IT Leveraging at the Operational Level in Barclays Bank - Case Study Example

IT Leveraging Business Advantage (according to the actual Bank Case) [Student’s Name] [Institution Affiliation] IT Leveraging at the Operational Level in Barclays Bank Organizations, both large sized and small sized are leveraging opportunities offered by information technology to extend their market reach within the global business environment. IT has also enabled increased business trans-border data flow and facilitated access to market intelligence. A good example of an organization, which benefits from IT leveraging at an operational level is Barclays Bank. With the increasing globalization in the business environment as well as the easy movement of capital across borders, Barclays can mobilize resources and operations in most parts of the world through leveraging ICT. Barclays is effectively leveraging IT for business advantage, especially in the developed world because it has high levels of e-readiness. The bank is finding it easier to successfully penetrate and operate in the global business environment by leveraging ICT. Before ICT, Barclays used to handle its intra-office communication in person and manually. It was mandatory for the bank employees to be physically present in the bank premises throughout the normal business hours where they carried out their job functions and cooperated with other employees. From a technological point of view, it is in the appropriateness of things to evaluate Barclay’s efficiency in using the power as well as the abilities of IT maximally through evaluating the productivity benefits brought about by IT. Wager, Lee, and Glaser (2009) argue that leaders have to be effective in managing change for an organization to be effective in leveraging IT to further its goals. This is particularly true in Barclays, as the IT agenda is ambitious. Effective change management requires an organization to address the formal design of the organizations (business processes, incentives, and roles), political or power based and cultural aspects of the organization. These three areas (political, cultural, and formal design) must change for the IT-enabled change to be effective (Woemer & Ross, 2007). According to Barclay’s spokesperson, technology moves very fast and no business should stand still and thus there was need for the company to evolve and adapt to its customers (Espiner, 2012). The spokesperson was defending the company strategy to sack 422 back-office workers in the UK, as part of a worldwide call for IT jobs. Barclays was cutting operation as well as IT employees to invest more on technology capabilities in areas, such as mobile banking, which necessitates that the company hires employees with different skills. The spokesperson argued that Barclays had to restructure its technology division, although it meant job losses within and outside the UK (Espiner, 2012). In this case, Barclay leaders sought to manage change for the organization to be effective in leveraging IT to further its goals using mobile banking. Successful companies are distinguished through their capacity to leverage their IT capacities to alter their business roles, processes, as well as the structures to gain a commanding source of competitive advantage. In Barclays, the information technology department is in charge of developing business as well as technology planning and strategy and making sure there is effective supply of IT infrastructure, IT application help, IT operations and improving services to the bank clients and IT Service and Change Management. It is also responsible for managing every day processing at local computer centres as well as live help for the computer systems. Barclays FX Trader The company has achieved excellence in IT governance, which is a critical aspect of establishing the required IT risk and compliance decisions. The company has deployed a documented IT strategy as well as a vision that clearly articulates IT goals. This vision is aligned with the overall business strategy. For instance, the introduction of Barclays Capital FX Trader Version 5, which has been of great success for the company capital with number of active users rising by twenty five percent a month after its introduction (e-Forex, 2012). The FX Trader has live tradable deposit rates as well as the capacity to place FX orders with Barclays Capital Trader. It also streamlined clients business because it has the capacity to link directly to a customer Treasury Management System. It also features such as 2 years forward trading in more than 40 currencies including mismatched and matched swaps, asset allocation, bulk execution, FX Charting, credit checking, and access to the bank Capital research. Barclays has been updating its IT tools and strategies with time. There is an extensive array of IT applications, which help boost the company units’ performance, including applications, which, assist in driving profits increase like the FX Trader and others, which facilitate, optimize profits, and reduce costs. Barclays has embarked on an all-inclusive evaluation of the most important IT opportunities for marketing, distribution, sales, quality, and customers care. Technology is not being utilized, as an automatic process way, it is being utilized as an innovative way of delivering services to clients. The taking up of technology has generated numerous advantages, such as better profitability; quicker service and customer satisfaction; flexibility and convenience, 24-hour operations every day as well as space and cost savings. Engler and Essinger (2000) argue that the Internet has led to a revolution technology, and it could have better influence on change relative to the industrial revolution. Barclays has used technology to offer banking services in the numerous ways, such as through ATMs, Internet banking, and mobile banking. ATMS ATMs are cash dispensing machine located at the bank and other numerous places