SYSTEMS
CONVERSION
Business Bank
scores a deal
underits new
'Adjacency'
strategy
Rabobank
top-ranked
agribusiness
services provider
Australia
Australia
Americas
Mogas REGI0N
RI IN
On the weekend of 12 July,
Rabobank's California retail bank,
Rabobank, N.A., successfully
completed a major systems
conversion project, bringing all
core banking systems andproducts
onto the same platform.
Bruce Dick, Chief Executive Officer
for the Rabobank Group in Australia.
1
"Looking across a range of franchise
measures incorporating service, advice,
product and growth momentum we rate
Rabobank the strongest franchise on all
dimensions by a considerable margin,"
stated Merrill Lynch in its Agri Business
Segment Review, issued 11 July 2008.
This is the fourth consecutive time that
Rabobank has been named the best
agribusiness bank in Australia.
The Review praises Rabobank for dominating
most elements of the customer value
proposition. It also perceives the launched
high interest on-line deposit account
RaboPlus as an influential factor that
boosts Rabobank's score on product
offering further above industry average
in line with its other measures.
Bruce Dick, Chief Executive Officer for the
Rabobank Group in Australia said "we are
very happy with the results from Merrill
Lynch's 'Business Banking Review' which
is the outcome of a collaborative effort
from all of our staff. We were very pleased
that our customers had such a high level of
satisfaction with the services provided by
Rabobank and look forward to continuing
to be the world's leading specialist in food
and agribusiness banking."
Business Banking South Australia has
recently become the main bankerto Mogas
Regional with a AU$ 25 million transaction.
Mogas, a management buyout from Exxon
Mobil, is a fuel distribution business
dedicated to supplying wholesale fuel to
over 1.6m sq kms of rural and outback South
Australia. Their clients include cropping and
grazing properties, the mining sector and
the Tuna catching and farming fleet based
in Port Lincoln.
The Business Banking team in Australia
continues to look for opportunities to support
businesses that are dedicated to servicing
rural and regional F&A communities.
Headed up by Thomas Penzkofer, Integration
Manager, and Rick Arredondo, President,
the conversion team worked very hard to
ensure that the conversion was smooth,
efficiënt and well managed. In addition to
completing more than 5000 tasks associated
with the conversion, the team also:
Mailed thousands of Communications pieces
to customers about the upcoming changes
Invested thousands of hours training
employees on new systems
Conducted 'road shows' to prepare
the branches
Established a team of'Branch Buddies'
to provide support to the branches.
Set up a 'War room' to deal with systems
issues
Set up 'Breaking News for Systems
Conversion' and a Conversion Project page
on AmNet to inform employees about the
latest developments
Conducted a Mock Conversion prior to
the conversion to test systems and validate
data.
In the end, the conversion project, which
involved months of detailed planning,
went very well.
ISSUE 17
THE WORD
