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Business process improvement of credit card department: Case study of a

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Business Process Management Journal
Emerald Article: Business process improvement of credit card department:
case study of a multinational bank
Samsul Islam, M. Daud Ahmed

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BPMJ
18,2 Business process improvement
of credit card department: case
study of a multinational bank
284
Samsul Islam
Department of Information Systems and Operations Management,
University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, and
M. Daud Ahmed
Faculty of Business, Manukau Institute of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to study the shortcomings of the business process of credit card
department of a multinational bank and to improve the existing business process efficiency and
effectiveness through redesigning the process that eliminates bottlenecks and improves service
quality.
Design/methodology/approach – The research investigates real-life business process using case
study methodology. It collects primary data through interviews of individuals, focus groups and
secondary data from the investigation of company documents. It then uses SWOT analysis, Fishbone
Diagram, Process Flow Diagram and a number of other tools to analyse and to redesign the existing
process.
Findings – The research identifies that the business process of the credit card department of a
multinational bank is unnecessarily lengthy and requires eight to nine days to complete from
application processing to final account creation and to issue the card. It then designs a to-be business
process for the same business function. The proposed process reduces half of the time of the existing
process.
Practical implications – The proposed business process reduces the cycle time effectively and uses
the organisational resources efficiently to achieve better customer satisfaction. It also helps in growing
card market share in this highly competitive and profitable segment of consumer products.
Originality/value – This paper illustrates a unique way of investigating an existing business
process and designing a new business process that is very efficient and effective. The design process is
quite generic which can be applied to other organisations, especially in the banking sector.
Keywords Business process improvement, Process flow, Credit cards, Business process re-engineering,
Multinational bank
Paper type Research paper

Business Process Management
Journal
Vol. 18 No. 2, 2012
pp. 284-303
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1463-7154
DOI 10.1108/14637151211225207
1. Introduction
Every company has both internal and external stakeholders. Striving to deliver the best
value to the stakeholders is mandatory for survival in today’s marketplace. This is true
for every company, from local to multinational, including the market leaders. Although
all companies want to improve customer satisfaction and increase loyal customers’
base, they struggle to identify the way to achieve this because of inflexibility in their
organisational and business processes. These companies frequently hear so much
The authors would like to thank Professor Tava Olsen of the University of Auckland for
generous comments and suggestions.
about terminologies like “business process re-engineering”, “business process Business process
improvement” (BPI), “business process management”, but they find it difficult to improvement
apply any of them to redesigning and improving their existing business process to
innovative new processes that are supported by the organisational environment,
culture, and human and technological resources.
This article presents the AS-IS (current) business process and proposes a TO-BE
(new) business process of the credit card department, specifically the new account unit, 285
of a leading multinational bank, hereinafter termed “The Bank”. The Bank operates in all
continents but mainly focuses in South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, having more
than a hundred offices in these regions. One of the leaders in credit card market in
Bangladesh, and managing assets of several billion dollars, it continuously endeavours,
with various strategic marketing and service initiatives, to increase its customer base.
The credit card department highly values, and strategically positions, reduction of
customer waiting time as the most important key performance indicator of its service
initiatives and deliveries. However, improving service quality requires proper
management of business processes, from front desk to operations. The Bank
envisages high-market demands for the credit card; however, according to its sales
report, the credit card product is underperforming in market penetration in comparison
with other specialty service departments such as instalment, and small to medium
enterprises loans. The Bank mostly relies on its reputation and goodwill to attract new
credit card users and to improve its credit market share.
This study concentrates around two major objectives, the first of which is to model
and describe the AS-IS business process of the Bank’s credit card department. It then
proposes a TO-BE business process model for the credit card issuing unit targeted to
achieve significant improvement in customer service, and reduction in card processing
time as well as process-related costs. The new model aims to increase sales of the credit
card and to outperform the Bank’s other consumer products. In order to gain sustainable
competitive advantage, the model emphasises on restructuring the unit, eliminating
ineffective and inefficient steps, adapting new steps that reduce application-processing
time, and also implementing a comprehensive information system that supports and
manages end-to-end activities of the new process.

