SA`s big four in the banking industry discussed the year in review at last night`s First Tuesday event, held at the Wanderers Club in Illovo.
Discussing the strategies of their individual institutions, the panel comprised Dave Parratt, director at bluebean.com, Martin Pienaar, assistant GM of Nedbank`s e-banking division, Michael Jordaan, CEO of eBucks.com, and Dave Donkin, e-business executive with Absa.
Absa claims dominance, Nedbank remains internally focused
Donkin summarised Absa`s challenges following its failed Red Mouse initiative; those being the need to become nimble and by way of its free Internet access offering, make absa.co.za the dominant banking site in SA.
This has largely been achieved, he said, with Nielsen`s Net Ratings ranking absa.co.za the fourth most visited site locally, while the Aardvark portal voted it the best online banking site.
The bank plans to accelerate on this strategy, to build on the free Internet user base, and continue rolling out phases of its consumer portal.
Internally, Donkin noted, the greatest changes had come around in the mindset of staff. He added that other internal strategies going forward involved implementing e-learning and e-HR applications.
Pienaar said Nedbank had stuck firmly to its intended strategy of re-engineering internal business processes and back-end systems, and had seen "tens of millions [of rands] in payback internally".
The focus on e-enabling systems and processes with the aim of engineering costs out of the system had automatically impacted positively on customer satisfaction levels and dependability of services, he noted.
The bank is also well down the track of seeing benefits from its e-procurement system implemented by Miraculum.
eBucks aims for simplicity, bluebean for availability
Lessons learned at the eBucks helm are twofold, said Jordaan. Of primary importance is the challenge to meet functionality demands from eBuck`s more technology savvy consumers, while at the same time making technology acceptable to the majority, he said.
In addition, the company has learnt the value of multiple communications channels with its customers, he said. One year since its launch, eBucks has a 50-agent call centre which facilitates up to 20 000 calls per month.
It also achieved milestones such as its alliances with MTN and Johnnic`s entertainment arm, which extends the eBucks strategy of encouraging customers to earn eBucks through activities other than banking.
Jordaan and Parratt both jockeyed for first-mover position on offering online shopping, but agreed that security issues, credit card penetration and the unpopularity of delivery charges all hampered immediate success in this area.
In addition, Jordaan noted, a primary challenge is to create an understanding of the eBucks offering, which he said enjoys great brand awareness but not much else in the marketplace.
Parratt noted that technology developments within his division of Standard Bank had encouraged a more widespread use of technology within the bank, and had begun the current move away from a silo approach to a more generic platform.
The bluebean brand itself has definite equity among its target market, he said, a market which he defined as those that think they`re as young as 25.
Most of the panellists agreed that while mobile banking applications were the way of the future, for the moment, it remains a cool, but largely unused technology set.
In addition, the bankers agreed that while there was definite room for some amount of collaboration to reduce their costs per customer and increase service offerings, the banking regulator has already put a hold on any such initiatives.
Commenting on the potential threat posed to the online banking environment by Microsoft`s Hailstorm initiative, Parratt said: "The fact is, you trust your bank. You don`t necessarily trust Microsoft."
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