Bank automates to boost customer service

Banking giant HSBC is updating the workflow automation system it is using, in order to get customer queries answered quicker.

The financial services company has settled on Pegasystems' SmartBPM as its enterprise business process management (BPM) toolset.

HSBC said the ability of the software's J2EE architecture to support the bank's next-generation architecture was also a key to its selection.

Initial projects include the Securities, Asia Pacific Retail Lending and the Global Payments and Cash Management businesses. HSBC will be building a Centre of Excellence for BPM in both Chicago and India.

Bandula Wijesinghe, payment director at HSBC, told silicon.com: "It fits well with our new technology platform. We have a policy of going for as open an architecture as possible so Pegasystems suited us fine."

He added: "Wherever we have a work-flow process to automate we expect to deploy Pegasystems to it. Going forward we are giving Pegasystems a group system status so that - unless there is a compelling reason why not - where there is a work-flow automation project we expect to use it."

The bank is working on a payment transformation programme to significantly improve the cost efficiency and the quality of the customer experience it provides to its clients on a global basis, according to Bob Murphy head of HSBC's global transaction programme.

He said: "A significant amount of that is the handling of client enquiries that result from money movements either domestically or across borders. Customers might ask about the status of a transaction and as a global organisation we are handling money flows all over the world for clients based all over the world."

Murphy added: "We were looking for a tool that would help us to bridge between all the activities and get a fast response to the customer on their enquiry." The system will provide the connectivity between the databases to create the electronic files when customer raise enquiries.

The new systems will replace what is currently quite a manual process, he said. An older version of the technology was deployed in Hong Kong, the UK and the US - but they don't talk to each other at the moment. Murphy said: "It's a significant upgrade. We are pretty early on in the planning stage but we are looking to roll this out over the next two years."