Digital transformation challenges at Banco Solidario

Santiago Calvopiña Heredia manages innovation and digital transformation at Banco Solidario in Ecuador. He tells Qorus about the key components of their successful digital evolution.

If digitalization is a strategic priority in your institution, how is this priority translated into organizational terms?

For Banco Solidario, innovation, digital transformation and, consequently, digitalization, rather than being strategic priorities or objectives per se, are understood as means to achieve our objectives of financial inclusion, to maintain our philosophy of proximity and service for the segments of the population we serve, that is, to pursue our purpose of accompanying those who work for a better future.

Therefore, we periodically review our organizational objectives, whether long-term strategic, medium-term tactical or short-term operational, and define projects organized along strategic lines that allow us to assertively multiply our service and operational capabilities by combining traditional and innovative initiatives.

Part of these strategic lines is digital transformation in its multiple aspects, one of them being the digital offer of our products and services. This has provided the organization with an integral and transversal vision to the different areas and business units to consider within the initiatives that are periodically proposed to strengthen digital capabilities for our customers and our internal teams. This has allowed our teams, at all levels of the organization, to be in constant search of digitalization opportunities and has led us to identify and develop projects such as the 100% digital offer of our credit and savings products; the strengthening of our existing digital channels such as web banking and app, as well as our chatbot; the creation of new digital channels such as our virtual agency, winner of international awards for innovation in digital channels; solutions to multiply the decision-making, follow-up and operational capabilities of our collaborators, such as the digital establishment manager, our suite of apps for microfinance, and state-of-the-art simulators, among others; and value-added services for our clients, such as SoliAmbiental, a platform that assesses the environmental impact of the businesses of our microentrepreneur clients and generates recommendations to resolve such impacts, a platform that has also been recognized and awarded at the national and international level, as well as being taken as an example of environmental impact in microfinance by international organizations and cooperation networks.