where there is more traffic. ATMs began as a stand-in for a bank to enable its clients withdraw cash at all times and to offer services where it would not be possible to open an additional physical bank. There are the most visited delivery channels in retail banking with numerous transactions annually. The customers are usually in charge of the transactions, as they are no longer required to rely on bank employees when withdrawing money over the counter. Barclays diverts the huge traffic of people to the ATMs. The ATMs have had exceptional success, and this has led to the development of added inventive delivery channels to increase service and cost effectiveness. In addition to ATMs, Barclays also has call centres, mobile banking, as well as internet banking. Telebanking Telebanking is a high-quality means for clients to make everyday questions and an effective means for bank to reduce work force resources. In 1999, Barclays UK created more than 2,000 jobs after establishing a telephone-banking centre established in Doxford International Business Park (Paterson, 1998). At the time, the director of delivery channel strategy at the bank said that the decision to open up the centre reflected the increasing popularity of telephone banking among the bank customers, and it was important for telephone banking service to manage to grow to meet the customers’ needs. There were other call centres in Manchester and Coventry. Currently, Barclay’s clients can use Telebanking services 24 hours every day in a week so that they can track what it going in and out of their accounts. They also speak to an adviser if need be. The service is private, secure, and confidential and a client is offered a membership number and pass code after joining when need arises to access the account. Telebanking services enable clients to check their balance, request statements, pay bills, and transfer money. Through the adviser, clients can cancel Direct Debits and change standing orders, Order chequebooks and stop cheques, arrange a loan and a personal overdraft, order travellers cheques, take the client new address details, open a new savings or current account and order brochures or get information about other services (Barclays, 2012). As soon as the adviser answers a call from a client, he or she enquires about the service the client needs and chooses one of the many items on the screen. The client is then requested for their name and other crucial details, which allows the adviser to retrieve the customer details in less than two seconds from the mainframe processor. In addition to managing account questions and accounts, the advisers has the right to access the central credit-scoring system of the bank, allowing them to give overdrafts and loans instantly in numerous instances (Barclays, 2012). In case more discussion is required, the system arranges for the client to stopover at their bank through automatically reserving an opening in the electronic diary of the bank. Telephone banking systems thus offer customers anytime and anywhere banking (Barclays, 2012). For a call centre to be effective, the adviser requires an instant access to the account details when a customer telephones. The new telephone technology allows people receiving a call to see the person phoning them. The bank call centre gets together the bank infrastructure and customer service needs. It cuts down costs and result in customer satisfaction by offering a 24/7 working. Internet Banking The other IT leveraging advantage in Barclays is Internet banking. In the midst of the wider use of the Internet, Barclays has taken advantage of the fact that Internet banking would be a superior manner of reaching out to the clients. Barclays has made Internet banking an imperative and accepted system. Barclay’s online banking has features for speeding up the clients banking when they are logging in, making payment, as well as navigating around. It focuses more on security to keep the clients details safe. Online banking is free and it is 24/7 and puts the clients in control of their money. Clients can pay bills, check statements, and transfer money online. The online banking service is hosted on a secure encrypted server such that any information sent to the bank is encoded for protection. The client is logged out of the server in case he or she does not use the online banking services for 10minutes, which gives added protection. Online banking has become a much common phenomenon among Barclay’s clients. Because it enables clients to pay their bills over the Internet and check the transactions of the account online, online banking is a superior feature enjoyed by the majority clients. It makes all activities that clients embark on with their finances simpler as they can access their financial information wherever they have an Internet access. There is a section where a client sets up payees when paying business online. The client fills out the information on one occasion and he or she can chose the profile anytime while paying a bill online. Online banking is normally the fastest way of checking and seeing if a deal has cleared the client’s bank account. This can assist the client to discover the sum of a transaction after losing a receipt, discover unauthorized transactions faster, and help solve issues more quickly. Online banking also enables the client to transfer money amid accounts much faster. It is thus more suitable as it saves the client a trip to the bank. Online banking thus offers clients transparent update information that responds accurately to the orders given by the customer, the ability of customers to choose how they will manage their finances, personalized services, and financial innovation (Akincki, Aksoy & Atilgan, 2004) Mobile Banking The other example of application IT leveraging business advantage is mobile banking also known as M-Banking or mbanking. Clients’ use mobile devices, for instance, mobile phones or Personal