2. Process improvement
The credit card has enabled us to purchase any goods and services from anywhere in
the world. Instant buying is becoming easier and cost-effective day-by-day. In addition
to supporting purchase and sales activities, the credit card also provides instant cash
loan facilities to the account holder based on a pre-set credit limit (English et al., 2003)
that mostly supports unplanned instantaneous needs. The credit card is no longer a
luxury but a day-to-day requirement, and part and parcel of many people’s lifestyles.
Not having a credit card means riding a horse in the road instead of a car (Bilker, 1996).
Financial institutions around the world are making billions of dollars profit from the
credit card business. They are continuously evolving and introducing highly effective
customer services for credit card customers, and it is very vital that they practice the
concept of BPI to be competitive in the credit card market (Flanigan and Scott, 1995).
A business process is a series of steps of business activities, the purpose of which is
ultimate customer satisfaction by providing what customers need, when they need it and
the way they need it (Cook, 1995). Cook (1995) also defines process improvement
BPMJ as a method of improving the way by which a discrete set of business activities is
18,2 designed and managed. A number of benefits such as a feeling of contribution,
accomplishment, and of pride in work, increasing job security, creating satisfied
customers, increasing promotion and earning potential, and a sense of focus and forward
improvement, can be extracted from BPI (Flanigan and Scott, 1995). It is important to
define process boundaries so that process improvement projects can have a clear goal
286 (Sharp and McDermott, 2001) and not proceeds aimlessly, unintentionally creating other
problems instead of achieving the desired improvement. Sharp and McDermott (2001)
termed this “Framing the Process” and state a number of important attributes of process.
For example, a process has an input at the beginning and an observable result for a
stakeholder who triggered the initiating event, and may span multiple departments and
functions. A process improvement team focuses on improving one or more
characteristics of a process such as cycle time, quality and cost (Pyzdek, 2003).
Cycle time is a good measure for process improvement because it identifies
involvement of the critical resources that create bottlenecks (Tennant, 2002). A long
cycle time uses critical resources for unnecessarily lengthy periods that stifle efficient
delivery to the customer (Andersen, 1999). Performance can be improved through
reduction or elimination of wait times either before or after each step or activity (Cassidy
and Guggenberger, 2000, p. 119). They also argue to shorten the process by having a
defined start and stop, and to implement a measure that demonstrates the importance of
cycle time. Products should be delivered to the customers as quickly as possible. The
focus should be on the entire process rather than only one particular aspect of it.
Simulation is a very useful technique for identifying alternative scenarios for
improving the business process (Keller, 2004). Process simulation helps to find the
optimal solution when an AS-IS process is properly defined, documented and presented
using a flowchart diagram. A variety of software such as Sigma Flow, Microsoft Excel,
iThink, Dynamo, ARIS and Windows Workflow Foundation are available for process
simulation. A widely used software package like Microsoft Excel supports basic level
simulation. Nowadays, all the simulation software has good and easy to use Graphical
User Interfaces (Greasley, 2004). The simulation approach can be used to model the
business process, resource and cost estimation of the proposed model and to analyse
the financial constraints (Dodds, 2007). It provides numerous advantages over
prototyping such as lower cost and faster solution (West, 2004).
Prototyping is usually one of the core activities of the implementation (Harwood,
2003) that supports building of trial versions of a system as a proof of concept of the
TO-BE process scenarios. These trial versions can be used as the basis of assessing ideas
and selecting the final model (Lewis, 2004). A prototype of this finally selected process is
used to run and test the new process and to evaluate the process structure, recommended
IT solutions and organisational aspects (Knoll et al., 2001). Prototype tools allow us to
demonstrate different screen designs and understand more about the business process
and data (Coleman et al., 1996, p. 89). After successful testing and validation of the
prototype, the organisation can migrate from the existing process to the new one.

