Wells Fargo's head of wholesale services, Steve Ellis, has presided over the bank's commercial banking portal since it was launched in 2000 and has been instrumental in launching a number of Web 2.0 and social networking-inspired features and tools. Writer John Beck

Wells Fargo's (WF) Commercial Electronic Office (CEO) business banking portal celebrated its 10th birthday in June, making it a venerable and, the San Francisco-based bank claims, uniquely long-lasting example of its type. But development continues unabated, despite the system's maturity, and WF has rolled out features and tools inspired by Web 2.0 and social networking technology - such as mobile access and a customer blog - explains Steve Ellis, executive vice-president and head of wholesale services with WF.

Mr Ellis, who colleagues describe as the "founding father" of the CEO portal, was responsible for starting up and running WF's Wholesale Internet Solutions group, which oversaw the portal's development and 2000 launch. CEO has grown rapidly since then; its first edition offered just three services to customers, but that number has since increased to more than 60 thanks to an ongoing programme of quarterly updates.

Changing requirements

"We're constantly reshaping CEO around customer desires," says Mr Ellis. "As they adopt it and move from the paper-based world to the electronic, they'll change how they do things. They'll often say 'this was great three months ago, but can you make it work like this.' They feel very actively engaged in it."

Part of WF's interaction with CEO users is conducted via a customer blog, where WF product managers and executives both post and answer comments. Last year saw the launch of CEO Community, a website where customers can discuss portal and wider business issues with their peers.

"The culture and the philosophy brings people to the community and the blog," says Mr Ellis. "They think we listen to them - and we do - and that really spurs more interaction." He adds that these features help WF tailor the CEO portal to customer requirements. "It helps us design and build things and helps customers to learn and share and interact with each other."

However some features, such as the recent introduction of CEO portal for mobile devices (via a specialised application for Apple's iPhone and internet browser for other phones), were not directly inspired by user demands. "We got a small cross-functional team together and thought up a few things and then went out and spent a lot of time talking to customers about what they would want and how they would use it," says Mr Ellis.

Going mobile

Extending the CEO platform to mobile devices did not present many technical challenges, but identifying how customers would use such a service and how best to present it to them was not always so easy, Mr Ellis adds. "That screen is pretty small for a start, but they [customers] are also doing different things while they use it - walking through an airport for example - so it's a much more different experience from what you would build for a PC," he says.

Customer response has been good so far, Mr Ellis adds, and more than 10% of CEO's users are now accessing CEO portal on the go. Nevertheless, uptake is higher among some customer segments than others. "We have customers who want to be first, they want to try this stuff and be in the pilot. And then we have customers, such as [US grocery chain]Trader Joe's - they want to be the last people for something new."

A dedicated CEO mobile application will be extended to other devices in the future, Mr Ellis reveals, including the iPad, which he says WF is "working on as we speak", and Google's Android operating system, which he describes as a "definite". He adds that, as with all new devices, WF has to be ultra-careful to avoid unintended consequences. "This whole space is kind of new, so you have to spend a lot of time on the risk management and the monitoring because you're using things you didn't use before."

It is no secret that business banking as a sector is lagging far behind the consumer world in deployment of cutting-edge technology, and this need for a cautious approach is one of the reasons why, Mr Ellis says. He adds, however, that some responsibility must also fall to a market segment which has been slow to embrace the latest developments. "It still amazes me - I don't know what my big-bank brethren are doing," he says. "The business side is in the same ball park as the consumer side, so I don't understand why they haven't done more of it."

Career history

Steve Ellis

1999 - executive vice-president, group manager - Wholesale Internet Solutions Group

1997 - senior vice-president and group manager - Wholesale Services

1994 - senior vice-president and group operations officer, group finance officer - Real Estate/Wholesale Services Group

1989 - joins Real Estate Industries Group where he is vice-president for finance, group finance and operation and administration

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