Your predecessor, Long Term Credit Bank had was a large financial institution in the heart of Japan. They provided long term funding to firms and other organizations. At the time of the bubble bust, as with many companies the bank was left with a large amount of debt and could no longer service any of their valued customers. More importantly their IT infrastructure was outdated, and could not handle the needs of it's customers. Unfortunately the bank went under and was soon acquired by an American company(Ripplewood holdings). At this time LTCP became the first Japanese bank to have foreign ownership.
Background
Shinsei Bank has always had it customer in mind. They want to understand their customers better and service them fast at the same time. Some of the problems you had solved in your revamping of your IT systems include, increasing the business hours which currently ended at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, due to the computer system having to reconcile the information with the database. This is not adequate because many customers would like to do their banking after work hours and may not have time during the day. This also includes the banks ATM's machines which also stop earlier than desired. There is no internet banking for customers who like the convenience of doing all their banking from home. This allows less pressure to be put on branch staff and increases the convenience of doing banking in general. In addition there is a long wait for new accounts to be opened, separate accounts for each type of financial product and just an overall disappointing for customers in Japan to do their banking.
When we look at the overall system today we notice that there are many new changes which have been brought about. With your team and advanced knowledge you have been able to turn around the banks IT infrastructure and make it an attractive and now convenient place to do business. From what we understand some of the improvements that were made to include:
Replacing mainframes with Unix and Windows servers
Centralized operations which created a functional organization
Selecting one network protocol, one operating system and one hardware platform to streamline the communication process.
Hiring a skilled team with a diverse background in all aspects of the design and integration.
All of the work that was done was based on five criteria as follows:
Speed - How fast could the work be done. It not only had to be completed successfully but, had to be implemented within 18 months
Cost - As with any implementation cost is expected to be kept to a minimum. Not everything was built from scratch but a combination of off the shelf and new built systems
Capability - Being a large financial institution, many IT services would be required including translating different currencies and financial products
Flexibility - As the system grows and new strategies are developed, how can the system adapt to the changes
Safety - Security is important for any organization but much more for a bank of your size. Allowing for redundancy systems and backups allows for a better customer experience with no downtime
These are some of the criteria we will base out solution for a CRM system on too and look at exactly how they fit in with your current infrastructure, keeping in mind your goal of outstanding customer service.
Project Objectives and Scope
Looking at your current requirements ad system we have outlined that scope of the project and what will be included and not be included. The whole idea revolves around a more customer driven experience. That is the goal first and foremost.
It will revolve around the 3 main areas that you have outlined that are important strategies. They include commercial banking, retail banking and investment banking.
A. CRM Objectives
Cost reduction - Making a customer a part of the business is an important objective too. If you allow them to do their own online and product/services order entry they are given the info they need to come to a buying decision. Because of this less staff is required.
Better Customer Service - Being a number one priority for your company all your customer data will be centralized. They have all the information they need at their fingertips. The customer experience will be greatly enhanced.
Increased Customer Satisfaction/Relationships - Engaging the customer and making them feel that they are "part of the team" is a increase in customer service. The services and products to customers will be targeted towards them based on the data you can gather from the system.
Better Customer Retention- Being competitive in the banking industry is hard to do. Our CRM system can help to enchance customers, which will increase customer loyalty, and make sure they keep returning to purchase more financial products and services.
More Profit
Allowing for more business to be done while lowering costs equals more profit
B. Scope of Project
The scope of the project will consist of the following. Both included and not include:
Included:
Current company infrastructure and existing customer systems
Existing customer sales data from marketing department
Allocated budget of XXX
Full integration with existing systems
Not included:
Additional training for new staff
Additional costs for unforeseeable parts of the project
Suppliers and hardware/software transportation
Proposed Methodology
Seeing that a solid IT infrastructure is already in place, the second part of the CRM system will be the actual implementation. The way we plan to do this is by using a waterfall methodology. It will include a parallel adoption strategy. IT will run alongside the current system and be transparent when implemented. This is done to reduce any possible risk of downtime or system failure. Shensei, being a bank cannot risk any downtime for the sake of the value clients and customers.
The overall project from start to finish will be broken down into phases. However some of them have already been completed. They are briefly mentioned below:
Entry and Contracting - We will sit down and understand your requirements, systems and goals and objectives.
Discovery and dialogue - Who will be involved with the project and what kind of data analysis should be done on your system.
Feedback and decision to act - Once we have gathered and understood your requirements we will make a judgement on going ahead with the project, decide who to involve and determine timelines.
Engagement and implementation - Conduct a series of meetings to understand roles and responsibilities. In addition we will make sure the project stays on track and on budget.
Extension, Recycle or termination - After the project has been successfully implemented, we hope to create a client relationship with you and complete more projects in the future.
Acceptance Testing
The acceptance testing will be done after the new CRM system is implemented. The testing will be performed by one of our senior IT consultants. Once an agreement has been made the system will be considered approved and completed. The criteria of testing will include application functionality , infrastructure integration and performance in terms of functionality.
Summary of Project Deliverables
Research and purchase key hardware and software to be used in the implementation
Implement and align the CRM system with the existing infrastructure.
Test and Fix any bugs detected in the system
Make sure integration with other departments are done correctly.
Start using system and monitor for any changes or system flaws.
Recommendations
Our recommendation comes from carefully analyzing your infrastructure, are to go ahead with implementing this system. Based on your top most priority of achieving a high level of customer satisfaction, implementing this CRM system will help to fulfill your current goals and future objectives. Many of your products and services will be available to customers but keeping track of what they buy, when they buy, and how much they buy should be can all be tracked via this system. To conclude our recommendation we briefly discuss the following 3 important processes.
Process:
Depending on how you choose to handle your IT processes will be a major factor in determining how your systems work with our CRM system. The end result is how can we help the customer and the your organizations efficiency.
Technology:
Our CRM system includes the perfect technology to help improve business processes, provide valuable and accurate information to the end users, and be easy enough to allow people to keep logging onto the system.
People: After hearing your IT department has a diverse and large amount of specific skills, is a plus for helping to improve the business processes and overall objectives. As you told your employees "We will not change but we will change the technology".
Going forward we hope to work with you on meeting and exceeding your objectives and goals. Feel free to call or email me to discuss if you need further information.
RSC Management Consulting Darryl Pinto, CMC, Partner
