A matter of strategy
While banking has faced tough times since 2009, Fred Swanepoel, Nedbank Group CIO, reports the bank's new technologies have helped it grow its client base, satisfy regulatory pressures and address huge changes in consumer behaviour.
"Nedbank was once seen as a bank for the affluent, but by creating new channels and innovations, technology has helped us to become a 'bank for all'," Swanepoel says.
Nedbank's financial results, client gains and low cyber security losses all indicate the key role the IT department has played in the transformation of the organisation over the past five years.
By simplifying the bank's technology landscape, improving cost-efficiency, enhancing client experiences, creating shorter times-to-market and relentlessly pursuing innovation, Swanepoel's strategy has been recognised by the bank for improving service delivery and adding business value to Nedbank's operating clusters.
To save costs and improve client service, he first looked at IT-enabling Nedbank, and has since cut R500 million of the IT organisation's running costs, while ensuring it does far more in the transactional and storage arenas.
Pioneering examples include Approve IT, MyFinancialLife, and the mobile Nedbank Apps Suite, which is responsible for significant client gains and has processed 31 million transactions to date.
Nedbank accounts for a low 1.4% of all phishing and cyber fraud cases. "Out of 31 million transactions, we only lost R16 000. That's piqued the interest of major international organisations."
Vision and reality
Alec Joannou used the teachings of a high-ranking Vietnam vet - who endured and survived tortuous conditions as a POW - to address the brutal realities and hostile environment he initially encountered at Sasol as its new CIO.
Joannou joined Sasol as CIO in April 2012 at a time when IT at Sasol was seen as a mere cost overhead - nothing more.
"It had the worst reputation and brand name," he says. "Even basic services like e-mail and Internet weren't working."
Since he wanted to participate at boardroom level and strategically engage with the business, Joannou immediately started fixing the fundamentals, and adopted the Stockwell Paradox.
Admiral Stockwell credited his survival as the highest-ranking US naval officer ever to endure a Vietcong POW camp to 'the Stockwell Paradox': "Never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end - which you can never afford to lose - with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality."
Thinking it a perfect fit for the Sasol IT department, Joannou used the Stockwell Paradox to create two teams: one a management team that focused on brutal facts, and the second team retaining the faith by innovating, embracing the future and helping realise Sasol's 2020 vision of becoming a global organisation.
He drove the global implementation of 11 telepresence units, which resulted in saving 600 000 kilometres of travel. All directors were also given iPads, making the Sasol board paperless.
Joannou believes his IT team won 'huge brownie points' by showing it could think globally and bring innovation to the table - while simultaneously fixing the 'brutal facts'.
Between all this transformation, Joannou created Sasol's 'audacious' 2020 vision, incorporating the 'art of the possible' and presented it to the business.
"2020 will make us more flexible, nimble and global. We'll be more lightweight and I will see to it that we'll always deliver three times of what is being spent on IT."
No longer an order-taker
The IT department of FNB Wealth - which houses the FNB Private Clients and RMB Private Bank businesses of the FirstRand Group - was in chaos when Quinton Caryer, CIO for FNB Wealth, joined two-and-a-half years ago.
"About 80% of our focus was on running IT, fixing stuff and propping up manual processes - with little emphasis on enhancing FNB Wealth and enabling it through technology," he states.
"There was also massive under-investment in core IT, and we had to manage the complexities both of addressing the challenges of our legacy environment while doing a massive refresh."
Lurking in the background were reams of paper, mothballed systems and insufficient integration, resulting in fragmented views of customers.
He initiated the IT department's journey of change soon after he joined. "We replaced nine core systems either with new systems or by decommissioning and leveraging the group's infrastructure."
These systems aren't small fry, either: one earmarked for decommission is a R40 billion lending book.
He has also created something 'cool and sexy' for private bankers with the launch of APEX, a private banker iPad app.
His view is that CIOs should be business-focused and understand technology well enough to direct the experts in technology to deliver in their specific fields.
He further successfully delivered on his own tactical suggestion - that FNB Wealth provide 'uncomplicated' home loans to FNB Private Clients and RMB Private Bank - by creating and integrating systems that provide the experience of a private banker, with the simplicity of a normal home loan.
FNB Wealth has delegated responsibility for its strategic projects to Caryer and his team, based on their ability to focus both on IT and business.
Set the controls for the heart of the business
While taking the IT division into the heart of business operations at Hollard Insurance has been a hard slog, Antony Hlungwane reports the group now takes its IT team very seriously and sees it as fundamental to its success.
Hlungwane, head of Group IT at Hollard Insurance - SA's largest privately owned insurance group - said pushing his IT team to become central to business hasn't been helped by the insurance industry's tough times in the past year, the result of intensive country-wide hail damage and the St Francis Bay fires, which hit IT budgets hard.
But, he says, he has a number of successes under his belt, including identifying the Top 20 projects worthy of budget, creating a mentorship programme not only internally but also with the Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE), handling industry poaching - the inevitable result of upskilling staff - fixing lead-generation systems, and upscaling the call centre.
Hlungwane has had to attend to new legislation as well. As Hollard sells through more than 100 partnerships, it must adhere to the Binder Regulations, which stipulate that insurers must ensure that third parties selling on their behalf stay within the letter of the law.
Similar to the banking industry's Basel model, it calls for the insurer to have deep inside knowledge and understanding of external partners.
"One division - Hollard Alternative Distribution - is growing exponentially," he says, identifying his next success story. "It's where the Kaiser Chiefs, Edcon, Truworths and Ackerman's relationships are fostered."
After restructuring the call centre to prevent lost leads and take on increased capacity, there has been a sharp and positive change in this environment.
"In May 2013, for the first time ever, the call centre sold more than 35 000 new policies in one month. We activate about 120 000 leads monthly through eTV's Scandal, various SABC programmes and our sponsorship of Kaiser Chiefs."
Since moving to head up the total group IT a year ago, he has also directed his attention to Africa - and particularly SADC countries - by consolidating IT and positioning the group for future growth beyond SA.
First published in the Dec/Jan 2014 issue of ITWeb Brainstorm magazine.
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