IP-based accelerators in the enterprise data management space which revolve around data quality management, business analytics and reconciliation. One such accelerator is the Analytics for Investment Management (AIM) tool. This is a dimensional business intelligence (BI) and analytics tool with pre-built reports and dashboards for portfolio management, assets under management, trade analytics and risk and supports multiple channels, including online portals and mobility. Our enterprise data management practice encompasses end-toend services and solutions including: consulting, integration, analytics, metadata management, data quality and governance, data warehouse and marts, data virtualisation, big data, mobile BI and operations. We have implemented custom built and product-based solutions to cater for end-to-end data management needs, including: reference data, portfolio modelling, order execution, accounting, performance and attribution, risk and compliance and reconciliation. We have expertise in managing various data feeds including pricing, corporate actions, foreign exchange and analytics, and have experience with data providers such as Bloomberg, Reuters, Telekurs, IDC and Markit.
IDIOM Ltd develops and licenses decision automation software that makes systems more transparent and agile, while reducing business cost, risk and time. IDIOM's innovative business-oriented software is used by business users to graphically define, document and verify corporate decision-making and its related business rules, before autogenerating small footprint, non-intrusive software components for use in systems of any type or scale. IDIOM is a pioneer in the development and use of decision oriented concepts and has applied these concepts in the development of intelligent processes for customers around the world in: local, state and central government; insurance and finance; health administration and clinical health; telecoms; logistics; and utilities. IDIOM automated decision making extends far beyond mere business rules, so that larger and more complex decision making processes can be fully delegated to business experts. Hands-on development and management of business policy and related decision making by policy owners leads to a new ‘business policy life-cycle’ that significantly improves business agility and transparency. IDIOM develops and licenses the Idiom Decision Manager™, Idiom Forms™, Decision Tracker™ and the Decision Manager Workbench™. When these tools are applied with IDIOM’s decision-centric development approach, you will also achieve a significant reduction in technical development time, risk and cost when compared with traditional approaches. Please call for a presentation and discussion about IDIOM’s low risk engagement model, which will allow you to start automating your business policy and operational decision making in days.
hexaware technologies Level 26, 44 market street sydney nsw 2000 australia
iDiom Limited Po Box 60101, titirangi auckland 0642 new Zealand
Phone: +61 2 9089 8956 or +61 4 5949 5919 Fax: +61 2 9089 8989 email: Khurram@hexaware.com contact: Khurram Zaidi website: www.hexaware.com
Phone: +64 2 143 4669 email: mark.norton@idiomsoftware.com contact: Mark Norton twitter: intelligentform website: www.idiomsoftware.com
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w h o’ s w ho Di r ec to ry
enterprise ApplicAtions
enterprise ApplicAtions
intergen
shAViK
Intergen is recognised across the region as a leader in the implementation of Microsoft solutions. Over the past 12 years, many leading financial services organisations have engaged us to help them with: • Improving customer engagement • Embracing mobility • Improving employee access to information • Modernising and integrating legacy systems By using Microsoft technology, Intergen can help your organisation evolve to meet changing market conditions. We are an experienced provider who calls it as we see it, using our local teams to provide project-based services or by complementing your existing teams with our capable resources. Recognised by Microsoft Australia and Microsoft New Zealand as a member of the Microsoft Partner Network with Gold Certification across six competencies, we can help you select, implement and evolve your Microsoft solution.
SHAVIK provides innovative software solutions. We maintain long-term relationships with existing clientele and build new relationships based on value of service, integrity and quality.
customised solutions SHAVIK specialises in custom software solutions for medium and large organisations. We develop software based on customer specifications and implement solutions which may include integrating with other products or systems. We have experience in developing: • Business process automation (BPA) and business intelligence systems • Integration of enterprise applications • Customised intranets and line-of-business applications • Content management systems • Database oriented systems
customer focused SHAVIK provides quality, robust and user-friendly software which delivers long-term business value. We focus on understanding customer needs and work closely with customers throughout the project to deliver solutions which meet their long-term needs. SHAVIK keeps up-to-date with the latest technologies to ensure the longevity of our solutions. If a solution calls for 'bleeding-edge' technologies, we help weigh the risks against advantages.
responding to change SHAVIK follows proven programming standards and recommended vendor best-practices. Development work is primarily done using Agile methodology, providing customers with quality and flexibility.
intergen level 8, 39 Martin place sydney nsw 2000 Australia phone: 1300 556 001 email: michael.morgan@intergen.com.au contact: Michael Morgan twitter: teamintergen website: www.intergen.com.au
shAViK 9 smithfield road Kensington Vic 3031 Australia phone: +61 3 9376 7997 email: Srikanth@shavik.com.au contact: Srikanth Muthyala website: www.shavik.com.au who ’ s w ho o f fs i
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enterprise ApplicAtions
enterprise inFormAtion mAnAgement
technologyone
pitney Bowes software
The financial services sector faces a range of complex and challenging issues. To keep ahead of the game, forward thinking organisations must look for opportunities to gain efficiencies and improve services by using innovative systems that increase financial transparency, simplify reporting, streamline processes and consolidate information. TechnologyOne has been working for more than 20 years with banks, credit unions, building societies, insurance, superannuation and wealth management organisations. Our deep understanding and engagement with this market has enabled us to develop OneBanking, OneWealth and OneInsurance – leading edge enterprise solutions developed specifically for the financial services industry. These solutions enable organisations to easily report on and manage core financial and operational information, as well as meet the regulatory reporting requirements of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and the International Financial Reporting Standards. Our sophisticated software integrates with our client’s third party systems, is simple to use, supports an organisation’s growth and addresses the everyday issues around forecasting, budgeting and cost reductions, contract management, program management, real-time reporting and the facilitation of people management and staff retention.
