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BBTS: a digital strategy Project partner

BBTS: a digital strategy We speak to BBTS CIO, Alexandre Souza da Conceicao, regarding his various roles executing digital transformation within the Brasilian banking sector‌

Written by

Andrew Woods

Produced by

Craig Daniels

B BTS: a digital st rategy

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lexandre Souza da Conceicao is

BBTS, pretty much overseeing the overall

moving onto pastures new, but

operation of the company in terms of IT

his love for his sole employer,

processes and systems development. “I’m

up till now, is palpable. “A job at Banco do

enhancing and improving the digital solu-

Brasil is something really desired by the

tions we are offering, not only to Banco do

Brasilian population,” Conceicao explains.

Brasil, but to other banks and companies

“You find one of its branches everywhere

in the market too,” he explains from its

you go in this country. It’s a big company

Brasilia headquarters.

and one of the best places to work. The

BBTS is a solutions provider primar-

company’s very kind to employees and

ily focused on the banking industry.

everyone loves working for BB.”

“Because that’s pretty much our DNA,

BB Tecnologia e Serviços, BBTS is a Brasilian state-run technological solutions provider controlled by Banco do Brasil (99.97%). Focused on information technology outsourcing (ITO) and business process outsourcing (BPO), BBTS was founded in 1974. Alexandre Souza da Conceicao has been working for BBTS and its controlling owner for some 35 years, the outgoing CIO at BBTS having joined Banco de Brasil in 1985, as an office-boy in a local branch when he was just 14 years old. His entire career thus far has been working for the same company and during those 35 years, he has delivered numerous innovative projects across the bank, its numerous business units and now its subsidiary, BBTS. Conceicao’s final role for the bank – and the one he is about to depart – placed him in charge of the technology, directory and digital products and services at B BTS: a digital st rategy

“ Every time I had a meeting or a conversation, I found an opportunity to push for a better way of doing things. It was a very interesting time, and by the end of 2019, we were already able to deploy a brand, new platform that was capable of automating the decision-making process” — Al exa n d re C o nc eic ao C IO, BBTS

right?” Conceicao explains. “A lot of our time is spent in the banking industry just serving Banco do Brasil, since the bank is really big. We serve the organization all over the country and through that work we developed the muscles to support any bank, because Banco do Brasil is pretty much the largest banking branch network we have in Brazil.”

BBTS has 35 regional technical assistance units that provide services for over 3,500 Brasilian municipalities, including equipment installation, corrective and preventive maintenance, monitoring and equipment support.

It also offers security equipment such as CCTV surveillance, revolving doors with metal detectors, access control, and alarms, as well as our own PSIM (Physical Security Information Management) software to monitor all the security alerts as an integrated solution. BBTS also offers contact centers, collections center, helpdesk and telemarketing services, as well as document management and printing, software manufacturing and testing, phone system outsourcing with telecom management www.theinterface.net

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including mobile and telephony services billing. When Conceicao stepped into BBTS for the first time in 2019 – having departed a role in IT for the bank – his biggest challenge was to push the company towards innovation and change. “There was a lack of transition or transformation, let’s say, to a more digital operation,” he says. “It was a technological environment, developing products and serving customers with technology and yet, the company

Alexandre Conceicao CIO, BBTS

itself was not so invested. They didn’t push so hard. It was much more geared towards the demand of the customer, but not for themselves, or the internal units and departments.”

Alex sparked an immediate sea change at BBTS and pushed towards digital solutions. “Every time I had a meeting or a conversation, I found an opportunity to push for a better way of doing things. It was a very interesting time, and by the end of 2019, we were already able to deploy a brand, new platform that was capable of automating the decision-making process. Instead of getting everything written on paper and getting things signed, we created a digital workflow where at the different levels of the organization, we could interact to get the right approvals from

Alexandre Conceição leads the IT area and ITO business as CIO in BB Tecnologia e Serviços, a fully controlled subsidiary of Banco do Brasil. He formerly headed the software development unit in Banco do Brasil for operating efficiency as IT General Manager. He joined BB in 1985 and his last 32 years were dedicated to the IT field and digital transformation. He held several positions in BB, starting as an office boy and having served previously as BB’s IT Manager for North America region, in New York. Alex had established the sponsor partnership with the MIT/CISR and had worked as the liaison between Banco do Brasil and the Center for Information Systems Research, pushing forward the digital transformation journey of the bank. He is also contributing with Ativos Gestão as a board member of its Fiscal Council and as a member of Audit Committee in Cielo.

