Operations & Technology in Financial Services
Marketforce's 5th Annual Conference: Explore next steps in transformation, operational excellence and the customer experience
18th June 2012, Grange St Paul’s, London
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Conference Agenda
Print ProgrammeMonday 18 June 2012, Grange St Paul’s, London
Operations & Technology in Financial Services
Chairman’s opening remarks
Session One: Planning an Operations Strategy for the Future
STRATEGIC DISCUSSION FORUM: Preparing today for the operations of tomorrow details
- Operating with tight margins: how can investment be targeted more effectively?
- Should the challenging environments be a burning platform or time for reflection?
- What organisational restructuring is required to remain competitive in the future?
- What innovation is driving further operational efficiency?
- How can operations departments limit the costs of increasing regulatory complexity?
- How are mobile, social media and changing customer behaviour shaping FS operations?
- To what extent can costs be tightly controlled when operational change is unavoidable?
Additional speakers to be confirmed

David Weymouth
Group Operations & Risk Director, RSA Insurance
David Weymouth
Group Operations & Risk Director, RSA Insurance
Biography
David is currently Group Director Operations and Risk at the RSA Group. He has responsibility for Operations, Risk Management, Technology, Procurement and Change Globally. Prior to joining the RSA Group in 2007 David had been consulting independently to a portfolio of blue chip and government clients. He was also an independent board member at the DTI and at Chordiant Inc a US Nasdaq quoted software business. He remains a trustee at the Charities Aid Foundation. David spent 27 years at Barclays, holding senior positions in Risk Management, Operations and Technology and in customer facing commercial businesses. These included Chief Operating Officer for corporate banking, Chief Executive for mid-market banking and Group Chief Information Officer where David was also part of the Group Executive Committee.

