IBM SOA Customer - SOA in Banking - KBC Bank

IBM SOA Customer - Service Oriented Architecture SOA in Banking - KBC Bank
Improving customer service by automating content management

"Claims managers can now concentrate on their primary job, rather than on searching for information. As a result, KBC expects not only to save money, but to improve internal efficiencies and boost customer satisfaction." - Pierre Sleewaegen, KBC program manager

Customer: KBC Bank - IBM SOA Customer - Service Oriented Architecture SOA in Banking
ployment Country: Belgium
Industry: Banking, Insurance
Solution: Enabling Business Flexibility, Service Oriented Architecture

Overview - SOA in Banking
KBC's insurance division needed to make it faster and easier for customers and business partners to obtain accurate, up-to-date information about insurance claims. It also wanted to drive better collaboration among its back office, business partners and customers.

Business need: KBC needed to move from paper archives to a more automated, electronic approach. The company knew it had to build its new customer-centric strategy on a well-established IT architecture framework, with clear policies and reusable components.

Solution: The framework, built on a service-oriented architecture (SOA), enables KBC’s partners to access and update the electronic claim files, while KBC Claims Handlers and KBC Insurance agents can follow the status of their claims via the Web-based interface.

Benefits: This solution enables Web-based customer self-service and speeds claims processing by allowing updating by partners. Expected time savings varies from 2.5% for KBC Claim Handlers to 10% for administrative personnel.

Case Study - SOA in Banking
KBC Group is a financial services company that offers retail banking and insurance, asset management, and corporate and market services. It is one of the top three insurers in Belgium and has a presence in more than 30 countries worldwide. The company's 45,000 employees reach nine million customers through a wide network of branches, subsidiaries and representative offices. KBC has the ambition to be an independent, medium-sized, multi-channel bank insurer, serving private persons and small and medium sized enterprises in selected European countries, with expertise in asset management and the financial markets, and the aim of achieving high profitability targets through efficiency, customer centricity, employee-friendly policies and sound risk management.

Business Challenge: SOA in Banking
KBC's insurance division needed to improve claims handling cost-efficiency by automating workflows and utilizing electronic - rather than paper - archives. It also wanted to enable customer self-service and drive better collaboration. To efficiently handle unstructured content and support collaboration among its back office, channels, business partners and customers, KBC knew it had to build a strategy on a well-established IT architecture framework, associated policies and reusable components.

KBC ICT, the company’s IT support unit, began looking for an approach which would facilitate extensive collaboration among auto repairers, damage experts, legal advisors, insurance agents, brokers and customers. By using Web-based channels and distribution channel agents to give customers easily accessible, up-to-date information, KBC felt that it could significantly improve customer services.

Solution: SOA in Banking
KBC ICT and KBC together engaged IBM Global Services as well as IBM Software Services for Information Management (ISSIM) to develop a content management framework for its claims management division. The solution integrates with the existing application architecture and utilizes IBM DB2 Content Manager software. The ISSIM group also provided knowledge transfer to KBC related to the new environment's software, framework and operating model, and acted as a liaison between the KBC support groups and the DB2 Content Manager support center in Boeblingen, Germany. KBC chose IBM DB2 Content Manager for Sun Solaris V8.3 software as the content management standard for its entire group. Utilizing the new framework, which is built on a service-oriented architecture (SOA), KBC's current and new business applications can access content management-related services to perform many routine tasks.

IBM Global Business Services developed and deployed the content management group framework and implemented new business processes. The new processes included:

Processes for adding of documents such as scanning, e-mail, and upload
Access to documents allocated to claim files to which they are allowed by the SA claim handling application such as View, Manage, Annotate and Output.
IBM Global Technology Services implemented the framework's infrastructure and operational services, while IBM Global Business Services - Application Management Services provided application development and support.

Benefits: SOA in Banking
With the new content management framework from IBM, KBC expects to improve customer services, making it faster and easier for customers to obtain accurate, up-to-date information about insurance claims. Because the solution uses electronically managed claims files, it drives better internal efficiencies and lower costs. Claims managers will be able to concentrate on their primary work rather than looking for documentation or information. KBC expects to improve the quality and quantity of claims management overall, improving customer satisfaction. Similar savings will be realized by implementing the content management framework at KBC's other companies in the Czech Republic in 2007 and later at Warta, Poland in 2008.

The solution also enables better collaboration between the company's back office, channels, business partners and customers. Insurance agents and participating companies, such as car repairers and claim experts, will be able to access and update the electronic claim files. Expected time savings varies from 2.5% for KBC Claim Handlers to 10% for administrative personnel.

Products and Services Used - SOA in Banking
IBM products and services that were used in this case study.
Services: GBS Application Development / Wireless Applications, IBM Global Business Services, IBM Integrated Technology Services