Stanbic Bank Botswana this week took the IT war to its competitors by announcing the much anticipated migration from the old banking platform to the modern one. It is a move that will make it the only bank in the country to use the technology.
The bank said in trying to keep pace with growing sophistication of the customer, it will ‘replace the engine with new one’ by moving from Bank Master to Finacle by early next year.
Stanbic is spending over P100 million on the infrastructure development and becomes the third franchise in the Standard Bank group to use the system, joining Nigeria, Namibia and Uganda in the near future.
“Botswana will be the 4th country to be rolled and with this new system across its franchises Standard Bank will be in a position to have some uniformity across all its countries in the network,” Stanbic Chief Executive Officer Leina Gabaraane said.
Stanbic Bank has already begun the ground-work on core banking. The transition is expected to take up to 15 months, with the new Core Banking system due to launch in February 2013.
The system will enable Stanbic to have a single, integrated view of its client base, resulting in enhanced service and customer experience. It will further help the bank differentiate its products and services and automate a vast amount of processes and eliminate errors caused by manual intervention.
The bank added that the new system will significantly reduce the volume of operational reports generated and provide flexibility and achieve greater operational efficiency and identify the gaps in its products, quickly replicate and make amendments to them according to customer needs.
It will also continue to meet the future needs of the bank’s rapidly evolving business model, and enhance its channel products.
“We will continue to meet the future needs of the bank’s rapidly evolving business model. The system will also deliver a 360 degree customer relationship management solution,” says Gabaraane.
Gabaraane is optimistic that the system will enable Stanbic Bank to add more value to its customers. He says the new system will also eliminate errors caused by manual intervention.
“With a mandate to continually seek innovative ways to add value to clients’ banking experience, Stanbic Bank has already begun the groundwork on core banking. The transition is expected to take up to 15 months, with the new Core Banking system due to launch soon,” said Gabaraane.
He points out that changes are likely to result in some day to day operational glitches. Furthermore, Gabaraane says that whilst the project started in earnest some four to five months ago, they are only expecting to go live in early 2013.
“During the transition period, I would like to ask our customers to bear with us in the event that some disruptions do occur. We will strive to keep them updated on our progress along the way as we work towards making the banking experience simpler and more pleasurable. Our priority remains to service the needs of our customers and to help them through any challenges they might experience. And, as such, we have an established Customer Care Centre to assist during the change over period,” said Gbaraane.
In an effort to ensure the utmost satisfaction of customers, Stanbic Head of Operations, Joel Stead, also said the Finacle system will significantly reduce the volume of operational reports generated and provide flexibility and achieve greater operational efficiency.
He added that it will also identify the gaps in the products, quickly replicate and make amendments to them according to the customers’ needs.
Stead revealed that whilst Stanbic Bank has seen substantial market growth in the last couple of years, it recognises the need to continue to be increasingly innovative and ahead of the game in meeting the customer’s expectations.
He said Finacle is consequently the Group’s nominated core banking platform that has been rolled out in several countries already.
