Leading International Bank: Business Process Transformation

The client is a leading international bank focused on consumer and commercial clients, wholesale and private clients, and asset management.

The bank has over 3,000 branches in more than 60 countries, approximately 100,000 employees and total assets of nearly $1 trillion (€900 billion).

The bank turned to Accenture when it needed help in designing and implementing a new operating model for its various business units.

Accenture's ongoing research into the characteristics of high-performance businesses has found that many top companies achieve competitive advantage by continually reconfiguring, optimizing and integrating their value chains in innovative ways. This client was no exception.

Facing radical shifts in the marketplace—such as advances in the use of technology—and the trend toward consolidating providers, the bank was seeking ways to improve its operating model. The bank wanted to consolidate and run its global business on a standard platform to reduce costs. It also wanted to move parts of its value chain offshore to reduce operating costs and increase shareholder value.

For help in designing and implementing the new operating model for various business units, the bank turned to Accenture, which had worked with the bank over the past 20 years on a number of strategic projects. Accenture had proven abilities in determining effective outsourcing solutions for different parts of a company's value chain. In addition, Accenture had a strong record of helping financial service companies set up new offshore organizations, develop migration scenarios and establish recruitment schedules.

Accenture teamed with the bank to create a new business environment to reduce operating costs by up to 40 percent, enable business and market share growth, standardize product and service offerings, and shorten time to market for new products. The Accenture team, which averaged seven full-time equivalent employees from the company's Human Performance and Strategy groups, provided expertise in project management and offshoring, as well as deep product/process knowledge and migration skills. The team worked closely with client resources, which provided expertise in HR, legal and compliance, risk and control, IT, finance, and operations.

Using a standard delivery methodology—the Accenture Offshore Captive Framework—the Accenture/client team defined the scope of operations to be migrated to the bank's offshore facilities in India, designed the new operating model for both on- and offshore resources and processes, defined the migration approach, and facilitated the overall implementation of the new operating model.

With Accenture's help—and within six months—the bank had migrated a number of functions to offshore locations and fully transitioned its onshore capabilities to a new business model. The new operating model is generating a 60 percent average reduction in operating expenses—exceeding the project's 40 percent goal—translating to a yearly run-rate savings of approximately $6 million (€5 million).

In addition to the cost savings, the Accenture-led solution enables standardized work methods, improved process efficiencies and workflows and has allowed the bank to identify areas that need improvement. In all these ways, the bank is improving its productivity, strengthening its bottom line and making great strides on its ongoing journey to becoming a high-performance business.