Peter Horton
Chief Operating Officer, LV=
Peter Horton
Chief Operating Officer, LV=
Biography
Peter Horton is the Chief Operating Officer of LV= General Insurance and MD of Britannia Rescue. As part of his role he has overall responsibility for LV='s Operations unit of over 2,700 staff. Peter has been in the insurance industry for 30 years and was there at the start of Direct Line, which transformed the entire industry, working along side with Peter Wood and Martin Long.
Peter is currently a Board Director of Thatcham and on the Editorial Board of Bodyshop Magazine.
Peter is an ebullient character; well known in the industry for his enthusiasm, knowledge and commitment to his job. Peter's approach is one of focusing and developing people to offer the best possible claims experience to customers.
Peter has made a huge difference at LV=. The Operations Unit including Sales & Service & Claims has changed dramatically in the last five years. In 2006 the company had a poor reputation for its claims service, high fraud rates and over 40% staff turnover. LV='s Operation is now one of the highest rated in the industry, winning 18 awards over the last 12 months including a Which peoples choice, a Personal Finance awards for customer service and has 92% satisfaction scores amongst its customers.
Some key initiatives Peter has lead at LV= include:
Cost savings of £50m by introducing new claims systems and management tools
A project to bring in-house a major outsourced part of the claims unit which resulted in major cost savings and 150 people recruited from WNS in Bristol
Introduction of new Claims System, Telephony and MI and Scanning Solutions.
Previous experience includes:
June 2003 – June 2005: Managing Director of claims at RBSI managing three million claims a year, overseeing 8000 staff with an annual spend of £3.4 billion. During his time in this role Peter was responsible for the integration of the Churchill Group and Direct Line Group claims operations under the banner of RBS Insurance.
1993 – 2003: Group Operations Director of Churchill. Peter ran several industry-leading projects whilst in this role including achieving lowest average claims cost across the industry, saving several million pounds whilst ensuring Churchill Insurance was publicly acknowledged as providing the best service across the industry.
1989 – 1993: Operations Director at Churchill. Peter was a founding director at Churchill responsible for Claims and customer service. During this role he personally developed and introduced the claims system which was widely acknowledged as the best in the market place. Benefits of the system included a lower loss ratio than competitors, enhanced relationships with suppliers and millions of pounds of cost savings each year. He also oversaw the introduction of the first claims unit in the UK insurance industry to have courtesy cars, faxing from screens and no claim forms.
1986: Claims Manager at the start up of Direct LinePeter Horton is the Operations Director of LV= General Insurance and, as part of his role, he has overall responsibility for LV=’s claims operation of over 800 staff. Peter has been in the insurance industry for 30 years and was a founder of Direct Line, which transformed the entire industry, along with Peter Wood and Martin Long.
Peter is an ebullient character; well known in the industry for his enthusiasm, knowledge and commitment to his job. Peter’s approach is one of focusing and developing people to offer the best possible claims experience to customers.
Peter has made a huge difference at LV=. The claims operation has changed dramatically in the last three years. In 2006 the company had a poor reputation for its claims service, high fraud rates and over 30% staff turnover. LV=’s claims operation is now one of the highest rated in the industry, winning several awards over the last 12 months including a Which peoples choice, a Personal Finance awards for customer service and has 92% satisfaction scores amongst its customers.
Some key initiatives Peter has lead at LV= include:
- Cost savings of £25m by introducing new claims systems and management tools
- A project to bring in-house a major outsourced part of the claims unit which resulted in major cost savings and 150 people recruited from WNS in Bristol
Previous experience includes:
- June 2003 – June 2005: Managing director of claims at RBSI managing three million claims a year, overseeing 8000 staff with an annual spend of £3.4 billion. During his time in this role Peter was responsible for the integration of the Churchill Group and Direct Line Group claims operations under the banner of RBS Insurance.
- 1993 – 2003: Operations director of Churchill. Peter ran several industry-leading projects whilst in this role including achieving lowest average claims cost across the industry, saving several million pounds whilst ensuring Churchill Insurance was publicly acknowledged as providing the best service across the industry.
- 1989 – 1993: Operations Director at Churchill. Peter was a founding director at Churchill responsible for Claims and customer service. During this role he personally developed and introduced the claims system which was widely acknowledged as the best in the market place. Benefits of the system included a lower loss ratio than competitors, enhanced relationships with suppliers and millions of pounds of cost savings each year. He also oversaw the introduction of the first claims unit in the UK insurance industry to have courtesy cars, faxing from screens and no claim forms.
- 1986: Claims Manager at the start up of Direct Line

Annette Barnes
Director of Retail, Mortgage & Private Banking Operations, Lloyds Banking GroupSession Two: Implementing Successful Organisational Change
LEADERS IN CHANGE FORUM details
In this session representatives of leading financial services companies will each give a 15 minute case study presentation, sharing their experience of implementing large-scale change projects. They will then join a panel to answer questions on how to manage these successfully.
Successful transformation: what organisational design and cultural change is needed? details
- Identifying and removing duplication of process across the business
- Maintaining a high standard of customer service throughout change and transformation
- Creating a customer-centric organisation: what process improvement is needed?

Angie Glover
Director of IT, Change & Outsourcing, PartnershipCASE STUDY: Systems - The role of technology in implementing Solvency II programmes at Aviva details
- Building a more stable and efficient business model through technology
- Reducing technology risk: consolidating legacy systems and standardising architecture
- Data integration and cleansing: leveraging compliance data for competitive advantage

Paul Johnson
Head of IT Programmes - Solvency II, AvivaCASE STUDY: People - Building a best of breed operations team across the newly merged Friends Life details
- What complementary skill sets do the two businesses possess?
- How have expertise and knowledge been retained during the merger?
- How do you prevent distractions from the day-to-day business during the integration process?

Tony Brown
Director, People & Corporate Affairs, Royal London GroupDealing with an increasing regulatory burden through effective partnership details
In this session Spencer Wyer from EDM Group will outline the growing challenge for operations, IT and risk & compliance departments to remain fully complaint in the face of changing regulation. From PCI DSS to FATCA, he will examine how financial services organisations can reduce cost and improve compliance and governance standards through an effective outsourcing partnership. He will draw on various client case studies and his experience in information management.

