How Malaysia’s Bank Simpanan Nasional Implemented a
Sweeping Enterprise Content Management System
Transcript of a Briefings Direct podcast on how major bank got document management under
control and increased employee and customer satisfaction.
Listen to the podcast. Find it on iTunes. Get the mobile app for iOS or Android.
Sponsor: HP
Dana Gardner: Hello, and welcome to the next edition of the HP Discover Podcast Series. I'm
Dana Gardner, Principal Analyst at Interarbor Solutions, your host and moderator for this
ongoing sponsored discussion on IT innovation and how it’s making an impact
on people's lives.
Our next big data and information governance innovation case study highlights
how the National Savings Bank in Malaysia has implemented a sweeping
enterprise content management system (ECMS) project. We'll learn how this
large community bank has slashed paper use, increased productivity, rationalized
storage and documents, and cut security risks, while adhering to compliance
requirements.
Here to walk us through the bank’s journey to better information management is Alain Boey, the
Senior Vice President in the Transformation Management Department at the National Savings
Bank in Malaysia. Welcome, Alain.
HP Document and records management system
Helps meet regulatory compliance issues
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Alain Boey: Hello.
Gardner: Tell me what were the major drivers that led you to seek a comprehensive approach to
enterprise content management, what was the big driver for you?
Boey: We were trying to standardize a lot of our processes in the bank and, as
you know, in the bank itself we used a lot of paper. There are a lot of documents
flying around and documents have to be couriered from one place over to our
headquarters (HQ) for processing. We have 14 states all across Malaysia, and all
these documents have to be couriered on a daily basis over to our HQ in Kuala
Lumpur.
We were trying to see how we can shorten that process itself, so that we can at
least be able to give an answer to our customers in the shortest time possible. By
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Gardner
Boey

putting in an ECMS, we were able to standardize a lot of the processes that involved paper. Then,
documents were able to be retrieved easily regardless of where the person is. In terms of
processing times, we were able to shorten the processing time from four days to less than a day.
The documents are now scanned and then uploaded to the server, which is easily accessed by
anybody around Malaysia. The whole objective of going in to the ECMS was to improve the
entire customer experience and also to put in best practices involving processes as well as
systems. Ultimately, what we want to achieve is to see how we can serve our customer better.
Gardner: Tell us a little bit about your bank. It’s a quite a distributed organization and there are
a lot of moving parts to it. I can understand why it would be a challenge to centralize all of your
information?
Promote and mobilize savings
Boey: Bank Simpanan Nasional is owned by the Ministry of Finance. We were incorporated in
1974. So we're 40 years old as of December last year. Our objective is to promote and mobilize
savings for the entire Malaysia.
We're specially set up by the Ministry of Finance to provide savings and banking opportunities to
all Malaysians. Because we're a national bank, we have branches all across Malaysia. We have
402 branches, and these are serviced by our 6,800 employees.
We also have what we call agent banking. We have 5,200 agents who are able to operate on
behalf of the bank. BSN, as what we are normally known in Malaysia, has 982 ATMs and 338
CDMs and this is to serve more than 9.5 million customers. In short, we're a diverse bank. We're
the only bank that you can find in the remotest parts of Malaysia.
That's why before ECMS came in, it was very challenging. Documents had to be couriered or
had to carried from one place to our central office. Because of that, a simple loan application, for
instance, could take up to four to five days before it can reach the central office. That created a
lot of challenges in trying to satisfy our customers, especially those applying for loans. They
want to know the status of their loan application as soon as possible.
Number two, we also had issues in regards to the management of the documents. Documents had
to be stored and there were issues in relation to the access of physical documents themselves. As
we all know, real estate prices have gone up, so storing all these physical documents doesn’t
make sense for the bank.
We were to see how we could also find a way to remove as many of these physical documents as
possible, and also to make the retrieval of the documents easy. We're also trying to put in controls
over to the access of the documents. Physical paper files can be lost while in transit or can even
be lost because they get misplaced, or a file is missing.
