Kaizen in information technology
Toyota Bank Polska S.A. is a pioneer of electronic banking in Poland. Applications for various banking products are made through the Bank’s online channel. Referring to the Japanese Kaizen philosophy, the development of the IT system supporting on-line sales processes is based on continuous improvement. They aim to ensure full compliance with user expectations, convenience, flexibility, and security of operation.
Toyota Bank has been operating in the domestic market since 2000, directing its services to both individual customers and businesses. As the Bank does not open its branches, the key sales channel is the Internet, through which a full range of banking products is offered, such as personal and savings accounts, deposits, loans, car loans, and payment cards.
Industry
Key point
A strategic decision: Internet as a basis
The Bank’s management decided to use the Internet as a new sales channel back in 2005. The introduction of Internet sales proved to be an innovative solution not only locally but also in Europe. From an IT point of view, the strategic challenge was to develop a concept that would enable the registration and product application process to be handled via the Internet. The banking system at the time did not have such capabilities. The company’s management wanted to build a flexible solution that would, on the one hand, support all e-banking products and, on the other hand, ensure the highest standards in terms of usability and convenience of use. FABRITY (formerly K2 Web Systems) was responsible for developing a map of business processes, building and implementing the system.
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In line with our strategy, the Internet is a key sales channel for us. We were looking for a system provider who could combine skills related to building complex applications, process modelling, and designing top-notch user interfaces. We wanted the system to be transparent and to blend in logically with the existing graphic design of the bank’s website. We are committed to innovation, speed, and full customisation for unique business requirements.Rafał Kwiatkowski
IT Director, Toyota Bank
Kaizen in practice: a process of continuous improvement
According to Toyota Bank, the system was to provide full support for the Internet sales channel for new products and integration with the main system of the Bank. Consequently, the solution enabled an automated and electronic application process to be launched. It also provided automatic verification of customers against banking procedures in databases such as MIG DZ and BIK.
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Speed of action is the core value of Toyota Bank That is why we wanted an exceptionally efficient, virtually automatic process for granting banking products. This includes customer verification and assessment, so that the product is delivered almost immediately. We assumed practically complete elimination of manual work.Rafał Kwiatkowski
IT Director, Toyota Bank
A distinctive feature of the system is its modular architecture. As new products appear, it is supplemented by new modules. What’s more, changing existing product parameters can be done via the configuration module available to the administrator. In this way, the system is flexible for sales and marketing departments and adapts perfectly to the company’s business strategy.
At the first stage of implementation, a module was introduced for registering applications with manual handling by Bank employees. This was followed by the automation of processes such as application workflow, credit documentation generation, and customer credibility assessment. In the next step, automatic scoring was introduced. Scorecards can be defined in any way you wish, allowing you to take into account new clauses and recommendations formulated by the Financial Supervision Authority and any requirements set out by the Banking Law.
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The scoring module used in our solution provides a flexible language to build scorecards, reflecting the policy of the Risk Department. This allows employees to define models themselves, in line with the bank’s customer assessment principles, without any additional programming work.Rafał Graboś
Vice President, FABRITY
Foundations for years to come
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Without full cooperation with the Toyota Bank team and without getting to know the specifics of the organisation’s operations, it would be difficult to think about creating software meeting its unique needs.We performed a precise analysis of the Bank’s internal processes based on existing procedures and direct interviews with key users. On this basis, the system was built from the scratch, taking into account the specific requirements of the various individuals and teams on the business side.
Rafał Graboś
Vice President, FABRITY
The path of the designer
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The development of the electronic sales platform for banking services at Toyota Bank is accompanied by a process of continuous improvement. The habits of on-line customers are constantly changing. As their habits evolve, so does the visualisation. If the process is too long and complex, the customer may choose not to continue entering data. Too many forms, multiplicity of data, lack of feedback at different stages of the process are the most frequent customer comments (reasons for customer dissatisfaction).Rafał Kwiatkowski
IT Director, Toyota Bank
Towards customer satisfaction
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The efficiency of IT systems determines not only organisational issues, but first of all sales, customer service or marketing processes.When it is crucial for the end customer to receive a quick decision, it is the efficiency of the systems that determines user satisfaction.
Rafał Kwiatkowski
IT Director, Toyota Bank
