In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank), ocontinues to redefine banking by introducing automation to its Treasury & Investments Channel Management (TICM) workflows and experience. Built on Microsoft technology, UnionBank is creating solutions that optimize operations and allow them to better serve their customers and stakeholders in a remote everything world and live up to consumer's expectations as one of the largest and profitable banks in the country.
The TICM unit
of UnionBank handles large volumes of outward remittances daily that rely on
face-to-face transactions. With the Philippine Government's imposition of
Community Quarantine, these transactions had to be conducted remotely by both
the customers and the bank's staff. Looking to create an easy-to-use, virtual platform for
everyone involved, Dapple del Mundo, Distribution Operations Team Lead of TICM
at UnionBank, looked into the bank's partnership with Microsoft and expand the
bank's utilization of their solutions through Microsoft Power Platform.
"One thing we like about using Microsoft apps is
that it's already here, it's not an added cost, unlike asking an external or
third-party developer to develop something for us. In terms of editing or
updating, it's easier now since we can do it ourselves", del Mundo said.
Covid-19 Pandemic Drives Innovation
The Microsoft Power Platform is Microsoft’s low-code
platform that allows everyone to build web and mobile apps, improve workflows,
and gain insights from data while ensuring security. It enables people with
little to no coding knowledge or experience to become developers and build
intelligent solutions that integrate seamlessly with the rest of Microsoft’s
world-class products and platforms. It serves as an end-to-end business
solution, maximizing productivity, efficiency and collaboration in a remote
everything world.
To manage efficient transactions remotely, the TICM
harnessed Microsoft Power Automate. This application within Microsoft Power
Platform allows users to easily create automated, multistage workflows across a
variety of services and applications. One of its primary functions is to boost
users' productivity by saving workflows into everything from individual tasks
to large-scale systems with seamless integration using hundreds of prebuilt
connectors.
"What surprised us were the learnings that we got
from this flow—this one single approval flow that had multiple conditions and a
tricky setup—we managed to adapt and mirror it with other bank processes like
bond issuances," explains del Mundo.
The Treasury and Investments Channel Management (TICM)
unit saw an immediate improvement on its productivity and efficiency; resulting
in improved client transactions and faster service despite the entire
experience being conducted online. According to del Mundo, the bank was able to
simplify the whole process of remitting. It also significantly improved the
coordination and communication between Treasury and Remittance through
Microsoft teams. This allows them to have visibility to internal processes in
real-time to track the approval procedures and give timely feedback.
Digital Banking Benefits Employees and Customers
UnionBank Trust & Investment customers can now
receive copies of their statements, proof of investments, and remittances with
e-signatures that can be easily accessed remotely—anytime, anywhere.
Through UnionBank’s continuing innovation, customers
benefit constantly through improvements in their experience that are not only
more convenient but ensure their safety and peace of mind during this
unprecedented period. Moving forward, they maintain their focus on driving
innovation within their organization to provide the best service and experience
possible, transform banking in the Philippines and aid in the nation’s economic
recovery.
"It is imperative we extend the capability of
automation not only to our IT team, but across all employees of the bank,"
says Paulo Martin Santos, Enterprise Communication and Collaboration Head at
UnionBank. "Thanks to our
partnership with Microsoft, now our whole team can truly be digital to the
core. This is just one clear example from
our treasury group, but we have several groups building their own automation
without coding".
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