The Renewal of Access Online
Maarten Smit, Lead Product Owner Digital Platforms, and Bart Elderenbosch, Product Manager Online Channels, work within the Online Channels department on client-facing channels for corporate clients, such as Internet Banking Business and Access Online. Focusing primarily on customer feedback and satisfaction, they work with different departments to ensure continuous improvements to back-end systems and the customer interface.
Why are you updating the client portal?
“Digital channels play an increasingly important role in banking. Consumers can arrange almost all their banking affairs digitally. As a result, our corporate clients increasingly expect to be able to manage far more than just payments online. Although Access Online still meets the needs of many clients today, the technology behind it needs to be updated so it remains a stable and flexible channel that will continue to meet client needs going forward. Based on client feedback, we’re currently working on many improvements.”
What differences will Access Online users notice?
“Clients expect the Access Online user experience to be comparable to Netflix or Uber: quick, clear and simple. This year we worked on renewing a lot of back-end technology. In the near future clients will experience the benefits of this. For example, the new portal will have more logical navigation, super-fast search functions, multi-tasking possibilities, extensive self-service options and seamless integration of other applications. Uploading or creating a batch, adding an employee or downloading reports: everything will become quicker and easier. Ultimately, customer satisfaction is what matters most for us.”
What are the most important functional changes?
“We’re initially working on three areas: user management, payments and reporting.
- User management: for example, more user-friendly login methods. We’re looking at the latest techniques that may make the E.dentifier unnecessary. We’re also introducing different user profiles for light and power users, so each user has the level of functionality they actually need. And of course customisation to specific corporate client needs will still be possible.
- Payments: amongst other things, we’re introducing ‘instant payments’ and ‘standing orders’ in Access Online. Initiating payments will be far more intuitive and clients won’t have to complete more fields than necessary, reducing the risk of errors or rejections. Another improvement is 'generic signing', which means clients will soon be able to sign not only financial transactions, but also documents and requests for certain products. This will save them a lot of time and give them faster access to products they request. All these improvements of course comply with the latest SEPA and ISO20022 standards.
- Real-time reporting: even better overview of transactions per account and more detailed insights per transaction. Searching for transactions will be significantly improved, as will creating and downloading reports (e.g. MT940 and CAMT.053). All contributing to a better user experience.
We are also working very hard on the introduction of more self-service possibilities in the channel, such as instantly adding new payments accounts.”
When will clients be able to experience these improvements?
“We’re always making improvements to Access Online, including some of those mentioned above, for example round payments and reporting. Meanwhile, we’re also working on a completely new portal, built from scratch with a new look & feel and technology. This will require more time but we’ll be communicating more on this in the near future (see visuals for a ‘sneak preview’).”
Apart from functional improvements, can we also expect innovations?
“Together with other departments across ABN AMRO, we’re definitely looking into the possibilities for innovations on the platform in areas such as cashflow forecasting, virtual accounts and cybersecurity. All working towards making it a genuine one-stop-shop portal for cash management, treasury management and related services. For example, last year we’ve developed an accounting package for SME clients that’s fully integrated into our Internet Banking Business platform. And we’re looking into comparable solutions for corporate clients, as well as services you might not immediately expect from a bank.”
How do you involve clients in developments?
“We’re lucky in that we receive lots of feedback from clients in many different forms. We get dozens of tips from clients each month via the feedback button in Access Online. We carry out a huge amount of research when developing any new functionality, to identify, for example, which new functions, products or services are most wanted. Clients will literally tell us what they think we should develop, and we will then work with clients to test the resulting prototypes. This lets us see early on the development process whether something makes as much sense as we first thought. I can honestly say that we really do develop this platform together with our clients.”
How can you get involved as a client?
“Email one of us with your ideas or to say you’d like to take part in our research. We’ll then set up an appointment to discuss things further just as soon as you can see us."
You can contact us at: maarten.c.smit@nl.abnamro.com or bart.elderenbosch@nl.abnamro.com.
Photo from left to right: Maarten Smit (Lead Product Owner Digital Platforms) and Bart Elderenbosch (Product Manager Online Channels).