3. Process examination methodology

BPI is a systematic approach for improving step-functions in operational,
administrative and support processes using approaches such as FAST, process
benchmarking, process redesign and process re-engineering (Harrington et al., 1997).
Investigation of the AS-IS processes is a precursor to designing and developing the Business process
TO-BE business processes. An AS-IS process can be properly identified and improvement
documented through individual and group interviews of the employees involved in
both managerial and operational activities.
Guided interviews (Kotler, 2002) relating to issues and requirements have been
conducted with individuals from various units of the credit card department to identify
details of the existing process. This interview technique makes it possible to 287
concentrate and focus entirely on the factors related to the existing process. The study
collected qualitative data through a very careful interview of all levels of employees as
this helps in interpreting experiences of the respondents in detail (Holloway, 2005) and
fulfils the researcher’s curiosity to hear and learn directly from the participants
(Maykut, 1994). Since Kotler (2002) favours the group interview, six to ten people in
groups were interviewed at the same time in an informal setting. On several occasions,
we also interviewed a group of only two, following the observations by Maykut (1994)
that a small group can be very effective and appropriate to learning of the daily
operations. During the interview, we carefully handled organisational cultural issues in
Asia: for instance, a negative response by a senior executive to an inquiry from a junior
interviewer might be judged as rude behaviour (Loizos and Pratt, 1992, p. 53).

4. Introduction to Bank’s credit card market

The Bank is a multinational entity that provides a variety of banking and financial
services through a unique international network. Built over hundred years ago, it now
spans the developed and the emerging economies of the world. Offering multiple
products gives the opportunity to distribute the risk of failure of one or more products
among all the products. Moreover, it provides the opportunity to serve different
customer segments whose demand varies from time to time (Leader and Kyritsis,
1990). The Bank issues two types of cards, namely credit cards and prepaid cards.
Credit cards further consist of a local currency card (Taka) and a foreign currency card
(US$). These cards can again be classified as Silver Card, Master Card Gold and Master
Card Platinum.

4.1 Target market of credit cards

Market segmentation and target market selection is very important in the arena of
marketing management. Activities associated with identifying the Bank’s primary
opportunities or target markets have received considerable attention by marketers
(Ryans, 1998, p. 141). The Bank targets salaried and self-employed individuals with a
minimum gross income of TK. 10,000 per month. The targeted customers are usually at
least 21 years of age for a primary card, and 18 for a supplementary. The Bank does not
issue cards to individuals over 60 years of age.

4.2 Bangladesh market profile of credit cards

Market profile is the demographic description of the buyers for a particular product,
which may include economic and retailing information about a territory (Sissors and
Baron, 2002). A wage profile of the Bangladesh population is presented in Figure 1
which shows the population size that fulfils the minimum requirements to be a
cardholder, i.e. minimum wage of TK. 10,000 per month and at least 21 years of age.
BPMJ
18,2

288

Figure 1.
Bangladesh consumer
market profile

Of the total population of Bangladesh, only 4 percent are “bankable”; that includes both
potential and existing customers of all the banks.

4.3 Strength, weakness, opportunities, and threat (SWOT) analysis of the Bank’s card
market
The most onerous job for the planning team is to digest information gathered to
analyse the existing situation and extract elements particularly important to the
organisation (Cowley and Domb, 1997). This can be done using SWOT analysis.
A successful organisation can reverse the threats by using its own resources (Horner
and Swarbrooke, 2005) and focusing on its strength to create opportunities.
Strengths. The Bank has a number of strengths, but the significant ones are those of
providing free air accident insurance, strong market presence and unique photo-sign
features that easily differentiate them from other service providers.
Weaknesses. Fees and charges are higher than those of competitors.
Opportunities. Competitor’s presence in the credit card market is not strong, which
gives the Bank an opportunity to grow its market share. The population of Bangladesh
is increasing at a rate of 7.3 percent per year and gradually learning to adopt consumer
finance. The bulk of the population is middle class. Different types of credit card
products have a large and easily pregnable market.
Threats. Other multinational banks are also attracted to the credit card market and
coming up with new types of credit cards. The government’s introduction of 15 percent
value-added tax on credit card service is a threat for this growing market.

4.4 Competitive environment of card market

Various methods ranging from simple subjective judgement to sophisticated analytical
techniques are available to measure competitive position (Moutinho et al., 1996, p. 112).
These analytical techniques normally favour the use of proxy measures of competitive
advantage such as market share or relative market share. A competitive advantage
gives a firm extra benefit over its competitors (Paley, 1999). The Bank achieves it by
having extensive knowledge of the credit card market.
 A market leader occupies the largest market share within the industry (Kitchen and Business process
Proctor, 2001). They aim to increase the total usage of the product and maintain current improvement
position (Winston, 1993). In 2006, the Bank had 70,000 Cards in Force while the market
volume was only 90,000, becoming the top player in the plastic money industry in
Bangladesh. It enjoys leadership in the credit card market. According to Proctor (2000,
p. 225), the Bank must ensure that its product prices (unit costs) must decrease as the
volume increases. They need to understand the present competitive position, capabilities 289
and competitive environment in order to survive in the future market (McDonald, 2007).

