Hybrid App Programme Qorus-Infosys Finacle Banking Innovation Awards 2024

The Concept and Objective :

Standard Bank Group accelerated its digital transformation by introducing the following digital platforms for Personal and Business Banking namely USSD, Mobile App, and Internet Banking Digital Platform. The following three challenges surfaced from multiple data sources such as Digital Platforms' real-time NPS survey and Voice Branch customer insights which included 1) multiple credentials to access digital platforms, 2)Feature Parity between Internet banking and Mobile App 3) & Latency on Mobile App resulting in a negative customer experience.

In December 2021 Standard Bank deployed the Ping suite of Customer Identity and Access Management solutions across our Digital Channels to address the multiple credential pain points. This meant that our customers had a Single Sign On into our Digital Platforms resulting in a secure Omni Channel experience. The implementation was a large and complex programme that entailed migrating 5 million users' data across the group into the PING Identity and refactoring authentication and services for the bank's digital primary channels to modern standards.

The implementation of PING provided an opportunity to integrate Digital channel architecture by building out a " Bridge Connection" between our Internet Banking and Mobile Banking App platforms, thereby addressing feature parity for Retail Banking customers and Business and Commercial customers . This innovation produced two significant milestones : 1) +/- Fifteen new services/features for Retail Banking customers (On Mobile App) and 2) Mobile Banking transactional capability for Business and Commercial Banking Customers now fully exposed on Mobile Banking App for the first time ie: our Business and Commercial customer previously had only ONE feature on the App ( approvals | segregation of duties )

The Standard Bank Mobile App is hosted in South Africa, as a result, multiple service calls are needed to support our African region subsidiaries and customers . The multiple service calls between South Africa and our Africa operations significantly impacted the Mobile Banking App login performance and dashboard ( customer homepage ) loading time impacted customer experience . To address the App latency the following were initiated, 1) Qualica an advanced network monitoring tool to isolate system latency 2) optimised the internet banking load package (service calls ), 3) Removed all South African regulatory service calls that were not applicable for our African Regions Operations.

The key business benefits that have been enabled are:

- Customer Centricity: Improving user experience • Single Sign-On: Users can have one username and logon experience for all Digital Platforms ( Internet Banking , Mobile App ) and transition between applications without having to reauthenticate • Open banking and customer consent before allowing a 3rd party to access customer data. • API Access: allow any customer to consume any API via standard security patterns; • 3rd Party Content: Allows integration into 3rd Parties for content and services, i.e. Salesforce, in a secure and manageable way • Client Digital Security: Provides the ability to reuse strong authentication security features across multiple channels - Operational Efficiency • Single View of Customer (SVOC): Leverage identity to understand customer behavior and preferences across multiple channels for personalized offerings, by eliminating multiple representations of identities (customers, staff, 3rd parties) that are dispersed across various systems. Single store will assist with: • Streamlining the identity management system and processes: • Central management ensures all applications are always in sync • Optimising resource support costs • Reducing system maintenance/upgrade costs • Reduce and mitigate fraud losses through standardization of identity and security models