Digital: the three winning investments in 2024
The end of the year is often the time to take stock of the successes and failures of the past months and draw useful conclusions to get back on the right track. Societe Generale Securities Services (SGSS) organised a Digital Week in December 2023 to share with all our teams the digital transformations under way and the advances achieved in serving our clients. And there are many of them!
During the week, we presented projects that improve the client experience, making reasonable use of generative AI, smart workflows, and repository projects. And yes, it's true. Far from the glitz and glamour of ChatGPT or the blockchain, the repository is certainly not the stuff of dreams. But it is the fundamental foundation on which we absolutely need to build to serve our clients effectively. Perhaps it is more akin to a hand-knitted hat, or a paper diary in the age of tablets and smartphones. It may seem a little retro... But it is incredibly useful!
We will move ahead on our path to greater digital maturity in 2024 by taking an unbiased look at our information system and rectifying any shortcomings.
Three areas are sure to be winning investments for a high-quality digital transformation in 2024:
Undertake
Complex organisations are built iteratively, through acquisitions and business or regulatory opportunities. Information systems are often built in layers. "Consistency will come later." The key question is when? And the answer is often "much later". In short, when the existing system generates tedious manual skills and blocks any desire for expansion, it is time to act, to summon up the courage to review the repositories, as well as the corresponding processes and governance.
Only visionary leaders have the managerial courage to undertake this costly work, which challenges an established order and whose benefits may appear only after their own time in office. It is this spirit that will once again guide our actions and our transformation at SGSS. In the words of Alexandra Chauvel, Head of Sales, Marketing and Solutions at Societe Generale Securities Services: "Data control is fundamental to serving clients in all of their needs. It is the prerequisite for a differentiating interaction model, enabling us to provide the right response to the client's first request."
Change management
Demo, demo, demo. Informing our teams about the steps taken and maintaining a realistic discourse with them is vital to ensuring that everyone can one day get to grips with the new tools under the right conditions. This was confirmed by the Digital Week. After each demonstration, the product owner was satisfied with the interest shown by the participants, and the employees were happy to be considered as full agents of change.
The "human" conditions for a project's success are grouped together in the term "change management", which remains an essential condition for success.
A breeding ground for innovation
2 starting points:
No transformation without vision.
Innovation is everyone's business.
The role of the manager is to instil a medium-/long-term strategic vision, but above all to enable everyone to nurture this vision with all the associated value increments and opportunities. So what we are striving to create is a breeding ground for innovation. The road is long, but fruitful, and key motivators include:
the assurance of free speech,
unrestricted access to the highest level of management,
the right to make mistakes,
time dedicated to reflection,
and listening to users.
Today, I am pleased to be part of a collective that is able to undertake ambitious and innovative projects and work on these foundations so that we can reinvent ourselves in the future. The range of projects, both short- and long-term, testifies to this rational approach, with its head in the stars and feet firmly planted on the ground. With transformation as a compass, of course, but at the service of the client!
Matthieu Brunhammer
Transformation Leader, Societe Generale Securities Services