SBI: The Rise of the Digital Bank

India’s largest bank, State Bank of India, has shown the world how large organizations can become agile and more efficient by adopting digital strategies.

- Srikanth RP

India’s largest bank is on an ambitious digital drive, and its actions are fast resembling a startup. Take a look at these initiatives - The bank is conducting hackathons, has published its APIs for fintech companies to leverage and build apps, and has gone on an overdrive with respect to using mobile and cloud platforms. The focus has been on taking customer experience to a different level.

SBI’s CTO, Shiv Kumar Bhasin, sums up the ambition, when he says, “The State Bank of India wants to be one of the top ten digital banks in the world in the next two years.” Given this context, every initiative that the bank has taken, has its roots in a digital strategy. Take for example, the bank’s focus on simplifying the digital experience. For a significant percentage of branch processes, the bank analyzed that customers can be serviced with lesser number of screens to click. Today, the bank’s basic principle is to ensure that a customer need not click more than four times for any service request to get completed.

The huge focus on customer satisfaction can also be seen from initiatives such as the ‘No Queue’ app on mobile, which enables customers to book a Virtual Queue Ticket (e-Token) for select services at select SBI branches. What’s unique is that customers can generate e- tokens before reaching the branch, thus avoiding waiting in the queue at the branch and saving valuable time. The app also conveys the estimated waiting time, number of customers ahead and a map showing the direction to reach the branch. Customers are also updated about their position in the queue through instant alerts.

Understanding the uniqueness of India