Spencer Wyer
Chief Technology Officer, EDM GroupQUESTION TIME WITH THE EXPERTS: Achieving successful organisational change – what needs to be considered? details
- Big bang or incremental change: what approach is most appropriate in today’s climate?
- Keeping pace with the evolving business environment: how do you build in flexibility?
- The importance of scalability: how do you accommodate for future business volumes?
- Organisational not just operational: how do you ensure change embeds across the business?
- How do you ensure continuous improvement following transformation?

Angie Glover
Director of IT, Change & Outsourcing, Partnership
Paul Johnson
Head of IT Programmes - Solvency II, Aviva
Tony Brown
Director, People & Corporate Affairs, Royal London Group
Spencer Wyer
Chief Technology Officer, EDM GroupRefreshments
Session Three: Tomorrow's World - The mega trends that will shape financial services
In this session commentators will examine developments that are likely to affect financial services operations in the future, and what opportunities these innovations provide for driving growth and improved operational efficiency. Delegates will break into groups, giving them the opportunity to share experiences and benchmark their own strategy, as well as discover new ideas and approaches.
How is financial services embracing the rise of social media?

John Hinder
Head of Digital Marketing, Scottish Life
John Hinder
Head of Digital Marketing, Scottish Life
Biography
With 12 years digital marketing experience, John has taken an active part in the increased popularity of the web. He's passionate about using technology to solve problems, make it easier to talk to customers and improve their experience.
His interests include a wide number of web-related subject areas including digital marketing, corporate branding, customer experience, video, social media and usability.
What impact will Smartphone and tablet take up have on operations?

Michael Nuciforo
Mobile and Digital Banking consultant, innovator and futurist
Michael Nuciforo
Mobile and Digital Banking consultant, innovator and futurist
Biography
Michael Nuciforo is a freelance Mobile and Digital Banking Consultant who has most recently been Head of Mobile Banking at RBS. Last year Michael was responsible for delivering the UK's first iPad tablet application along with new services for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry both RBS and NatWest brands. The service was the Number 1 rated banking app in the Apple app store and was a Gold winner in the UK IT Industry Awards.
Prior to moving to London two years ago Michael worked at the ANZ bank on a number of developments including the first iPhone banking app outside the US (back in 1998...) and the award winning ANZ goMoney application. A regular author and blogger with popular industry publications Michael is passionate about the potential of mobile innovation and the opportunities that exist within the holy trinity of mobile, social and location based technologies.
Is cloud on the horizon for financial services? details
Speaker to be confirmed
PEER-TO-PEER DISCUSSION: Disruptive innovations: adapting operations to leverage the opportunities details
Areas for discussion will include:
- How will disruptive technologies improve operational efficiency in FS?
- Examining the future costs: what investment might be needed to adapt?
- How can you change your culture to embrace innovation and developments in technology?
Lunch sponsored by DST Global Solutions
Session Four: Streams
Chairman’s opening remarks
Examining the evolving role of the IT Director
- What are the current challenges and how are IT Directors addressing them?
- Operational management vs. strategic innovation: where should your priorities lie?
- The increasingly strategic role of the IT Director: driving rather than responding to change
- Ensuring financial services keeps pace with changing technology
Advisory Session
Combining technology and operations to deliver improved customer experience
- Improving self-service: developing more sophisticated mobile and online channels
- Collecting and leveraging data to enhance the customer experience and drive sales
- What investment and external IT resources is needed to improve customer service

