Rotterdam refocus WHAT'S NewS Issue 3 March 1996 Since the Rotterdam office was first set up 15 years ago, it has gone through numerous changes. Started originally as a service unit for one of the bank's major Dutch food and agri-clients, Cebeco, over time it developed a variety of other - profitable - activities and operations. Now, the Rotterdam office is again undergoing reorganization. Many of its current activities and the people responsible for them will locate to Utrecht where they can take advantage of the broad range of expertise available there to support their marketing efforts. But one aspect of Rotterdam will remain the same - the port service and customer support activities so essential to our clients and international network. Rob van Rooy explains. Rob van Rooy Staying on location - f.l.t.r. Edwin Gerritsen, Arthur Mettes, Hans Zwanink, Mariska Fenthur,Siebe Burggraaf Commercial Support Officer), Lia van Bergem, Ed de jager and Ad Luhulima. Not pictured: Ron •wz der Kolm, jack PeperMarion Schotte nd Harry Hageman (Commercial Support Officer) In the past few years, the Rotterdam operation has become a streamlined, extremely profitable unit for the bank. Pre-tax profitability has tripled since 1993, so you may wonder why it has been decided to change a winning team. 'It comes down to economies of scale,' Van Rooy says. 'There are 22 Rabobankers here in Rotterdam and given the volume of business we're dealing with, we needed to find a solution to handling that volume efficiently.' The awareness that adjustments were needed coincided with another development within the bank. 'That's right,' Van Rooy confirms. 'The customers we serve in ^^otterdam can be major multinationals, ^out can also be what you'd call middle- market clients. At the same time we were looking for a solution for Rotterdams capacity problem, a new, more focused approach to the middle-market through the local member banks was also being implemented (see What's NewS6/95).' ESSENTIAL SERVICES After lengthy discussions, the solution finally arrived at was that Rotterdam's dedicated food and agri and trade, industry and services account management teams and the credit department, or half of the office's staff, will move to Utrecht. 'It ntakes sense,' says Van Rooy, 'for a number of reasons. The first is, of course, the middle-market aspect. The second is the CBS decision to focus efforts on major corporates in specific sectors, such as food and agribusiness, commodities, healthcare, transport and logistics, media and telecom, Utilities and a number of other major industries. In terms of these decisions, we concluded that it would be better to consolidate our position by integrating Rotterdam's large accounts into the corporate banking division in Utrecht and transfer our middle-market clients to the member banks. We can then put all our efforts into servicing the larger corporates. And we will also be sending a much clearer signal to the market.' IMMENSE VOLUMES The team that remains in place in Rotterdam comprises essential operations and two so-called Commercial Support Officers. 'It is crucial to have an operations team here in the port,' Van Rooy confirms. 'This is the biggest port in the world and processes immense volumes every day. This business involves the actual physical handling of a lot of documents - bills of lading, import papers, and so on. We are nowhere near a paperless era in this business. Many of the documents have to be turned around within 24 hours. So you have to be here in order to ensure they are processed correctly and efficiently. That is why our operations team here is so essential.' ROTTERDAM REORGANISEERT Het grooste deel van de medewerkers van kantoor Rotterdam zal naar Utrecht verhuizen.Om de klanten optimaal van dienst te kunnen zijn blijft de afdeling Documentaire Betaalservices gevestigd in de Maasstad. De reorganisatie is een gevolg van het besluit om de 'middenmarkt'door plaatselijke banken te laten bedienen Daarnaast worden grote klanten ondergebracht bij Corporate Banking in Utrecht als gevolg van de nieuwe strategie van het Centrale Bankbedrijf waarbij is gekozen voor dienstverlening aan bedrijven in specifieke sectoren. VALUE ADDED FOR CLIENTS The operations team and commercial support officers will work closely with the international network to provide on-the- spot service to clients shipping in and out of Rotterdam. 'This is a very important service to our clients worldwide,' Van Rooy says. 'In fact, the team acts almost as agents on the ground. Not only does it monitor the arrival of shipments and transfer of title, it also ensures payment will be made. This offers real added value to customers, especially in the food and agribusiness. Our people have a lot of expertise in this area and clients know they can rely on them for real service. We have provided that in the past in Rotterdam, and we will certainly continue to provide it in the future.'

Rabobank Bronnenarchief

blad 'What's news' (EN) | 1996 | | pagina 3