K19million for chilli wings and a smile

By Emmanuel Narokobi

I have had cravings lately for the Kenmaity Fried Chicken (KMC) in town, (Port Moresby). I really like the Chilli Combo with it’s chilli fried chicken wings. I drive all the way from Gordons were my office is just so I can get my chilli wings. I remember the first time I went in to get my first taste of KMC chicken and the ladies there greeted me with a smile and then after taking my order asked me to take a seat and they would bring my chilli wings out to me. I was shocked! Wow is this customer service or what?! I’ve never been treated like this before in PNG, even the security gaurds greet you on the way in and out.

So I went to the tables and took a seat and I smiled, and I though imagine if we had this type of service all the time in PNG. So what does KMC have to do with K19 million? Well if I’m not mistaken I think Bank South Pacific has just spent that much money to also give me a smile when I visit the bank. Below is what was reported in The National last week.

—————————————————

 

BANK South Pacific has signed a K19 million deal with Fiserv Inc, a leading supplier of banking software, for the acquisition of a program that would boost the bank’s operating system. Fiserv Inc is based in Orlando, Florida, USA.

The program, called Fiserv Aperio, consists of several computer applications to compliment BSP’s existing Fiserv iCBS banking system. BSP managing director Garth McIlwain said: “The deal further cements BSP’s commitment to our customers.
“With the installation of the world’s leading customer management software, we will be able to boost our service efficiency across the branch network,” he added.

James Fisher, managing director of Fiserv Inc Asia Pacific, said: “This builds on the strong relationship between Fiserv and BSP that has existed since 1993, and positions the bank to better serve its customers.” Fiserv CBS Worldwide delivers end-to-end business and technology solutions for retail financial organisations, consumer finance institutions and credit unions throughout Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the Caribbean, Canada and the United States.

————————————————-

The key words for me here would be Mr. McIlwain’s words ‘…boost our service efficiency…’ and I guess a ‘boost’ in the ‘banks service efficiency’ should mean faster and more effectively served customers and consequently happier customers with smiles on their faces when they leave the bank.

So how does this software do that? Well the Fiserv website tells us that ‘Fiserv Aperio is… is a dynamic solution that enables Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Business Process Management (BPM) and Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) to work in concert, providing the sweet spot of all three products.

 

 

 

 

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – CRM is an information industry term for methodologies, software, and usually Internet capabilities that help an enterprise manage customer relationships in an organized way.

For us CRM should mean that the ‘Fiserv Aperio software keeps a record of all my contact details and my banking history, in the sense of how I bank, use my money etc. So that if I suddenly pop into the bank at Christmas time to ask for a loan so I can throw a huge Xmas party with chilli wings and mumu pig, the bank should be able to quickly pull up my loan history and say, ‘yes, Manu that’s okay we have seen that you paid back your last loan, so have a very Merry Christmas on us!’. The CRM should also go further into also identifying what needs I may have, for example if they see that I use my cheque book allot for shopping in PNG and they also see that I always transfer allot of money overseas when I travel to Australia for work, then someone from the bank could suggest to me that I get a Visa Debit Card (Although I’m not sure if BSP offers this already). In short the CRM’s job is to follow our banking habits so that it can imrpove how the bank serves us.

• Business Process Management (BPM) – A systematic approach to improving an organization’s business processes. BPM activities seek to make business processes more effective, more efficient, and more capable of adapting to an ever-changing environment.

The BPM for us should mean (among other things) that when they check to verify our signatures it shuld not take 30 minutes to go through a stack of cards to find your first signature when you opened up your account 10 years ago. It should also mean that it takes less time to get approvals or denials for housing loans and among other things it should mean you can get your Kundu Cards replaced quickly when they are lost.

• Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) – The use of middleware to integrate the application programs, data bases and legacy systems involved in an organization’s critical business processes. EAI applications extend legacy gateway applications to provide coupling with back-end applications.

For EAI this should mean for us that we can go to any bank in the country and be able to access all our information from the branch we opened up our account. So I should be able to work on a loan appliaction quickly in Wewak even though I opened my account in the Waigani drive branch in POM. Or (and this is the exciting part) I should be able to do my banking at any of BSP branches be it Niue, Fiji or Solomon Islands.

So together, CRM, BPM and EAI allow Fiserv Aperio to assist BSP in its’ profit generation and growth by:

• Improving efficiency and increase profit through Business Process Automation.
• Providing Intelligent Interactions for more personalised service.
• Enabling a Single View of your customers: relationships, accounts, interactions.
• Supplying Channel Integration to deliver consistency and quality regardless of touch point.
• Delivering Integrated Workflow to ensure follow-up between departments.
• Coordinating a Flexible Architecture which enables fast market and regulatory responses.
• Making Every Contact an Opportunity to sell product, generate loyalty, and reduce attrition.

Therefore the K19 million should help the bank to respond with agility to the changing needs and circumstances of us client as we progress through our lives, as this becomes a critical component to the bank for client retention. From the new university graduate, to the retiring public servant, and the newly single working mum re-entering the workplace, life changes require necessary changes in how the bank provides its services, how they communicate with us and how they market their banking products to us.

In the end we sincerly hope that if the bank makes heaps of money it will ultimately mean the end of those dreaded long lines in BSP‘s branches, so that we leave the bank faster in our lunch breaks and I can get quickly to KMC for my chilli wings.

Advertisement