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We wanted to put in place a system whereby we're able to track the entire lifecycle of the
document. The moment the document is scanned, we're able to see the status of the document
itself, as well the status of the application and then the entire lifecycle management of the
document. That’s pretty much what we wanted to achieve from this whole exercise.
Gardner: I have to imagine too that not only do you get a centralized view and more
information about each document much quicker, but also a much better security and audit trail,
and therefore compliance benefits?
Boey: Definitely. Now, we have a better audit trail of document movement. We have better
control in terms of the versioning, like who puts in what. We're also able to rollout a consistent
taxonomy for all documents. Whatever documents go into ECMS have to follow a certain
methodology in taxonomy inference of the naming. So anybody in Malaysia, when they want to
access a file, they're able to identify the file by just looking at the name of the file.
Of course, because everything is in soft copy, we have a back up in terms of the disaster recovery
(DR) as well. So, there's no issue, if a document goes missing, in how we access it and how we
look for important documents. So, now that we have a proper DR, we're able to retrieve the
documents even if the physical copy is missing.
Primary technologies
Gardner: Alain, tell us how you went about this. What were the primary technologies,
processes, and skills that were required to make this happen?
Boey: The journey itself took us about two years. We explored many vendors in the market to
look at which available technologies were able to satisfy our requirements. There were a lot of
vendors providing document management systems, but we wanted a system that is on an
enterprise basis, so that we're able to use the same system across the entire organization.
HP Document and records management system
Helps meet regulatory compliance issues
Get more information
We went through a series of tenders and then eventually we decided to go with HP’s Autonomy
and also the TRIM solution. Of course, there were many solutions that we looked at. It was an
open tender, and the evaluation team comprised a combination of business users as well as
technical users. Based on the result of this, the evaluators were comfortable with this solution
and the technology that was being provided by HP.
Then, during implementation itself, we were able to have better hands on experience on the
TRIM software as well as on Autonomy. We found that the software was very flexible. We were
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able to build workflows together and they were also able to put in a lot of controls and a lot of
parameterized input. That makes usage, as well as maintenance, easy.
Gardner: Now, when you go to a digital and managed system like this, you also get benefits for
archive and back up and perhaps even reduction in overall storage as if you're doing it in an older
infrastructure. Is there anything about the storage and back up and archive that also came to play
in this?
Boey: Definitely. Because we're a bank, all the documents that we have have to be backed up.
Previously, every document had to be duplicated, so we had two files of it. That made retrieval
and storage challenges as well.
Once a soft copy is in, you're able to make multiple copies if you want to, but because we have a
DR in place, we're able to replicate the files of it to our DR. In terms of archival, it's easier,
because follow our standard archiving policy. When it comes to the end of the lifecycle of the
document itself, there are proper procedures to manage the expiry of the documents as well as
the disposal of the hard copy.
Now that they have the soft copy, we're able to track the entire movement, and when it comes to
the expiry itself, notifications will remind the users that this document is due for disposal at
whatever period of time. The users can then prepare the necessary procedures in regards to
disposal of the documents.
Maintenance becomes easier because we don't need to have somebody physically managing the
entire lifecycle of the document. We're leaving it to the system to tell us when what action should
be taken for a typical document.
Gardner: Let’s look at some of the results, some of the paybacks that you've gotten as a result of
your project. First, I suppose, customer satisfaction is always important. What have you heard
from the users, the customers, in terms of how they view this as an improvement. And then are
there other metrics of success?
User surveys
Boey: We have conducted some surveys with the users in regards to the experience of using the
system. Initially, when the system was first rolled out, there were some challenges in the users'
options because those were basically changing the way they were used to. Because documents
now are all committed electronically, that means physical processes that will have to be
eliminated.
There were some challenges from the users in regards to so-called job security, because things
were now being replaced by system itself. We were able to retrain some of these users to other
functions. For example, when a document comes in, once the document is scanned it goes in to
the system, and we need someone to physically eyeball the information.
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Previously, someone was preparing the documents for couriering. Now, his new role is basically
to eyeball some of this information, to check the consistency, as well as the completeness and the
accuracy of the information.
Because of this, we're able to see happier customers and users as they're able to see the benefit
from using the system itself.
