107 F I NANC I A L S E R V I C E S synchronised to participants’ calendars,” he explained. “Customers are also informed about appointments through SMS and email to streamline the process and ensure relevant materials are prepared ahead of time.” The Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services platform also comes with a new onboarding application which enables financial institutions to more easily enrol new customers. “It allows for customised data collection tasks per business scenario and defines the application document journey,” said Kerner. “Visual user interface components consolidate and help users visualise the onboarding process. With access to primary applicant details, additional parties’ details, and application task summaries, financial advisors can more effectively engage with customers. Additionally, the document verification process can be accelerated and automated by incorporating document intelligence AI analysis to verify all onboarding application documents.” Borden said that introducing technology like this – which aligns with the way employees work, rather than changing it – pays off in improved employee and customer experiences. “Eight in 10 employees think the tools in use at their company have made communicating with end customers more productive,” he said. There are some great examples of how this is working. National Australia Bank (NAB), for instance, signed a five-year multi-cloud partnership with Microsoft in 2020 to boost its resilience, speed and innovation. The bank also uses Microsoft 365 services, including Microsoft Teams, to enhance productivity and collaboration across its workforce. By leveraging all that Microsoft has to offer, the bank has developed and deployed a chatbot for employees that is helping to eliminate the inconsistencies in how its 35,000-strong workforce dealt with customer requests. “We had to get everyone on the same page and provide themwith a consistent path and answer to any question they were asking,” said Raj Ghuliani, head of technology for workplace support services at NAB, in a feature for Microsoft.com. Staff members can access the NAB Bot using the Teams app on their computers or mobile phones. The bot is also available as a web interface with access restricted to NAB employees. The NAB Bot leverages a knowledge repository of employees’ most frequently asked questions. It also enables the bank to easily transfer employees to a live chat with its 24/7 support team. Since the NAB Bot went live in November 2021, employees have used it more than 53,000 times and given it an average employee rating of four-and-a-half out of five. “From a usage and performance perspective, the chatbot has certainly exceeded our expectations,” said Ghuliani. “What’s really pleasing to see is that more than 50 per cent of all interactions with the NAB Bot have been from our customer-facing colleagues, because we want to make a difference for our customers.” The strong uptake of the chatbot has also enabled NAB to achieve what many financial services firms today are struggling with. It’s saved a massive AUS$1.2 million ($805,000) in support team costs but has also become more efficient and improved productivity at the same time. “The reduced cost has helped us achieve more productivity from our own technology staff, and their skill sets are increasing as well,” said Ghulian. It’s a win: win scenario. Improving both employee and customer experiences “At Synergy Technical, we aim to enable organisations to secure and optimise business operations while providing their workforces with the most efficient and productive toolsets to service their customers. Our financial services customers are focusing equally on efficient service and delivery and great experiences and satisfaction – for both employees and their customers. We work with these customers to analyse current IT operations and map future business goals to technology. As a result, we’ve helped clients leverage Microsoft technologies to better secure their hybrid workforces and drive internal productivity so that they can improve both employee and customer experiences while remaining competitive in the marketplace.” DAN F I NN : S YNE RGY T E CHN I CA L
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