Redefining a mid-sized bank in 4 years time
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A look inside GarantiBank’s mammoth digital transformation WRITTEN BY
LAURA MULLAN PRODUCED BY
JAMES PEPPER
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G A R A N T I B A N K I N T E R N AT I O N A L
GarantiBank International N.V. is showing how a real digital transformation is done
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ast year, 85% of banks said that implementing a digital transformation programme was a “business priority” according to the
EY Global Banking Outlook. Perhaps nowhere can this be seen better than at GarantiBank International 04
N.V. Amid a flurry of digital disruption in the banking space, the Amsterdam-headquartered company has held its own, embarking on a root-and-branch digital transformation strategy. A subsidiary of Turkiye Garanti Bankasi AS (Garanti), GarantiBank is striving to become a shining example of a modern, digitalised bank. But make no mistake, this isn’t a fleeting initiative. Rather, this is an intensive multi-year project which has seen the company revamp its back-office infrastructure, tap into the power of data, foster innovative ways of working and much more. “When you’re embarking on a digital transformation project, it’s not something that you can do overnight. It takes multiple years to transform an organisation with the size of GarantiBank,” explains Chief Digital Officer, Alex Hurkmans.
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G A R A N T I B A N K I N T E R N AT I O N A L
“ When you’re doing a digital transformation project, it’s just something that you cannot change overnight” — Alex Hurkmans, Chief Digital Officer, GarantiBank
“We realised we needed to focus on our IT capabilities first. But ultimately, we had to transform the whole organisation and adopt a more digital way of working.” Through its latest strategy, GarantiBank has worked diligently to focus on where it, as a financial service provider, can add real value. Company leadership quickly realised that overseeing IT infrastructure wasn’t a core activity and could be better managed by an external specialist. Therefore, GarantiBank forged
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a partnership with Belgium-based company Cegeka. “We wanted to make use of existing services in the market and add our own value on top of that,” observes Hurkmans. A notable milestone in the company’s digital transformation has been its shift towards a hybrid cloud environment. Cegeka helped the Dutch bank set up this infrastructure, drawing upon the capabilities of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. “We decided to opt for a cloud-first strategy and we were one of the first banks that were really making full use of the public cloud for bank processes and client databases,” recalls Chief Operating Officer Marco
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘GARANTI BANK ENGLISH VERSION SD’ 07 Witteveen, noting how, before that,
challenge: reimagining the way its
the organisation ran its very own data
employees are working and teams are
centre. “We were spending almost
collaborating. With Cegeka’s help, it set
60-70% of our IT capacity just keeping
up a new digital workplace for more
the lights and it wasn’t bringing real
than 250 bank employees based on
added value to our customers,” echoes
Microsoft Office 365. This has proven
Hurkmans, adding that the company
to be a hit and has helped the bank
ultimately selected Cegeka to manage
meet the demands of its digitally-savvy
its IT infrastructure and act as the com-
and remote workers. “When we started,
pany’s cloud integrator. This involved
our workspace was still running on our
thorough risk assessments and approv-
old data centre and people had fixed
als, but now GarantiBank is reaping the
desks,” remembers Hurkmans. “We
rewards of its investment.
asked ourselves: what if we embraced
With a hybrid cloud strategy now in place, GarantiBank set about its next
the fast-emerging concept of ‘working anywhere, anytime’?” The Dutch bank w w w.ga ra nt i b a n k. eu
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“ We decided to opt for a cloud-first strategy” — Marco Wittevee, Chief Operating Officer, Garantibank
collaborate and share information. “It also fosters a more collaborative way of working,” he adds, noting how the company’s increasingly use of communication tools like MS Teams, “has improved our efficiency enormously and supports our agile way of working”. GarantiBank’s digital strategy marks a fundamental departure from how the company used to operate. To further
adopted a more modern workspace
bolster this innovative approach, the
based on Microsoft 365 and imple-
Dutch company has increasingly
mented remote, portable devices,
championed new processes and
so that if employees were commuting
methodologies like Lean, Agile and
or not in the office they can still
Six Sigma. “To enhance our customer
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Marco Witteveen, Chief Operating Officer Mr Marco Witteveen started his professional life in 1985 as a management trainee at ING Bank, London. During his 30-year banking career, Witteveen held various positions with ING in Jakarta, London and New York, and also worked at NIBC Bank as the Managing Director of Technology and Operations. Specialties: Managing Operations, ICT, and Project Offices in Banking as COO/CIO.
