CASE

The Saikyo Bank, Ltd.
Adopting a Package to Improve the Efficiency of Filing Operations in Seven Months

The Saikyo Bank, a regional bank headquartered in Shunan City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, has been actively improving operational efficiency by transitioning its core systems to the cloud and by offering a passbook-free account which eliminates the need to issue paper passbooks. To strengthen its consulting business, the bank is focusing on reducing the administrative burden placed on its branches. As part of this effort, The Saikyo Bank has succeeded in significantly streamlining administrative processing at its headquarters by introducing Primagest's ImageValue20 in its operations center. We interviewed the General Manager of the Business Promotion Department, Mr. Tatsuya Fujii, and his deputy, Ms. Mina Shimada, about the background to the introduction, its effects, and the reasons behind the short time of less than seven months between the initial study and the start of operations.

Background and Issues

01
Burdened with administrative work due to processing and storage of forms at each branch
02
Consolidated forms to the head office, thereby centralizing administrative work
03
Invested man-hours gained by improving administrative efficiency into strengthening sales capabilities

Improving Administrative Efficiency Strengthens Sales Capabilities

General Manager, Business Promotion Department Mr. Tatsuya Fujii

Solution Implemented

Approximately 12 to 13 types of forms sent from branches, including identity verification documents and change of address notifications, are consolidated at the head office, where they are scanned and converted into image data using the ImageValue20, a high-speed scanner installed in the head office's operations center. The data is then uploaded to the web inquiry system on the bank's intranet, where images of the forms can be viewed from any terminal within the bank. The total processing volume for all branches at the operations center averages 1,000 forms per day, with a high of 1,500 forms per day.

Background and Objectives of Introduction

Previously, the processing and storage of forms and other clerical work at our branches was burdensome. By consolidating administrative work at the head office, we intend to remove all equipment and cabinets, thereby eliminating both the forms and the work from our branches. The goal is to have branches focus on consulting sales using the time they have saved.
On the other hand, this naturally places a heavy burden on the head office, requiring more time and personnel. We introduced this system to improve operational efficiency at the head office.
We have been working on consolidating administrative work at the head office for the past 10 years, but we accelerated this trend one year ago in order to further strengthen our customer touchpoints. However, as a result of this consolidation, the number of personnel at the head office had increased too much, and the most pressing issue was to streamline administrative work at the head office so that personnel could be freed up to be allocated to the sales department.

Effects of Introduction

Improved Administrative Efficiency by Introducing a New Filing System

With the introduction of the new system, we have been able to reduce the amount of time spent on administrative work from seven hours to just one to two hours per day, and the number of personnel from six to two. Although the system has only been in operation for one month, we are already feeling its effects.

Deputy General Manager, Business Promotion Department Ms. Mina Shimada

Although we had been using a general-purpose filing system at the head office, the largest savings came from the automation of entry work that used to be done by humans. Another operational savings came from the fact that manual checks are no longer required due to computerization; the elimination of such double-checking is another benefit of the highly accurate equipment.
The goal of the Business Promotion Department is to streamline the administrative work that is inevitably generated on the front lines. Broadly speaking, banking is a service industry, and we believe that it is important to allocate the most personnel and time to customer contact.

Reasons for Selecting Primagest

After adopting the package, the system was operational in 7 months

We wanted to shift human resources to sales as soon as possible. In the case of Primagest, the key points for us were the quick equipment installation schedule, cost, and the ability to introduce and operate the equipment as quickly as we wanted. We though that the sooner we could get the equipment up and running, the sooner we would be able to deploy personnel to our sales branches and strengthen our customer contact points.
There are various ways to streamline a bank's electronic filing operations, depending on its size, processing volume, and objectives. These include imaging at the branch, or consolidation at the head office. In the case of The Saikyo Bank, we believed that the optimal solution was to consolidate operations at the head office due to the number of processes involved. Primagest's proposal was the most suitable for this idea.

Introduction process

We began considering the project around September of last year, and consulted with Primagest several times before starting the project in April of this year. The system went into full-scale operation in November after a period of only seven months. We were able to introduce the filing system in such a short period of time because our requirements and usage conditions were simple, allowing us to implement the system as a package without any customization.
Implementing the system as a package not only saved us cost and time, but also reduced the risk and validation time associated with customization.
The business environment surrounding the financial industry is changing rapidly. The longer one spends building a system, the more likely that it will be different from what was initially envisioned or that it will not meet the requirements of the times once it is finally put into operation. Therefore, it was important for us to introduce the new system with a sense of urgency.

What it felt like to work with Primagest

I think the reason we were able to implement the system in such a short period of time was because Primagest clearly understood what we wanted to achieve. A system is a means, not an end. What we want to know is not the system's functionality, but how it can be realized. To this end, we repeatedly asked ourselves, "What do we want to accomplish?" I feel that the success of the project was due to the fact that we were able to communicate closely with each other and share the same vision. Even when we asked questions about things we did not understand, Primagest quickly provided us with sincere and accurate responses and solutions.

Going Forward

Transitioning to in-house development
Giving back DX know-how to the community

Although the system in question was designed to improve the efficiency of filing operations, we would like to hear examples of how other banks have used this system to improve efficiency and exchange ideas on how to introduce solutions that match our style, current situation, and objectives.

The Saikyo Bank, under its long-term vision of being a community-based bank for small and medium-sized businesses and individual customers, aims to continually and reliably meet the expectations of its customers by continuing to anticipate and create solutions for the needs of the times, while placing an importance on customer communication in order to revitalize the community.
Against this backdrop, we aim to improve convenience for our customers and increase the productivity of administrative work, particularly at our branches.
Previously, system development related to product services was outsourced to systems companies, but we intend to shift to in-house development by the Group itself.
The Saikyo Bank Group is actively recruiting and training systems personnel, and plans to give back its systems-related know-how (such as DX) to the local community of Yamaguchi Prefecture in the form of regional revitalization and consulting services for our customers.

Active BANK: A bank that revitalizes communities; Communication BANK: A bank that values communication with customers; Trend BANK: A bank that anticipates and creates solutions for the needs of the times. Based on the basic principle of "ACT-BANK," which is a combination of the above three words, the Saikyo Bank's corporate message is "For your tomorrow - ACT FOR YOU."
Website: https://www.saikyobank.co.jp/

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