Garanti BBVA International August 2019

Redefining a mid-sized bank in 4 years time

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A look inside GarantiBank’s mammoth digital transformation WRITTEN BY

LAURA MULLAN PRODUCED BY

JAMES PEPPER

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G A R A N T I B A N K I N T E R N AT I O N A L

GarantiBank International N.V. is showing how a real digital transformation is done

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ast year, 85% of banks said that implementing a digital transformation programme was a “business priority” according to the

EY Global Banking Outlook. Perhaps nowhere can this be seen better than at GarantiBank International 04

N.V. Amid a flurry of digital disruption in the banking space, the Amsterdam-headquartered company has held its own, embarking on a root-and-branch digital transformation strategy.

A subsidiary of Turkiye Garanti Bankasi AS (Garanti), GarantiBank is striving to become a shining example of a modern, digitalised bank.

But make no mistake, this isn’t a fleeting initiative.

Rather, this is an intensive multi-year project which has seen the company revamp its back-office infrastructure, tap into the power of data, foster innovative ways of working and much more.

“When you’re embarking on a digital transformation project, it’s not something that you can do overnight. It takes multiple years to transform an organisation with the size of GarantiBank,” explains Chief Digital Officer, Alex Hurkmans.

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G A R A N T I B A N K I N T E R N AT I O N A L

“ When you’re doing a digital transformation project, it’s just something that you cannot change overnight” — Alex Hurkmans, Chief Digital Officer, GarantiBank

“We realised we needed to focus on our IT capabilities first. But ultimately, we had to transform the whole organisation and adopt a more digital way of working.” Through its latest strategy, GarantiBank has worked diligently to focus on where it, as a financial service provider, can add real value.

Company leadership quickly realised that overseeing IT infrastructure wasn’t a core activity and could be better managed by an external specialist.

Therefore, GarantiBank forged

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a partnership with Belgium-based company Cegeka. “We wanted to make use of existing services in the market and add our own value on top of that,” observes Hurkmans.

A notable milestone in the company’s digital transformation has been its shift towards a hybrid cloud environment.

Cegeka helped the Dutch bank set up this infrastructure, drawing upon the capabilities of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. “We decided to opt for a cloud-first strategy and we were one of the first banks that were really making full use of the public cloud for bank processes and client databases,” recalls Chief Operating Officer Marco

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘GARANTI BANK ENGLISH VERSION SD’ 07 Witteveen, noting how, before that,

challenge: reimagining the way its

the organisation ran its very own data

employees are working and teams are

centre. “We were spending almost

collaborating. With Cegeka’s help, it set

60-70% of our IT capacity just keeping

up a new digital workplace for more

the lights and it wasn’t bringing real

than 250 bank employees based on

added value to our customers,” echoes

Microsoft Office 365. This has proven

Hurkmans, adding that the company

to be a hit and has helped the bank

ultimately selected Cegeka to manage

meet the demands of its digitally-savvy

its IT infrastructure and act as the com-

and remote workers. “When we started,

pany’s cloud integrator. This involved

our workspace was still running on our

thorough risk assessments and approv-

old data centre and people had fixed

als, but now GarantiBank is reaping the

desks,” remembers Hurkmans. “We

rewards of its investment.

asked ourselves: what if we embraced

With a hybrid cloud strategy now in place, GarantiBank set about its next

the fast-emerging concept of ‘working anywhere, anytime’?” The Dutch bank w w w.ga ra nt i b a n k. eu

N W

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“ We decided to opt for a cloud-first strategy” — Marco Wittevee, Chief Operating Officer, Garantibank

collaborate and share information.

“It also fosters a more collaborative way of working,” he adds, noting how the company’s increasingly use of communication tools like MS Teams, “has improved our efficiency enormously and supports our agile way of working”.

