When you’re part of one of the world’s largest banking and financial services organizations, catering to ultra high net worth clients is business as usual. But what if the desktop software programs you’re using to manage those all-important clients are painfully inefficient?
This was the predicament of HSBC Private Bank relationship managers around the world. They were toggling between six different software programs for almost every aspect of their job, from managing sensitive high-profile client data to completing complex transactions to tracking relationships over time. It was time for a serious rethink.
HSBC Private Bank asked Smart Design to architect a better user experience for everyone. We designed six streamlined desktop applications that makes client management productive and seamless. It’s visually engaging, simple to navigate and best of all, helps managers to deliver the white glove experience their clients expect.
To build a more efficient and enjoyable user experience, Smart met senior stakeholders, managers, back office administrators and CEOs in seven cities across three continents to understand how we might help them do their jobs better. We also assembled all six software application managers under one roof at Smart to analyze and unpack the existing software functionality, terminology and task flow process in order to collectively agree on one global approach that would work in all regions. Besides designing all six applications, we focused on creating one that aggregated critical functionality from the others into one place. This enabled the managers to stay within the one application to access their most important daily tasks rather than jumping between them all. Ultimately, this approach streamlined their workflow and saved critical time – and in a world where time is money, this had a positive financial impact for the bank.
This new best-in-class application not only streamlines six different applications into one, but it allows managers to service multiple clients simultaneously. Powerful search functionality and dynamic information recall enhance productivity.
We delivered working prototypes and UX guidelines to the internal HSBC Private Bank development team and helped to guide and train the internal developers to launch the user experience we envisioned. At launch, we partnered with the bank to create training materials and helped to socialize the new platform.
The three words employees used to describe the software were “efficient”, “clear” and “simple”.