4.5 Cards revenue pool

Bragg (2002) argues that one should recognise revenue when the product is delivered to
the customer. Managing this revenue for a particular product or product line is
important for the organisation. Such revenue reflects the organisation’s capability with
the product under review (Thomas, 1995). The Bank earned good revenue from its
credit card product during the past several years. Annual percentage rate is the interest
rate charged on a yearly basis (Goodman and Goodman, 2002). Due to higher average
annual credit card interest rate, many consumers pay expensive interest charges on
card debts, which can be instrumental in switching providers to get a lower interest
rate. However, the Bank’s share of revenue pool has still increased from 22 to 24 percent
in previous years.
Sales are normally forecasted in terms of either a growth rate or a compound annual
growth rate (CAGR) (Parr and Smith, 2005, p. 225). The Bank’s CAGR is 5 percent in
comparison with market CAGR of 3 percent. However, there are differences in opinions
about CAGR. Olsson (2004) observes that CAGR may not represent reality as it is an
imaginary number that describes the rate at which an investment grew as though it
had grown at a steady rate.

4.6 The Bank’s long-term goals

The Bank initiated an Automated Credit Evaluation and Support System project with
the aim of shortening the time frame for approving or rejecting a credit application and
to remove the position of loan officer reviewing the credit terms (Reed, 2007). The
briefings of Caouette et al. (1998) will make the concept more prominent. The Bank was
still developing the expert systems targeted to play the role of a lending assistant, and
an automated checklist that forces an analyst to go through a disciplined process.
Further innovations in this area may become more standardised and quantitative and
be used as loan assessment and risk-rating tools. The Bank has also initiated numerous
long-term projects.

5. Existing process of credit cards delivery

All units in credit card processing work as teams, and it is important for them to
understand the existing process (Dew, 1998). This is done by drawing a flow diagram.
Charting a process flow helps the project team to understand what the process is and
why certain steps are necessary (Mitchell, 1998). Before drawing the diagram, however,
it is important to collect data though interviews from the process participants to
understand information flow and linkages (Grover and Kettinger, 1995). This needs
detailed process documentation, reassessment by the process participants and
organising them in an order of processes (Breyfogle, 2003).
BPMJ 5.1 Distribution channels
18,2 The Bank mostly uses direct sales, branch cross-sales and walk-ins, and telesales, for
its credit card product. For direct sales, Direct Sales Executives receive credit card
applications with all the required documents from the customers, and submit them to
the Sales Manager for scrutiny. After initial screening the applications are sent to
Cards Operations for entry into Card Application Processing System (CAPS).
290 A worksheet containing DSE name, code, and GL name is attached to the application
for tracking. For branch cross-sales and walk-ins customers, a Customer Service
Associate (CSA) receives applications and sends them to Cards Operations; a worksheet
containing CSA name and branch code is attached to each application for tracking.
Telesales executives contact customers over the telephone, each executive having a
Field Sales Executive who collects the application from the customer and submits it to
Card Operations with the name and code of the telesales executive.

5.2 Cards Operation Unit

Fresh applications from all sources are forwarded to Card Operations where support
staffs key-in all customer details to CAPS software. CAPS automatically generates an
11-digit reference number for each application. Status of all applications updated into
CAPS can be tracked down through this unique reference number. During the
applications process, CAPS status will be shown as ENTRY, PENDING (returned),
APPROVED or DECLINE/REJECT. After CAPS entry, applications are sent to the
Credit Unit for a credit decision with a tracker sheet containing the application
reference number. After assessment, all applications are returned to Card Operations
and sent for contact point verification (CPV). Applications with CPV reports are
forwarded to credit operations for a CPV check. Cards Operations then add additional
information (customer limit, instructions for credit, etc.) in CAPS and run a
de-duplication (de-dup) check. Applications with a positive de-dup check are bridged
into the system and card account numbers, plastic and PINs are generated for these
applicants. Both approved and declined applications are then sent to archive. Plastic
and PINs are sent to the customers through courier service.