Digital Assistant(PDA) to perform account transactions, balance checks, credits applications, payments and other bank transactions. In Barclays, clients can make payment, check balances, transfer money between accounts, and access mini statements. They can also find the nearest ATM or physical branch while out. There are other tools, such as a live stock exchange price index and exchange rate converter. Mobile banking thus enables clients to log in to their account using their mobile device to manage their account. To use mobile banking in Barclays, a customer should have a Barclays current account and he or she should be registered online for online banking to access mobile banking. Accessing mobile banking is dependent on the network coverage of a client mobile service provider, and the client subscription for wireless/mobile internet. The mobile phone has to be enabled to access the internet. The client requires a passcode or PINs entry to access mobile banking. Clients with smart phones have an added advantage as they can have faster access to mobile banking through adding the bank bookmark to their phone home screen. This allows them to get to the Mobile Banking log in screen with just a single click. With mobile banking, the clients can manage their accounts from anywhere without driving to their bank or credit union or booting-up their computer. Mobile banking thus allows the client to check his or her credit card balance before they make a purchase and avoid having the credit provider rejecting the purchase. They can also transfer funds from savings to checking accounts to avoid an overdraft. Barclays Pingit application allows the clients to send money using just their mobile phone. It is free to use and clients can send up to £300 every day and receive up to £ 5,000 every day (Barlcays, 2012). According to Sean Gilchrist, the head of Digital Banking at Barclays, the application has industry standard encryption and can be removed from the phone immediately in case a client loses their mobile device (Warman, 2012). The Pingit application is free to download and is available for Blackberry, iPhone and Android. Clients just need to register their current account as well as their UK mobile number with the applications so that they can send and receive money. When making payments, the client type in the number or chooses the number from the phonebook, which he or she wants to pay from the phone, and selects the amount and then confirms the payment. According to Sean Gilchrist, during registration, clients are asked for numerous personal details to authenticate that they are the person they claim to be. Unlike other similar applications by other banks, the Barclays Pingit is better and revolutionary as it enables the clients to send money from their account to that of another person in the same bank (Warman, 2012). Conclusion The leveraging advantage of IT has helped Barclays to deliver reliable and robust services to their clients at lower costs and to make better decisions. The bank has used technology revolutionary means to deliver services to the clients, which has in turn led to more profits for the bank and efficiency. Technology has also enabled the bank to cut down the number of clients who visit their physical branches, which is also convenient for the clients. Technology has been used to provide banking services via ATMs, mobile banking, internet banking, and Telebanking. Barclays IT leveraging competence is evident in its capacity to use IT functionalities effectively. This has influenced its competitive advantage through functional and dynamic competencies. Barclays IT branch focuses on the way it can leverage IT functionalities to execute and reconfigure business processes in a superior manner. The creation of IT leveraging competency or the capacity to efficiently employ IT functionalities to sustain IT interrelated activities in new service and product creation and expansion in Barclays has generally enabled the bank to offer faster, convenient and cost effective banking services. References Akinci, S., Aksoy, S., & Atilgan, E. (2004). Adoption of internet banking among sophisticated consumer segment in an advanced developing country. The International Journal of Bank Marketing. 22(3), 212-232 Barlcays. (2012). Telephone banking. Retrieved from http://www.personal.barclays.co.uk/BRC1/jsp/brccontrol?task=articleFWgroup&value=8 838&target=_self&site=pfs Barclays. (2012). Premier mobile banking. Retrieved from http://www.barclays.co.uk/Premierwaystobank/PremierMobileBanking/P1242590880020 Barclays. (2012). Barclays pingit. Retrieved from http://www.barclays.co.uk/Mobile/BarclaysPingit/P1242603570446 Edwards, J. (2004). Leveraging web services: planning, building, and integration for maximum impact. New York: AMACOM Espiner, T. (2012). Barclays axes 422 UK tech jobs. ZDNet UK. Retrieved from http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/business-of-it/2012/01/13/barclays-axes-422-uk-tech-jobs-40094815/ e-Forex. (2012). Barclays capital FX trader- leveraging innovative technology. Retrieved from http://www.e-forex.net/news/e-FX+News/1249/Barclays+Capital+FX+Trader-+Leveraging+Innovative+Technology Paterson, L. (1998). Barclays to create 2,000 Tele-banking jobs in North-East. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/barclays-to-create-2000-telebanking-jobs- in-northeast-1147210.html Wager, K., Lee, F., & Glaser, J. (2009). Health Care Information Systems: A Practical Approach for Health Care Management. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Warman, M. (2012). Barclays Pingit: should you trust your mobile with your money? Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/9086152/Barclays-Pingit-should-you-trust-your-mobile-with-your-money.html> Woerner, S., & Ross, J. (2007). Tackling the organizational change issues in IT projects.” Research Briefing, Center for Information Systems Research, MIT, Volume VII, Number 3D, Read More