South African business and technical consulting group, Business Systems Group (BSG), has had its efforts with FSB International rewarded through the awarding of repeat business. This marks BSG`s successful entry into Africa.
FSB International is a Lagos based bank that serves both corporate and retail markets in Nigeria. It is the sixth largest bank in Nigeria with a network of over 35 branches. Nigeria has a population of over 130 million people and has the largest foreign investment in Africa.
Need for better utilisation of Flexcube
BSG began working with FSB International in 2003 when FSB started using Flexcube as its new core-banking platform. Flexcube is widely used internationally and integrates both retail and corporate banking with an easy-to-use GUI interface offering a consolidated view of each client. Flexcube was being used throughout the bank and although it had improved the functionality of the bank, FSB felt that it could be better utilised. This is when BSG was called in.
Issues identified by BSG on commencement of the work
* None of the processes had been reviewed or innovated when the new technology came on board. The users were trained on the technology only and had put in unnecessary workarounds to make the new technology work with the existing processes. As a result they felt unhappy that their requirements had not been taken into account. * The Flexcube technology was not being used to the fullest of its capabilities and for its main benefits. The technology offers the ability for the user to see a consolidated client view but FSB were not using this unique functionality.
The opportunities identified by BSG for FSB were:
For FSB to optimise its return on its technology investment it needed to do an in-depth analysis of the bank`s business processes from the customers` viewpoint. This would be done across all areas but especially in front-line sales and service, in credit approval and in the management of accounts. With the technology optimised, FSB would be able to get rid of product silo systems and be able to use the technology to get a single-view of clients.
In order to exploit these opportunities, the BSG team worked in collaboration with the FSB International Strategy and the Internal Analysis teams.
The first step was to align the business processes with the strategy going forward. The joint team then identified issues and opportunities and prioritised those in a roadmap. The team designed future processes with bank staff, taking customer needs into account.
A stated objective of every project undertaken by BSG is knowledge transfer. In this project, knowledge, skill and approach were transferred to the internal analysis team working at the bank.
BSG also produced a business case with a 5-year program of work to implement the proposed innovations and a cost/benefit analysis of doing that work. The organisation is in the process of adopting these objectives and targets, whilst embarking on specific short-term initiatives to derive immediate value in the meantime.
Conclusion
Based on the success of this work, BSG has been called into Lagos again to provide technical assistance and expertise on the development of an automated workflow solution for some of their business processes in the customer loans, advances and overdrafts areas. FSB places value in their partnership with BSG and would like them to review the quality of the implementation progress and to provide guidance where necessary on an ongoing basis.
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