Sales agents are basically paid by commission. So the faster the loan is approved, the faster they
will get the commission. Now, with the system in place, we're able to see shorter turnaround time
in terms of the processing. Because of this, the customers are able to get an answer from the bank
in the shortest time possible. The customer will then be able to decide if they want to take out the
loan with the bank.
With all of this, we're able to shorten the turnaround time for the loan application and the
turnaround time for the commission payment, as well as the turnaround time for the feedback
back to the customers.
Overall, in the three surveys that they have conducted in the bank, the results have been positive.
We've seen a higher usage of the system since it has been implemented.
On the customer side, based on the feedback that we have received as well as the surveys that
have been done, the customers are happier because they're able to get the answers from the bank
sooner.
Previously, we had a lot of drop in customers because the time it took to revert back to them was
longer. Now, if an application comes in, it’s submitted today, and the customer would be able to
get a reply in less than 24 hours. So this has increased customers satisfaction.
Gardner: What about the future? What comes next? Does this capability that you've put in place
open up the possibility for other improvements in your infrastructure and documented
information management, perhaps some sort of analysis capability or search in other higher order
functions around business intelligence?
Robust system
Boey: In doing the implementation, the HP team helped us build some of these applications
and helped us put in the applications for some of the departments. Moving forward, we're rolling
out to all the other departments in the bank, all of the back offices, and these are going to done by
our own team. So it shows the robustness of the system that the team is able to pick up the
knowledge of the system and then to roll it out.
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Now, one, with all this information that we have, we're also looking at the analytics surrounding
the data, the data that we have received. We're looking to see how we can further improve the
customer’s experience based on the information that we have on the system.
We're trying to shorten the entire processing time as much as possible, now that we have better
management and information on the processing time.
We're also trying to see, based on the information that we have whether we're able to understand
our user’s behavior better. Sometimes, our sales agents are quite smart in playing along with
their sales target, like what it’s going to be for this month or is this going to be for next month.
So we are trying to get a better understanding of our user’s behavior through the information in
BSN itself.
And also similarly for the customers, based on the customers itself, the analytics surrounding the
customers and the information that we put into the system, we are also trying to see whether we
are able to come up with better products and also better services to satisfy our customers’
expectations.
Gardner: A last question, Alain. If you have an opportunity to instruct someone who is starting
out on a similar project, what lessons have you learned? What advice might you offer to those
who are beginning a comprehensive ECMS project?
HP Document and records management system
Helps meet regulatory compliance issues
Get more information
Boey: Look at the bigger picture. There are a lot of document management systems, but if you're
looking for an ECMS, you need to identify what your objectives are. If your objective is just to
scan a document, then probably an ECMS will not work.
But if your objective is to look at improving the return on investment (ROI), improving the entire
costumer experience, putting in better control on the document lifecycle itself, then an ECMS
would work for you.
Also, explore what's available in the market in terms of the solution and get to know the vendors,
the solution providers, well so that you have a better understanding of the technology, you have a
better knowledge of the roadmap of the technology. Then, you're able to plan your future, your
three-year plans or your five-year business plans based on the roadmap of the solution.
Gardner: Wonderful. I'm afraid we will have to leave it there. We've been learning about how
the National Savings Bank in Malaysia has implemented a sweeping Enterprise Content
Management System.
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So join me please in thanking our guest. We've been joined by Alain Boey, the Senior Vice
President in the Transformation Management Department at the National Savings Bank in
Malaysia. Thanks so much.
Boey: Thank you.
Gardner: I would also like to thank our audience as well for joining us for this big data and
information governance innovation case study discussion.
I'm Dana Gardner, Principal Analyst at Interarbor Solutions, your host for this ongoing series of
HP sponsored discussion. Thanks again for joining, and come back next time.
Listen to the podcast. Find it on iTunes. Get the mobile app for iOS or Android.
Sponsor: HP
Transcript of a Briefings Direct podcast on how major bank got document management under
control and increased employee and customer satisfaction. Copyright Interarbor Solutions, LLC,
2005-2015. All rights reserved.
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