Accurate customer data is the foundation for engaging with each of your customers as individuals, linking every communication – inbound, outbound, marketing offers, sales or service – into an ongoing dialogue. Customer loyalty is enhanced when customer insight and understanding forms the basis for subsequent interactions. Your customers, no matter how or where the contact was made, always have the feeling you know them, understand their individual needs and endeavor to fulfill them. Today many organisations are finding it difficult to efficiently and effectively manage their customer data consistently over time. As companies strive to expand their market share and retain and grow their customer bases, sometimes through mergers and acquisitions, these issues can be further exacerbated. Poor data quality and duplicate data issues can spread slowly through data repositories, putting important business processes and decisions at risk and rendering even the sharpest business strategies useless. Pitney Bowes Software solutions allow you to cleanse, dedupe, integrate and enrich your customer data (for example, using location), enabling the consolidation of correct customer information into the most up-to-date data record. Creating this single customer view allows your company to accurately track customer performance over time and leverage your analytical insights to influence consumer behaviour to deliver optimal value to the organisation. Pitney Bowes Software has assisted many organisations across multiple sectors to create and sustain lifetime relationships with their customers, citizens or investors.
technologyone level 11, technologyone hQ, 540 wickham street Fortitude Valley QlD 4006 Australia
pitney Bowes software level 7, 1 elizabeth plaza north sydney nsw 2060 Australia
phone: 1800 671 978 (Australia) or 0800 174 091 (New Zealand) email: sales@TechnologyOneCorp.com contact: Sean Tuckett, Financial Services Solution Manager website: www.TechnologyOneCorp.com
phone: +61 2 9437 6255 email: pbsoftware.australia@pb.com contact: Sales Management, Financial Services website: www.pitneybowes.com.au/software
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w h o’ s w ho Di r ec to ry
enterprise Linux Distribution
FinAnciAL AppLicAtion pLAtForm
suse
Datacard Group
Established in 1992, SUSE is the original provider of the enterprise Linux distribution and the most interoperable platform for missioncritical computing. With a portfolio centred around SUSE Linux Enterprise, we power thousands of organisations around the world across physical, virtual and cloud environments. Through our continued commitment to the highest quality Linux support and innovative products, SUSE grew more than threefold after it was acquired by Novell in 2004. Now operating as an independent business unit of The Attachmate Group, SUSE continues its unwavering focus on the benefits of open source and the needs of its commercial partners and customers. More than 13,000 businesses worldwide rely on SUSE Linux Enterprise Sever. Enterprise Linux Servers from SUSE are some of the most versatile, reliable and best supported software infrastructure solutions available to deliver mission-critical IT services efficiently and cost effectively. Designed for mixed IT environments and exclusively recommended by Microsoft, SAP and VMware, Enterprise Linux Servers help you save time and money, increase resource utilisation and reduce risk. Enterprise Linux Servers are optimised for the mainframe like no other Linux OS. In 2000, IBM and SUSE brought Linux to the mainframe. Now SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for System z is the number one choice for Linux on IBM mainframes and is also the only operating system optimised for all SAP software solutions.
Datacard Group collaborates with customers to create highly secure financial card programs and government ID initiatives, as well as secure ID programs for education, corporate security and many other markets. We bring unmatched experience and expertise to every engagement, including industry best practices and a deep understanding of complex operational issues. This enables Datacard to deliver innovative solutions and services that help customers address critical challenges. Datacard made secure, high-volume issuance of credit cards possible more than 40 years ago when we introduced the first highspeed card personalisation system. Today, we continue to develop patented technologies that help customers improve productivity, profitability and cardholder satisfaction. Our portfolio supports high-volume and instant card issuance, secure credential issuance and management, passport production, delivery, fulfillment and packaging. The Datacard Group’s product and solutions portfolio offers a truly integrated platform that combines Datacard® hardware, software, supplies and global support.
suse Level 4, 12-14 claremont street south yarra Vic 3141 Australia phone: 1800 668 355 twitter: suse website: www.suse.com
secure issuance Anywhere™ Secure Issuance Anywhere™ combines central and instant issuance, along with emerging mobile issuance capabilities, in a single platform. This gives organisations the flexibility to issue secure cards and credentials anytime, anywhere. Secure Issuance Anywhere™ gives issuers the freedom and flexibility to manage their card and credential program exactly as they want, with exceptional physical and logical security.
Datacard south pacific pty Ltd 56A, (bLD 5) 195 wellington road clayton Vic 3168 Australia phone: +61 3 9535 0300 email: Salesadmin_aus@datacard.com contact: Michael Robertson twitter: datacardgroup website: www.datacard.com.au who ’ s w ho o f fs i
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FunDs ManageMent systeMs
geograPhic inForMation systeMs (gis)
clearPoint
esri australia
ClearPoint specialises in information management services for the funds management sector in Australia, New Zealand and Asia Pacific. We consult, design and build central data management systems that provide a ‘single source’ of trusted, certified data. Our business strategies and thought leadership transform the way information management is handled for funds management clients. Those clients include the Australian Future Fund, the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, the NZ Accident Compensation Commission and Tyndall Investment Management. We work closely with those clients’ Chief Operations Officers, Heads of Operations and Heads of IT. The reasons to choose ClearPoint are abundant. We have a deep knowledge of the funds management sector that only comes with experience. We employ the best IT talent and our focus is on business outcomes that align directly with your business strategy. The results are fast, flexible and scalable, giving your business the means to focus on what it does best. ClearPoint has offices in Auckland, Wellington, and Melbourne. We provide IT strategy and architecture, software development plus IT project delivery services to large businesses and innovative startups in New Zealand and internationally. ClearPoint is independent of technology vendors. Our focus is on end user needs and solving business issues. ClearPoint was recognised as a rising star in the 2010 and 2011 Deloitte Fast 50 and in the Deloitte Asia Pacific Technology Fast 500 in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
Esri Australia is the nation’s leading Geographic Information System (GIS) and location intelligence specialist. For more than three decades, Esri Australia has partnered with thousands of government and commercial enterprises to deliver quality GIS solutions that have transformed the way organisations address opportunities and challenges. GIS employs the science of geography to map and analyse information. Esri Australia uses the world’s most advanced GIS technology to expose patterns and relationships within data, providing an analytical vantage point that no other tool can. Worldwide, financial institutions use GIS technology to understand the geography of their business data. Using the universal language of maps, GIS technology translates data into powerful visual representations, enabling decision-makers to uncover hidden truths that may previously have gone unnoticed. Beyond the visualisation of data, GIS technology brings together disparate data sources from across organisation or departmental silos to create a single – and powerful – point of truth. Whether evaluating risk, quantifying customer value or managing distribution networks, GIS technology empowers businesses to get more out of existing data – leading to quicker decision-making, new insights and new ways of thinking. Discover how Esri Australia’s GIS technology solutions can deliver results for your business. Call 1800 447 111 today to speak to one of our financial specialists.
