We use the example of various banks to show how this digitisation is approached
This year, the IFZ invited various banks to report on innovative offers in banking. Here a short review with the learnings and challenges.
Zaida Méndez and Stephan Bucher reported on Postfinance Benefit - a bonus program that puts together offers tailored to the customer's card transactions. For example, if a customer frequently purchases sports goods in sports shops, offers / sports activities are made available on this profile, which the PostFinance customer can use to benefit.
Dr. Patrick Kissel reports how Bank Cler launched Zak in an agile set-up in 11 months. One of the goals is to convince a young audience of the product. The focus is strongly aligned on their main needs -> pay and save. Customer-centered design (generating insights, prototyping and testing) in iterative/agile steps were key success factors to launch the product on the market in 11 months.
Take out a mortgage on the mobile? Is that possible and how? Roger Sutter reports how it works and asks the question - why an app? Rising numbers on mobile devices are a clear sign "mobile first" and an app is operated differently than a website. The app should stand out in the market like the yellow flower in the picture. In addition to being eye-catching, the Customer Journey is all about the best possible user experience.
On the right, an overview of the Customer Journey. In summary: The interest rate will be set as soon as possible, which will be valid for 7 days afterwards for the contract. Baloise reserves the right to withdraw from the contract if the check (purchase price/object data or similar) is negative.
CEO of BLKB, John Häfelfinger reports on how BLKB integrates insurance services into its consulting. An Anivo insurance advisor is integrated into the consultation via video call with the aim of drawing attention to significant risks involved in buying a house: Building protection & family protection (loss of income, divorce or similar). The design of simple products helps the advisor to complete the sales process within 25-30 minutes and with a higher success rate than before.
The insurance service has no dependency, i.e. other financial service providers could also offer their advice combined (whitelabel).
Marcelo Vicotria gives an overview of why banks need to change their services:
Credit Suisse is pushing digital developments in these areas:
Christoph Wille reports on the expansion plans of Valiant Bank and this with physical branches. But how to bring innovation to this strategic decision? Valiant has responded to the decline in counter transactions (-30% from 2014 to 2017) - but not with reduced counter times like many competitors.
A low-cost branch is the key to operations. With modular branches (Brugg and Morges, for example), the bank has succeeded in reducing the cost of converting branches by 40-60%. Modular branches include:
However, all this does not mean that there are no more employees. With the resources freed up, more time can be used to advise customers.
Done optimization: Quality of video increased, self-service elements are accessible, price modules reduced.
Biggest challenges:
Andreas Barattiero (Head of Financial Processing) reports how the St.Galler Cantonal Bank used robots in processing. This using the example of a bank takeover and its data migration. Process automation in the course of efficiency gains (expectation: reduced unit costs, shorter throughput time, higher quality, relief of employees).
But how can you automate?
The SGKB carried out a technical and organisational POC.
Learnings from technical POC:
The success of robotics also depends on the number of tasks etc. and whether the employees in processing centers can also operate a robot, because if an IT/robot specialist is needed per robot, it can quickly become expensive.
In summary, there were many exciting topics, concepts and ideas from different areas. We will see in which direction the market is developing, but this cannot be denied: Fintech's are increasing the pressure on established banks and the user experience is becoming even more important in order to differentiate themselves from the competition.