5.3 Consumer Credit Unit (CCU)

Applications are forwarded to the Credit Unit from Card Operations with a tracker
sheet containing the name and reference number of each application. On receipt of
these applications, support staff completes initial checking, analyses the bank
statement and finally sends to the analysts.
Approved applications. Credit analysts send “on principle” approved applications to
Card Operations with their tracker sheets who retrieves and verifies the required
information on each application, on a worksheet for handing over to CPV agencies to
perform external verification.
Declined applications. They are returned to the card sales team (CST) for further
investigation and review. CST arranges additional documents, if required and refers
them to the Credit Unit if any of this application(s) requires further revalidation to
change the credit decision. Revisited approved application(s) are forwarded to the Card
Operations team (COT). Both the regularly approved applications and the remaining
declined applications then are forwarded to COT with their tracker sheets. For each
declined application, COT updates the application status in the system as DECLINED;
the system then generates a decline letter. All these declined applications are then Business process
stored in the archiving centre (Figure 2). improvement
Returned applications. Deferred applications are also sent to the COT with a tracker
sheet to update the status in CAPS as PENDING and distribute the applications to the
respective sources/channels.

5.4 Contact point verification 291

A third-party agency is assigned by the Bank to verify customer-provided details of
residence and business addresses and phone numbers. CPV agents verify these details
and provide a three-paged verification report that is cross verified by the Credit
Analysts Unit.

Figure 2.
AS-IS (current) process
of credit cards delivery
BPMJ 5.5 Records
18,2 Applications are sent to the Credit Unit with all required documents at the time of
submission. The Credit Unit undertakes pre-screening to check whether all required
documents have been provided. If any document is missing or additional documents are
required these applications are sent back to source for fulfilment of requirement. Where
original documents cannot be provided photocopies are accepted provided they are
292 marked originals seen by DSE/PFC/CSA/Sales Manager. In the case of bank statements,
customers are required to submit the original copy. If this cannot be provided, then only
the FTE can authenticate the photocopy, by viewing the original document.

5.6 CPV report check

The COT attaches the CPV report with the applications and forwards these to the
Credit team, where credit analysts or a manager check the application with the CPV
report. An application is sent back to the customer for clarification if any discrepancy
is found between customer’s provided information and the CPV report. Card
Operations and the Credit team closely monitor the performance of CPV agents.
A credit appraiser cross-verifies information with customers over the phone and the
CPV agency is penalised if a CPV report is found to be incorrect or incomplete. Three
companies carry out CPV checks. Since these companies are external agencies having
access to confidential customer information, they sign a vetting document that clearly
states all aspects of the verification requirements.

5.7 Bank statement verification

A bank statement is a mandatory requirement for all customers applying to the Bank for a
credit card. Many customers provide forged bank statements, which raises concern about
the acceptance of hand-written bank statements. To prevent these customers from obtaining
a credit card, the Bank sends suspicious statements to the respective banks for verification
as a precautionary measure. Bank statements are verified by a third-party verification
agency which usually receives a photocopy of the statement provided by the customer along
with a letter requesting the respective branch manager to verify the statement. The agents
take this document to the respective branch for verification from bank.

5.8 Process flowchart at a glance

A flowchart is worth a thousand procedures, the core components and activities of
credit card operations are easy to grasp with a flowchart. A process analysis flowchart
is shown in Figure 3.

