Case Study 5.2 ‘Akbank CRM Transformation Program With a consolidatedasset size of more than $81 billionanda strong, extensive national distribution network comprising of more than 15,000 employees serving more then 8.5 million customers ecross nearly 950 branches, Akbank is the leading private bank in Turkey. In 2012, Akbank was named the “Most Valuable Banking Brand in Turkey” by Brand Finance in the “Brand Finance Benking 500” report. In addition, Akbank ranked 96th, globally, in the Top 500 Me Vani Minion et ng one of the largest customer bases in the Sues leading variety of products and channels, ‘Akbank recognized the need to create a new technological infrastructure to maintain its high standarés of innovation, and therefore implemented a new customer relationship ‘management (CRM) solution to integrate al existing pro- cesses, data, and channels. The company's CRM program began in 2008 and was successfully completed in 2010. In 2011, it received the “CRM Excellence—Integrated Marketing” award from Gartner, specifically for its CRM system “ATOM.” Candidates across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and China are reviewed for this award. Akbank isthe first Turkish Bank to win it. ‘The scope of Akbank’s CRM renewal program ‘was extremely vast in contrast to other projects. There were nearly 10 business units as project stakeholders. All channels (branch, ATM, Internet banking, call center, mobile banking, POS, e-mail, and SMS servers) were integrated with the new CRM system. It would have been impossible to achieve successful result if the scope were not maneged properly. So what factors led Akbank to success? ‘While the initial scope was being defined, the proj- ect team worked on the selection of the right software product for the project. The Akbank project team exam. ined five different products and worked carefully 10 see ‘which ones best fultlled the requirements of the relevant business units. The feasibility and product selection phase resulted in the selection of “Chordiant” (ater named “Pega Systems”). Implementing the project without the help of a system integrator involved a big risk, so Akbenk employed PATNI through a fixed-price agreement, The estimated program duration was 18 months. Since on the whole, the requests seemed morellike a program than a project, the project team prioritized the projects and composed CRM “program” in accordance With the CRM business unit needs. This step was impor- tant in managing the different projects in the right order and with the right resources. In the “scope definition” phase, the IT and business teams mutually agreed to bring Cave Study5.2 185 the project live in various phases, rather than employing “big bang” approach and going live on a single date. Another important decision was to first take “out of the box" product properties and to launch the customiz able properties later in phases. This meant that the end ‘users could start using some parts of the new product in a live environment about 10 months before the project termination date. ‘Many business unite were affected by the project, including the call center, alternative delivery channels, retail banking, and credit cards. The IT and CRM business units took the project sponsorship together and managed all other business units’ requests, evaluating, prioritizing. and eliminating them as necessary. Project governance ‘was crucial for implementing measures of control across the vast scope of the program. The CRM business acted with the IT division 2s 2 real “business owner” in terms of prioritization of requests, budget control, and risk management. ‘To further manage the scope effectively, Akbank broke down the scope into 46 use cases. All use cases were analyzed in detail. The Akbank IT department pre- pared different scope statements for each case, and the CRM business unit approved each case separately. Ifthere hhad been only one scope statement, it would have been very difficult to get approval and manage changes for the project scope. Since all delivery channelshad to be integrated with ‘the new CRM application, Akbank decided to go phase by phase for the channel side to ensure efficiencies. To man- age the scope effectively, the Akbank team first focused ‘on branch integration, For Internet banking and ATMs, Akbank had already performed a “pilot production phase,” enabling them to sce the CAM system working on intemal customers fist, and then on external customers. This way, any bugs and errors that could not be specified in the integration tests and user acceptance tests were faced by Akbank staff in a real-time environment before ‘extemal customers were introduced to the new system. Business and adaptation challenges were encoun- tered daring the release process of the new CRM system, ATOM, The CRM Adaptation Program, known as CAP, was created to overcome these challenges. The CRM ‘edaptation team, along with 24 CRM staff, created and led the program to adapt CRM users in the bank to the new- ‘generation CRM approach. The team spent about 40,000 hours providing on-site training to more than 9,000 CRM users. Training continued with a “train the trainer” philosophy. These training sessions ensured that users (continued)186 Chapier5 + Scope Management thoroughly understood the scope of the program and the new CRM world of Akbank, ‘Nearly all project teams request minimum changes in project scope once the scope statement is approved, but unfortunately change at this stage is rarely possible, Usually there are some changes in scope, however. includ- ing new requests and additional functionalities to scope, during the very last stages ofa project. This caused a prob- Jem with some aspects of the Akbank CRM program, ‘The Akbank project team's scope change control take change requests in a formal rvaluate the requests with the 578- tem integrator, and, finally, if technically possible, pres- ‘ent an effort estimation and schedule offer to the Change Control Board (CCB), which met periodically (every three weeks) throughout the project. The CCB consisted of the ClO, CRM division head, IT project manager, CRM bus!- ness project managers, and IT application development manager. After careful examination and a cost-benefit analysis of each change request, the CCB either approved or rejected the new scope requests, This process ensured that the program had no “scope ereep” and that all project stakeholders would be satisfied with the results.” Questions. 1. Assess the benefits and drawbacks of employing use ‘eases in requirements gathering. In your opinion, do benefits outweigh drawbacks or vice versa? Why? 2, What arethe benefitsof employing 1 phased impleme tation approach and performing a pilot production? 3, Discuss the risk factors in the Akbank CRM renewal program and assess them in terms of consequences How did Akbank’s scope management strategies help the project team mitigate these risks? In your opin fon, among the success factors mentioned in this cease, which one was most important for the success of the program?