To satisfy the needs of our customers coping with digital change we introduced an innovation programme to encourage initiative across the company.. François-Régis Martin, Chief Digital Officer, talks about his project.
How was the digital transformation of BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions achieved?
The digital transformation became a necessity in 2013 to strengthen our position as a European leader. With the help of “l’Atelier”, the innovation branch of the BNP Paribas Group, we came to the conclusion that we needed to lead a transversal and global transformation based on 3 pillars: sales (for customers), operations (for Back Office activities such as the management of contracts) and working (for all employees, to familiarise them with a more digital way of working).
This transformation was strategic because we feared that part of our value chain would be taken over by new competitors. We defined the priority areas for digital transformation, and, in 2018, took the next step by anticipating the role of disruptive technologies in everyday business via our “Stretch Your Business” programme. The goal is to understand what new technologies can bring to our business.
Can you tell us more about the “Stretch Your Business” programme?
“Stretch Your Business” is an innovative 3-step programme that will allow us to incorporate disruptive technologies into mainstream business.
A first, an ideation stage allowed us to select use cases during JAM Sessions which took place in 8 countries with 12 participating teams.
The JAM Sessions are collaborative exercises carried out over 2 days with internal and external experts, with the aim of presenting a solid solution to our current business challenges through the use of new, disruptive technologies. This programme is decentralised to give more autonomy to the local teams, while maintaining a link with our central corporate teams. The idea is that the corporate will no longer take the lead but rather hold a role of support and guidance.
In fact, the second step, known as the incubation phase, consisted of working on a realistic and achievable vision of each project with the support of our central teams, taking into account the financial, technical and resource constraints.
Finally, the last step of the “Stretch Your Business” programme was to further develop the 6 retained use cases as a beta version in Paris with the help of start-ups during a one-week boot camp. With this programme, we aim at implementing the proposed solutions as quickly as possible.
Which ideas were retained?
In January 2019, the General Management approved 5 out of the 6 projects, which are still subject to security and architecture validation by corporate IT team. We have 3 business-oriented projects that use the benefits of voice recognition, machine learning with a chatbot and artificial intelligence. The other two projects focus on operational efficiency using big data processing and artificial intelligence.
When will these solutions be available?
The goal is for these projects to be on the market by the end of June 2019. The Stretch Your Business programme is time-sensitive and disrupts the usual way of working to ensure that projects go on and quickly become a reality for our employees, partners and customers.
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