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G A R A N T I B A N K I N T E R N AT I O N A L
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experience, stimulate internal collabora-
“We adopted the bi-modal IT architec-
tion and ensure that work can be done
ture of Gartner where Outsystems
anywhere and anytime we started to
is positioned as our system of engage-
move away from silos towards a holistic
ment (fast IT) and our current mono-
approach of end-to-end processes
lithic core banking system is minimised
by appointing process owners and
to just a system of record. We call this
digitising underlying end-to-end
‘caging the animal’ or significantly
processes with the support of Outsys-
reducing the dependency on legacy,”
tems. a low-code platform running in
Witteveen continues.
the AWS public cloud that has proven
In fact, over the past two years,
that it can accelerate our digital
Hurkmans underlines how the company
ambitions” explains Witteveen.
has “run more than hundred sprints
â‚Ź90Mn Approximate revenue
1990
Year founded
260
Approximate number of employees
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Alex Hurkmans, Chief Digital Officer Mr Alex Hurkmans started his professional career in 1996. Since then, he has held various positions in several dutch banks and insurance companies to implement organisational change programs and align corporate governance, technology and culture. Highly experienced with People management, process management, governance, architecture and cultural aspect with respect to transformation and change.
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and already delivered lots of functionality for the whole client lifecycle management.” Hurkmans also points out how GarantiBank recently reorganised its IT department and adopted a DevOps approach, whereby it focused less on infrastructure and more on value-adding projects. “Before I joined, we did one or two IT projects per year on average,” Witteveen recalls. “In the last two and a half years, we now do around 18 to 20 projects each year and they’re also bigger and more complex. We’ve achieved this just by adopting DevOps and an agile
“ Continuous improvements and continuous change go hand in hand” — Marco Wittevee, Chief Operating Officer, Garantibank
13 way of working” As the speed of
of slowing down. Looking forward,
innovation continues at its blistering
the Dutch bank is readying itself
pace, Hurkmans points out how this
to launch a corporate internet platform
has helped to promote a sense of
and Hurkmans also highlights how
continuous improvement too. “With
the standardisation of end-to-end
the appointment of process owners
processes is helping GarantiBank
and close alignment with scrum
to prepare for the rise of Open Banking.
masters, IT and business colleagues
“In the coming years, we need to have
are closer together working for only
infrastructure that supports Open
real clients . We can also adjust during
Banking so that we can quickly use all
the sprint, which ensures we’re always
the new technologies and market
innovating and adapting in a never-
platforms that will be developed in
ending loop,” he explains.
the years to come,” he says. “It empha-
Garanti Bank’s digital strategy is in full swing and shows no signs
sises the necessity of being open and data-driven with standardised processes. w w w.ga ra nt i b a n k. eu
G A R A N T I B A N K I N T E R N AT I O N A L
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“ Digital transformation isn’t just about IT, it’s a transformation of the entire organisation” — Alex Hurkmans, Chief Digital Officer, GarantiBank
You should be able to link yourself to other players in the market. Don’t see them as competitors but rather see them as being part of an ecosystem. If we can do that successfully, I think we’ll do a great job.” Elsewhere, Witteveen points out how senior management will continue to steer the direction of the company by creating multi-disciplinary teams and giving clear guidance. “We are looking for a completely different skillset and we’ve decided to invest heavily in the people that are already working at GarantiBank International N.V.,” he adds. Regardless of the initiative though, it’s apparent that GarantiBank is in the midst of great change which will redefine the business for years to come. Indeed, as Hurkmans affirms: “Digital transformation isn’t just about IT, it’s a transformation of the entire organisation.”
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International
GarantiBank International N.V Keizersgracht 569-575 1017 DR Amsterdam The Netherlands T +31 20 553 9700 www.garantibank.eu