clearPoint Limited clearPoint house, Level 3, 7 Fanshawe street auckland 1010 new Zealand Phone: +64 9373 4626 email: contact@clearpoint.co.nz contact: Phil Pietersen, Managing Director twitter: clearpointnz website: www.clearpoint.co.nz 144
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esri australia Level 3, 111 elizabeth street Brisbane QLD 4000 australia Phone: 1800 447 111 email: connect@esriaustralia.com.au twitter: esriaustralia website: esriaustralia.com.au
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iDentity & Access MAnAgeMent
infocoMMunicAtions technoLogy
netiQ
computershare Limited
NetIQ is a global enterprise software company that meets the demands of hybrid IT with solutions for identity and access management, security and data centre management. Using our solutions, customers and partners can capitalise on the opportunities in today’s complex and ever-changing IT landscape. By aligning technologies and service delivery methods, our customers can properly secure, manage and measure the many computing services operating across its physical, virtual and cloud computing environments. By doing this, they are better able to provide strategic value at the speed of business. NetIQ identity and access management solutions help customers maintain both productivity and network security with confidence. Our unique approach integrates identity, access and security management technologies so you always know who is accessing what, when they are doing it and if they are authorised. Solutions include: identity lifecycle management, access management, enterprise single sign-on and password management. NetIQ security management solutions provide real-time monitoring and audit of IT-based changes and user activity, detection of threats and intrusions, security event management and correlation, log management and incident response automation – all with a single, integrated and scalable infrastructure. NetIQ compliance management solutions help achieve, maintain and prove compliance with both internal policies and external regulations. NetIQ data centre management software allows you to manage the full lifecycle of workloads and applications – deployment to migration to recovery – ensuring their performance, availability and consistency across physical, virtual and cloud environments.
Founded in 1978, Computershare is renowned for its expertise in high integrity data management and stakeholder engagement. Our success stems from developing group-wide services and capabilities to meet our clients' broad business objectives, and delivering value by removing barriers that hinder efficient stakeholder servicing. We partner with many of the world's leading organisations to help them maximise and streamline their relationships with investors, employees, creditors and customers. Contact us today to learn how you can take advantage of our integrated service offering that covers: • Investor services: The world's leading provider of integrated investor services, incorporating register management, corporate actions expertise, company meetings logistics and payment services. • Plan managers: Specialist employee equity plan management and administration solutions, with more than four million employees under our management worldwide. • Georgeson: Global corporate proxy solicitation firm, with expertise in mergers and acquisitions advisory, canvassing and corporate governance consulting services. • Global capital markets: Cross-border advisory services and global solutions that help our clients access international investment channels. • Governance services: Helps companies manage critical corporate data in compliance with legal, tax, financial and regulatory agencies, through the use of our Global Entity Management System • iml Audience response: A leading supplier of interactive audience response systems.
netiQ Level 4, 12-14 claremont street south yarra Vic 3141 Australia Phone: +61 3 9825 2300 or 1800 468 320 email: info-australia@netiq.com twitter: netiq website: www.netiq.com
computershare Limited 452 Johnston street Abbotsford Vic 3067 Australia Phone: +61 3 9415 5000 website: www.computershare.com.au who ’ s w ho o f fs i
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information management
insurance software
netapp australia
target harlosh
NetApp creates innovative storage and data management solutions that deliver outstanding cost efficiency and accelerate business breakthroughs. Our dedication to the principles of simplicity, innovation and customer success has made us one of the fastest growing storage and data management providers today. Customers around the world choose us for our ‘go beyond’ approach and broad portfolio of solutions for business applications, storage for virtual servers, disk-to-disk backup and more. Our solutions provide non-stop availability of critical business data and simplify business processes so you can deploy new capabilities with confidence and get to revenue faster than ever before. You can rely on our industry-leading solutions to lower the cost of protecting your data, business and reputation. We bring together the industry’s best partners and technology to deliver services that help you maximise what you are getting from your infrastructure. Our collaborative approach – working as one team with one goal – means you get a solution that is just right for you, on time and on budget. To support your global business, we provide highly responsive support in local languages. From London to Austin, Bangalore to Tokyo, we will work with you to solve your problems and help you reach your goals.
Target Harlosh assists insurance and banking providers to realise their business vision whilst managing legacy systems, all enabled through our innovative InsuranceFaces (IF) solution family.
end-to-end policy administration with IF fullcycle A customer-centric enterprise policy administration solution designed for insurance, managing general agent and bancassurance providers requiring fully featured and advanced insurance business processing capability. Either integrated or modular, our end-to-end solution supports sales, administration, claims and reinsurance, ensuring business benefits across multiple insurance lines of business. A cloud hosted version of IF FullCycle is readily available.
rapid channel enablement with IF channel: Front-end your existing legacy policy administration system to rapidly enable the creation of new channels to your business, including mobile. • IF Channel for insurance provides underwriting, rating, channel management and white labelling flexibility you would expect from a next generation solution. • IF Channel for banking delivers a variety of channels including insurance, loan processing, mortgage and credit card applications, providing a consistent experience and reducing training with rapid market deployment. Target Harlosh is part of Target Group, specialists in business process outsourcing and software for banks, insurers and finance brokers, with 600 staff globally and over 30 years experience in consumer credit, loans processing, investment portfolio, back-office administration, insurance, customer services and arrears management.
