CASE APPLICATION: PROJECT SAPPHIRE AIMST UNIVERSITY

NAME: GAYATHIRI DORAI SINGAM ID NO: 1100729 NAME: PUNITHA KARUNAGARAN ID NO: 1100878 NAME: SAMIHA WASIM ID NO: 1100747 NAME: MALAR VILI GOPALAKRISHNAN ID NO: 1100914 NAME: THAMARAI SELVI DORAI PANDIYAN ID NO: 1100828 SUBJECT: PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT LECTURER: MISS A. SANTHI

CASE APPLICATION: PROJECT SAPPHIRE AIMST UNIVERSITY

INTRODUCTION
Standard Bank of South Africa(Standard Bank) is established in 1862. South Africas largest financial services group, operating one of the countrys biggest retail banks. It has 33,000 employees worldwide. Standard Bank has a reputation as the most technologically advanced bank in South Africa. Standard Bank (SBSA) is South Africas largest banking establishment in terms of earnings and assets. Its 53,000 employees serve 17 sub-Saharan African nations and 15 other countries worldwide. SBSA ranked No. 177 on the Forbes Global 2000 companies for 2010 and has been in operation for more than 150 years, with currently more than 1,150 branches on the African continent, supporting more than 40 million customer interactions annually.

SUMMARY
In the early part SBSA found itself suffering from competition from 50 plus international. SBSA also have a challenge to determine which customer is profitable and which were not. Then SBSA, trying to find ways to keep customer service inspired, motivated and involved. The solution was Project Sapphire. It was 3 year project to move company away from a one size fits all approach to customer. The strategic aim of this project was the consolidation of 23 disparate contact centers into one virtual operation, while consolidating and standardizing multiple lines of business into one operation and solution. The Results is over the first 24 months, Sapphire had delivered an operational saving of 16 million. Empowered agents have all the information they require in one place, and as a result, first call resolution has improved across all queries by 30% and call transfers reduced by 20%. SBSAs processes are now customer-centric, and can be quickly adapted based on business

CASE APPLICATION: PROJECT SAPPHIRE AIMST UNIVERSITY

QUESTION 1 DESCCRIBE AND EVALUATE WHAT SBSA IS DOING. South Africas largest financial services group, operating one of the countrys biggest retail banks. SBSA is simply serving the customer and handle over 40 million contact centre customer interactions. The bank was struggling to provide first class customer experience. SBSA looked to develop a strategy which would move the bank from a product-centric to a customer-centric focus, transforming their customer experience and reducing customer churn. SBSA is more on customer orientated. QUESTION 2 HOW MIGHT THE FOCUS ON SIMPLIFYING ITS CUSTOMER SERVICE PROCESSES AFFECT SBSAS GOAL TO OVERCOME THE THREAT OF NUMEROUS INTERNATIONAL BANKS TARGETING THE COUNTRY. The effect was the consolidation of 23 disparate contact centers into one virtual operation, while consolidating and standardizing multiple lines of business into one operation and solutions platform. The bank also restructured into 4 specialized units covering retail, regional, commercial and corporate banking to give managers more accurate, up to date information about customer quickly and efficiently. The bank with a user friendly, process-driven unified agent desktop that reduced the number of applications from 18 to 1, and increased the agents ability to resolve multiple queries during a single transaction. SBSA was able to optimize processes and increase efficiency and effectiveness, which directly improved the customer and agent experience.

CASE APPLICATION: PROJECT SAPPHIRE AIMST UNIVERSITY

QUESTION 3 WHAT STRUCTURAL IMPILICATIONS GOOD OR BAD-MIGHT SBSAS INTENSE FOCUS ON CUSTOMER SERVICE HAVE? The structural implications are Project Sapphire. It is good for SBSA. Yes, it focus on customer service we can see this implication bring changes in SBSA. For example, over the first 24 months, Sapphire had delivered an operational saving of 16 million. The new platform improved coaching and quality assurance capabilities, which in turn has reduced the dependency on agent training and lowered the attrition rate of staff, saving the bank approximately 1.3 million in Human Resource costs. Empowered agents have all the information they require in one place, and as a result, first call resolution has improved across all queries by 30% and call transfers reduced by 20%. SBSAs processes are now customer-centric, and can be quickly adapted based on business and market demands. QUESTION 4 DO YOU THINK THIS ARRANGEMENT WOULD WORK FOR OTHER TYPES OF ORGANIZATIONS? WHY OR WHY NOT? In my opinion, yes because all the business is normally focus on customer for example all organization said CUSTOMER ALWAYS RIGHT. I think Project Sapphire would help an organization to improve their customer service to accomplish their company`s goal. This is because customer is an asset of an organization. Every organization needs to attract their customers by providing good customer service. So, I think that this arrangement would work for all types of organization.

CASE APPLICATION: PROJECT SAPPHIRE AIMST UNIVERSITY