Financial Services Case Study

Wealth Division of UK bank

Organisation hampered by complex business processes and IT integration

Releaseed 19% of existing capacity, trebled closure section throughput

The Operations Centre within the Wealth Management Division of one of the major UK banks

Need to identify and release capacity in order to resource additional activity to support the implementation of a new Wealth Management strategy
Business processes had become highly complex, differed amongst processing teams and included multiple 'hand-offs'
Poor IT systems integration
Performance reporting systems and procedures were not providing accurate and reliable information
Lack of supervisory skills and other 'cultural' issues within the Operations Centre

Carried out a series of introductory 'scoping' workshops with selected members of staff to gain perceptions / insights on the issues, generate early involvement and to quantify the improvement potential
Agreed joint project structure and improvement objectives covering: New Business, Closures, Custodial Services and Operational Control sections. Project specifically covered New Business and Closures, with coaching of staff who then addressed the Custodial Services and Operational Control sections
Developed significantly improved Business Process and implemented associated organisational structure changes to support client case ownership
Developed vastly less complex, more manageable, accurate and reliable Performance Management information and mechanisms
Reviewed all proposed process changes with Group Risk and Compliance departments for agreement and sign-off
Developed and implemented a workload and capacity management tool
Carried out audit of existing skills within the Operations Centre and used as the basis for structured training programmes
Carried out a series of 'culture development' workshops to challenge and modify existing office behaviour and attitudes
Developed and implemented structured management reporting mechanisms

High and extremely positive levels of engagement from managers and staff
Vast amount of ground covered in short period of time (14 weeks)
Identified and released 19% of existing capacity
Closures section trebled throughput rate through: restructuring section, eliminating hand-off's and establishing case ownership
Significantly reduced effort in 'tick-box' approach to risk management whilst actually strengthening awareness and mitigation within processes
Active engagement of Group IT to resolve multiple data entry on supporting systems
Improved the 'change management' skills within the Operations Centre, staff employed the methodology and techniques themselves in the Operational Control and Custodial Services sections