netapp australia Pty Ltd Level 16, 100 miller street north sydney nsw 2060 australia Phone: 1800 780 996 (Australia) or 0800 442 742 (New Zealand) email: anzinfo@netapp.com contact: Amy Ngian twitter: NetAppANZ website: www.netapp.com.au 146
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target harlosh Level 27, 101 collins street melbourne Vic 3000 australia Phone: +61 3 9653 7378 email: brett.arthur@targetgroup.com contact: Brett Arthur, Regional Director website: www.harlosh.com.au
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MainfraMe connectivity solutions
ManageD services
attachmate
Bt
Attachmate® delivers advanced software for terminal emulation, legacy modernisation, managed file transfer and enterprise fraud management. Attachmate® Terminal Emulation Software Reflection® and Extra!® can access information on any host and deliver it to any desktop, inside or outside the firewall. Built with the security and flexibility you need to meet modern IT demands, our next-generation terminal emulation products connect Windows users to applications on IBM, UNIX, OpenVMS and HP NonStop (Tandem) hosts. Attachmates’® MobileNow Verastream technology solution can help IT organisations respond to dynamic business demands without leaving legacy assets behind. It is tailored for low-risk, high-speed modernisation, while quickly delivering ROI. Whether your goal is simply to improve the workflow of a core legacy application or to retool it into a set of reusable services, Verastream solutions can help. Attachmate® Luminet® enterprise fraud management software sees, records and analyses user activity across all applications. It gives you a complete and accurate picture of who did what and when – providing the intelligence you need to take informed action. With Attachmate FileXpress and Reflection for Secure IT, you can meet your modern file transfer challenges head on. Reflection for Secure IT managed file transfer clients and servers use SSH to secure Internet file transfers, remote system administration and TCP/IP-based application access. FileXpress managed file transfer solutions can manage and execute the secure delivery of any-size files, across all major platforms, to any location.
BT is one of the world’s leading providers of communications services and solutions, serving customers across 170 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to its customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband and internet products and services and converged fixed/mobile products and services. BT consists principally of four lines of business: BT Global Services, BT Retail, BT Wholesale and Openreach. In the year ended 31 March 2013, BT Group’s revenue was £18,017 million with profit before taxation of £2,501 million. British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York. For more information, visit www.btplc.com
attachmate level 4, 12-14 claremont street south yarra vic 3141 australia Phone: 1800 668 355 email: aus-info@attachmate.com twitter: attachmate website: www.attachmate.com
Bt australasia level 11, 1 Market street sydney nsw 2000 australia Phone: +61 2 9269 1000 twitter: BTAsiaPac website: www.bt.com/australia w ho ’ s w ho o f fs i
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ManageD services
ManageD services
gen-i
omnitech
We want to help your business achieve its strategic goals. Gen-i specialises in putting together seamless ICT solutions that help our clients to reduce their costs, while delivering a consistent experience for their customers and employees across locations in Australia and New Zealand. Our expert team has decades of industry experience working on business transformation projects within the banking and finance industry. Gen-i is the multinational ICT business unit of Telecom New Zealand, an organisation with revenues of more than $5 billion and over 6,000 employees. We are a partner you can trust. When you partner with Gen-i, our consultants and technical specialists will work with your team to build an understanding of your challenges, your business processes and ICT infrastructure. This breadth of expertise allows us to ensure our solutions meet your business needs.
Omnitech Australia is part of a global IT managed services organisation. Our parent company, Omnitech InfoSolutions Ltd., is an ISO 9001-2008 certified technology services and solutions provider and is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange in India. Omnitech’s headquarters are in Mumbai, India, and we have offices in Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Netherlands. Our partner network enables us to deliver solutions in many other geographies. Omnitech’s offerings span managed IT services across business availability, business continuity and business enhancement – packaged as Business ACE. We offer managed services, enterprise solutions, application services, disaster recovery and business continuity planning. The Omnitech team manages critical environments for Indian and global banks, financial services companies and insurance providers across multiple geographies, including Australia. Omnitech has played a pivotal role in complex transformation projects involving implementation and migration projects, business expansion initiatives, network implementations and financial messaging gateway support and implementation. Our global delivery structure embraces industry best practices and uses the ITIL framework and ISO 2000 standards. Omnitech’s infrastructure delivery centres in Hyderabad and Mumbai facilitate support to diverse platforms and heterogeneous environments. Our application services are delivered via multiple delivery models – onsite, offsite, offshore or blended and have their own quality management system based on capability maturity model integration (CMMI).
gen-i new Zealand and australia 19 locations Phone: 0800 694 364 (New Zealand) or 1800 803 755 (Australia) website: www.gen-i.co.nz or www.gen-i.com.au 148
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omnitech australia Pty Ltd L33, australia square tower, 264 george street sydney nsw 2000 australia Phone: +61 2 9258 1119 email: lisa.james@omnitechglobal.com contact: Lisa James, Sales Director website: www.omnitechglobal.com
w h o’ s w ho Di r ec to ry
Mobile banking
Mobility
odecee
blackberry
enterprise application experts in Mobile solutions
As a global leader in wireless innovation, BlackBerry® revolutionised the mobile industry with the introduction of the BlackBerry solution in 1999. BlackBerry has since continued to change the way millions of people stay connected. Built to keep you and your organisation moving, the new BlackBerry 10 mobile computing platform is currently the world’s most secure operating system. Platform features include: BlackBerry Balance™, unrivalled security and cross-platform mobile device management.
Odecee is a team of enterprise application experts specialising in 'mobilising' applications rapidly and securely to enable new channels to market. With new business models constantly evolving and powerful smartphones and tablets becoming ubiquitous, mobile strategies are core to the future of banking. Odecee provides strategy, architecture and enterprise application delivery services. Odecee has also developed a mobile architecture, Velocedee. Velocedee is a ready-to-go enterprise mobile platform with pre-built modules enabling shorter development cycles and quicker time to market. Velocedee is operational with a number of leading global banks underpinning internet banking, cash management and corporate treasury functions. Odecee was founded in 2007, is headquartered in Melbourne (with offices in Sydney and Manilla) and provides: 1. Mobile solutions: Mobile strategy, architecture and enterprise application delivery for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry. 2. Web Solutions: Web channel strategy, functional and technical roadmaps, continuous delivery and integration. 3. DevOps: Best practices, processes, methods and tools for optimising build, test and deployment lifecycles. 4. Consulting: Strategy and technology consulting, innovation workshops, rapid prototyping, business case development. Odecee's client list includes some of Australia's biggest brands such as ANZ, NAB, Australia Post, NBN Co, IAG and Allianz.
odecee Pty ltd level 11, 410 collins street Melbourne Vic 3000 australia Phone: 1300 633 233 email: sales@odecee.com.au contact: Shane Cunningham twitter: Odecee website: www.odecee.com.au
blackberry balance™ • Personal and work apps and information are kept separate. • Users can switch from personal to work space in one gesture. The work space is encrypted, managed and secured, enabling organisations to protect critical content and applications, while allowing users to make the most of their smartphone for personal use.
Unrivalled security • Secure corporate data and applications on personal (BYOD) and corporate devices and protect against data leakage and unauthorised devices accessing corporate assets.
