A new dawn for online services

Many bank clients travel extensively and need access to their bank account information 24/7 to reflect the different time zones they are in. Offering contact centres that are open only during business hours is not enough. Instead, clients need to be able to access information and services in other ways, most easily through browser-based technology.

In response, ABN AMRO has developed a browser-based tool called Online Client Service (OCS), delivered via the bank’s Access Online portal, which gives cash and treasury management clients direct access to their account information, complete with real-time balance and transaction data. Banking clients are also able to set up service requests online, pull down pre-populated forms to set up new account opening requests and so on. This functionality is available to them anywhere, around the clock.

“We began to develop OCS because we realised that many of the service requests that we received from clients could be resolved without the involvement of service personnel,” says Ian Holden-Semple, head of global client service, Transaction Banking at ABN AMRO. “But we rapidly saw the opportunity to do more than just create a self-service system. We realised that we had an opportunity to put the customer in complete control and massively increase the visibility they have of their banking information.”

The service has been running as a pilot with clients in Europe and the US since August 2006. “We’ve been using a group of existing clients to help us develop the OCS solution, thereby ensuring we create a relevant package that meets our clients’ needs and adds real value to their business – by streamlining processes and reducing the administrative burden in back offices,” says Mr Holden-Semple.

Following the success of the pilot, the service is due to be rolled out later this year.

Secure infrastructure

OCS operates through ABN AMRO’s existing Access Online infrastructure, which is being used by the bank’s large corporate clients and is being rolled out to small and medium-sized enterprises. Because it uses an existing infrastructure, OCS does not require an additional layer of sign-on requirements. However, client security is paramount – Access Online uses the strictest validation by two-factor identification to safeguard its users’ privacy.

As an online service, OCS will complement – though not replace – telephone client servicing. “We’ve found that on more complex matters, people still appreciate the ability to discuss their requirements,” says Mr Holden-Semple. “But for day-to-day business, the reaction of our pilot clients to the online abilities of OCS has been phenomenal. They are increasingly turning to the self-serve channel multiple times a day, at a time that suits them best, to gain the most up-to-date information on their accounts.”

OCS has four functionalities: providing clients with details of their accounts; offering real-time balance and transaction information; providing the ability to initiate, oversee, track and trace service requests; and offering answers to many frequently asked questions through an online knowledge bank.

Account details

OCS provides clients with an overview and details of their accounts and products. “Although such a function sounds relatively straightforward, clients say that it is crucial,” says Mr Holden-Semple. “Often details of accounts held, when they were opened and who is legally responsible for them is inaccessible or hard to unravel. OCS means that all that information is available immediately and in a concise format.”

Client feedback indicates that accessing immediate information is the single most important goal in cash management today. For example, regulators often ask clients for information about the services they are using. Ordinarily, locating such information can be time consuming but with OCS the process is done immediately because all the information about a client’s accounts and products is available at their fingertips.

In offering real-time balance and transaction information, “the level of visibility available to clients through OCS is unprecedented – not least because of the 40-plus countries across which its functionality extends”, says Carol Hudson, head of service development, Transaction Banking, ABN AMRO in the Netherlands.

The bank expects to expand the country range of OCS further in the coming months. “The system also allows for e-mail functionality,” says Ms Hudson. “For example, if a client wants to know when a particular transaction has been completed, they can set up an e-mail alert to notify them when it occurs.”

Liquidity tool

The ability to see balances in real time makes OCS a significant liquidity tool, according to Anne Boden, head of Transaction Banking, Europe, ABN AMRO in London. “From a cash management perspective, the ability to monitor balances across a number of accounts in a number of territories is a huge advantage,” she says. “It means that a company’s treasury function can put those balances to work much more rapidly and consequently maximise the yield that they earn from those balances.”

