Santander UK Brochure — Dec 2018

Technology transformation in an evolving industry

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Technology transformation to remain a trusted partner WRIT TEN BY

OLIVIA MINNOCK PRODUCED BY

JA MES PEPPER

w w w.sa nt a nder. co. u k

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Banking behemoth Santander is undergoing a significant digital transformation in an evolving industry — Andy Pearson and David Hayes explain how this improves the lives of customers and communities

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P

art of the global Santander Group, Santander UK has become a mainstay of British banking, and is

a familiar sight on the UK high street with over 1,000 branches and 50 corporate business centres across the nation. Now, the finance giant is undergoing a significant digital transformation in order to improve the lives of its customers and their communities.

Keen to explain this transformation and what it means to the bank were David Hayes, Chief Data Officer and Head of Data Services; and Andy Pearson, Managing Director of Santander UK Technology and Head of Digital Services. We caught up with the pair at Santander UK’s Milton Keynes office.

Known throughout the UK as a ‘new town’ built almost from scratch just 50 years ago, Milton Keynes has a reputation for cutting-

edge modernity and so the location, as well as the office itself which has been revamped with colourful open spaces and well-lit breakout areas to promote collaboration between staff, truly reflects Santander’s personality as a decades-old institution which is still tech-driven and keenly keeps up with a changing sector and the rapid development of customer demands.

AN EVOLVING INDUSTRY Technology is disrupting every industry, and banking is no exception – but with organisations like Santander forming such an integral part of everyday life, present at key moments and within communities, this throws up unique challenges and opportunities in the sector.

Hayes comments on the recent transformation of the industry: “Data has become prominent for many reasons. Here in banking, there’s a whole world of data at our fingertips that can help us improve the lives of our customers.”

The entire industry is adapting to new technology, and indeed Hayes is an active participant in national organisation DataIQ Leaders as well as FIMA, an annual European conference on financial information management. Hayes also recently spoke to the Bank of England about how Santander leverages Big Data among other disruptive technologies. w w w.sa nt a nder. co. u k

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“ Customers are used to using Instagram and Facebook — they’re used to instantaneous responses, so we need to be able to provide that. Our goal is to give a seamless, transparent journey to our customers” — Andy Pearson, Managing Director, Santander UK Technology

fundamental to banking and fundamental to what we do here. Our aspiration is to be the best open digital bank so we need to stay abreast of the latest developments and adapt to new ways of working, and be responsive to what the market and the customer needs.”

Pearson cites two key elements of technology transformation: “One is how we interact with our customers – and the changes in the way we’re building applications for mobile… we’re looking to digitise the way we interact with our customers.” However, the second element comes from within: “We also need the right data at the back end, and to explore that data to make

“They’re on a very similar journey to us,

sure those interactions are as mean-

and were keen to discuss some cultural

ingful and insightful for our customers

and principle things Santander is doing

as they can be.

that they can learn from. As a whole, the

“Data is fundamental to both of these

banking industry is really taking these

things, and as we move forward increas-

technologies on,” he adds.

ing our understanding of data through AI and machine learning is key,” he

A TECHNOLOGY FOCUSED INSTITUTION

adds. “Customers are used to using

Santander is taking these industry

Instagram and Facebook – they’re

changes in its stride, all the while

used to instantaneous responses, so

focusing on the most important

we need to be able to provide that. Our

aspect: customer experience. As

goal is to give a seamless, transparent

Pearson explains: “Technology is

journey to our customers.” w w w.sa nt a nder. co. u k

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ALL ABOUT THE DATA Gathering as much data as possible can help to improve this customer journey – but only if the right tools are in place to make use of it. “Data gives us the ability to analyse and understand how our customers interact with us, so we can design processes more effectively,” Pearson explains.

Within Santander too, it’s the data that makes the difference. “Big data has been absolutely transformational to us as an organisation. We partner with Cloudera to run our big data platform here in Santander UK. I was able 10

to understand through this collaboration that we don’t need to have silos of data going E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E

Andy Pearson is the Managing Director of Santander UK Technology Engineering and Head of Digital Services.