Mobile Device Management • Manage multiple devices and operating systems, including applications on corporate and personal (BYOD) devices (Android, iOS, BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10), through one management console.
blackberry 100 Pacific highway north sydney nsw 2060 australia Phone: +61 2 9463 7600 contact: Matt Telfer website: blackberry.com who ’ s w ho o f fs i
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mobility
mobility
Joob
Novatti
compelling digital experiences to drive engagement and business results.
For 18 years, Novatti has created and delivered innovative payment solutions to a global base of tier one and smaller service providers and start-ups. Novatti's multi-services payments platform enables telco, banking and alternative payment network service providers to extend their product portfolio – taking robust, integrated new payments services to market faster and more cost-effectively. With a defined roadmap for innovation, along with our deep domain knowledge, we help our customers take advantage of the rapidly-expanding marketplaces of mobile and unbanked users – and differentiate their services to acquire new customers and increase revenues from their existing base. Most recently, we have been enabling new payment schemes around the globe to allow individuals to carry out money transfers from their mobile including:
JOOB specialises in mobilising customer experiences for financial services organisations with one key focus: delivering the business results required. We combine expert digital and mobile insight with powerful enterprise technologies to deliver market leading innovation and brilliant customer experiences for our clients. We offer a range of professional services, including digital strategy, solution design, rapid and responsive deployment and ongoing managed services. Part of the Jade Software Group, our advanced methodologies have been developed over 30 years of experience providing innovative technology solutions to leading organisations globally. Our approach is to start with people, not technology. We work with you to understand your business strategy and your customers’ needs. Then we apply deep insights based on our industry experience and expertise to develop innovative mobile and digital customer engagement solutions. No matter what stage you are at with your digital planning or implementation, JOOB has the specialist resources to help you achieve your objectives. We partner with our clients on short and long-term projects, such as developing strategy and solution prototypes and designing and deploying complex end-to end solutions. Our clients include ClearView Wealth, AMP, JBWere, TAL, CUA, Shadforth Financial Group and Macquarie Group. JOOB is headquartered in Melbourne, with offices in Sydney, Christchurch and Auckland.
Joob level 12, 409 st Kilda road melbourne Vic 3004 Australia Phone: 1800 734 760 email: info@joobworld.com twitter: JOOBworld website: www.joobworld.com 150
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• In Africa, a cloud-based international top up and remittance platform to enable pan-African micro remittances and electronic funds transfers. • In Asia and the Middle East, a consumer digital wallet system that provides for new remittance channels including cash out at ATMs, banks and bank agent channels • In Australia, a consumer digital wallet system for a new smartphonebased retail purchasing platform. • In Canada, a national network of point-of-sale terminals enabled by Novatti systems to facilitate electronic recharge and issue and topup prepaid debit and gift cards.
Novatti Pty ltd P.o. box 21104, little lonsdale street melbourne Vic 8011 Australia Phone: +61 3 9011 8490 email: info@novatti.com contact: Peter Cook twitter: NovattiPayments Facebook: NovattiPayments website: www.novatti.com
w h o’ s w ho Di r ec to ry
Mobility
Mobility
Novell
ibM Australia
Novell, Inc. is a global enterprise software leader providing solutions that make work environments more productive, secure and manageable. Novell supports thousands of organisations around the world with collaboration, endpoint management and file and networking technologies. Focusing on today's social, mobile and multiplatform world, we help you stay competitive, minimise costs and get more value from the software you already own. Collaboration solutions: Our collaboration solutions include personal and team productivity tools and collaboration data management tools. Endpoint management solutions: Leverage identity-based technology to empower the most important assets with your organisation – your end users. Our endpoint management capabilities include: endpoint lifecycle management, endpoint security management, IT asset management and IT service management File and Networking Services: Novell provides the core file, print and networking services that are at the heart of any organisation. We offer the best platform for networking in a mixed Windows/Linux/Mac environment. Our portfolio of mobility solutions comprises: • Mobile device management: With new mobile devices flooding the market, you will not swim to safety without a good mobile device management platform like Novell ZENworks® Mobile Management. • File access and sharing: Mobile file access does not have to mean sacrificing your intellectual property. Get simple and secure mobile file access with Novell Filr. • Mobile printing: Keep your team productive by letting them print from any device to any printer with the new mobile capabilities of Novell iPrint.
IBM MobileFirst is providing companies with the essential tools to take advantage of new business opportunities being enabled by mobile. To be successful in embracing mobile for driving revenue growth and productivity, clients must have an integrated strategy for mobile.
Novell level 4, 12-14 claremont street south yarra Vic 3141 Australia Phone: +61 3 9825 2300 or 1800 668 355 within Australia twitter: novell website: www.novell.com
A complete Portfolio of MobileFirst solutions • IBM Worklight for developing hybrid apps across multiple devices, integrated with Rational Test Workbench for mobile, helps improve the quality and reliability of mobile apps. • IBM AppScan provides vulnerability testing for mobile apps across multiple platforms, while IBM security solutions secure access to enterprise assets. • IBM Endpoint Manager for mobile provides support for bring-yourown-device programs and increased security standards critical to governments and regulated environments. • IBM Tealeaf CX Mobile solution gives the enterprise visual insight into mobile user behaviours, while IBM Coremetrics provides analytic insights into usage patterns for line-of-business owners.
A Deep set of Mobile services for clients The IBM MobileFirst portfolio includes: • Strategy and design services: Clients can tap into IBM expertise to map a mobile strategy for employees and customers, along with key experience design skills from IBM Interactive to build compelling mobile experiences. • Development and integration services: These include network infrastructure services for mobile, mobile enterprise services for managed mobility and mobile application platform management services that address IT infrastructure challenges.
ibM Australia Pty ltd 601 Pacific highway st leonards Nsw 2065 Australia Phone: +61 2 9407 9619 email: gbiju@au1.ibm.com contact: Biju George website: www.ibm.com/mobilefirst who ’ s w ho o f fs i
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mobility
Nuance communications Nuance Communications is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with information and how they create, share and use documents. Nuance is best known for rapidly advancing voice-recognition technology. Consumers interact with Nuance mobile solutions every day; our solutions have shipped in more than five billion mobile phones and 70 million cars, deployed by the eight largest handset manufacturers and ten largest auto makers.
