Technology Transformation
One of VISA, a world-leading digital payments network’s, key clients was a Tier 1 UK retail bank. The bank had asked VISA for help in delivering a pipeline of new digital payments, products and services to bring a stronger digital offering to its customers and transform how the organisation delivers its technology solutions. Keen to build and expand on its own product consulting offering, and support its retail banking client, VISA engaged EY to help deliver the project.
The EY teams’ brief was to help the bank develop a set of ‘Digital First’, best-in-class products and services for its 12 million+ retail customers. The EY team worked with VISA and the bank to prioritise and monitor a portfolio of high-value projects (including new-to-market propositions, digital enhancements and feature improvements) which would be pivotal in the organisation’s digital transformation initiative, and deliver long-term benefits to both them and their customers. By embedding ways of working & skills across both new and existing projects, the EY team’s work with VISA has enabled its banking partner to deliver some key digital propositions and improve how it operates internally.
Project challenges included complex and lengthy governance processes, conflicting stakeholder priorities and shifts in funding allocation. Plus, as a ‘traditional’ retail bank, the client was facing increased competition from Neo banks and Fintech firms. So, the EY team helped the bank’s teams to become more forward-thinking in their strategies. Meanwhile, heightened regulatory focus on protecting and empowering customers impacted all considerations.
The EY team introduced EY Seren’s Double Diamond product development method as a key delivery framework, which encourages Divergence – expanding to understand what the customer truly wants – and Convergence – understanding the art of possible. Taking a human-centric approach, the EY team helped the bank understand its existing customers, and helped designers come up with refined designs, prototypes and ‘MVP’ propositions. By leveraging its own specialist skillset, the EY team was able to fully embed its consultants in client teams.
Overall, EY teams delivered faster outcomes through more efficient ways of working. The work accelerated the bank’s existing product development processes, and in a EY run pilot the team helped reduce lead time for agile design, definition and requirements gathering from 12 months to just two months, for example.
Other key outcomes included delivering a ‘Digital First’ approach to lower the cost to serve customers, optimising several underperforming products and solutions and launching five new app-led products and solutions for the bank’s 12 million+ retail customers – such as a Foreign currency digital wallet, a Third-party mobile payment solution and a first-of-its-kind feature enabling customers to allocate account access to other trusted individuals. Given this success, the partnership with VISA has been running for three years and continues to this day.
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