Retail Banking Automation Hub for GCC Shared Services
Sapnity implemented a Retail Banking Automation Hub on Power Platform that sits above core banking and surround systems — digitising branch and contact centre workflows, KYC refresh, account servicing and card disputes for a 700+ FTE GCC supporting 20M+ retail customers.
1. Business Problem — Fragmented Retail Servicing
The bank had invested in world-class digital channels and core banking upgrades, but the day-to-day servicing engine was still fragmented. Branches, contact centre teams and back offices each had their own trackers, templates and workarounds.
- Address changes, email/mobile updates and KYC refresh were handled differently by each channel.
- Disputes on cards and accounts bounced between call centre and operations with limited visibility.
- Branch staff re-keyed customer data into multiple systems with no unified case record.
- Supervisors tracked workloads and SLAs in Excel and email-based dashboards.
- Retail leadership could see NPS and complaints, but not the underlying process heatmap.
For customers, the experience felt inconsistent across branch, contact centre and app — not because of bad intent, but because the process fabric was not unified.
2. Sapnity’s Mandate
Group Retail and the GCC leadership asked Sapnity to:
- Create a Retail Banking Automation Hub that unifies servicing workflows across channels and back-office.
- Standardise how common requests (KYC, address/email/mobile changes, card disputes, fee waivers) flow through the bank.
- Provide a single case view per customer request, independent of entry channel.
- Embed operational controls (4-eyes checks, risk flags) without adding friction.
- Deliver a repeatable pattern that can be extended to new products and markets.
3. Before — Channel Silos & Operational Hotspots
A simple address change could start in the mobile app, get redirected to the contact centre, and finally land in a back-office queue updated via emails and spreadsheets. Each channel optimised locally — but no one owned the full journey.
- Branch had its own paper forms and checklists, often scanned and emailed to ops.
- Contact centre used scripts and CRM tickets that were not fully integrated.
- Back office operated off Excel trackers with limited SLA transparency.
- Customers received inconsistent status updates depending on who they spoke to.
Process Heatmap — Where Work Got Stuck
| Step | Primary Owner | Issue Hotspot |
|---|---|---|
| Request capture | Branch / Contact Centre | Inconsistent forms & missing fields |
| Verification & checks | Back Office | Manual checks; re-keying into multiple systems |
| Core updates | Ops & IT | Batch updates; difficulty tracking failures |
| Customer communication | Mixed | No single owner; status lives in emails |
4. After — Sapnity Retail Banking Automation Hub
Sapnity delivered a Retail Banking Automation Hub on Power Platform — a single, governed case layer where all servicing requests enter, get classified and flow through standardised workflows into core banking and surround systems.
Customer Channels
Branch, contact centre, mobile app, internet banking, relationship managers.
Unified Service Intake
Power Apps front-door capturing all requests into a single case record with standard metadata.
Classification & Routing Engine
Rules + AI route cases into two paths:
Path A — Frontline-resolvable (instant / same-day).
Path B — Back-office with SLAs and checks.
Retail Ops Workbench
Case queues for branches, contact centre back office and operations with guided steps and controls.
Core & Surround Systems
Updates to core banking, card systems, CRM and KYC platforms via APIs and controlled batch processes.
Retail Control Tower
Real-time view of volumes, TAT, repeat contacts, error hotspots and NPS impact by journey and channel.
The hub made retail servicing channel-agnostic — customers could start in one channel, finish in another, with a single case history underneath.
5. Implementation Story
Phase 1 — Journey & Channel Discovery
- Ran joint discovery with branch, contact centre and back office teams for 10 priority journeys (KYC, address change, card dispute, fee waiver, standing instructions).
- Mapped “as-is” journeys and identified where channels diverged vs policy and SOPs.
- Built a quantified backlog of issues: rework drivers, repeat calls, SLA breaches.
Phase 2 — Retail Hub Blueprint
- Defined a retail service case model capturing customer, product, journey type, channel, risk level and SLA attributes.
- Agreed on a common status model and communication templates across channels.
- Designed a “dual-path” handling approach: frontline-resolvable vs back-office flows.
Phase 3 — Hub Build & Anchor Journeys
- Built the Unified Service Intake app integrated with CRM and authentication sources.
- Implemented guided flows for address change, KYC refresh and card disputes as the first three anchor journeys.
- Enabled branches and contact centre to work off the same case record with channel-specific guidance.
Phase 4 — Integration & Scale
- Integrated with core banking, card, KYC and notification systems via APIs and secure integration patterns.
- Onboarded additional journeys: standing instructions, dormant account activation, lien marking, fee waiver requests.
- Introduced rules to automatically divert high-risk or complex requests to specialised queues.
Phase 5 — Optimisation & Retail Ops Playbook
- Set up monthly “Journey Health Reviews” using control tower dashboards.
- Empowered Ops leads to tweak routing, SLAs and documentation rules via configuration tables instead of code changes.
- Documented a rollout playbook for new markets, including localisation patterns and compliance checks.
6. Technical Architecture — Layered View
7. Reusable Retail Service Hub Pattern
The bank did not just fix a few broken journeys — it gained a retail service hub pattern. New products, channels and markets can now plug into the same case, rules and control framework with minimal IT lift.
8. Outcomes & KPIs
| KPI | Before | After Sapnity Retail Hub |
|---|---|---|
| Avg TAT — simple servicing (e.g., address change) | 3–5 business days | Same-day to 1 business day for >70% of cases |
| Requests touched > 2x | 40–50% | < 20% after hub rollout |
| Repeat contacts within 7 days | ~30% | < 15% with consistent case visibility |
| Manual trackers used by ops teams | 10+ spreadsheets | 0 — replaced by hub queues & dashboards |
| Time to onboard new journey | 6–9 months | 6–10 weeks using the retail hub pattern |
The Retail Banking Automation Hub became the bank’s operating system for servicing — visible to leadership, trusted by risk, and simple for frontline teams.
9. Sapnity Differentiators
- Branch & contact centre empathy: Designed around real frontline behaviours and constraints, not just process maps.
- Journey-first, not system-first: Aligned tech around core journeys (KYC, disputes, servicing) instead of around individual systems.
- Control without friction: Embedded risk and audit controls into guided flows so that compliance becomes part of how work is done, not a separate step.
- Pattern-driven expansion: New journeys are configured on the same hub, keeping operations, risk and IT aligned.
- Enterprise-ready ALM: Managed solutions, Dev→Test→Prod pipelines and configuration management aligned with bank IT governance.
For this bank, Sapnity turned retail servicing from a patchwork of channel silos into a coherent, data-driven service fabric that can grow with customer expectations.