Steve Briggs
Head of IT Strategic Partnerships, Co-operative Financial Services
Steve Briggs
Head of IT Strategic Partnerships, Co-operative Financial Services
Biography
Steve is Head of Strategic Partnerships at the Co-operative Financial Services where he is responsible for managing the overall relationship with several key suppliers, such as IBM, BT, Steria SCC and HSBC.
When he joined CFS in 2007 he was Head of Management and Control in where he is responsible for supplier strategy and management in the project delivery function as well as, finance, performance measurement, demand management, risk, process management & QA as well as a Project Office.
Prior to CFS Steve worked for Barclay's, where he spent four and a half years. In that time he managed the relationship between the CIO and the international and wealth businesses. Latterly he was responsible for managing the strategic relationship with Steria and was heavily involved in the renegotiation of the Barclay's Xansa outsource.
Prior to Barclay's Steve Xansa and Scottish Hydro-Electric in Edinburgh and Perth.
ROUNDTABLES – Optimising the opportunity technological developments provides
Delegates will now break into group to discuss the questions below and each will formulate a four point checklist for success in ensuring financial services organisations utilise technology to best effect. The checklist will be distributed to all delegates after the event.
- Building smarter operations: how is technology enhancing business intelligence?
- How can customer data be used more effectively? What strategic benefits does it present?
- How can technology best be used to improve the customer experience?
- What valuable information can be gained from social media and how should this be applied?
Chairman’s opening remarks
Designing and delivering effective change & continuous improvement programmes
In this session a representative of a representative of Hiscox will outline how the organisation has adopted operational excellence techniques within their organisation, and discuss what process improvement has been achieved and how continuous improvement has been embedded within their organisation’s culture.

Kirti Srivastava
Head of Operations & Service Delivery, Hiscox
Kirti Srivastava
Head of Operations & Service Delivery, Hiscox
Biography
Kirti joined Hiscox in August 2010 as Head of Operations and Service Delivery, from TalkTalk where she was heading the senior technical support and process excellence teams. She has worked in various roles to deliver superb service along with operational efficiency in various industries, from Telecoms to ISP, Finance and Insurance. In her BPO/KPO/Call centre career of 15 years she has been in various roles leading teams and business units that have been focused on driving excellence in Customer experience coupled with business growth. She has led and delivered influential change programmes as Tiscali acquired 6 ISP between 2007-2009, Outsource Partner selection process and finally Tiscali's sale to TalkTalk. Tiscali teams under her leadership bagged JD Power customer satisfaction survey award 2007.
At Hiscox she has been responsible for transforming Hiscox UK Direct (B2C) operations to deliver a world class service that lives Hiscox's brand value and philosophy. So far a fruitful journey...success is the only option...
Transforming the customer experience and operational performance
- Unleashing the team: getting everyone on the bus
- Deploying the right tools to do the job
- Making it easy: focussing on process and continuous improvement

Simon Beresford
COO, Employee Savings Service Centre, BlackRock
Simon Beresford
COO, Employee Savings Service Centre, BlackRock
Biography
Simon Beresford is BlackRock’s COO Employee Savings Service Centre; responsible for transforming the centre's delivery capability to underpin a world class market proposition. He has overall accountability for all pensions servicing, including fund dealing and transfer agency; member and scheme administration; contact centre performance; scheme accounting; regulatory and scheme reporting and client relationship management.
Prior to joining BlackRock, Simon's career focused on leading large operational teams through transformation programmes; more recently at the helm of Nationwide's mortgage processing operation, where he oversaw delivery of a new sales and origination platform into production; process reengineering and service augmentation. Before this, Simon was Managing Director of Nationwide Personal Loans introducing risk based pricing and a new operating model.
Simon holds an MBA from Henley Business School and a Postgraduate Diploma in Management Studies from Oxford Brookes University.
Empowering and equipping staff to own and deliver significant improvement
- Providing the right tools for improvement: what training and development is required?
- How to change the mindset to continuous improvement
- How you can make a real difference to an organisation without the need for significant investment