With OCS’s ability to initiate, oversee, track and trace service requests, “clients can raise a service request immediately and automatically”, says Ms Hudson. As an example, a client may be monitoring a transaction in real time and have a service request relating to it. “Rather than having to call up customer service and go through a lengthy explanation of what they would like to know, they can simply click a button and the information is pre-filled into a service request and automatically forwarded to us to be dealt with immediately. It completely empowers clients in relation to information,” she says.

Empowerment tool

The fourth functionality of OCS is closely related to its ability to raise queries immediately. In a further act of empowerment, corporate customers now have the ability to answer many frequently asked questions themselves using an online knowledge bank. The information available not only covers products and payments processes around the world, but also detailed and complex market developments, such as the Single Euro Payments Area and its impact on corporates.

“Compliance requirements vary considerably for customers and their accounts right across Europe and the world,” says Ms Boden. “Using our Account Service Wizard, a client can immediately view the compliance requirements for the 40-plus countries that OCS covers. The value of that information to customers is substantial.”

In due course, ABN AMRO will add the functionality to open new accounts online. “We aim to streamline the account opening process, and package the requirements for legal and regulatory information in a way that makes the process as easy as possible for clients,” says Ms Boden.

PROCTER AND GAMBLE: AN ABIDING INTEREST IN EFFICIENCY Procter and Gamble (P&G), a multinational manufacturer of personal product ranges, runs cash management for its western European operations – totalling 120 subsidiary companies across the region – from Newcastle in the north of England. It has been piloting ABN AMRO’s Online Client Service (OCS) solution since September 2006.

As a company with a strong interest in efficiency and automation, P&G was attracted to the fact that ABN AMRO was being proactive about STP [straight-through processing]. In addition, P&G was interested in the OCS proposition because of its ability to streamline so many aspects of communication and information.

Previously, if P&G wanted to do a balance check during the day it would either have to call up ABN AMRO or set up an inter-day balance check. “Now we can monitor our balances in real time across all our accounts and observe payment collections,” explains Russell Hall, EMEA Banking Operations and Relationship Manager at P&G.

“The change will definitely have liquidity benefits for us. And the ability to track the status of queries has been a great advantage over phone-based queries,” says Mr Hall.

P&G has already begun to talk to ABN AMRO about including account opening functionality in OCS and welcomes the open approach that the bank is taking. ABN AMRO has sought detailed feedback on every aspect of P&G’s experience with the service – no matter how minor – which has been described by the company as a “refreshing approach”.

BOREALIS: A DEMAND FOR VISIBILITY Borealis, a global plastics company, operates across Europe, in the US and Brazil through almost 30 companies.

Building on existing relationships with ABN AMRO, Borealis was eager to be a pilot client for the bank’s Online Client Service (OCS). “We had been searching for tools – specifically online tools – that would bring us new functionality, and OCS answered the call,” says Eddy Jacqmotte, manager, cash and bank within financial processes and services at Borealis Polymers NV in Belgium.

Mr Jacqmotte believes that Borealis had three major expectations of OCS, all of which have been satisfied: “First, we wanted to be able to check our balances frequently to improve our liquidity forecasting,” he says.

“That has always been possible but it has been difficult. Now we have complete visibility when we need it. In addition, the ability to see payments being made pleases the credit department because they can release orders sooner.”

Borealis’ second requirement was for greater clarity in relation to account administration. “It sounds like such a simple thing to be able to know who is responsible for what and who can sign off something, but in reality that sort of information is tough to get hold of, not least because arrangements vary so much between locations,” says Mr Jacqmotte. “With this system, compliance and internal controls become much easier.”

Third, Borealis had always sought the ability to trace enquiries more easily. “In the past, the system was focused on telephone queries,” says Mr Jacqmotte.

“The service was always good, but ultimately we felt that there must be an easier way to do these things. The answer was to automate the service: now you can just click to make a query and all the details of the query are available immediately.”

Borealis has also welcomed ABN AMRO’s intention to add account opening to its package of services in OCS. “Overall, this is a very powerful tool,” says Mr Jacqmotte. “In my view, ABN AMRO is the frontrunner in the development of this sort of service and I welcome the chance to work with it.”