After a successful career in consultancy, he joined Santander in 2006 and held senior roles in IT during Santander’s integration of other UK banks. In 2015 he took the lead of the engineering and delivery division which he brought into the digital era.

Now, Pearson is driving the transformation of Santander UK into an agile organisation bringing the business, operations and technology teams together under a domain-driven and service-driven model.

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forward – and if you get rid of silos, you

A TRUSTED MEMBER OF THE COMMUNITY

can truly transform the way people

“Communities are really important to

across the organisation behave.”

us in Santander,” Hayes emphases.

Santander’s use of data reflects its

“Santander has targets to make sure

commitment to its customers, as well as

everyone takes part in community work,

how integral a part the bank plays in

be that abroad or locally.” Indeed,

people’s everyday lives and in wider

recently a group from the Milton Keynes

communities. “The human element is

office returned from building classrooms

really key, particularly if you’re making

in Cambodia, whilst raising money for

difficult financial decisions,” says Hayes.

charities closer to home, Age UK and

“If you’re going to take out a mortgage

Barnardo’s, and last year Hayes himself

which is going to shape your life and your

spent some time helping a local food

spending for the next 25 years, you need

bank. “The motivation you get from

to trust and know that you can rely on us.”

making a real difference in your local w w w.sa nt a nder. co. u k

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘TRUST IN BANKING AT SANTANDER UK WITH CDO DAVID HAYES AND MD ANDY PEARSON’ 13 area is great, and is very healthy for an

in different parts of the organisation.”

organisation like Santander,” he adds.

This commitment to communities

In addition, Santander as a global

reflects the trust which Pearson is keen

organisation is busy strengthening its

to emphasise as integral to Santander.

commitment to the UK with a revamp

“Trust is a really strong foundation – secu-

of its Milton Keynes site and a brand-

rity is important because our customers

new £75mn office in Bootle, Liverpool,

have entrusted us with their information.

which is set to house 2,500 staff. “These

Security is fundamental for any bank,”

are historic sites for Alliance and

he explains. “We have a design principle

Leicester and Abbey National. The UK

of building security from the bottom up,

bank is one of the biggest elements

and going forward the banking industry

of the Santander group and we’re very

has the opportunity to build on that trust.

committed to our UK base,” Hayes

There are new value propositions we can

explains. “We’ve got 14mn active

explore here, and indeed for the wider

customers here and over 20,000 staff

banking industry, to provide identity w w w.sa nt a nder. co. u k

management for the wider market.

“Customers are trusting us with their data.

We need to verify identities for a whole variety of regions – so there are opportunities for a bank as that trusted partner within the wider industry, and that’s something we need to look at going forward.”

This strong culture of trust, community and collaboration runs through every aspect of the business, not least the relationship Santander maintains with its vendors and partners, all of which have equally stringent principles on security and much more.

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“When we work with a third party, we try to make sure we work in partnership with them,” he emphasises. “We spend a fair bit of time making sure they have the right fit for us, both culturally and architecturally.”

“Part of our methodology is to see, experiment, improve concepts, test and learn before we take a leap into particular technologies,” says Pearson. “Experimentation and building that collaborative relationship is important in understanding we’re working with the right partners moving forward.” Alongside Cloudera, a leading platform for Big Data and data science which enables Santander to become data driven, the bank works with a variety of carefully selected partners that have been critical for its ongoing digital transformation.

This includes Microstrategy, which provides an enterprise wide platform for Business Intelligence (BI) and analytics; NuoDB, a cloud database for digital applications that can run on premise; Pivotal, a technology development company that provides platforms and tools enabling organisations to develop digital experiences; and Everis, a consultancy providing business and technology solutions for mission critical challenges.

THE RIGHT CULTURE Throughout the significant technology transformation Santander continues to undergo within a changing industry, its E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E

David Hayes is Santander UK Chief Data Officer and Head of Data Services.

He is a recognised leader in the data industry with a long career in different areas of Santander UK. He has been driving the cultural change about data in Santander UK since he was appointed as CDO in 2014.

