VTB 24 boosts retail network business processes using Process Mining technology

To attain the goal set by the customer, i.e. boosting the efficiency of retail-network business processes, RAMAX International, which operates its own Process Mining Competence Center, proposed implementing its innovative technology.

Using the data stored in the bank’s information systems, the technology carries out continuous mapping of actual business processes in a form suitable for immediate analysis and optimization. This enables VTB 24 to boost the efficiency of its retail system within a short timeframe.

A solution manufactured by Celonis was sel ected as the platform, as it provides maximum functionality, flexibility, and convenience for operation and development. Intended primarily for business users rather than skilled IT specialists, the Celonis solution offers the widest possible options for business analysts’ operations.

Within 3 weeks, RAMAX International specialists had implemented a solution prototype that enabled the successful restoration of the granting of cash loans, a key business process element. The development process did not involve manual mapping of the bank’s business processes or interviewing production engineers or end users. This step hence demonstrated the high effectiveness of the technology to the customers, i.e. the bank’s Department for Efficiency of Operations and Department of Banking and Information Technologies. Based on this, the bank’s top management made the decision to launch a pilot project covering a selected segment of business processes.

The business processes used for selling the bank’s most in-demand bulk products, cash loans and credit cards, were selected for the optimization. The analysis covered the entire set of applications processed in 2016. A unified front-end system based on Oracle Siebel CRM was used as the data source. The collected data were used to reconstruct in detail the individual chains of activities performed to process applications, including the time the retail network employees spend on each step of the process. The data on processing time were of utmost importance, since they allowed separating the time spent on active handling of each application (actual labor input) fr om the time the application was waiting in the processing queue. The analysis allowed the bank to determine the main areas for optimization efforts and develop a number of tactical and strategic measures for optimizing the processes.

As a result of the project and the consequent improved performance of the retail network, the bank plans to boost the overall efficiency of its processes. Excluding an inefficient sales scenario that was identified as a result of the analysis will enable the bank to minimize its losses in this area, while optimizing the extreme scenarios in the business processes will allow the bank to reduce the overall labor input of retail network employees.

‘VTB 24 maintains a program to search for new ways to optimize operational efficiency of customer services; this program delivers competitive advantages in a highly competitive environment and a reduction in primary costs of banking services. The very size of the bank’s sales network and the fast development of the product suite were the factors that restricted the options for analyzing the situation by traditional methods. We needed a new, never-used-before technology, since the analysis timeframes offered by traditional methods failed to match the pace of change in the current situation,’ says Tatyana Svidunovich, head of the bank’s Process Efficiency Department. ‘The economic effect we attained shows that Process Mining technology may be gradually applied to all of the bank’s key processes.’

‘We were the first company to implement innovative Process Mining technology to optimize operations at a major Russian business on an industrial scale,’ says Roman Anyutin, head of RAMAX International’s Expertise Center. ‘The bank’s team contributed significantly to the project’s implementation. Their commitment and focus on gaining practical results for the bank played a key role in our shared success. The project demonstrated the undoubted effectiveness of the technology, and this is confirmed by the customer’s plans to extend the application of the technology in cooperation with our firm, while involving other departments and structural units of the bank.’
‘The flexible and adaptive approach to implementing Process Mining technology applied by RAMAX International enabled us to gain, within the shortest time possible, the first tangible results in process optimization that yield actual financial effects,’ says Aleksey Golubintsev, head of the bank’s Process Optimization Department. ‘Owing to the Celonis platform’s functionality and user-friendliness, the bank can independently conduct prompt analysis of the current situation and identify promising areas to boost performance without the need to conduct long-term and expensive surveys with the involvement of third-party consultants.’

We also highlight that major foreign companies began to apply Process Mining technology in operations several years ago, but that until now it had not yet been used on the Russian market.