Chapter 4 - The transformation of Tech

Transformation report

“We are changing our operating model to accelerate strategic areas of growth; blending technological advancement, functional efficiency, ongoing skills development for our people and market-leading innovations.”

Prasenjit Chakravarti

Chief Corporate Strategy and Transformation Officer

Overview

We have largely completed ‘re-platforming’ – front to back – at a scale and scope not seen in most local and regional banks.

Our five year bank wide transformation – covering Data, Digital and Talent – reflects Techcombank’s adaptability and forward-thinking culture in the rapidly evolving, digital banking landscape. After three years of very purposeful and sequential strategic planning and execution, we are well on the way to becoming a future proof banking platform leveraging best in class digital platforms, cloud-based data and AI and new business models to grow in new areas of business.

We are now starting to deploy differentiated customer value propositions using our new best-in-class digital, sales and data platforms.

We’re embracing Agile methodologies Bank-wide, moving from traditional divisions and organisational structures to a more efficient, collaborative, flat and cross-divisional teamwork approach. Our employees reskill as the workplace changes.

2023 Transformation highlights

Two broad areas where we made important strides in transforming our business were:

Strategic use of technology platforms

As we progress on the transformation, we are starting to see meaningful changes in our business models which enable us to grow scale, onboard, deepen and engage customers with new value propositions while managing scale and cost effectively. Some key highlights in FY2023 include:

Customer growth and operational efficiency: We added ~2.6 million new customers in 2023 while keeping our headcount flat. Combined changes in our working methods, digital platforms and data utilisation capabilities got this done without increasing our employee base. We have decoupled from the idea that to grow customers you need more staff.
Advanced Salesforce platform: The new advanced Salesforce platform is used by 6,000+ staff significantly frees up front-line employees’ time. It allows them to engage in higher quality conversations with clients, backed by comprehensive information, for a better overall customer experience.

Innovative partnerships

We are continuing to expand our strategic partnership portfolio to scale up our customer base and deliver unique customer propositions.

Unique market propositions: Our partnership with WINLife, one of Vietnam's largest retail store networks, leverages our digital, data expertise and new capabilities to offer unique value propositions. It places us at WINLife's outlets to provide special loyalty offers for customers of both Techcombank and WINLife. This is mostly done via digital channels, allowing us to cover these outlets with a significantly smaller team than we’d otherwise need.
Innovative loyalty platform: Our new loyalty program offers unmatched personalisation in banking connecting hundreds of partner merchants with millions of customers. Customers earn rewards through their transactions with TCB and redeem them seamlessly at their favourite brands like Starbucks, without complicated points transfers.

AI’s role in our transformation

Internal productivity with AI

We’re increasing team productivity by having AI automate repetitive tasks. An excellent example is the data team’s translation tool. It can accurately translate documents between Vietnamese and English, retaining the original format and saving approximately two hours per document across the thousands we have to process. Significant cumulative time saved!

AI in knowledge management

AI is managing our extensive internal documentation, including governance policies and operational guidelines. Navigating this wealth of information can be daunting. However, with AI-powered tools like chatbots and LLMs, employees can access relevant information easily. For instance, a new employee looking for guidelines on a credit card product can get instant, accurate answers.

The ‘data brain’

Techcombank’s 'data brain' (overseen by the Data and Analytics Division – DnA) puts us at the forefront of AI innovation. This collaboration between world-class experts and our own skilled Vietnamese professionals analyses billions of data points using machine learning to better understand customer needs from daily transactions to mobile app use.

The ‘data brain’ uses AI-processed data from our data lake to create a centralised intelligence hub seamlessly personalised to each of our ten million customers. The hub informs and integrates with our various platforms, including:

The customer relationship system
Mobile applications
Loyalty programs
Marketing platforms.

This ‘data brain’ is revolutionising how we interact with, and understand, customer needs, providing more effective business leads, securing better loans for customers and keeping us ahead of fraud. Ironically, it also brings us full circle to the personalised service of traditional banking. With richer data at their fingertips, our business and retail bankers are making better informed decisions and identifying new business opportunities.

2024 Focus on Transformation

We’ll focus on scaling our digital and data platforms, extracting valuable insights from data and strengthening our commitment to sustainability while continuing to evolve our operating model.

In 2024 the Bank enters the latter stages of our current five-year transformation roadmap. We have almost completed transitioning away from building and putting infrastructure in place to deploying and capitalising on our significant investments in digital transformation, data management and talent acquisition.

Scaling digital and data platforms
Using data and customer outcomes
Sustainability and industry leadership