While Australia's four major banks all posted record profits in 2013 off the back of decades of sustained IT investment, several tier 2 banks spent the year investing in systems that will pose a genuine challenge in the years ahead.
This year, submissions from several of these smaller outfits impressed our judges.
Across all submissions, the growth of mobile banking was seen as a major focus of activity for the following six months, as was the use of digital technologies to diversify service offerings.
One of the best submissions came through from Westpac Institutional Bank, which made big gains in the superannuation space on the back of a timely project.
Please join us in congratulating:
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Andy Weir - Bankwest Where Bankwest's mobile banking platform was once a hack developed by a keen staffer during an 'Innovation Time Out', in 2013 the bank threw a sizeable team at refining it to ensure it would meet customer demands. The result was a radically simpler interface that manages to deliver at or above the standard of Bankwest's sizeable East Coast competitors. The judges noted: Kudos to Bankwest for listening to customer feedback and delivering on the features sought out for some 18 months. The growth in mobile banking traffic across all the banks spurted in 2013, but in percentage terms few had a bigger uptick than Bankwest. The new app, and the process that led to it, have made a marked impact on Bankwest's reputation for quality. |
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David Gee - Credit Union Australia Credit Union Australia continues to strengthen its technology posture with the first delivery of a core banking refresh in a tier 2 bank in recent years. The judges noted: David Gee has spent two years not only drawing up the bank's technology roadmap but also instilling a new culture. His 'balanced scorecard' approach to dealing with the uncertainty of partnerships with offshore service providers would be a handy guide to other CIOs in his position. This impressive project positions Credit Union Australia for future growth and lower costs. |
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Jim Burke - Westpac Institutional Bank Westpac seized on an opportunity created by the Australian Government's Stronger Super program to create a superannuation gateway product that has already signed up a large proportion of Australia's superannuation funds. The judges noted: Agility is the ability to execute quickly after identifying a market need. Westpac Institutional Bank, led by head of innovation Mike Baldwin, understood that most super funds and indeed the regulators would be reticent to invest in a rollover platform as part of the Stronger Super reforms, and leveraged the bank's tech prowess to take advantage. Westpac now anticipates a sizeable return on investment from this quick win. |
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Special thanks to our sponsors: The Australian Computer Society, Dimension Data Learning Solutions and Samsung.
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