Victoria Swaysland
Director Operational Excellence, Group Finance & Change, Barclays
Victoria Swaysland
Director Operational Excellence, Group Finance & Change, Barclays
Biography
Victoria works in Group Centre for Barclays, focusing on improving business performance whilst creating and embedding a culture of continuous improvement for back office functions.
Victoria has been with Barclays since 2011 as Operational Excellence Director, during which time she has continued to expand on the OPEX agenda that she helped to build for Barclays whilst employed as a consultant with KPMG. Victoria’s focus to ensure that within the support functions, all activities are performed efficiently and effectively, while delivering maximum value for their customers and clients.
Prior to Barclays, Victoria worked as a management consultant within KPMG and as a Six Sigma/Lean Master Black Belt at AXA.
PEER-TO-PEER DICUSSION - What’s the latest thinking in operational excellence?
Delegates will break into groups to discuss the following questions before feeding back to the speakers for comment.
- Which techniques or approaches hold the greatest potential benefit for financial services?
- Where is the next layer of efficiency gain to be found within FS companies?
- Delivering customer service enhancement and operational efficiency: how can both priorities best be achieved?
Chairman’s opening remarks
Maintaining the perfect partnership in challenging times
- Renegotiating contracts: the importance of a scalable and flexible relationship
- Incentivising increased efficiency and continuous improvement
- Maintaining the company culture across supplier organisations
- Single or multi-provider? Which approach is best for managing risks and costs?

Paul Gaffney
Head, Procurement & Supplier Management, Sainsbury's Finance
Paul Gaffney
Head, Procurement & Supplier Management, Sainsbury's Finance
Biography
Paul is current Head of Procurement and Supplier Management at Sainsbury's Finance, a joint venture between J Sainsburys plc and Lloyds Banking Group. Sainsbury's Finance operates a predominantly outsourced business model with all product acquisition and servicing delivered through external partners. Paul is responsible for the full sourcing life cycle including all procurement activities and the subsequent supplier relationship management and associated governance. Prior to Sainsbury's Finance, Paul spent 15 years in procurement related roles in financial services. His experience includes extensive sourcing programmes as a result of M&A activity with significant experience of outsourcing, off-shoring and in-sourcing.
Advisory session
Cloud computing: from planning to implementation
- When is cloud computing suitable?
- What are the security and data protection issues and how can these be overcome?
- Private, hybrid or public: what models will FS companies adopt?
Speaker to be confirmed
PANEL DISCSUSSION - What are the latest trends in sourcing?
The speakers in this stream will now join a panel to address the following questions:
- What impact will the uncertain economic climate have on sourcing relationships and service?
- How is the supplier market changing?
- What innovations are sourcing partnerships driving in financial services?
- What are the financial and strategic gains of virtualisation?
- Will we see a mass migration or gradual shift to cloud computing in financial services?
Refreshments
Session Five: Meeting the expectations of tomorrow's customer
Advisory session
Right thing, right way, right result! details
- What level of customer service do today’s customers expect?
- Creating a comprehensive picture of the customer
- Considering all aspects of the customer journey
- Measuring service improvement and adapting experience based on feedback
- How do you measure efficacy of CEM programmes? What is the ROI?

Steve Barrey
Head of Customer Experience, Hastings Direct
Steve Barrey
Head of Customer Experience, Hastings Direct
Biography
Working within the industry for nearly 25 years, Steve has a huge amount of experience in leading customer facing operations and delivering experience programmes within large organisations. Steve is renowned for his ‘can do’ attitude and passion for service excellence and believes that efficient processes and quality service go hand in hand. Steve’s extensive operational experience enables him to deliver change at both a cultural and practical level and adds that all important credibility to such initiatives.
KEYNOTE CLOSING ADDRESS: Building a customer-centric organisation: creating the right culture

Ronnie Collard
Managing Director, Customer Services, Standard Life
Ronnie Collard
Managing Director, Customer Services, Standard Life
Biography
Appointed as Managing Director Customer Services in June 2010, Ronnie joined the company in 1972. He has worked in UK Customer Services for the majority of his career at Standard Life occupying various roles. (1 day short of 40 years with the company when he speaks at the conference)
From 1994 to 1996 he worked in Standard Life’s Canadian Operations, and on returning in 1997 was appointed Director of Corporate Services responsible for Premises, Document Management, Office Services, Purchasing and Fleet management. Ronnie also spent some time at Operational Director in Standard Life Bank between November 1999 and April 2000 providing significant operational cover whilst the Bank was going through a reorganisation.
Questions
Chairman’s closing remarks and end of conference
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