UBI Banca puts the value up-front

The Luxembourg-based branch of the financial group UBI Banca, UBI […]

March 25, 2013

The Luxembourg-based branch of the financial group UBI Banca, UBI Banca International S.A., is improving and adding value to customer relationships thanks to New Access’ Front Office solutions.

Born out of the merger of 22 financial and banking institutions, UBI Banca is Italy’s fourth financial services group, with 20,000 employees around the world. But it’s from Luxembourg that the group leads its international Private Banking and Corporate Banking activities.

UBI Banca International decided to further improve its ‘customer relationship management’ excellence approach with private clients, by relying on New Access the leading provider of solutions for the Front Office with head-quarters in Switzerland..

“In 2011, we made an inventory of our IT solutions and analyzed how well they were aligned with our key banking business”, says Sonja Colli, Deputy General Manager and COO of UBI Banca International.  “We then decided to purchase a new CRM and a new portfolio management system (PMS) so that the dynamism of our customer relationship management team matched the potential and expectations found on the market. After reviewing various solutions, we decided that the New Access suite was clearly the answer to all our wishes. We were impressed during the first workshops with New Access to find similarities in approach, attitude and vision of what is a modern private bank.”

The value is in the Front

While Back-Office systems focus on STP (Straight Through Processing) and market connections optimization, Front-Office systems strive to create differentiation for end customers. “It is much more strategic to invest where the business can really make a difference,” confirms Sonja Colli.

In an ever-more competitive industry, UBI Banca International is on the upswing. Banks rely heavily on the quality and their approach of customer service to support this trend. “While the banking software market is very competitive, most vendors have their history deeply rooted in the Back Office ssolutions. At New Access, the needs of the Front Office has always ran in our DNA.” says John Perks, CEO of the Swiss company. “We focus on optimizing added-value that benefits the Banks’ customers, and I have to say that this ‘know how’ is the differentiator that makes our success with institutions like UBI Banca International. It is about improving, again and again, the Bank customer experience…” This is the common vision that is central to the choice of New Access by UBI Banca International and the success of the CRM initiative.

John Perks, CEO of the Swiss company

The banking CRM, portfolio management and electronic documents solutions included in New Access’s Front-Office package responds to the same strategic thinking and aim to get rid of technological complexities. By being client-centric, the New Access solutions can easily be adapted to answer customers’ needs since the business rules themselves are adapted. “If you ask 100 Asset Managers or Relationship Managers to define their job, you will probably get 100 different answers”, says John Perks. “More than anything else, this is about the perception that the banker wants to create with his customers.” The adaptability is there…

 

 

Banker to Banker

This is why the New Access toolset is entirely in the hands of business at UBI Banca International. “Banker to Banker,” says John Perks to explain that the Front-Office solution provider’s consultants have deep subject matter expertise in banking in addition to their IT domain knowledge. This means that projects such as FATCA or Mifid are then more easily coordinated to ensure successful implementation of regulatory requirements.

But, beyond the power of the solution, ease of use or management, New Access focuses on the return to growth. “How to attract and retain customers is our solutions’ true differentiating factor,” says John Perks.

“We had set four objectives for ourselves when we renewed our customer relationship management strategy. Firstly, we had to equip our front-office with a CRM solution that would allow us to gain in visibility and efficiency for the benefit of our customers. Then, we had to think of a PMS that could easily run to support our own specificities and activities. And, we had to ensure a better support to our Risk Management, with more coherent solutions. Finally, we had to plan for a more efficient reporting. With New Access, we completed these four objectives. In addition, I must also say that among the solutions we considered, New Access proposed by far the most competitive offers from a cost perspective…” says Sonja Colli, UBI Banca International.

New features, New Access

The CRM was operational in September 2012 and was installed with no difficulty. “We had an excellent support and the difficulties inherent to this type of project were overcome very quickly. We appreciated the New Access consultants’ willingness to transfer their knowledge to our team, so that today, we are fully able to perform the patching or updates with New Access providing support only by phone. ” New Access always provides support during implementation projects  and does not hesitate to stay a few more days on site just before the go-live. At the end of March 2013, the Portfolio Management System Equalizer will also be running.

As for the future, New Access is planning to expand the solution’s functionalities. “We see that our clients increasingly need a coherent tool for collateral management and for Futures and Derivatives. In addition, private banking clients also need modern eBanking -platforms. We actively work on these projects, says John Perks. We are also seeking strategic partnerships to provide our solutions through SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) as it is already the case in Switzerland with the Sodi Platforms.”

With references like HSBC PB, EFG, Rothschild Group, KBLepb, and recently the Luxembourg-based (from Lithuanian origin) ABLV, New Access is tapping into a quality financial services market that is recovering. A promise for the future…

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