Alex is Graduated in Data Processing with specialization in Distributed Systems with Object Oriented Programming

by Finatec/UnB. He is certified in Governance of Enterprise IT (CGEIT) by ISACA and holds a MBA Degree by NYU Stern School of Business.

every department and back to the board. www.theinterface.net

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With this movement, I could expedite and

Banco do Brasil’s sponsorship of the MIT

increase the speed of the decision-mak-

(Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

ing processes in the company. In fact, that

CISR (Center for Information Systems

was key to helping us during the pandemic

Research), which fosters and promotes

this year.”

the digital transformation of organizations.

Conceicao has overseen major digi-

They do a lot of research and share expe-

tal transformations at Banco and BBTS

riences and use-cases. They come out

having cut his teeth in IT while working

with a dozen of frameworks on how you

in North America for the bank in 2007.

could apply a digital strategy, right?”

Alex spent six and a half years in the

In 2013, Conceicao returned to

US – in New York – helping to establish

Brasil with the knowledge and exper-

a stronger US presence for BB. “During

tise garnered from his time in the US.

that time, I had the chance to establish

“When I came back, that’s when my

B BTS: a digital st rategy

digital transformation approach became

One of the key challenges Conceicao

stronger within the bank, because I came

faced when returning to BB in Brasil was

back to the IT area as a general manager

altering the mindset of the board and its

to promote a better IT governance

executives. “Most of them came from a

process and mitigate the risks of IT, while

different time when everything was trans-

increasing the value delivery. I pushed

actional and mechanical,” he explains.

harder in terms of digital transformation,

“There was no economic explanation

cultural change, new methods of develop-

or understanding of how digital could

ment and applications redesign. Lean IT

promote exponential growth for the bank.”

and agile methods were the key method-

Conceicao created a workshop for the

ologies I implemented, to make IT leaner

executive board, so they could under-

and lighter while making the value delivery

take a journey in terms of understanding

stronger for the bank.”

use-cases of other banks from around

“ One of the contracts BBTS implemented for Banco do Brasil was a customer collection center, offering a multichannel interaction process, which helped BBTS choose the best approach to reach customers through a variety of channels” — Al exa nd re C o n c e i c a o CIO, BBTS

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the world, and uncover what the bank should be doing to push further in its digital transformation. The workshop was co-created by Peter Weill, the Chairman of MIT’s CISR. One of the biggest projects Conceicao undertook at the bank was the Technology Transformational Program; a group of projects that reconstructed the platform of the bank through the applications, and the creation of components that could be regrouped to a more scalable architecture. “That’s what the market called SOA, or services-oriented architecture,” Conceicao explains. “We pretty much pushed that approach forward so that everything would be based on the customer journey. Instead of delivering a product based on the capacity or char-

develop. The first initiative was pretty

acteristics of the product, we changed

much the credit or loans and how we

the approach, and created a customer

served customers with loans that used

journey, and said, ‘What would be the

this new architecture we deployed. We

point of access of the customer with the

put those in different tracks although

organization, and how can we enhance

we could reuse the components every

that experience?’”

time we had to go back to a new project.

“Using those components, we broke

This was giving us speed and reduced a

them apart, and put them back together,

lot of effort in time and cost and in terms

in a way that could deliver a better expe-

of the development of other products.

rience. We put everything in a brand,

That happened during 2014 and 16’, and

new web interface, which was much

‘17, ‘18, I had the chance to transition to

more friendly. Then, we created a certain

other units fostering the bank’s efficiency

architecture of reference that searched

with projects for internal processes, cost

for every other product we started to

reduction and better backoffice support,

B BTS: a digital st rategy

until I joined BBTS, in 2019.”

