Financial institutions underwent a transformation process that nearly took a year to restructure. This process is especially prevalent in consumer apps. It’s like earning points, redeeming rewards, or getting cash just by tapping your phone.
Bancolombia is a bank that adapts quickly to technology and, as a result, announced that it invested more than US$7 million in 2018 to advance digitalization and diversify applications for individuals, businesses, and small businesses.
For example, the Personas app has moved to a new interface where users can access it with their fingers, manage 100% digital debit cards, and request SOAT insurance. Juan Carlos Mora, President of Grupo Bancolombia, affirms daily: “We strive and invest to meet our customers’ needs in order to offer a reliable, simple, pleasant, and attractive experience.”
Digital transformation has been extremely important for Bancolombia as an institution. For this reason, at Coodigos we want to tell you a little more about its evolution and everything it achieved in reaching the digital forefront, so you can understand the importance of digital transformation in Colombia.
What did Bancolombia do to go far in the digital world?
Banks can’t build something overnight. A culture of innovation is different from that of established financial companies. So, how did you become a new business?
While other banks and companies around the world have adopted new models to overcome design limitations and enable digital transformation, Bancolombia has chosen to innovate internally. Now we can publish the results. According to Juan Carlos Mora, president of Bancolombia and former vice president of innovation and development,
Digital Transformation executives do not rule out opening new developments in the law, but they specify: “We have chosen to prepare ourselves before experimenting with the same internal preparation of bodily foods.”
Internal innovation does not limit the use of others’ knowledge and experience. In fact, Bancolombia has partnered with consulting firms such as Grupo Consultoría and Opinno to develop cultural exchanges and innovations.
However, a bank is characterized by using its internal technology and resources to research, develop, and create products or services within a company, rather than importing technology and employees over the next five years or buying the business to accelerate growth.
Bancolombia is not just another type of innovation. On the other hand, it played a key role in introducing the first debit card in Latin America in 1969, opening the first ATM in 1985, and introducing digital devices in the 1990s.
However, as part of the digital transformation, innovation must become an ongoing process, operating systematically at a bank teller window, just as it does in other functions such as business, human resources, or other professions. It is also necessary to plan for reorganization tasks within the bank’s new vision.
Many companies invest heavily and capitalize on their new ventures without a clear direction or purpose, which is why Accenture is the latest development in the matrix vortex, which is almost always incomplete. At Bancolombia, on the other hand, it has been this way from the beginning, and there have been more successes in the financial markets.
President Juan Carlos Mora said, “This is about innovation, not just personal growth, but about creating the solutions our customers want.” André Villegas, former Director of Innovation and now Director of Consumer Relations, echoed this sentiment, emphasizing, “When we launch new products, the first question we ask ourselves is whether we can improve the customer experience. We want to save them time and make it more accessible and efficient for businesses.”
“By clarifying the nature of innovation and connecting it to the vision of a larger financial corporation, the Bancolombia team can develop clear, innovation-friendly strategies to create benefits for the organization. This is an important step for banks to support cultural change, according to culture expert Simon Sinek.”
The author emphasizes that new companies are those whose leaders can communicate why they do what they do. Once the cause is identified, Sinek says, it can provide feedback that empowers employees and aids decision-making. His research has been supported by a number of studies showing that for a cultural change to be successful, the impact must be relatable to a knowledge worker, according to an analysis by Grupo Bancolombia.
The arrival of NEQUI with the digital transformation of Colombia
Nequi is a digital bank operating in Colombia and Panama. It’s one of the first digital banks in Latin America. Nequi is designed for young adults who are dissatisfied with the traditional business model or who are just starting out financially.
NEQUI offers a simple and fast user experience thanks to an easy-to-use interface accessible on digital devices using a registered identifier. Following extensive research on how teenagers interact with finance, NEQUI gives you access to basic financial services on your phone, including:
-
Digital Wallet.
-
Three types of savings.
- Transfer money to people.
The app works on Android and Apple operating systems and includes advanced security technologies such as biometrics and voice recognition. For example, it allows you to manage your money in one place, similar to Facebook. The service is free and has no cost to the user.
An ecosystem is a type of ecosystem. There are currently joint ventures with nearby retailers and retailers within a joint venture. In the future, Nequi may acquire these and other relationships by using one-time service fees and revenue sharing with developers connected to the platform.
NEQUI’s data shows how Bancolombia is trying to protect itself from one of the biggest risks in the new closed banking model. A clear example of how this could happen is the case of Kodak and digital photography, an innovation created by a staffed company in 1975.
To facilitate the development of new ideas and products, it is recommended to incubate them outside the company, as Bancolombia does at CIB. However, it is almost always desirable to have a separate company to expand and develop the customer base and generate revenue from innovation.
As a result, Nequi entered the market as an independent company from Bancolombia, with its own board of directors and management, and operates near CIB but in a separate location. Essentially, Nequi is a Bancolombia organization that reports to the vice president of innovation, but future management has yet to decide whether the digital bank can become a separate corporation from Bancolombia.
The belief that technology and innovation are the means to achieve business growth in companies that operate with most non-bank entities or gain access to low-income banks has led to Bancolombia’s digital transformation process.
The transition model has been adjusted and refined since 2011, when managers were instructed to begin the digital transition process. Since 2015, a new role has been developed within the Innovation Hub (CIB); the department has focused on supporting cultural change and promoting new behaviors.
The internal incubator control building blocks are frequently used to identify new strategies that impact and promote the development of products and business models that provide new revenue and opportunities for the Bancolombia Group.
The first project fully incubated by CIB was the digital bank NEQUI. Through sound corporate governance, Bancolombia separated NEQUI from its subsidiaries, contributing its organization and capital, allowing it to operate in direct competition with the bank’s product portfolio.
Bancolombia can show you the benefits of your digital exchange. In this regard, we have expanded our customer base, and in particular, our digital customer base has grown due to the expansion of the digital products market.
While our products are suitable for a wide range of industries, special efforts have been made to introduce products that promote financial inclusion as a new concept.
The Bancolombia model provides insights for other companies seeking to transform their organizational culture of innovation. Performance characteristics are supported by research data, but risks also need to be identified when taking the following actions: It’s time to consider implementing these updates.
We hope that with this, you understand how important digital transformation is for businesses and how much it can help not only with growth, but also with customer loyalty and recognition from competitors.
At Coodigos, we have a large team of professionals you can count on. They are ready to provide the best digital transformation for your company. Trust us and start growing, get closer to your customers, and create many more opportunities to elevate your business.