Nina (Nuance interactive Natural Assistant) Nina delivers unprecedented mobile customer service by turning smartphones into voice-enabled customer service assistants. Globally, banking organisations are incorporating Nina into existing and new mobile apps, transforming smartphones into powerful engagement tools that allow customers to serve themselves and get immediate outcomes – whether that is paying a bill, changing or adding a service or simply getting a question answered. Offering more natural, intuitive self-service interactions, Nina is the first virtual assistant to understand what is said and who is saying it. She knows you and your voice. Nina streamlines logging in, finding features in the app, asking questions and performing transactions using the power of talk, type and tap – making mobile interactions easier, more productive and enjoyable. Nina navigates the complexity of conversational dialogue offering natural, intuitive service interactions. Find out more about Nina at www.nuance.com/meet-nina.
multi-chANNel commuNicAtioNs
computershare communication services Computershare Communication Services is a global provider of outsourced communication solutions. The world’s leading organisations depend on us to transform their communication processes through automated information capture, content management and variable print and digital delivery solutions. Through our business process transformation solutions we automate complex, paper-intensive processes for our clients, including accounts payable, accounts receivable and customer on-boarding for loans, claims and other financial products. Computershare’s platform eliminates the need to manually process documents, resulting in lower costs, greater efficiencies and improved customer service. We deliver capability and scale ondemand, providing the flexibility to purchase only what you need today and then adjust your requirements over time. Taking electronic communications beyond email, digital post is our next step in driving significant reductions in print and postage costs for our clients. Digital Post Australia, a Computershare joint venture, is Australia’s first secure, online postal system. It offers a free, central, convenient and secure digital postbox for Australians to receive their important mail. The future of mail is here.
Nuance communications Australia Pty ltd level 11, 124 walker street North sydney Nsw 2060 Australia (melbourne and brisbane offices)
computershare communication services 60 carrington street sydney Nsw 2000 Australia
Phone: +61 2 9434 2300 email: enquiries.au@nuance.com contact: Heath Wilson website: australia.nuance.com
Phone: +61 2 8234 5129 email: ross.ingleton@computershare.com.au contact: Ross Ingleton, Director of Sales website: www.computershare.com/communicationservices
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w h o’ s w ho Di r ec to ry
Multi-channel coMMunications
Multi-channel coMMunications
optus Business
sitecore
Optus Business is a leading whole-of-business ICT solutions provider of mobile, network, IT managed services, converged data and IP solutions. We serve the Australian government and business sectors.
Sitecore redefines how organisations engage with their customers online, powering experiences that can sense and adapt to a customer’s needs to increase revenue and customer lifetime value and satisfaction. Sitecore was the first web content management (WCM) system to incorporate marketing automation, intranet portal, e-commerce, web optimisation, social media and campaign management technologies into a cohesive, integrated open platform. Sitecore’s software makes it easy for businesses to identify, serve, engage and convert new customers online. Sitecore’s broad choice of capabilities enable marketing professionals, business stakeholders and information technology teams to rapidly implement, measure and manage a successful website and online business strategy. Its powerful development platform, integrated marketing automation tools and intuitive editing workspace enables successful websites of all types. Thousands of public and private organisations have created and now manage more than 30,000 dynamic websites with Sitecore including Coles, Nissan, Blackmores Ltd., CSIRO, Australian Institute of Chartered Accountants, Panasonic, Goodman and the Australian Government.
ict solutions tailored for Business and Government By combining Optus’ network capabilities with Alphawest’s ICT expertise, we can deliver a full suite of ICT solutions and managed services to business and government customers in Australia.
regional capabilities with expertise across asia Pacific Through SingTel Group Enterprise, our customers can leverage Optus Business’ expertise, technology and service in Australia, across the Asia Pacific region and beyond.
industry-Focused Optus Business is well positioned to assist government and business to meet industry vertical drivers such as: • Customer experience • Enhanced security • Cloud-based computing • Digital agenda
optus Business 1 lyonpark road Macquarie Park nsw 2113 australia Phone: +61 4 3480 1462 email: Allan.Burdekin@optus.com.au contact: Allan Burdekin, Group Manager Industry Development twitter: Optusbusiness website: www.optus.com.au/business
sitecore level 4, 50 Pitt street sydney nsw 2000 australia Phone: +61 2 8014 8857 email: sales-au@sitecore.net twitter: sitecoreanz website: www.sitecore.net w ho ’ s w ho o f fs i
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Multi-channel coMMunications
outsourcing
thunderhead.com
capgemini
Thunderhead.com is a global provider of enterprise engagement and customer experience management solutions. We help our customers succeed by providing them with powerful Software-as-a-Service solutions that allow them to better engage, connect, communicate and trade – reshaping the way companies do business with their customers and partners. Some of the world’s most demanding companies trust Thunderhead.com to help them build customer engagement and create enduring relationships. All our solutions, from large scale enterprise solutions through to our AppExchange applications, are leveraging our rich heritage and expertise in personalisation, multi-channel communications and usability. They are built to empower and liberate business users through design-led technology focused on ease of use. With Thunderhead.com, businesses have more power to drive revenue, brand strength and differentiation through superior customer experience. We serve our global customer base from offices located in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Visit www.thunderhead.com.
Capgemini, one of the world’s foremost providers of consulting, technology and outsourcing services, enables its clients to transform and perform through technologies. In Australia and New Zealand, our focus is to provide outsourcing services that are highly industrialised, underpinned by robust service level agreements, based on industry-standard best practices and delivered by a cost effective mix of onshore, nearshore and offshore resources. Capgemini's Application and Testing Services Outsourcing services are about more than 'keeping the lights on for less' – they represent a commitment to continuous improvement, value generation and transforming the operations. Our experience with the top four banks and leading insurance and capital markets organisations, combined with the equal importance we place on what we have to offer and how we work, ensure long lasting partnerships. We rely on a global delivery model called Rightshore®, which aims to get the best talent from multiple locations working as one team to create and deliver the optimum solutions for clients. Present in 44 countries, Capgemini reported 2012 global revenues of €10.3 billion and employs more than 125,000 people worldwide. Capgemini’s Global Financial Services Business Unit brings deep industry experience, innovative service offerings and next generation global delivery to serve the financial services industry. With a network of 24,000 professionals serving more than 900 clients worldwide, Capgemini collaborates with leading banks, insurers and capital market companies to deliver business and IT solutions and thought leadership that create tangible value.