When Conceicao joined BBTS in 2019,

multichannel interaction process, which helped BBTS choose the best approach

he faced similar issues to that of the

to reach customers through a variety of

bank. The structure at BBTS was the

channels including an automated text

same as the bank before, with no agile

assistant, called VIC, which uses artificial

methods being employed. “We pretty

intelligence to interact with the customer,

much had to start something very similar,

and negotiate condition for the payments

but I could make it faster, because the

of debt. “We could really increase the

company is much smaller. I could push

speed of the communication to the

the culture to change a little bit more

customer and enjoy a greater precision

intensely, because there were fewer

in terms of approach and interaction,” he

projects than at the bank.”

says. “Out of more than 400K custom-

One of the contracts BBTS imple-

ers contact during the last two quarters

mented for Banco do Brasil was a

of 2020 VIC was effective in more than

customer collection center, offering a

46% of the times she’d interacted with the www.theinterface.net

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customer, avoiding the need of human support. And we are working to make it even higher.”

Another big project Conceicao has overseen at BBTS is Hiveplace, which allows BBTS to serve consumers and suppliers of banking or data services making an easy, simple and cheaper integration. It’s focusing to adapt to the regulations of open banking and the data protection laws pushing the banks to create APIs, to ensure that they can be connected to any other institution that would like to share information – or if the customer requests to get their data back to another company or bank. “The financial organizations are really pressed by the law, because they don’t own the data,” he explains. “The data belongs to the customer. And for many years, they (the banks) believed that the data belonged to them, and they could use the data by themselves, or just for the benefit of the business. But that’s actually the other way around. It belongs to the customer and so they have to have consent to use that information in any way, from the customer.

With that law in place, the landscape changed completely. Now, you need to interact with multiple companies, banks, or fintechs, so the data belonging to the customer can flow into that organization as the customer requests.”

B BTS: a digital st rategy

Alex and his team developed a part-

are scaling it, so we are connecting more

nership with Skilltech to build the digital

companies, establishing agreements and

ecosystem Hiveplace that could be offer-

creating ample use. We are a subsidiary of

ing single integration with multiple peers.

the bank, and we are working with many

According to Conceicao, a bank that’s will-

different business fronts of the bank, but

ing to offer a product like a loan would be

also offering this platform to the market.

a provider in this hub. But a credit fintech,

From a security perspective, for instance,

say, would be consuming that API, while

we could check the records from a data-

also connected. “Hiveplace reduces a lot

base of customers as a proof-of-concept

“ I truly believe that banking-as-a-service will be a new frontier. You have to understand banking-as-a-service and foresee a forgo of the building full of bricks, with a safe inside.

That cash handling may be quite down in the next coming years” — Alexandre C onceic ao C I O, B BTS

of the effort and time to integrate multiple

experiment just to be sure that we can

institutions. It’s a single integration that

double check the data. We connected to

you have with your product. Let’s say you

11 bureaus of databases of customers,

have an investment fund; you can make

and we check that data against the data-

that fund available for investment from

base the bank has sent to us. They started

multiple customers, allowing any fintech

with 5,000 customers just to check how

to connect. It’s a single integration instead

many we could confirm are positive and

of developing the integration to each one

authentic records, rather than fraud or

of those fintechs or start-ups. The plat-

the result of misleading information in the

form was launched this month, and we

records. We found almost 10% of it was www.theinterface.net

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fraud and we gave that back to the bank.

And they liked that. It’s a good sign as it shall become a product or business in Hiveplace in a way that they could benefit from.”

You don’t spend your entire career, with a single employer, unless something is working for you and with his time at BBTS and Banco drawing to a close, Conceicao is foreseeing new market opportunities within the openbanking space. “This is the future of the financial system and there will be many services, creating multiple lines of revenue,” he says. “With very low interest rates, banks are not making money as they used to do and that’s the biggest challenge.

Banks’ payroll is still a high-cost item in the financial statements and we may see a reduction as they push to the digital landscape. Banks won’t be able to charge services as they used to do.

“I truly believe that banking-as-a-service will be a new frontier. You have to understand banking-as-a-service and foresee a forgo of the building full of bricks, with a safe inside. That cash handling may be quite down in the next coming years. And that’s certainly how I see my next challenge and the next transition in terms of the business, and technology.”

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