Switching to completely different systems whilst keeping a bank running smoothly is not an obvious matter. With the support of TriFinance, Van Lanschot made it happen.
About Van Lanschot
Van Lanschot Bankiers is part of the Van Lanschot Kempen Wealth Management group. Van Lanschot is a private bank for wealthy clients, such as business professionals, doctors, entrepreneurs, etc. The mission of the bank is to unburden these clients of their monetary worries. In practice, the services they provide include asset management, estate planning, loans,… Combining these services with sustainable and responsible investments is key for Van Lanschot as they are among the most sustainable private banks in Belgium.
Hands-on, pragmatic approach
From the very first assignment, the work delivered by the TriFinance consultants has met Van Lanschot's expectations. People at Van Lanschot appreciated the hands-on, pragmatic approach of the consultants, while integrating smoothly within the internal teams. Fostered by the support structure of TriFinance, the consultants looked beyond the mere tasks assigned to them to see the bigger picture. This can be beneficial for the client as well to add value to their processes or employees.
Thanks to the enthusiasm of our TriFinance colleagues, their creative approach to the project and their commitment to finding a suitable solution, we were able to achieve very nice results.
Major changes to all existing business processes
The client had started a major project to replace the standalone IT infrastructure and fully integrate the Belgian subsidiary bank within the Dutch parent bank. The existing IT systems were replaced by the Dutch systems and new digital applications were rolled out for the customers. Consequently, this resulted in major changes to all existing business processes with major impact for branches, head office and customer experience. As the project required energy and effort from the Van Lanschot employees, TriFinance supported in 2 areas:
- Support for the project team itself. As Business Integrators, our main responsibilities were to design new front-to-back processes, analyze the impact of the gap between the current and future way of working, formulate business requirements and test the implementations. These changes were always approached with customer experience and operational excellence in mind. Furthermore, the consultants facilitated change management through employee training, client communication and aftercare.
- Support running the bank, mainly for processing securities orders and payments. A big challenge was assuring the proper execution of the brokerage department during the coronavirus outbreak as the amount of stock exchange transactions was skyrocketing.
This collaboration with Van Lanschot is a nice illustration of the range of activities in which TriFinance can support its clients, ranging from the day to day support in departments such as Finance and Operations, up to pragmatic project implementation.
A successful go-live
At the beginning of July 2020 the project had a successful go live. Despite working largely from home due to COVID-19, a completely new way of working was set up and employees were trained fully remotely.
TriFinance provided clear insights into the impact of the transformation for the client and for the daily operations of the bank. The pro-active attitude and holistic approach of the TriFinance consultants ensured optimal solutions for both the client and the bank itself. Thanks to its extensive experience in the field of process management, all processes were critically reviewed and new processes were designed and implemented.
The full data migration proved also a perfect opportunity to clean up the data model of the bank; an opportunity the TriFinance consultants seized with both hands to ensure improved efficiency after the data migration.
Moreover, thanks to the operational support of the TriFinance consultants, the securities administration and payments departments continued to function smoothly before, during and after the platform migration.
Despite working largely from home due to COVID-19, a completely new way of working was set up and employees were trained fully remotely.
Preparation is key
The full migration from the existing IT infrastructure to an entirely new IT ecosystem in a time span of one weekend involved a major operational risk. In order to reduce this operational risk, it was crucial that the operational employees were properly trained to use the new tools and apply the new processes for the bank to continue to function well after the migration.
A few weeks before the weekend of the go live there was also a dress rehearsal. This turned out to be of great value because it revealed a few points of attention on which to focus during the real migration weekend. Because of this, the actual migration went smoothly.
This project was my first close encounter with business process modeling. I learned to apply the BPMN language, but above all, I involved all stakeholders in the process design.
Leap forward
Because of the longer duration of the project some consultants were able to help with operational support first and jump to the project team at the end of their assignment period. This knowledge gained on the first part of the assignment made it possible for them to act as stronger challengers during the project. This proved to be another welcome addition to the initial project team as this brought new insights.
The cross border project was a mix of cultures. The Dutch entrepreneurial spirit and drive forward met the Belgian structured and rigorous approach. In the end, everyone was pragmatist in his own way. With the strengths from both sides, the team managed to deliver quality and dared to make the leap forward.
The team
The successful completion of this project is an achievement of the following team: Renaat Colpaert, Jeroen Maes, Jonathan Maerevoet, Dries Feyaerts, Anke Janssens, Bert Wouters, Thomas De Belder, Bjorn Warlop and Brian Deglin.