Hayes is passionate about what data can do to create value for customers and communities and thus is transforming data into a commonplace asset that everyone in Santander can use to help customers, always with the utmost awareness to governance, privacy and security.

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CLICK TO WATCH : ‘ANDY PEARSON, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF SANTANDER UK TALKS TECHNOLOGY TRANSFORMATION’ 17 people remain key, and managing the significant culture changes transforma-

brought together to drive change.”

Ensuring that these skills are in place

tion brings is vital. “It’s easy to underes-

across the organisation, Santander is

timate the amount of impact that cultural

also committed to diversity, such as

change has on the ability to make

ensuring a mix of men and women in the

technology change,” Hayes reflects.

tech-led organisation. “Gender diversity

“We run change management pro-

is very important to us,” says Pearson.

grammes and provide training, but of

“We were a founding signatory of the

course we have some way to go. We’re

HMRC Women in Finance Charter. We

on a journey. One thing we have to do

know that in the industry about 17-20%

is to articulate data as a profession;

of roles in technology are filled by women.

understand and appreciate the different

We’re fortunate that we have about 30%

elements of that. There are very

of our roles filled by women – however,

different skillsets that come in – soft

we currently only have 19% in senior

skills and technical skills need to be

roles, so our goal is to get that to 25% w w w.sa nt a nder. co. u k

Cloud.

Containers.

Culture.

Transform your business, not just your IT.

19 by 2022. Role models are very important,” he adds. “We are participating in the Thirty Per Cent Coalition where we have role models, both men and women, to mentor women in our organisation, and women at Santander are being mentored by those from other organisations.”

TECHNOLOGIES OF THE FUTURE In addition to Big Data being fundamental to Santander’s offering and the care it can provide each and every customer and community, the bank will continue to explore other technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning w w w.sa nt a nder. co. u k

capabilities and more. “Machine learning

learning. Now we have that core data

is a technology we’re exploring with some

platform, that’s going to allow us to

gusto at Santander,” says Hayes. “So far,

explore these new technologies

it’s been important from an operational

increasingly as we go forward.”

efficiency perspective. It’s going to change the way we work, the way we

community all keep a finger on the pulse

think, the decisions we go through, the

of new developments in the evolving

speed at which we interact with our

industry, with Open Banking set to take

customers and the offering we can give

centre stage. “That changes the game

them – but to embed machine learning

for us,” says Hayes. “Data is an asset

we need to make sure it’s built with great

and this allows competitors to build on

data engineering to sit behind it.”

assets we’ve got – when you then throw

Pearson adds: “Establishing our big 20

Hayes, Pearson and the Santander

in the capability to build AI or run machine

data ecosystem is key to us. We’re still

learning algorithms, the opportunity

early on in our journey of AI and machine

through technology is massive.”

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘DAVID HAYES, HEAD OF DATA AT SANTANDER UK TALKS CHANGE CULTURE MANAGEMENT’

“ Here in banking, there’s a whole world of data at our fingertips that can help us improve the lives of our customers” — David Hayes, CDO, Santander

21 Pearson, too, cites Open Banking as one of “a whole series of regulatory activities that are changing the face of

customers are and how to be more relevant in their day-to-day activities.”

Overall, Hayes concludes that the

the banking industry”. He adds: “The

centuries-old banking industry will

making available of information about

fundamentally transform with Santander

customers to a whole range of new

at the fore. “I firmly believe that technol-

players is going to fundamentally change

ogy will completely change banking in

the way customers interact with financial

the next 20 years. The challenge for

organisations. There will be new players

the industry will be to embrace those

– and as a bank, we need to respond to

technologies – and the winners will be

that. We need to measure the experienc-

those who can do that in a way which is

es we build, and remain relevant for our

right for the customer.”

customers as we support their goals in life. Opening up banking data gives us opportunities to understand who our w w w.sa nt a nder. co. u k

Santander UK plc 2 Triton Square Regent’s Place London, NW1 3AN United Kingdom www.santander.co.uk