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Technology and Change Mgmt in Banks
This month we talk of three key phases in introducing change management in banks, with processes that should be considered priorities and those that are secondary
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Last month, we talked about how to minimize conflicts amongst four key
players-employees, the IT manager, business managers, and IT consultants-when
a bank's undergoing major technological and process changes. This time, we'll
look at activity prioritization in the implementation process.
The implementation process involves three phases-formation, implementation
and stabilization. There would definitely be an overlap of activities in these
stages which is the primary cause of delay in implementation. Although an ideal
separation of phases is not recommended, it is important for role holders to
prioritize activities in a particular phase, keeping secondary activities in
progress. This method of 'priority and residual activity modeling' (shown
below in the infographic) has proved successful in large organizations.
Activities enlisted in the upper half of the boxes are priorities of the
particular phase and activities in the lower half are residual activities. Let's
analyze each phase based on the activity modeling.
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1. Formation Phase: This is the ice-breaking phase, so it's
important for change managers to focus on empowerment through job enrichment and
on-site training for employees. Training employees at their workplace in an
informal environment has been more productive than usual classroom training. The
second key activity is infrastructure planning for a branch. There are two
impediments in this activity-availability and quality. IT and business
managers need to evaluate vendor quality before drawing the implementation plan
and order placement. The same logic goes for data preparation. Customer and
business data in banks are complex and generic in nature. So it's essential to
standardize the data preparation activity and break down the fields into
parameters in advance. In case of outsourcing, fidelity and expertise of the
outsourced partner is to be carefully evaluated. Improper and incomplete data
can create havoc after migration as it is taken as the primary data source. In
some cases, it might defeat the whole objective of the program.
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2. Implementation Phase: Coordination between different teams at
different locations is a major task during the volatile implementation phase.
Although communication has improved in many parts of the country, real time
problem sharing is yet to stabilize in many banks. For eg, when confronted with
the problem of system implementation, branch users' typically call the head
office and lodge a complaint. This can be rather vague, often at the level of
saying, “the system is not working.” Branch users should be encouraged and
trained in using other sophisticated means such as raising request
tickets,desktop sharing or a combination of remote sharing and file transfer
protocols to resolve last minute hiccups. Customer education is another priority
area during implementation.
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A bank was facing major problems in passbook
printing for customers after implementation of a branch networking
solution. The old printer
parameters were not compatible with the new program and hence all printer
setting parameters were to be changed in three stages after
implementation. Although branches were given the freedom to purchase new
printers, there was no technical support other than telephone or personal
visits. At this critical juncture, one of the IT managers came up with the
idea of remote setting change functionality. Out of 5 to 6 major printer
manufacturers, 2 had printers with optical readers, that could read and
change the setting parameters. The printed copies with the required
setting parameters were faxed to the branches. Branch heads were appraised
of the process and asked to buy printers from the two companies only. Once
the printer arrived, the fax copy was scanned by the printer and setting
parameters changed as written in the fax. This helped the bank in settling
customer grievances without additional costs as all printer manufacturers
quoted the same price for their printers. In addition, a small fax message
saved the huge cost of telephonic support and personal visits. |
They are to be explained as per their need-relevance-educate requirements.
All change management processes go through a phase of sedimentation and
stabilization. So, customers should be explained about future benefits at the
cost of present destabilization. Fall-back plan is another important activity
which shouldn't be ignored. Two out of ten cases surely go out of hand in an
ideal environment because of the dynamic nature of an implementation process. So
IT and Business managers should plan for postponing the migration or
re-instating old processes in case of any eventuality. Job card preparation is a
residual activity but has a direct linkage with employees' performance and
hence should not be ignored.
3. Stabilization Phase: This is an 'Acid Test' for both IT
Managers and IT Consultants, where they see the results of change management.
Business Managers also take keen interest to stabilize their branches in a short
time to start a 'normal' day. In this phase, all key role holders must use
the early adopters in peer learning programs. User trainings should be by a user
who has picked up things faster than others. This method has proved successful
in all change management processes as there is a feel of self-involvement while
learning from peer group. It also builds a sense of competition in others. Here,
IT Managers have to keep their eyes and ears open to all problems and look for
immediate solutions through technology.
In the initial days of stabilization, it has been felt that users need
on-line support in their day-to-day jobs. Depending on the size and scale of
technology transfer, on-line support centers can be made operational with
professionally trained staff. In addition to stabilization of operation, these
desks act as key sources in design and modification of software architecture. It
also helps the organization in product innovation with feedback on different
products in operation. These support desks help the Business Manager in
identifying early adopters (due to their regular interaction with operational
staff).
Although in terms of absolute business growth, indicators might be distorted;
fringe parameters like growth in customer base, increase/decrease in customer
complaints, time to launch a new product, rise/fall in fee-based income, etc,
indicate the resultant technology transfer.
Debasish Mishra, a banker, is presently researching on Technology and BPR at
the London School of Economics Page(s) 1
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