The global financial market is in a state of upheaval and consolidation. In an increasingly competitive environment, banking organisations have to strive to gain a prominent place in the world of electronic commerce.
At the same time, customers are exerting additional pressures by expecting a consistently high level of service. With a greater range of communication channels available, customers also want increased convenience and a broader range of financial products and services to make banking more efficient, easier-to-use and faster.
To succeed in this multi-channel environment banking organisations need to ensure that customers receive a consistently high level of service, regardless of the delivery channel used, believes Mark Ehmke, managing director of Staffware in South Africa.
"Keeping up with customer demands means that banks need to deploy scalable solutions which are based on the latest technology, can fit within an organisation`s existing IT infrastructure and have the flexibility to adapt to sudden market changes," he explains.
"The technology challenge they face when planning their e-commerce strategies is finding a technology that will provide them with the innovation and competitive advantage to stay ahead in the market as well as multi-channel integration to make sure that their products and services can be delivered via the distribution channels that are available today.
"In addition, they need a future-proofed e-banking infrastructure to support the `virtual bank` of the future as well as peace of mind that the technology itself is proven, scalable and secure," Ehmke says.
Staffware recently launched its eBanking solution, an integrated approach which consolidates different delivery channels and links them to a common set of the bank`s business processes.
"This gives banking organisations the flexibility to deliver consistent services to customers that combine the benefits of multiple delivery channels," he says.
Staffware eBanking supports the Internet, WAP, ITV and kiosks for remote banking, as well as providing support for the more established channels including call centres, branches, post and fax.
The solution consists of the following key components:
Staffware eBanking Process Engine
Staffware eCRM
Graphical Process Definer
Staffware Reporting Tool
Staffware EAI Adapters
Staffware eBanking Process Engine
Built upon Staffware`s scalable, rules-based process automation technology, the eBanking Process Engine automates and controls the end-to-end processing of a bank`s business critical procedures.
By integrating the front office and back office systems, Staffware links the delivery channels to the business processes and drives enquiries through the bank`s various departments, ensuring they are all completed successfully - within set timescales - and dynamically sets up a series of follow-up events if required.
Staffware eCRM
Banks today must offer a range of distribution channels to give customers what they want and they must ensure that customers are handled with consistently high quality service. In other words, customer relationship management tools are vital.
Staffware eCRM is the interface which can link to a bank`s existing CRM solution or to Staffware`s own eCRM module to ensure that all of the bank`s delivery channels are integrated and provides a common consolidated view of the customer. For example, Staffware eCRM enables customer service personnel to access business information on customer accounts to build a clear picture of the customer, to make well-informed decisions based on this information, and deliver best value levels of customer service.
Graphical Process Definer
Staffware`s Graphical Process Definer enables a bank to define and develop the business rules for its banking processes. Based on an intuitive paradigm flowchart, it provides a graphical view of a bank`s business processes. Unlike existing technologies, the Graphical Process Definer enables these processes to be modified in very short timeframes as and when required in order to respond to competitive pressures or regulatory changes.
Staffware Reporting Tool
Process automation software is used at the heart of many business processes. Without information on service levels and work activity, for example, business managers cannot manage their resources or quality of service they provide. The Staffware Reporting Tool graphically displays volumes of work being processed and is a management tool for viewing and monitoring work being processed - both in real-time and historically. It presents an end-to-end view of completed transactions which facilitates business trend analysis, enabling management to identify bottlenecks, escalate problems and take remedial action.
This auditing capability extends to providing audit trails for every single transaction and offers a greater level of management control and work visibility.
Staffware EAI Adapters
Staffware works in tandem with middleware or Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) technologies and provides adapters to leading EAI products to deliver a simpler means of integrating Staffware eBanking with other underlying business systems and applications.
Says Ehmke: "The Staffware eBanking solution enables financial organisations to benefit from significant improvements in the provision of customer service by automating and managing the critical customer-centric business processes.
"Through the use of multi-channel integration, customer interaction can be maximised to maintain competitive advantage, reduce costs and increase profitability."
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