thunderhead.com level 8, 99 york st sydney nsw 2000 australia Phone: +61 2 9299 4560 email: marketing_apac@thunderhead.com twitter: Thunderheadon linkedin: Thunderhead.com website: www.thunderhead.com 154
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capgemini level 7, 77 King street sydney nsw 2000 australia Phone: +61 2 9293 4710 email: capgemini.marketing.au@capgemini.com twitter: capgemini_aust website: www.capgemini.com/financial-services
w h o’ s w ho Di r ec to ry
outsourcing
outsourcing
iBM Australia
Xchanging
Today’s market calls for a different kind of business process outsourcing (BPO) provider – one that understands your company’s unique requirements. IBM Global Process Services provides next-generation shared services and business process outsourcing. We have 50 delivery centres worldwide and offer services including finance and administration, human resources, customer relationship management and supply chain management. IBM Global Process Services has deep financial services industry experience to help financial services clients become more customerfocused, reduce complexity and manage risk. Using our proven yet flexible methodology, we provide services such as advanced financial analytics, accounts payable processes, supply chain solutions and expense reporting. IBM Global Process Services’ finance and administration BPO can help organisations: • Achieve operational savings of up to 60 per cent. • Boost finance function efficiency by up to 25 per cent in the first year. • Improve the quality and availability of financial data to enable better decision making. Our complimentary RapidScan Assessment evaluates potential cost savings and efficiency improvements of outsourcing finance and administration processes. After your performance data has been collated, IBM creates a business model, usually within five days. A thorough quantitative analysis is then undertaken to produce a customised business case, which will identify areas for improvement, areas of opportunity and provide your business with some guidance as to a way forward.
Xchanging provides business processing, technology and procurement services internationally. With customers in a wide range of industries and across many countries, we are a truly international outsourcing specialist. We provide solutions through: • Advice: We give shape and direction to a customer’s strategy using our professional advisory services. • Implementation: Our implementation services deliver program and project management experience to help customers with the design, testing and delivery of their solution. • Production: Our production services are focused on the smooth running of your solution with on-going management and service support. • Offshoring: We have proven expertise in offshoring a range of processes or back-office services. • Outsourcing: Using one of our proven and respected existing platforms we provide a complete end-to-end process or service. • Procurement: We help your organisation deliver superior procurement performance with an end-to-end portfolio of capabilities from sourcing and spend management through to procure-to-pay. We ensure that savings, policy compliance and cost efficiency benefits are embedded in your business. • Insurance: As a specialist provider of workers’ compensation services and claims management, we understand your needs and obligations and provide the right services at the right time.
iBM Australia Pty Ltd 601 Pacific highway st Leonards nsw 2065 Australia
Xchanging Level 2, 201 elizabeth street sydney nsw 2000 Australia
Phone: 1800 557 343 email: rlm@au1.ibm.com contact: Luke R Macfarlane website: www.ibm.com/bpoutsourcing/au
Phone: +61 2 8667 9700 email: procurement@au.xchanging.com contact: Bernadette O'Regan website: www.xchanging.com.au w ho ’ s w ho o f fs i
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payments
performance monitoring
aci worldwide
exinda
ACI Worldwide powers electronic payments and banking for more than 1,650 financial institutions, retailers and processors around the world. ACI software enables $12 trillion in payments each day, processing transactions for 14 of the leading 35 global retailers and 24 of the world’s 25 largest banks. Through our integrated suite of software products and hosted services, we deliver broad range of solutions for payments processing, card and merchant management, online banking, mobile, branch and voice banking, fraud detection and trade finance. ACI Universal Payments Platform provides purpose-built payments functionality to orchestrate all aspects of payments processing for any payment type, any channel, any currency and any network. Combined with ACI’s leading solutions, it delivers a service-orientated architecture that bridges existing systems with future needs.
Exinda is a leading global supplier of wide area network (WAN) optimisation and network control solutions. Exinda enables organisations to assure a predictable user experience for strategic business applications through policy-based WAN optimisation and network control that intelligently allocates network bandwidth and optimises traffic based on the priorities of the business. The company has helped more than 2,500 organisations across over 80 countries worldwide assure application performance, improve the end-user experience, contain recreational applications and reduce network operating costs for the IT executive.
Key Business Benefits • Empowers banks, processors and retailers to meet cost, competitive, customer and regulatory requirements. • Provides flexibility to accelerate the adaptation of existing systems to emerging needs. • Orchestrates payment flows to efficiently deliver enterprise payments, leveraging existing systems and developing new services. • Delivers high levels of payments processing performance, reliability and security. • Offers a lower-risk, lower-cost approach to payments transformation, providing control over timing and focus.
aci worldwide Level 2, 50 margaret street sydney nsw 2000 australia phone: +61 2 9512 0200 email: mbox-ap-marketing@aciworldwide.com twitter: ACI_Worldwide website: www.aciworldwide.com 156
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exinda Level 17, 40 mount street north sydney nsw 2060 australia phone: +61 2 8415 9756 email: info.apac@exinda.com website: www.exinda.com
w h o’ s w ho Di r ec to ry
risk
security
iBM Australia
Black swan Group
Managing security and risk is a priority for any organisation, but few industries face the regulatory requirements, complexity and rate of change that banks and financial services organisations must manage. To be successful, risk, security and compliance management should be part of a broader, more holistic approach to managing operational risk and fraud, without adversely impacting business processes or customer service. IBM is committed to the financial services industry and can assist with: • Access to one of the largest and diverse data warehouses of security information to enable increased visibility into worldwide threats. • Developing a robust strategy to manage and monitor systems and data threats around the clock. • Identifying and addressing a variety of internal and external threats through stringent end-to-end identity and access management. • Automating reporting and monitoring requirements to better support regulations, such as Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI) and Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX). • Industry best practices, time-tested strategies and advanced forensic tools.
