The Shizuoka Bank, Ltd.
Banking channel innovation realizing new community-based financial services
As part of its 13th Mid-term Business Plan, the Shizuoka Bank set 'the reform of sales operations using retail channels and IT infrastructure' as one of its core strategies. The Shizuoka Bank chose Fujitsu’s FrontSHIP, a front-end services platform to deliver location-free and omni-channel services. As the first step in this process, the Shizuoka Bank trialed various FrontSHIP functions, including the recommendation of financial products most suited to individual customer requirements and the online applications of banking services.
There is an urgent need for banks to establish front-end channels capable of open innovation including collaboration with other industries. To meet this need, we expect Fujitsu will deliver a specialized front-end services platform for the finance industry which has high compatibility with our existing systems, and can keep up with new global trends while supporting local needs.
Hidehito Iio
Director and Senior Executive Officer
The Shizuoka Bank, Ltd.
Background
Using the latest technology for front-end channels to reform sales operation aligned with the digital market
With its base in Shizuoka Prefecture, southwest of Tokyo, the Shizuoka Bank, Ltd. operates from 173 locations within the prefecture, 30 locations in other prefectures, and 5 locations overseas (208 locations in total, as at September 2018). In addition to handling a wide range of financial products, the bank is currently investing in Fintech endeavors and participating in cross-industry collaborations. The Shizuoka Bank announced its 13th Mid-term Business Plan, as a three-year plan covering fiscal years 2017 through to 2019. One of the core strategies laid out in the plan was ‘the reform of sales operations using retail channels and IT infrastructure’. The strategy seeks to innovate sales processes such as ‘location-free operation’, enabling applications and contracts anytime on-the-spot; ‘self-service’, for in-branch deposits, withdraws, utility and tax payment operations; and ‘sales support’, to disseminate sales information to customers via smartphones and social media to collect, accumulate and analyze customer feedback.
Commenting on the background to the bank’s efforts to transform its sales operations, Hidehito Iio, Director and Senior Executive Officer, the Shizuoka Bank, says, “The importance of physical branches for local banks will remain unchanged, but with the progress of digital, there has been a dramatic increase in the entry of non-bank entities using Fintech services. There is an urgent need for banks to upgrade front-end channels through developing internet banking capable of handling open innovation including collaboration with other industries.”
The Shizuoka Bank is promoting process transformation for both face-to-face and non-face-to-face channels through driving automation, paperless, and seal-less of transactions and promoting channel transformation, which is omni-channels to deliver the same services from both face-to-face and non-face-to-face channels.
The story so far
Providing attractive financial services by taking initiatives of digitalization
To transform both its face-to-face and non-face-to-face channels in parallel, the Shizuoka Bank adopted Fujitsu’s FrontSHIP front-end services platform for the finance industry. FrontSHIP supports the creation of new contact points with customers and provides an improved customer experience through digital channels.
“The deciding factor to adopt FrontSHIP was its ability to match the security level of the previous internet banking system we were operating,” recalls Yoshinori Kobayashi, the Shizuoka Bank’s General Manager, IT Planning Group, Corporate Planning Department (formerly). Elaborating further, Nobuhiro Yayabe, Deputy General Manager, IT Planning Group , adds, “Another reason that we chose FrontSHIP was its high degree of compatibility with the existing internal systems we were running. The exceptional technical capabilities of Fujitsu were also very appealing to us.”
In October 2018, the bank took its first step in using FrontSHIP by implementing its ’One to One’ recommendations and applications for various online services. These involve analyzing a customer’s requirements and the trends in their financial transactions and then matching the results with the bank’s products and services that would be the best fit for the customer. Yayabe comments that, when the ‘One to One’ recommendation function was implemented, “We focused on improving convenience for each and every customer, while the system was controlled to be in line with laws on financial products sales.”
Outcome and next step
Working toward a shared front-end services platform
Banking services that would otherwise need a visit to a branch could now be accessed at anytime, anywhere via their smartphones or other internet-connected devices. The Shizuoka Bank built their financial platform as a first step to realize this channel transformation.
By hosting its front-end services platform for the finance industry in the cloud, Iio comments, “Rather than the Shizuoka Bank building and operating a highly scalable front-end services platform on its own, we want it to become a cloud service that enables us to actively collaborate with external stakeholders according to its usage and cost.” He adds, “With the banking business model changing dramatically, I have high expectations that FrontSHIP will become a key system for the future, that the use of cloud services will enable sharing of the underlying internet-based front-end services functionality, which will promote healthy competition as each bank implements its own financial services within that platform.”
By implementing a system that can keep up with new trends, such as Fintech and cross-industry collaborations, the Shizuoka Bank is developing new retail channels and services. In this way, the bank aims to continue providing the best services fit to local needs in support of its fundamental corporate philosophy, ‘to broaden dreams and prosperity within our community’.
The Shizuoka Bank, Ltd.
| Address | 10, Gofukucho 1-chome, Aoi-ku, Shizuoka-shi, Shizuoka 420-8761, Japan |
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| Established | March 1, 1943 |
| Employees | 2,857 (as at July 31, 2018) |
| Website | https://www.shizuokabank.co.jp/english/ |
［Published in 2019］
