24 banks, one platform: The ESPRIT Network puts its trust in ti&m Banking

Bernhard Fässler: New technologies often require investment. Making investments with limited resources and shrinking margins is a major challenge. Every technological investment should ultimately deliver value. Technological changes often lead to greater complexity in the IT landscape and create new challenges, for example with legacy systems. Driven by neobanks and fintechs, customer expectations regarding features and user experience are increasing. For us, stability and a broad range of features for different customer groups, such as private and corporate clients, are the main priorities, while neobanks tend to focus more on more distinctive features. But we are also feeling these rising customer expectations in regional banks. Further challenges include regulatory requirements, cybersecurity, and AI. Developments in the field of AI have accelerated massively in recent months.

Stephan Bärtschi: Yes, developments in areas such as process digitalization, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity are advancing at a rapid pace. It’s important to monitor developments closely and to deploy the right solutions at the right time. Without the ESPRIT Network, it would be virtually impossible to make generally cost-intensive investments like this. While there are countless interesting tools on the market, the budget for investing in technology is not unlimited. We have to separate the wheat from the chaff: What will customers expect from a modern bank in the future? What does it need to offer digitally? Where do customers still want face-to-face interaction? What adds value, and what is just a gimmick? It’s a delicate balancing act.

Bernhard Fässler: The economies of scale and synergies created by a shared banking platform are enormous, as is the pooling of expertise and resources. Very few of our member banks would have been able to handle a project like the launch of a new mobile and online banking platform on their own.

Stephan Bärtschi: The solution stood out thanks to its modern, sophisticated digital banking platform for desktop and mobile. The decision was made based on a comprehensive evaluation and corresponding scope definition. Another advantage of the solution was that it didn’t need to be developed from scratch, but was already being used productively by other banks, including institutions with the same core banking system as the ESPRIT Network. This reduced the project risk significantly. In addition, the positive experience with our previously launched ti&m customer portal played a key role in the decision.

Bernhard Fässler: We were convinced by the overall package: the unified solution for mobile and web banking, the range of features, the bLink integration, and above all the open architecture with the ti&m Banking Adapter, which makes us less dependent on the core banking system and simplifies further development.

Bernhard Fässler: Today, mobile and online banking is no longer a decision for the next 20 years, but a product with a lifecycle similar to that of other products. In the past, online banking was closely intertwined with the core banking system, which made replacing it very complex and time-consuming. Whether another product will emerge on the market in the future that can do much more is something we do not yet know today. But that does not mean that we would want to replace our mobile and online banking again in just a few years. We assume that ti&m will continue to develop the product on an ongoing basis. We have a solid product at a reasonable price, and I have complete confidence that ti&m Banking will still be among the best in five years’ time. And introducing a new mobile and online banking solution is certainly not so simple that you would want to do it every five years.

Bernhard Fässler: I am convinced that AI will become an integral part of banking solutions. However, it is not yet possible to predict exactly how customers will use AI to manage their banking in five to ten years’ time. The development of multi-banking and open banking will continue. I can imagine that mobile and online banking will in future integrate other services, such as insurance: mobile banking will become a place where customers can orchestrate their entire financial management in one bundled environment.

Bernhard Fässler: The decoupling from the core banking system through the ti&m Banking Adapter mentioned earlier, together with the resulting flexibility, enables individual developments for each bank. With ti&m Banking, we have a system that fits well into our distributed and complex IT landscape without creating significantly greater complexity.

Stephan Bärtschi: Digital banking is the most popular way for our customers to interact with us, making it one of our bank’s core systems. This service must be modern and secure, and function stably and reliably, so customers can conduct their banking transactions anytime, anywhere. The platform has to offer good opportunities for future expansion too.

Stephan Bärtschi: Generally speaking, most of the banks in the network are traditional regional banks with similar business models, so the requirements weren’t fundamentally different. Having said that, due to their varying sizes and the distinct characteristics of their customer segments, not all of the banks have the same priorities. For example, some banks in the network are heavily involved in the corporate banking segment, while others prioritize securities investments. Ultimately, ti&m Banking meets the diverse needs of a retail bank.

Bernhard Fässler: The biggest challenge was finding common ground: Which features should the solution have, and how should those features be implemented? This required the ESPRIT Network to act as the orchestrator and ti&m as the software provider to implement our requirements.

Stephan Bärtschi: Since we were one of the pilot banks, we were able to help shape the project from the very beginning. We didn’t feel that we had to make many compromises during the evaluation or the project phase. One unfortunate compromise had to be made when we discontinued the pre-existing batch posting feature, which has now resulted in additional outlay and less clarity in day-to-day operations. During the production phase, we and others submitted numerous requests for changes and corrections. Here, the priorities of all participating banks were evaluated within the broader context, meaning that one bank’s concerns might not always have been at the top of the list.

Bernhard Fässler: I was very positively surprised by how the project was carried out. It never became highly critical, and there was no nasty surprise at the end. Of course, there were challenges, such as certain features that were not implemented appropriately. It is important that the features that are not yet satisfactory are implemented quickly. As of today, we already have many new requirements that we will implement as the project continues. The migration went very well. It was a very successful project. My thanks go to our banks, to ti&m, to Swisscom, to Finnova, and to ESPRIT Netzwerk AG. There was a certain risk involved in taking on a project like this. But when everyone pulls together in the same direction, it can be done with 24 banks.

Stephan Bärtschi: For the banks themselves, the testing phase was intensive and took a while to get off the ground at first. This needed more time and resources than expected, but, with the right impetus, this phase was completed on schedule too.

Stephan Bärtschi: The customer migration took place in several phases for each bank. The transition for the banks in the network followed a staged approach too. As a result, the transition went relatively smoothly. Customer support required a number of resources. Fortunately, other ti&m customers shared their experiences with us early on, which enabled us to build up the necessary resources; this turned out to be the right move.

Stephan Bärtschi: Front-line employees had to familiarize themselves with ti&m Banking and get used to various new features, just like our customers, but they got the hang of it quickly. At first glance, everything looks drastically different, but a bank statement is still a bank statement; to initiate a payment, you still enter the same information as before.

Stephan Bärtschi: People are creatures of habit and reluctant to change their routines. As a bank, you have to be prepared for that with projects like this. That’s why the initial feedback wasn’t all positive. We had to overhaul a lot of aspects, get to grips with new logics, and carry out certain processes differently. However, after a brief adjustment period, the new system received mostly positive reviews; the all-in-one app for all devices has been particularly well received.

Stephan Bärtschi: Despite extensive testing with detailed test cases, there were a few major pain points after the go-live that caused frustration. I guess you can never catch everything in testing. This is just something you have to accept when undertaking a migration on this scale. I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly and flexibly ti&m was able to address some of the pain points and implement fixes or solutions.