The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) is looking at the value of data and monitoring the flow of data through the organization.
The CBA is Australia’s leading bank, providing financial services in retail, premium, business, institutional banking, funds management, superannuation, insurance, investment, and share-broking products and services.
Because of the emphasis CBA places on data, they have created the role of a chief process officer to streamline the different processes that occur as a result of operation and growth.
CBA’s chief process officer Dan O’Neill explained that since the banking industry is still a traditional one—as a result of regulatory requirements, heavily reliant on paperwork. The Business Process team at the bank takes in all the data and analyzes it identify opportunities that can be automated and processes that can be streamlined, termed as the data mining process. O’Neill said,
We identify where those opportunities are, we work with our innovation and technical architectural partners within the business, and then agree on what’s best and where to make the right investment that’s going to drive best customer experience, increase process performance and efficiency, and reduce risk.
He adds mining has enabled them to understand how staff and customers are getting to the desired outcomes. This now allows them to educate, train, redesign, and update their tech and front end to actually be the efficient process going forward. He said,
There isn’t a bank — nor do I expect there to be a bank — that is truly digital end-to-end. Our industry is incredibly complex where you need individuals to interpret the customer needs and ensure that we provide them with the right solution. That involves hundreds, if not thousands, of different ways of doing things.
O’Neill believes that the streamlining process has set it apart from competitors and are a key differentiator where technology is used for effective and efficient process management, providing the best customer service. He was quoted saying,
[It’s about] how do we provide the best customer experience? This is the link that then says if we understand the customer experience, what’s the most efficient, standardized, and simplified process to deliver that.
O’Neill said they truly believe given the investment they have made in technology in the past and where they have really focused on customer experience, that this new type of skillset is going to be critical to identify new ways of doing things and improved ways of doing things faster in the future.
He spoke passionately about the CBA strategy and is “incredibly excited” for the bank to realize its goals in the upcoming five to 10 years.
