BPI gets best automation, networking award for Asia

MANILA, Philippines - The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) and its partner Wincor Nixdorf have been awarded the Best Branch Automation and Networking Award in the 5th Asian Banker Technology Implementation Awards Program held at The Hong Kong Jockey Club last April 7.

The awards program was held in conjunction with the prestigious Asian Banker Summit 2011, the foremost annual meeting for decision makers in the financial services industry in the Asia Pacific region. BPI-ISG manager Sheryl G. Ngo Sy and BPI consultant Celestino Mendiola received the award in behalf of the bank.

The awards program, administered by The Asian Banker (TAB) and referred by prominent global bankers, consultants and academics, is the most prestigious of its kind. A stringent three-month long evaluation process, based on a balanced and transparent scorecard, determined the winners. 

BPI won the award for implementing a project that automates data-encoding for transactions, optimizes the current branch network, and provides better customer experience. The project reflected its ability to leverage on existing infrastructure and channel distribution with a technology that automates and streamlines processes.

Previously, BPI had a problem of managing transactions that were growing at eight to 15 percent per year in its more than 830 branches nationwide. As a lot of the process was still done manually, transactions took a long time to be completed with long queue lines lowering the quality of overall customer experience.

The bank launched the customer transaction assist (CTA) project that enabled customers to encode transaction data and needed service on touch-screen machines.

This eliminated the need to use deposit, withdrawal and payments slips whose contents and figures may be misunderstood. Customers were also given queue numbers and were provided with an area where they can wait or where they can engage with other bank personnel.

When the project was fully launched after a three-month trial period, BPI has seen reduced waiting times for customers, lowered consumption of office materials, and increased opportunities for cross-selling.

“Apart from lower cost per transaction, the automation has improved customer experience by eliminating long lines and has allowed customers to interact with other bank personnel,” says Chris Kapfer, head of Asian Banker Research. The project is also notable for eliminating the back-office confirmation and revalidation that is needed to properly identify the figures in handwritten slips.

“BPI’s project with Wincor Nixdorf is a step forward for improving customer experience while leveraging on existing branch infrastructures. This clearly shows that an institution can increase its transaction capacity by automating operations, and eliminating redundant and often error-prone manual processes,” Kapfer says.

Over 50 financial institutions from 15 countries across the Asia Pacific, Gulf region and Central Asia were evaluated as part of the Technology Implementation Awards Program 2011. 

The award evaluation process used a comprehensive methodology to evaluate the strength of individual technology implementations. It involved extensive research and tapped the combined experience of a team of experienced researchers and the expertise of an international panel of renowned industry practitioners.