BBVA ambassadors: Milovan Dragañac, "Al toque" collaboration
The concept of teamwork is so ingrained in companies and organizations that practically no one dares to question it. Milovan Dragañac [BBVA Peru] thinks there is a better way.
Al toque (al to’ kei): 1. Regional expression in Peru. Immediately.
Milovan tries to explain what “al toque” means. Any Peruvian understands the expression perfectly. “It means to do something quickly, easily, without wasting any time.” It’s how he and his team at BBVA Peru’s Digital Solutions Factory think projects should be tackled -- products and services, too.
In Peru, they are implementing a development model based on scrums. “This isn’t a digital change. It affects everything, like no longer seeing ourselves as a bank but rather like a company that makes your life easier. This is an overall transformation of how we want customers and society to perceive us,” he says.
What is a reality today was unthinkable six years ago, when he went from working in the telecommunications sector to joining BBVA. “Three months after joining the bank, I asked myself if I had gone crazy,” he says laughing. Now he knows he made the right choice.
The path forward involved a deep transformation. “If back then would you have told me that we would be working with biometrics, be able to take out a loan with just one click, and have 100% digital cards … I wouldn’t have believed it.”
All these projects now exist and were developed by changing the way we face challenges. “Working in scrums meant a radical change,” he asserts. “We got all the units to work together and, with a tight deadline, just a few months, we decided what the bank’s real priorities were and we all got behind them. We broke down the silos and focused on truly strategic projects.”
"This transformation is going to turn us into a bank in which the sky’s the limit"
Collaborative work
Compared to traditional forms of teamwork, in which each unit has its own objectives and priorities, Dragañac defines this approach as “collaborative work in which we all have the same objective and we all know what we have to do to reach it. It takes teamwork one step further.”
The process had to overcome some resistance at first. “The bank has a successful track record and a very strong position in the market. Sometimes, it’s harder to promote change when things go well than when they’re going bad.” Milovan thinks the process of raising awareness requires a vision of the future: “Making people understand that, although things are going well, change is necessary, because if we don’t stay ahead of the pack we could lose.”
Profile
Name: Milovan Dragañac
Position: Manager of Digital Solutions Factory [Peru]
Function: Make an easier to use and friendly bank
Hobby: Travel with my family
Dream: See my son make a movie one day
"Al toque" products
The results over the last six months helped convince the skeptics. The first success was the launch of the Al Toque credit card. “They asked us to create something groundbreaking, customer-centric, easy to use and innovative. That’s how the Al toque credit card was born. This is a 100% digital process that allows customers to request a card on our website in less than one minute.”
The concept was also used with loans. “We also have Al Toque loans, which let customers take out loans for up to 30,000 soles [around USD10,000] with just two clicks. You don’t have to sign a contract because you do it with your password.”
And this was of course also used in payment systems. “Now our customers can raise their card limit in just one minute, and they can do it on their PC, mobile device or at ATMs. They can even make cash withdrawals online, which have gone from a 14-click process to being done in less than one minute.”
Branch support
The strategy, explains Dragañac, is to move the products with the greatest impact toward digital channels. “Nearly 95 percent of the most requested transactions are already in digital channels. This frees up branches to focus more on sales.”
Dragañac is convinced that digital transformation really constitutes an internal revolution, which generates huge advantages for BBVA and benefits customers. And this is only the beginning: “This transformation is going to turn us into a bank in which the sky’s the limit as we continue to grow in technology thanks to our development efforts and people.”