Jahangiri: To what extent will BT Financial Group’s (BT)’s future IT roadmap be shaped by Westpac Banking Group (Westpac)’s core modernisation initiative?


Forward: The BT Financial Group (BT) core business applications have quite distinct functionality and infrastructure from those in the retail banking businesses, so the enterprise program has a distinct and important investment in wealth management as well.


But there is also clear advantage in leveraging the banking modernisation program for more effective distribution of BT products through Westpac, St. George Bank and Bank of South Australia. 


So some of the things we’ve been doing at BT- such as building an enterprise services bus – are now being replicated at an enterprise level.


That’s an example of what my colleagues in the broader Westpac business see as BT being the ‘test bed’ for new technology ideas.  We are relatively small scale, and this gives us higher agility. Another example is around collaboration tools.


Jahangiri: What notable IT trends and emerging disruptions are you keeping an eye on right now? 


Forward: Consumers are one of the drivers of technology trends. There are many examples of this, such as social networking sites and smartphones, where sales now exceed other mobiles phones in the developed world and ditto for laptops over desktops.  These trends set expectations for system availability, quality of access and functionality. These trends reflect how our customers view the world – and these are the capabilities that our customers expect us to deliver. 


This is one of the reasons why we are investing in collaboration tools such as high definition video conferencing and desktop messaging.  And it’s why sustainability is another key focus area; Westpac and BT are committed to sustainability by acting in a transparent and socially responsible way. Technology has its role to play in this space and I am keen to be part of this challenge. 


Another core trend is cloud computing, not only in providing ‘software as a service’ but also in how we implement infrastructure in our data centre.  I see the most immediate benefit being a way for us to scale our infrastructure to deliver more Agile services. 


Lastly, broadband technologies, including 3G data networks and the national broadband network, which will enable more sophisticated and rapid transactions with our customers - wherever and whenever. 


Jahangiri: Some recent industry reports cite ‘IT project risk’ (i.e. budget blowouts, loss of intellectual property with staff turnaround, etc.) among the top challenges facing CIOs today. What are your views on this?


Forward: This is a serious problem, but not necessarily a new one.  Some analysts assert that the majority of IT projects fail. What is new, in this country, is a crisis in the supply of undergraduates to the IT profession.


However, we can and do mitigate the risks you refer to. For us this includes: a flexible sourcing policy; good relationships with our important suppliers; finding the right people for the right role; investing in project management capabilities; and tight governance of our entire project portfolio.  


Jahangiri: Last time FST Media interviewed you, your main IT priorities were to streamline legacy systems, and increase the proficiency of straight-through-processing (STP). How has BT progressed with these priorities?


Forward: The first task in dealing with legacy systems is to design and implement a new target state and we have had some signal success in this.  For example, Super for Life was built on our new Composer strategic platform using SOA, Web 2 technologies, and significant STP, which led to high customer satisfaction and low operational intervention. We have also gone through some significant investment in streamlining, modernising and automating our operational processes across the board, particularly in our Insurance business, with corresponding benefits to our customers in faster, higher quality of service delivery.


The problem always arises, however, around migration of legacy products to new platforms. It can be a tough financial decision to put the legacy book onto these systems.  In many cases this book is in ‘runoff’, which makes it harder to justify the large capital spend to migrate. The right discipline is for the go-forward product (whether existing or new) to go onto the target system and that prudent investment be made in legacy systems only in terms of ensuring ongoing commitments to customer service.


Jahangiri: What are your key IT priorities for the next 12 to 18 months?


Forward: Our customers. First and foremost delighting customers is central to us all.  The ‘moments of truth’ where IT systems can provide the best customer experience for our staff and their customers is, without question, what I’m here for.


And this lens is being applied to priorities such as improving Life and General Insurance capabilities; enhanced functionality for key advisory and private banking staff; keeping our platforms (Wrap, Asgard) at the very front of the pack; and dealing with what looks like a tsunami of legislative and compliance requirements while keeping our employees mobile and productive through new productivity technologies.


Jahangiri: Some IT leaders claim that achieving a ‘single customer view’ can never be fully realized. Others claim to be close to making it happen. What are your views and how close is BT to attaining this elusive solution?


Forward: Few companies in the world have achieved this across business domains.  Retail banks have done this within banking, insurance has done it within insurance but few have done it between banking, insurance and investment products. The greatest value can be achieved by aligning customer to a distribution channel, so if you are selling and servicing insurance and investment products to bank customers you need a single view of all those products by customer.


Similarly, you need this view for third party distribution channels, such as for EFAs. But there appears little value doing this between these distribution channels.


Jahangiri: What do you think is the next big thing in wealth management?


Forward: Retirement products. With the ageing population we need to support our customers with the capability to effectively manage their portfolio of wealth.  Universal management accounts (UMA) for high net worth clients and portfolio creation and management, especially in light of the (mostly) negative experience caused by the global financial crisis. 


Jahangiri: Wealth management is based on a relationship-driven business model between client and advisor. To what extent can the human element of customer service be transferred online?


Forward: This again is driven by what the customer wants and making sure we have the right set of customer experiences for the various different customer segments. Some customers prefer an entire self-service option; others need a more comprehensive and personal service.  We are all about making sure we recognise and deliver to each and every one of these needs.


Jahangiri: What skills are you seeking in it staff right now and why?


Forward: There is a premium on people who have skills that comprise across both technology and the business.  First rate people leaders are also in high demand right across our business.


From a technology perspective this would be divided between legacy technology and integration skills required for building SOA-type applications. 


Jahangiri: Every IT leader has a legacy they wish to be remembered for. What is yours?


Forward: The team.