(uptempo bright music)
-: Hello, I am Bhavya Kumar,
and I'm in Riyadh today
to talk about the digital transformation success story
at Banque Saudi Fransi.
Banque Saudi Fransi is a leading bank
in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,
and the bank has undergone a major digital transformation,
including implementing a new, modern core banking system.
Today, I have the pleasure
to meet the bank's CIO, Mohammed Almisfer.
So let me go inside and talk to Mohammed.
(uptempo energetic music)
Banque Saudi Fransi has gone through a major refresh
of its go-to-market strategy
and a very complex
core banking system implementation program.
And I'm pleased to be joined with BSF CIO Mohammed Almisfer.
-: Thank you, Bhavya.
The first thing, you need sponsors
and the stakeholders, management, CEOs,
board members need to embrace that digital transformation
alongside the business alignment and the trust
in that journey.
What I mean by trust is not only that they look at it
as a technology transformation;
they look at it as new processes,
new organizational effectiveness,
and a new way of dealing with the market.
Third, you need to do it in a phased approach
and be able to release as you go to see
how the customers, how your clients are adopting
and your business alongside it.
And definitely, you will need continuous governance,
be it from the business, be it from the technology,
be it from the consortium
that you have developed in your digital transformation,
and make sure
that you have an intensive care towards your clients
and not lose your customer trust.
-: Building on the partnership point, Mohammed,
how has BCG helped BSF
and yourself in this journey
so far in achieving your strategic objectives
for the core banking program?
-: They played a big role in enabling our governance.
The rapid and continuous pressure
that they are putting towards all our transformation
was actually massive.
Alongside it is how they benchmark our bank with others.
They're able to always tell us how other banks are doing,
and this is fundamental
to our key transformation that we have done.
-: So Mohammed, as CIO, what has been the highlight
of this core banking
and technology transformation program for you?
-: Actually, this program
is not only a core banking implementation.
BSF embraced this with multiple challenges.
The investment compared to others was very competitive
and we also had the time that we wanted
to really go and challenge the banks in the KSA market
where we can lead.
From a technology side,
we moved to one unified core banking system.
We also introduced a new branch
and payment hub with a new integration
for 15 years down the journey
of our digital transformation.
And this is, by one month,
we started to see 35 decommissioned applications.
We started to see actually straight-through processes
and first to market.
And this journey will continue going forward
for our stakeholders, investors,
and for our competitive advantage.