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United Bank for Africa Makes History(This Day (Nigeria) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)United Bank for Africa (UBA) attained a landmark achievement yesterday as it interconnected its 428 branches making it the bank with largest online real time branch network in Nigeria and Africa. This, in a nutshell, meant that customers of the former Standard Trust Bank (STB) and UBA, irrespective of where their accounts were domiciled can now withdraw or deposit money in any of these 428 branches of the new UBA strategically located across the nooks and crannies of the country. This is no doubt a very big achievement given the fact that the bank's integration process was completed months below the normal industry average of 36 months. Integration is usually a delicate art that entails harmonising infrastructure, systems, processes and people of the merging entities into a functional unit that will deliver greater value to the stakeholders than they would ordinarily receive from the merging units on a stand-alone basis. For customers of the new UBA, the completion of the integration process would enable the bank serve them better and also make the bank more accessible to them as they can now make use of any of the 428 branches to transact their respective businesses. For shareholders of the bank, the feat achieved by the new UBA yesterday would automatically enhance their investments. And for the bank, the integration of all its branches has positioned it to leap-frog the much expected competition in the post-consolidation era. UBA Executive Director, Retail Bank Group, Mr. Chika Mordi, told THISDAY yesterday that the bank had done a lot of preparatory work to ensure that none of the bank's customers suffer during and after the systems cut-over. "We had a very elaborate and intricate process well ahead of time. We believe in the maxim that maximum preparation means minimum risk. "So we had figured the scenario that would occur in terms of the cut-over and the complete requirements to whatever could go wrong and how do you remediate it? So, we put a lot of redundancy. What I mean by this is that we put in multiple links, we put multiple records in the layers so that as one goes wrong the other one kicks in. We also set up a 24/7 help center to assist clients who encounter any problems. This center is manned by a very robust team - people who have set up such centers in the United States and North America so, it's not new to them. "About 8.30 am this morning (yesterday), we had started running the new Finacle system - one single system across the whole country. Basically, we have a very interesting process. For example, if there is a complaint about something that happened in Katsina, as it is being resolved that resolution is shared across all the 428 branches. So, if we have problems they can easily be mitigated because we learn from where it happened. So, all our customers have been over-protected. As we speak now, it's already 4pm and by the grace of God, we have no chaos," he said. Mordi also gave an insight into how the strengths of the old STB and UBA were injected into the new UBA. "Right from the onset, we knew that there was going to be a lot of synergy. Our colleagues say we are transplanting the heart of a lion into the body of an elephant. We are giving the elephant the soul of a lion to make it trigger, to make it bold and to make it nimble. I think we are very much on the right path. "We have done a lot to ensure that the strengths behind the old UBA are not lost in the new UBA. And we have done a lot to also ensure that the entrepreneurship in the old STB in not lost as well in the new UBA. So, you have everything - the courses are now identical but you are having diversity of culture. But I think that the same diversity is strength in itself. In every society you have cultural diversities and this is what makes that society great. So, cultural diversity can be strength," he added. Commenting on the bank's newly acquired banking software, (Finacle Version 7.0.9), UBA's Head of Corporate Communications, Mr. Charles Oben said it empowers a large number of global financial institutions to positively transform their business through leveraging state of the art technology. "The solution robustly addresses the core banking, e-banking, treasury, wealth management, and CRM and cash management requirements of global, retail, corporate, community and private banks and financial services institutions worldwide. "UBA required a new generation technology which would provide a single unified view of the customers' lifecycle relationship with the group as a whole with simplified system menus, easy navigation and trusted security features," he explained. He added that finacle was carefully selected "due to its highly credible track record which spanned years of experience with a large number of diverse global banks and its seamless ability to offer several extremely powerful and differentiating features making it one of the most comprehensive, flexible, secure and scalable Financial Services solutions in its class." Definitely, the bank's customers should get ready for a world-class service delivery. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media. (allafrica.com) |