NAB established the Digital, Data and Analytics division to accelerate the delivery of an effortless experience for its customers and colleagues that would be digitally enabled and powered by data.

Here, Charlotte Cadness, Executive, Digital Customer and Colleague at NAB, shares her advice on how FinServs can drive a successful digital transformation by adopting cost-saving technology.

Digital transformation is not only about technology — it’s also about people and culture

We’re a relationship-led business. We want to truly understand our customers’ needs so we can provide them with personalised and helpful experiences. For our bankers to do this effectively, they need tools that give them a 360-degree view of each customer. That’s where large-scale digital transformation comes in — a key responsibility of my role since 2022. 

We’re sunsetting outdated legacy technology and rolling out a new unified CRM that can be scaled across the organisation. From the very start of this process, I was cognisant that we’d likely encounter obstacles along the way, as charted in a Salesforce and BCG white paper called The Reset. The Reset found that technology represents only 30% of the solution required to unlock value. The remaining 70% is about non-technical considerations, like redesigning back-end processes and policies, cultivating the right skills and capabilities, and redesigning the operating setup. We know that success for us lay in charting a strategic vision, getting the change management right and delivering incremental value. 

Another learning from The Reset that we’ve applied to our own journey is around the three accelerants for extracting value faster, which I’ll expand on below.

Tip 1: Chart a strategic vision for your digital transformation

Central to a successful transformation is having a clear vision you can sell to your senior stakeholders. 

This vision should not only account for the end state you’re working towards, but it should also clarify the value creation path. Having this strategic vision not only takes your employees and stakeholders on the journey but also keeps you accountable. 

To get stakeholders on board, the vision must align with your business strategy. You need to understand the key drivers for different decision-makers across the business and show how the new technology will support their aims. 

Tip 2: Ensure the data and platform are accessible

A digital solution is only as good as the data that underpins it. We knew that if bankers didn’t feel like they could trust the data that was being shared with them, they wouldn’t use the tool. 

Ultimately, banker uptake is dependent on the consistency and coverage of the data that underpins the digital experience. They also want to access data in real time. Up to this point, bankers have been manually creating views of data to generate customer insights. With the new digital solution, they have all the information they need in a single dashboard.

Tip 3: Strive for value creation early

The Reset found that more than 30% of financial institutions embarking on a transformation lose sight of the endpoint during delivery. To prevent this, I suggest combining your long-term vision with clear incremental delivery. 

In NAB’s case, we are deploying the cost-saving technology in pilot phases, where we can collect feedback, iterate the solution, and celebrate wins. 

It’s like a jigsaw puzzle — gradually assembling puzzle pieces that will build up to a complete picture while demonstrating value along the way. Even though we haven’t added all the puzzle pieces just yet, we can build up the picture as we go along to help our colleagues see what the final product will look like. 

For example, our bankers involved in the pilots have reported saving an hour per day since moving on from our outdated legacy tool. Our old tools create unnecessary manual work, causing frustration for our bankers who waste time toggling between different systems. 

Now, as we assemble all our customer information in one place, our bankers can focus their energies on the customer experience. Multiply those five hours per week across the year for all bankers and it’s easy to see that even this small change will create a huge amount of time that can be redirected into better serving our customers. 

This early win is something we can show to our stakeholders as we work our way to a larger transformation rollout.

The value of digital transformation for success now

NAB is creating ease and simplicity by embracing a 360 view of customer data leveraging platforms like Salesforce to lift the standard of customer experience and enable bankers to be more effective. 

At Salesforce World Tour Sydney on March 1, you can hear more about how your organisation can drive success now using Salesforce.

Read more

• How FinServs Can Cut Costs and Boost Efficiency With Out-of-the-Box Solutions
• How NAB Embraced Digital Transformation so It Could Lower Costs and Ramp up Internal Efficiencies
• How Financial Services Institutions Can Accelerate Value Creation