Business cases
Published on Tuesday, April 12th 2011
Interview with Philippe BANBUCK, IT Director of ING Commercial Banking France (ING CB).
In April 2009, the ING CB France IT department decided to replace its customer signature verification and management system, which had become obsolete. It was also the opportunity to ensure compliance with certain control requirements specified by the parent company. Precise specifications were drawn up based on the statement of needs provided by users.
The specifications covered three essential points. 1. Obtain a flexible, reliable and scalable application, 2. ensure a simple technical environment and 3. provide client reporting directly to a central group application.
The request for proposals was issued to three software publishers, one of which already supplies an ERP solution to ING CB. Subcontracting the development of a made-to-measure solution was also a possible option considered by the IT Department.
The ING CB France IT and department-specific teams were involved in all stages of the selection process, and were convinced by the intuitive ergonomics and flexible configuration offered by Visual Sign. Equity’s web solution is scalable, which reassured the future ING users, who knew that other needs would appear over time.
“Another strong argument convinced us to select Equity,” says Philippe BANBUCK, IT Director of ING CB France. “The migration of data from our platform was a delicate process, as the technology was obsolete. With Visual Sign and the expertise of Equity teams working on the project, the migration seemed easier and was fully covered.”
Visual Sign was finally selected in June 2009, after a favourable decision by the user committee.
The extraction of data from the existing platform was completed during summer 2009 by a dedicated Equity consultant, using an application developed specifically for the purpose. The new database was set up and the application template customised to satisfy ING CB needs. The aim was to manage delegations of authority for bank clients, who are essentially corporate entities. Secondly, an extractor application was created to extract information concerning corporate officers and the shareholder structure rapidly from the Visual Sign database. The terminology used is specific, the organisation of authorities also.
From August to September, Anthony BOURDEL, project manager for integration of the application, supervised a test phase with the cooperation of the functional teams. Visual Sign was commissioned in October 2009.
Manage client account authorities
The creation and update of client accounts were done by the functional team responsible for customer relations, in a dedicated application that supplied Visual Sign (import every morning). Information on the corporate officers, delegations of authority and signatories was entered directly.
Visual Sign therefore offered the group a precise and instantaneous map of the organisation of delegations of authority within each client entity.
In this respect, ING CB France customised the Visual Sign solution and modified the original layout to include new fields that enriched the database and adapted it to suit the Group’s needs.
Of the 3000 accounts managed in the Visual Sign database, the majority are the French branches of major Belgian or Dutch companies.
Exchanging data in the global IS
Every day, an update of the modifications made in the Visual Sign database is transmitted by the extraction application from the database to the parent company’s central application, so that the data can be verified to detect any physical or legal persons presenting a risk. Once a month, the whole Visual Sign database is exported to the central application.
“Today the solution is fully operational. We continue to optimise certain processes as time goes on and to identify points where we can fine tune it. This is why we chose a flexible and scalable solution, it can be adapted as our needs change,” says Philippe BANBUCK.
PHASE ONE
April 2009: Specifications – Request for Proposals
June 2009: Selection of solution by users
July 2009: Customised modelling
September – October 2009: Installation of infrastructure, testing and acceptance phase
October 27: Commissioning, Visual Sign becomes operational
June 2010: Specific development, 8 new assistants in action
PHASE TWO
Jan-Feb 2010: Statement of new requirements
After a few months of using the application, the ING CB France teams identified points for improvement, in particular concerning the ergonomics of the interface and data entry. After several meetings with Equity, additional development was initiated and completed in June 2010, with the activation of eight new assistants: for high volume input, management of mandate expiration, single consultation screen, duplication of mandates and delegations of authority, etc.
Today the solution is perfectly operational at ING CB France. The efficiency of the solution and Equity’s responsiveness were well received within the ING Group, as at the end of July 2010, ING Lease France, an asset financing specialist, also acquired the Visual Sign solution.
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