Unibank is setting up an IT Innovations Centre - INTERVIEW

Baku. 13 August. REPORT.AZ/ Unibank is switching to the Agile system that represents one of the most advanced approaches to management and is superior to the previous management model in efficiency in many areas. What is the Agile? What are the advantages it brings? What will be there at the IT Innovations Centre?

Ilkin Guliyev, Director of the Organisational Development and Human Capital Department at Unibank, is here to answer those questions.

-The Agile is a very new thing to the Azeri market. What is it? Why did Unibank decide to switch to this system?

Being agile means being able to respond to changes promptly; it is a rapid response approach to changes in product and service requirements and, in general, to anything that occurs in the market. The key advantage is that the employees who used to work within the boundaries of a structure will now work on specific projects and products. We have started the transformation to the Agile already. Everybody is equal in this team that has, apart from the other employees, two unit heads, two experts and one department head, meaning, they have no such notions as ‘manager’, ‘superior’ and ‘boss’. There is only the Product Owner who defines product requirements; there is also the Scrum Master who motivates team and checks as well as supports the work process. The team is devoid of either horizontal or vertical governance. In brief, the Agile means cancelation of the structured management in favour of working more flexibly and more comfortably.

How did the Agile idea come about?

It all started with a baseline study. We found out as we were carrying out one of the most important projects for the Bank with one of our consultants that we were in need of a unit that would take over responding fast to development changes and initiatives. As we were discussing that, we talked our way to this idea of a flexible approach – the Agile – that is a new tendency worldwide. Having examined the successful Agile transformations and the experience of the cutting-edge companies in Russia, we have decided to get to know some of those companies at close quarters.

Sberbank, which is one of the biggest banks in the world in terms of assets as well as the biggest bank in Russia, has been using the Agile system for several years. Not only Sberbank but also other companies, including Alpha Bank and Crock, one of the largest system integrators, carried out the Agile transformation successfully. We went to Moscow with our team of 17-18 middle and top managers to learn their experience better. We could see how well those companies had integrated the Agile system and we took part in training sessions.

Our employees were very surprised to see that; most importantly, they penetrated the essence of the flexible approach. The one-day training administrated by an Alpha Bank coach gave us yet more profound acquaintance with this system. Based on our theoretical and practical experience garnered during that visit, we began to use the flexible approach at Unibank without a hitch.

How does the Agile transformation go? At what stage are the processes now?

We have started the Agile transformation using the Scrum methodology already. It is a product-related methodology. Correspondingly, we have picked a product and gathered an Agile Scrum team to develop it. Product development and implementation are in the charge of this six-strong Scrum team. Our product is the online corporate lending that will allow the corporate customers of Unibank to get loans online without having to call at the bank. Their loans will be credited to their accounts direct – for the first time ever in the market of Azerbaijan.

Last week, there was a presentation of the first part of the product; the outcomes came as a very pleasant surprise to us. We had what you’d call a quick win, what with our team having done the work normally completed within two months in only a little longer than a fortnight with the Agile approach. This is one of the advantages of the flexible approach – until such time as a product is ready, a certain part of it must be presented between the sprints. Accordingly, while we plan to roll the online corporate lending out in full shape in September, the product will partly be pre-released in sprints. This is very important for motivation.

The heightened motivation of the Scrum team members is another interesting advantage of the Agile. They are afforded every opportunity so as to make their work more flexible and pleasant: they can come to work dressed beyond the dress code and their working hours will be more flexible. Besides, our Agile office is fitted with such games as table football and tennis; there are various computer games and the machines to get coffee and other beverages. The product per se is the key indication of efficiency of the Scrum team employees; they are focusing all their attention on one product and only work on it. We can see that the employees approach this with great enthusiasm and that the other employees of the bank are taking interest in this approach. Many in the bank would want to work as such teams.

The Agile Scrum is product-oriented; so, we make scrum teams as necessary – when we need to develop and promote an advanced product. We may form large teams of up to 15 members each in the future; alternatively, those can be the six-seven-member teams that we have now. Not all the departments will switch to the Agile system. For instance, ING Bank had a very successful Agile transformation but they didn’t wind up all their departments and this is really impossible to do. Departments come in two kinds: Run and Change. The Run departments are the supporting ones and it is impossible for them to switch to the Agile system completely. None the less, it may be that a Scrum team will need an employee from such departments as those of risk management, legal affairs and IT analytics – those, that is, that won’t move to the Agile. For instance, if a product development process gives rise to a risk-related matter, an employee from the risk management department is needed – he or she will wholly leave they have been doing in their department and join the Scrum team temporarily to address everything concerning him or her, on doing which he or she will get back. It is a very expensive process, but the result is worth it.

What do you expect from this process and will there be further improvements?

In line with the strategic plan of Unibank for 2017-2019, we plan to establish the Digital & IT Innovations Centre and the Centre of Changes & Competences – for the first time in the history of banking in Azerbaijan. The Digital & IT Innovations Centre will be situated at the head office of the Bank, as a big office, and will be different from the traditional banking system that we have grown accustomed to. The Digital Lab of this Centre is ready. The Digital Lab will work not only on improving the online and mobile banking services but also on creating and developing new digital product concepts. Everything that has to do with programming and IT digital development will begin nowhere else but in the Digital Lab. Implementation of world-wide trends and digital IT development innovations, too, will start here. The digital sector employees will be offered the comfortable conditions that I have mentioned already; their working hours will stop to be fixed in time.

The Centre of Changes & Competences will have the Agile system employees and they will keep offering something new for the business. The Centre of Changes & Competences will be acquiring knew knowledge and implementing it in the organisation actively. Competitiveness and the capabilities of this Centre will be predefined by the high creativity and professionalism of its staff as well as their motivation in self-development and increment of the intellectual capital.

The Centre of Changes & Competences will have the IT staff as well as all those engaged in the development process including the product development and strategic marketing stages, to mention but two. That is, we are into many interesting innovations in the future. We expect the use of the Agile system to strengthen the market stance of Unibank further as well as bring about the efficient implementation and optimisation of in-house processes. We shall still be the bank offering reliable and innovative banking products – the bank that is one of the best employers out there.