GarantiBank’s digital strategy marks a fundamental departure from how the company used to operate. To further

adopted a more modern workspace

bolster this innovative approach, the

based on Microsoft 365 and imple-

Dutch company has increasingly

mented remote, portable devices,

championed new processes and

so that if employees were commuting

methodologies like Lean, Agile and

or not in the office they can still

Six Sigma. “To enhance our customer

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Marco Witteveen, Chief Operating Officer Mr Marco Witteveen started his professional life in 1985 as a management trainee at ING Bank, London. During his 30-year banking career, Witteveen held various positions with ING in Jakarta, London and New York, and also worked at NIBC Bank as the Managing Director of Technology and Operations.

Specialties: Managing Operations, ICT, and Project Offices in Banking as COO/CIO.

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G A R A N T I B A N K I N T E R N AT I O N A L

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experience, stimulate internal collabora-

“We adopted the bi-modal IT architec-

tion and ensure that work can be done

ture of Gartner where Outsystems

anywhere and anytime we started to

is positioned as our system of engage-

move away from silos towards a holistic

ment (fast IT) and our current mono-

approach of end-to-end processes

lithic core banking system is minimised

by appointing process owners and

to just a system of record. We call this

digitising underlying end-to-end

‘caging the animal’ or significantly

processes with the support of Outsys-

reducing the dependency on legacy,”

tems. a low-code platform running in

Witteveen continues.

the AWS public cloud that has proven

In fact, over the past two years,

that it can accelerate our digital

Hurkmans underlines how the company

ambitions” explains Witteveen.

has “run more than hundred sprints

â‚Ź90Mn Approximate revenue

1990

Year founded

260

Approximate number of employees

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Alex Hurkmans, Chief Digital Officer Mr Alex Hurkmans started his professional career in 1996. Since then, he has held various positions in several dutch banks and insurance companies to implement organisational change programs and align corporate governance, technology and culture.

Highly experienced with People management, process management, governance, architecture and cultural aspect with respect to transformation and change.

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and already delivered lots of functionality for the whole client lifecycle management.” Hurkmans also points out how GarantiBank recently reorganised its IT department and adopted a DevOps approach, whereby it focused less on infrastructure and more on value-adding projects. “Before I joined, we did one or two IT projects per year on average,” Witteveen recalls. “In the last two and a half years, we now do around 18 to 20 projects each year and they’re also bigger and more complex. We’ve achieved this just by adopting DevOps and an agile

“ Continuous improvements and continuous change go hand in hand” — Marco Wittevee, Chief Operating Officer, Garantibank

13 way of working” As the speed of

of slowing down. Looking forward,

innovation continues at its blistering

the Dutch bank is readying itself

pace, Hurkmans points out how this

to launch a corporate internet platform

has helped to promote a sense of

and Hurkmans also highlights how

continuous improvement too. “With

the standardisation of end-to-end

the appointment of process owners

processes is helping GarantiBank

and close alignment with scrum

to prepare for the rise of Open Banking.

masters, IT and business colleagues

“In the coming years, we need to have

are closer together working for only

infrastructure that supports Open

real clients . We can also adjust during

Banking so that we can quickly use all

the sprint, which ensures we’re always

the new technologies and market

innovating and adapting in a never-

platforms that will be developed in

ending loop,” he explains.

the years to come,” he says. “It empha-

Garanti Bank’s digital strategy is in full swing and shows no signs

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G A R A N T I B A N K I N T E R N AT I O N A L

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“ Digital transformation isn’t just about IT, it’s a transformation of the entire organisation” — Alex Hurkmans, Chief Digital Officer, GarantiBank

You should be able to link yourself to other players in the market. Don’t see them as competitors but rather see them as being part of an ecosystem. If we can do that successfully, I think we’ll do a great job.” Elsewhere, Witteveen points out how senior management will continue to steer the direction of the company by creating multi-disciplinary teams and giving clear guidance. “We are looking for a completely different skillset and we’ve decided to invest heavily in the people that are already working at GarantiBank International N.V.,” he adds. Regardless of the initiative though, it’s apparent that GarantiBank is in the midst of great change which will redefine the business for years to come. Indeed, as Hurkmans affirms: “Digital transformation isn’t just about IT, it’s a transformation of the entire organisation.”

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International

GarantiBank International N.V Keizersgracht 569-575 1017 DR Amsterdam The Netherlands T +31 20 553 9700 www.garantibank.eu