Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

A Japanese multinational banking and financial services institution recognized the need to modernize its 20+ year-old legacy digital experience into a best-in-class cash and treasury management platform.

My Role

As the Experience Team Lead, I led the daily discussions with SME’s and iteration of concepts, ensuring alignment with user needs and business goals through close collaboration with technology teams, SMEs, and client stakeholders. Our iterative approach balanced enhancements with core functionality, while addressing evolving requirements.

What I did

Regular feedback sessions with stakeholders and SME’s to align on project vision.
Daily concept refinement based on insights and feedback.
Close collaboration with technology teams and SMEs to ensure feasibility.
Prioritization of features to manage scope creep effectively.

Challenge

Business Objectives

Streamline domestic and international transaction processes
Improve client engagement
Enhance their overall digital experience
Attract new clients
Increase transaction business
Increase deposit balance
Improve operational efficiency

Background

With a large corporate client base spanning the Americas and EMEA, SMBC wanted to streamline domestic and international transaction processes, improve client engagement, and enhance their overall digital experience to attract new clients, increase transaction business, capture deposit balance, and improve operational efficiency.

Solution

Overview

Our process began with a deep dive into the current system, competitor analysis, and market research to establish a foundation for modernization. A heuristic evaluation uncovered critical usability issues and technical limitations, which informed the creation of a concept prototype for stakeholder review and feedback.

Finally, we delivered a prioritized development roadmap, focusing on features for the first release while outlining directions for future research and iterative improvements. Implementation began immediately by SMBC technology teams.

Competitor Analysis: Reviewed 15 competitors and benchmarked 130 capabilities
Pain Point Discovery: Identified 120+ user challenges across workflows
Workshops & Requirements: Conducted 5 BRD workshops, resulting in 34 business requirements
Prototyping & Testing: Developed 5 prototypes for iterative feedback and testing

Key Insights (Spark)

End users manipulated the experience to generate different type of documents

Recognizing how users would navigate the application in their journey to present content on-screen and generate reports was key to developing areas of content, and automated and ad-hoc reporting tools.
The new experience had to allow users to make queries to find information easily, and create documents to support their workflows. Automating and organizing documents became crucial for users.

Customers wanted to automate everything from their CRM

They wanted a simple way to upload or integrate transactions, create and manage users, and easy ways to automate repeat vendor payments in the cash and treasury management experience.
Increasingly bank customers were using FinTech solutions to manage multiple accounts across many banks.

Activities

1
AnalysisConcept Refinement1

RequirementsUnderstanding

Concept Development
Stakeholder Interviews
External SME Interviews
Heuristic Evaluation
Market Analysis
Competitor Analysis
Use Case Development

2

AnalysisBrainstorming

Data Analysis
Technology Review
Persona & Journey Mapping
Concept Refinement

3

DesignPrototype

Clickable Prototype Development
Design System (DSM) Management
Prototype Testing
Follow-Up Focus Groups

4

DevelopmentRealizing the Future

Prioritized Roadmap
Delivery Estimates
Backlog Management

Ethnographic Research

Key Findings

Unintuitive Navigation: Users struggled with an interface that required excessive manual exploration to accomplish tasks.
Inefficient Processes: Essential data was not readily accessible, impacting user efficiency.
Limited Digital Capabilities: Existing tools were unreliable and prone to errors, adding frustration for users.
Lack of Personalization: Users across different roles experienced the platform in the same way, leading to unmet needs for customized data and views.
Security: Customers were very concerned with fraud, and accidently sending payments with incorrect hijacked information.

AvalonBay Journey Maps — Example of a Journey map from a key persona, Company User

New Design

Our prototypes were made for desktop, tablet, and mobile. The visual language was an extension of SMBC’s DSM, pushing it further to include new components.

By grounding our solution in thorough research, we transformed SMBC’s experience into a secure, robust platform complete with all the missing features and capabilities their customers expected.

Enhanced Login Experience: Universal login for streamlined access, with state-of-the-art digital security measures, and a first-time guided login process for easier troubleshooting.
Comprehensive Homepage Dashboard: At-a-glance view of cash portfolio and activities, real-time and historical data visualizations, tooltips, tutorials, and customizable views.
Streamlined Wire Transfer Dashboard: Centralized domestic and international wire transfer activities, simplified sending and receiving of wires, automation features for efficiency, detailed transaction history and insights, and upload and system integration features to automate transactions from a customer CRM.
Robust Reporting Capabilities: Easy access to daily and customizable reports, centralized tools and utilities, and improved exporting and automation options.
Fraud Prevention Features: Payment history used to auto-highlight inconsistent contact transaction details, to prevent payments sent to incorrect destinations.
Administrative Tools: Role-based user management, secure document sharing and notifications, personalization options in “My Profile”, and upload and system integration features to manage all users from a CRM.
Global Design System: Consistent user experience across regions, scalable and adaptable design framework.

Daily iterations with SMEs, Technology and Design teams

End-to-end experience for onboarding SMBC customers, reporting, and domestic and international transfers

Results

The new Cash and Treasury Management platform was met with high praise from both internal stakeholders and end-users, achieving a 4.5-star rating in testing feedback.

4.5-Star Rating

“It seems really sleek and web based, which is a positive.
It’s probably a little sleeker than what I have today.
It seems pretty intuitive”
-User Feedback

“It’s better than both HSBC and Barclays”
-User Feedback

Market Differentiation: The platform’s ease of use and advanced personalization options set it apart from competitors, supporting the client’s goal of increased transaction business and deposit balance capture.
Increased Efficiency: New workflows and intuitive navigation streamlined user tasks, reducing the time required for critical operations.
Enhanced User Satisfaction: Users appreciated the visual appeal, simplicity, and increased functionality.