Indian Ocean Bank started with a single vision to connect people, places, and opportunities, defying norms. Specializing in bridging Africa, Asia, and the world, it offers innovative financing solutions.

Number of employees:

More than 400
Population served:

More than 50,000

Summary

Challenges

Managing up to 1,500 daily client queries efficiently.
Alleviating the burden of an overworked customer service team.
Enhancing query management and fulfillment processes.

Solution

SMAX streamlined customer service with end-to-end visibility.
Automated workflows to enhance efficiency.

Results

Supported Green Computing with 60% paper reduction
Enhanced customer service and lowered costs
Achieved 35% faster request fulfillment

Challenges

Managing up to 1,500 daily client queries efficiently
Alleviating the burden on an overworked customer service team
Enhancing query management and fulfillment processes

Streamlining and automating processes to achieve exceptional customer service

As a relatively young bank, serving more than 50,000 customers with its 400 employees, it has an inbuilt start-up mentality and the agility to embrace change when it is needed. This already sets it apart from more traditional banks. However, as with many other banks, the organization suffers from internal inefficiencies. In dealing with customer requests, inefficient but justified manual steps are taken in an attempt to reduce unwanted risk. With a growing number of customers, these inefficiencies stretch to the operations side of the business to ensure all required checks are still carried out. Many banking products are regarded as a commodity and this bank focuses on exceptional customer service as a competitive differentiator.

Their Data & Integration Engineering Manager explained further, “Our internal transformation aims to measure the customer experience more precisely. We do this through the Net Promotor Score (NPS), as well as satisfaction surveys, and by defining Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for our own service delivery times. To improve internal digitalization, we use OpenText™ Service Management Automation X, designed to deliver a smarter approach to IT Service Management (ITSM). We’ve devised a simple and lean 3-step methodology to helps us with Business Process Re-engineering (BPR), eliminating any unnecessary steps and automating what we can.”

We are particularly impressed with the way we can automatically track notifications, approvals, and SLAs. Our teams have Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) based on the number of SLAs they meet for the volume assigned to them. With SMAX, we have these metrics at our fingertips.

Data & Integration Engineering Manager
Indian Ocean Bank

Solution

To streamline customer service, Indian Ocean Bank deployed OpenText™ Service Management Automation X (SMAX), achieving 35% faster request fulfillment and a 60% paper reduction.

Products deployed

OpenText™ Service Management Automation X

SMAX revolutionizes customer service operations by centralizing and streamlining request management to provide end-to-end visibility

Streamlined customer service with centralized requests and end-to-end visibility

The Customer Service team of 50 employees is dedicated to managing up to 1,500 daily customer queries, from balance queries to card passcodes, internet banking passwords, and payment requests. Towards the end of each month this number can often double, exponentially increasing the workload for the team. With a high level of manual effort and 6,000 pieces of paper moving between desks every day, this department was at risk of missing customer queries and getting overwhelmed during busy times. As there were clear inefficiencies in the various processes, the company chose to support this department with SMAX, rather than just increase the headcount.

To fully map the existing processes, the Data & Integration teams hosted workshops and focus group meetings for Service Desk users so that the ”as-is” process could be clearly outlined in a whiteboard diagram. From here, they could suggest process improvements, including centralizing all incoming requests on Connect-IT, a platform that is included in SMAX. This gathers all emails from different sources into a SMAX form. From there, the SMAX AI-driven workflow kicks in to create a ticket.

“Once the SMAX ticket is created, it flows from there to assignment, categorization, and prioritization, all through out-of-the-box SMAX capabilities,” said their Data & Integration Engineering Manager. “We are particularly impressed with the way we can automatically track notifications, approvals, and SLAs. Our teams have Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) based on the number of SLAs they meet for the volume assigned to them. With SMAX, we have these metrics at our fingertips.”

Speeding fund transfers with automated workflows

SMAX integrates with key systems in use around the bank and will route the ticket to the appropriate owner. The Bank’s core banking system and its Entity Management System are used for end-to-end integration with SMAX. SMAX also supports the movement of funds within the bank. When customers request a transfer from one account to another, SMAX manages the checks involved in moving funds. The process will flag exceptions; for instance, if signatures don’t match or when a client callback fails. The SMAX workflow will determine next steps in exception cases before submitting the payment and recording it in the document management system.

Because all customer email queries are captured by SMAX, the team is introducing SMAX-enabled auto-replies to ensure that all queries are processed and actioned. SMAX will issue an acknowledgement email upon receiving a query, a status update email once the query has been assigned, and a completion email when the query has been resolved. This way no queries will be ‘lost in transit’ and customers will receive a consistent and improved service.

SMAX and its unrivalled AI capabilities go beyond automating routine tasks and can play a pivotal role in enhancing various aspects of the bank's ITSM, customer service, security, and decision-making processes. It underscores the transformative impact of AI on the bank's operations, making it more agile, efficient, and customer-centric.

The four SMAX-enabled teams no longer print any paper, so our paper print has reduced by over 60 percent; from 6,000 pages per day to just 2,000. We also see clear improvements in resolution times. The SMAX teams can fulfil requests 35 percent faster than before because they don’t need to change screens.

Data & Integration Engineering Manager
Indian Ocean Bank

Results

Deploying SMAX led to significant results, including a 60 percent paper reduction, 35 percent faster request fulfillment, and lower operational costs.

Reduced paper trail by over 60%

Having deployed SMAX in four out of the six Customer Service teams, the results are already clear, according to their Data & Integration Engineering Manager, “Our paper trail reduced by over 60 percent; from 6,000 pages per day to just 2,000 which is a saving of almost 7.5 tons of paper every year. As a frontrunner in local sustainability, paper reduction is one of our Green Computing goals, so this is a key success factor for us.”

Lowered costs while enhancing customer service

He continued: “We work hard to ensure that technology works for our people, rather than against them. Deploying SMAX in our Customer Service has reduced operational costs and boosted our Green Computing goals. The automated workflows ensure we no longer need to increase the headcount. Instead, SMAX will be deployed throughout, and we look forward to supporting many more of our departments with SMAX.”

Speed up request fulfillment by 35%

The manager concluded, “We also see clear improvements in resolution times. The SMAX teams can fulfil requests 35 percent faster than before because they don’t need to change screens. AI-enhanced SMAX knowledge management makes it easier for support teams to access relevant information when resolving customer issues. This saves around 500 minutes per day for the Customer Service team, or more than 250 man days each year, which directly translates to considerable savings in our operational expenses.”