Coordinating Internet Initiatives
website technology
The evolution of the Internet, and
particularly of the World Wide Web
(WWW), is proceeding at an astonishing
and unprecedented pace. Within the
space of a few short years, the Net has
emerged as a powerful phenomenon
that is reshaping the world's business
and financial landscape.
W R.
Managing initiatives
Website transformation
Knowledge sharing
i_ rmzr
Customer benefits
Question raising
Networking technology
What'sNewS Issue 17 November 1998 I
ccording to Fran^oise Dorsman, who
runs the internet Competence Centre
't Rabofacet and lias been closely
assisting RI's Internet Commerce Group's
(ICG) steering committee, competitors
have been quiek to adapt. 'Morgan
Stanley is already offering their customers
access to investment research reports.
Citibank has inaugurated a transactional
website that gives customers direct access
to their account and portfolio
information, and Iets them transfer funds.
At retail level, Charles Schwab, the US
discount broker, is using the Internet to
significantly reduce its overall cost base.'
In contrast, our own initiatives have heen
judged dangerously slow, and our
approach less than coherent, in a recent
report by investment banking's Michael
Mee, who chairs the ICC steering com
mittee. To intelligentlv manage a number
of various RI initiatives (see box) and to
insure that we use the emerging electronic
networks in a way that will advance our
overall business goals, we will have to
draw all of these activities under a single,
coherent policy umbrella. Our corporate,
investment and private banking arms
must be able to compete with those using
the internet to offer better customer
service and new information products,
and to lower their costs.
Our website, www.rabobank.com, now
being used primarily for marketing, will
be transformed into one that supports the
ambitious business distribution needs of
the year 2000. It will become our primary
^ïternet gateway, pointing customers to
all RI business lines. ICG will employ
knowhow throughout the Rabobank
group, plus established internet and
intranet distribution channels.
This approach should make it possible to
build a shared knowledge base, avoid
needless duplication of effort, to attain
group-wide economies of skills and scale,
not least in the areas of development and
procurement. The aint. Dorsman
explains, is not to interfere with the
individual businesses' ongoing internet
commerce activities, but to support them.
'We have to make sure that our internet
and intranet efforts are not IT-driven but
rather motivated by concrete business
considerations,' says Dorsman. 'We've
already planned a technology base. The
key issue is how we can configure and
implement it, using internet standards, to
save costs and really add value to our
businesses and customers. By centrally
coordinating our web activities through
the ICG steering committee, and the new
ICG support team being inaugurated this
month, while at the same time
decentralizing business initiatives, we
hope to accelerate progress, make more
efficiënt use of existing resources, and
ensure that the group makes a coherent
impression on the Web.'
In many cases, this involves re-examining
first business principles. How do we
profile ourselves as a knowledge-based
and customer-focused organization in an
electronic context? After all, corporate,
investment and private banking are all
people-to-people businesses. 'Our web
offerings can't be allowed to transform
this into a people-to-systems type of
relationship,' Dorsman notes. 'Our
website capabilities - which will include
information, interaction, and transaction
- have to complement our personalized
approach and directly benefit the
customer. For instance, an initiative that
makes it faster and more convenient for
valued clients to access RI research
reports would complement, not replace,
those face-to-face contacts where we
cultivate relationships and discuss more
complex value-adding transactions.'
Obviously, the internet raises a number of
profound questions relating to our
distribution methods and our future
branding strategy as a group as a whole.
It also poses concrete challenges of
implementation. The ICG frantework will
be used to work out scenarios for further
development, and an action plan will be
tabled by the start of next year. Many
units within RI are working on initiatives,
and Dorsman notes that 'there are no
doubt a number of them that the ICG
knows nothing about. It is important that
they make themselves known, both in
their own interests and those of RI as a
whole.' For furtber information on the
ICG framework contact Maarten
Giezeman (+31 30 216 3396).
Some RI businesses are planning to
make use of advanced networking
technology to add value for their clients
and enhance their own operations.
Initiatives are aimed at different target
groups such as corporate and institu-
tional clients, mernber banks, or internal
RI professionals. They use internet and
intranet channels, and offerings range
from research information to online
transactions. Among them are:
Rabo DealAssist, which makes it
possible for treasurers of corporate
clients to directly execute basic MM and
FX transactions, and also offers research
information, thus freeing investment
banking's dealers to focus on complex
and more profitable trades;
Agri Project Finance Team has
initiated Insight, a knowledge-
management infrastructure designed to
support its activities world-wide;
Rabo Treasury Web, which will offer
internal and external treasury and
derivative product information to in
vestment advisers working in the
member banks, and their clients, via
both the domestic Rabo intranet and the
Rabo Nederland site, www.rabobank.nl;
Private banking plans to offer product
and portfolio information as well as
transactional capabilities.
