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May 25, 2022

Security Bank streamlines the sales process to empower sales frontliners with Microsoft Teams

As a leading universal bank in the Philippines, Security Bank Corporation offers a full range of financial services. To achieve greater customer-centric banking, Security Bank streamlined its sales proposal and approval process for even greater efficiency. The bank developed the Sales Proposal Builder application using Microsoft Teams technology. Proposal and approval times were cut from two hours to 30 minutes, and from two weeks to a day, respectively. This helped salespeople focus more time and energy on the bank’s clients.

Security Bank Corporation

As one of the Philippines’ leading universal banks, Security Bank Corporation has always committed itself to serving retail, commercial, corporate, and institutional clients with a wide range of financial services. Consistently recognized as one of the most stable companies in the industry, Security Bank provides clients with exceptional value by introducing innovative banking solutions tailored to businesses and organizations.

To fulfill its commitment to BetterBanking, Security Bank sought to take digital transformation further by finding ways to eliminate operational inefficiencies, so its sales teams could really focus on clients. “BetterBanking means investing in our customers and what matters to them. That’s why we do whatever it takes to adapt to our customers’ needs. That’s at the core of who we are,” says Eden Nicole Dela Peña - Charpentier, Vice President, Head of Transformation Team, Transaction Banking Group of Security Bank.

Efficiency for productivity

Part of how Security Bank finetunes its responsiveness begins with being more customer-centric. The bank regularly reviews internal processes and uses technology to create improvements. After a series of workshops with the wholesale banking team, some challenges in sales were identified. “Our salespeople use a Microsoft Word template of over 60 pages,” says Patrick John Faylon, Assistant Vice President, Solutions Architect-Transformation Team, Transaction Banking Group of Security Bank. “The sales manager chooses products from the template and deletes and edits quite a lot. Preparing the proposal takes way too much time and effort.”

Getting approval for special pricing for high-profile clients was yet another challenge. “Approvals used to be done by email. Proposal documents weren’t shared, so approval and editing were done offline. That made the process cumbersome and rolling out changes challenging. Approval generally took one to two weeks,” explains Faylon.

The bank needed an efficient and collaborative system to drive productivity. “By enhancing the process, we could save time and focus instead on talking to our clients. It would also enable us to work together more effectively despite restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Custer Alignay, Senior Manager, Sales Unit Head, Transaction Banking Group of Security Bank.

“By enhancing the process, we could save time and focus instead on talking to our clients. It would also enable us to work together more effectively despite restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Custer Alignay, Senior Manager, Sales Unit Head, Transaction Banking Group, Security Bank Corporation

Building solutions in Teams

A Microsoft Teams-based solution was the answer. “We’ve been using Microsoft products like SharePoint and Office 365 to collaborate with each other for some time now. We were also using Bookings to schedule meetings with clients and vice versa. And Teams was already our primary communication tool,” says Charpentier.

So with Microsoft’s help, Security Bank developed the Sales Proposal Builder (SPB) application and embedded it into Teams. “Instead of manually editing a document, sales managers access SPB in Teams and enter customer details. They are then presented with a catalog of all bank products and simply click on what they want to include in the proposal,” explains Faylon.

“Instead of manually editing a document, sales managers access the Sales Proposal Builder (SPB) in Teams and enter customer details. They are then presented with a catalog of all bank products and simply click on what they want to include in the proposal.”

Patrick John Faylon, Assistant Vice President, Solutions Architect-Transformation Team, Transaction Banking Group, Security Bank Corporation

“There’s no need to open a new program or launch a browser. We streamlined the process to make it truly convenient,” adds Charpentier. “With SPB, proposal preparation takes 15 to 30 minutes, down from an average of two hours. Approval takes about a day where previously it took two weeks.”

“In fact,” points out Faylon, “our turnaround time for the whole process is a little under three quarters of a day.  Our sales teams are now even asking for more features. That’s a good sign. It means they’re really engaged in using the tool. Ninety-five percent of them say they’re happy with the solution because we’ve made their lives easier.”

Cost-effective and scalable

Part of what makes the Sales Proposal Builder a truly flexible and cost-effective solution is that it’s hosted on Azure. “Azure enables automation. For example, the built-in service called Logic apps allows us to automate document generation and uploading of files to SharePoint,” says Faylon. “One of the most awesome benefits is having deployment slots. So if we have to update a solution, it’s easy to roll out the build or even a staging build because we can swap it into a development slot. Then when we’re ready to promote it to production, all we have to do is push the right buttons. There’s also no upfront cost when we want to add more solutions. It’s a pay-per-use model.”

The right way to start

“Our moves toward greater digitalization were made possible with hands-on, responsive support,” asserts Charpentier. “I really believe that companies need to find a trusted partner for their transformation journey. For us, Microsoft has become a part of our daily work lives.”

“I really believe that companies need to find a trusted partner for their transformation journey. For us, Microsoft has become a part of our daily work lives.”

Eden Nicole Dela Peña - Charpentier, Vice President, Head of Transformation Team, Transaction Banking Group, Security Bank Corporation

“Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are all great,” adds Faylon. “But Microsoft has a lot more to offer. It’s just a matter of exploring all of that and creating solutions using their tools. To me, Teams is the best tool -- it’s basically a way to connect people. And if you integrate different solutions into that, you can solve some real-world problems. That’s a good starting point right there for anyone thinking about digitalization: when you want to solve problems.”

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