Founded in 2010, Black Swan Group has rapidly established itself as a respected provider of information security and IT risk management services. Our clients include Australia’s largest corporate, financial and government organisations. Black Swan Group’s exceptional security skills underpin our information technology, IT operations, risk management and assurance services. Our core values are integrity, commitment to clients and value delivery. We provide straight talk and frank advice, unclouded by product sales.
secure integration Assurance The complexity and scale of today’s integration projects require people who can bridge the management-technology gap to assure each stage is delivered as intended, critical information is secure and value from your technology investment is realised. We deliver: • Secure information transfer and storage, ensuring confidentiality, integrity, availability, accountability and non-repudiation. • Integration of solutions designed per requirements, built as designed, tested and implemented to be interoperable and operated securely. • Assurance that risk management objectives are achieved and undesired events are prevented or detected and corrected. We use internally developed methodologies based on international best practices to provide an ‘assurance loopback’ at each stage. Black Swan Group has the breadth of technology, business and security skills to deliver IT systems integration that meet stringent assurance requirements.
iBM Australia Pty Ltd 601 Pacific highway st Leonards Nsw 2065 Australia Phone: +61 2 9407 9249 email: dletran@au1.ibm.com contact: Darlene Letran twitter: IBMSecurity or IBMSecurity_ANZ website: ibm.co/security_anz
Black swan Group Pty Ltd sydney, Brisbane Australia Phone: 1300 558 451 email: info@blackswangroup.com.au contact: Keith Price website: www.blackswangroup.com.au w ho ’ s w ho o f fs i
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iBM Australia
Nuance communications
iBM i2 Fraud intelligence Analysis Identifying, investigating and disrupting fraud
Nuance is the global leader in voice biometric solutions, with more than 30 million enrolled voiceprints and a global customer base that spans all major industries. Nuance has unrivaled experience in delivering successful voice biometric solutions that enable financial services organisations to improve customer satisfaction, reduce costs and improve security whilst humanising technology. Financial services organisations have also successfully deployed voice biometrics for uses beyond the call centre, including smartphone app authentication and internal applications such as employee password reset and employee validation for internal communications. Voice biometrics has consistently demonstrated it is significantly more effective than PINs, passwords, tokens and/or other authentication means at providing legitimate users access to customer care systems and also at preventing malicious users from accessing these same systems. Voice biometrics captures a person’s voice and uses software algorithms to compare the captured voice characteristics to the characteristics of a previously created voiceprint.
Organised fraud is harmful to revenue and reputation. It is usually perpetrated across multiple systems and processes. IBM® i2® Fraud Intelligence Analysis is designed to significantly reduce the costs, time and complexity associated with these investigations. Patterns, links and relationships are rapidly created from vast, disparate data sets enabling you to rapidly identify and disrupt fraud and misuse. • Improve investigation effectiveness for better results and reduced costs. • Broaden your investigative community and raise awareness by involving key stakeholders and specialists in the investigation. IBM i2 is based on an open platform that can readily integrate with other systems in the business. • Gain insights into elements around your transactions not readily apparent to the investigator such as association analysis, temporal analysis and geo-spatial analysis. • Make use of other IBM solutions for detecting fraud and managing investigations such as streams for on-the-fly data analysis; identity insights to examine individuals and their relationships; SPSS to automate and optimise transactional decisions based on volumes of data. • Improve customer relationships by demonstrating a proactive stance against fraud. • Improve your resistance to fraud by understanding system and process weakness.
cost savings and fraud reduction • Significant improvement to customer experience by making authentication simple. • Reduction in contact centre costs by keeping callers in interactive voice response (IVR) and increasing self-service rates. • Reduction in fraud losses by making it more difficult for a fraudster to compromise an account. • Deployed at the agent level, voice biometrics authenticates callers as they speak to an agent and catches fraudsters that bypass the IVR.
iBM Australia Pty Ltd 601 Pacific highway st Leonards Nsw 2065 Australia
Nuance communications Australia Pty Ltd Level 11, 124 walker street North sydney Nsw 2060 Australia (Melbourne and Brisbane offices)
Phone: +61 4 8807 4111 email: rlm@au1.ibm.com contact: Tony Vitiello website: ibm.co/security_anz
Phone: +61 2 9434 2300 email: enquiries.au@nuance.com contact: Heath Wilson website: australia.nuance.com
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threatMetrix
webroot
Would you like to stop account takeovers, payment fraud and identity spoofing on your site before it happens? ThreatMetrix provides the first industry solution that combines comprehensive data collection, behavioural analytics and the ThreatMetrix™ Global Trust Intelligence Network into a powerful, risk-based security and fraud prevention solution. Schedule a demo and we will show you how ThreatMetrix can help your organisation prevent unauthorised access to web and mobile applications, protect sensitive data and secure transactions against account takeover, payment fraud, identity spoofing, malware and data breaches. You will see how this is done in real-time, leveraging a worldwide network sharing live fraud information. Plus, all this is done without relying on passwords, user names and cookies. ThreatMetrix protects more than 1,500 customers and 8,500 websites across a variety of industries, including financial services, enterprise, e-commerce, payments, social networks, government and insurance.
Webroot is bringing the power of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) to Internet security with its suite of Webroot SecureAnywhere® offerings for consumers and businesses. Webroot also offers security intelligence solutions to organisations focused on cyber-security, such as Palo Alto Networks, F5, Corero, SOTI, NEC, FancyFon and others. Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Colorado, Webroot is the largest privately held security organisation based in the United States.
threatMetrix suite 1303, Level 13, 799 Pacific highway chatswood 2067 Australia Phone: +61 2 9411 4499 email: sales@threatmetrix.com twitter: ThreatMetrix website: www.threatmetrix.com
webroot 821 Pacific highway chatswood Nsw 2067 Australia Phone: 1800 013 992 email: rfree@webroot.com contact: Ryan Free twitter: webroot Blog: http://blog.webroot.com website: www.webroot.com.au who ’ s w ho o f fs i
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Financial Services Technology Media where the market meets
When senior banking, insurance and wealth management IT decision makers turn to FST Media, they are confident that they will be kept abreast of emerging trends and developments that could impact their technology mandates. FST Media’s team of conference producers, highly qualified journalists and business development executives collaborate to deliver the most insightful and successful events, roundtables, specialist publications, newsletters, online broadcasts and video interviews dedicated to financial services technology executives in Australia, New Zealand and wider Asia. To register for FST Media’s complimentary newsletter or to view upcoming events, exclusive video interviews and conference keynotes visit www.fst.net.au; email info@fst.net.au or call the team at +61 2 9376 3200. follow us on
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