600
500 470 499 475 489 490 492
400
300
200
Figure 3. 100 91
Monthly application
processed by makers 0
MIZAN KAISER HABIB MOSTAFA BIPUL POLOK SHANTO
5.9 Key features of the existing process Business process
When discussing the improvement of a process, measuring the performance of that improvement
process is a necessary element (Andersen, 1999). The existing process features and
performances are assessed in four different ways: adaptability, effectiveness, efficiency
and timeliness (Harrington et al., 1997).
5.9.1 Process adaptability. Harrington et al. (1997) observe that process adaptability
is very difficult to measure as it assumes flexibility with changing customer 293
expectations and behaviours. The credit card department measures process adaptability
in terms of the number of special requests per month, and the percentage of special
requests granted. In one month, the new accounts unit received an average of 30 special
requests from internal employees and important customers for processing of the cards
earlier than the normal delivery time. The Unit could process fewer than 30 percent of the
special requests within the specified time. As the rest of the requests were added to the
pending jobs, job processing was continuously lengthened.
5.9.2 Process effectiveness. Effectiveness measures the degree to which a process
provides the right output at the right time and at the right place (Harrington et al.,
1997). The person or people (internal and external customers) who receive the output
should set the effectiveness standard (Harrington, 1991). Effectiveness can be
measured by: return on investment, reliability, number of new customers and morale,
etc. (Harrington et al., 1997). In the credit card processing system, each input error
(may be, in the Electronic CAPS (E-CAPS)) represents a defect. To keep track and
control it is important to find out the number of defects per million opportunities
(DPMO). In Table I, the given months represent a sigma level of 4.30 on average, which
is quite good (depends on the industry average) but falling behind Six Sigma means
there is still room for improvements; so the existing credit card delivery process is not
effective enough to process applications correctly. Here Six Sigma means 3.4 defects
(99.99 percent accuracy where cost of poor quality is , 1 percent of revenue) DPMO.
5 sigma means 233 defects (99.98 percent accuracy where cost of poor quality is
5-15 percent of revenue) DPMO. Similarly, 4 sigma means 6,210 defects (99.4 percent
accuracy where cost of poor quality is 15-25 percent of revenue) DPMO. However, the
sigma level is calculated by the formula of DPMO ¼ D/0*1,000,000 where D ¼ number
of defects; O ¼ opportunities for defects.
5.9.3 Process efficiency. Efficiency measures the degree to which a particular process
uses all of the available resources such as time, human and equipment. An efficient
process is one where resource consumption is minimised (Harrington, 1991) and in the
credit card department, it is the measurement of volume of transaction processed per
employee, time to fill out a form, cost to process a transaction, and number of documents
used per transaction. Efficiency of the existing process of the new accounts unit is
measured as the number of applications processed per month as shown in Figure 3. It is
evident from the figure that the Unit processes an average of 500 applications per month

Month Total received Total processed Accuracy defects Accuracy sigma

January-2006 3,000 3,000 6 4.32

February-2006 3,777 3,777 6 4.42 Table I.
March-2006 5,000 5,000 9 4.35 Accuracy sigma of
April-2006 4,345 4,345 8 4.28 the existing process
BPMJ as they need to keep each applicant’s data in a separate database. While the unit’s
18,2 efficiency is considerably high as each of its employees is producing substantial outputs
(30 applications) per day, it still has the scope to improve efficiency with the proposed
new process which enables processing more applications per day.
5.9.4 Process timeliness. Timeliness measures the extent to which an output is left
unused prior to being used in the next activity. Timeliness is important because it
294 drives customer dissatisfaction over excessive waiting time in receiving a service
(Ehrlich, 2002). Keller (2004, p. 6) argues that an artificially inflated sigma level does
not lead to a higher level of customer satisfaction or profitability. Unfortunately, there
will always be someone who tries to “game” in this manner, which detracts from the
Six Sigma programs that estimate customer satisfaction level honestly.
The Bank uses a Six Sigma performance appraisal tool for tracking the timeliness of the
transactions, i.e. the total time required to complete a particular transaction. It keeps track
of one application’s input time (keying time) in the system and also the total time required
in delivering the card to the customer. Timeliness sigma is easier to obtain than accuracy
sigma because of its nature but more difficult to keep track. Timeliness could be measured
in terms of the turnaround time of orders (Shina, 2002). The timeliness sigma for the credit
card Unit remained at six for the data collection period, i.e. May 2005-March 2006, meaning
that the process was 99.99 percent accurate in delivering credit cards to customers within
the required time frame. The Bank received 4,407 applications in May 2005 and also
processed (key them into the system) within the same month (May). Data collected from
the Bank shows that the credit card department always processed all the applications
within the same month during the 11 months’ study period.
5.9.5 Process errors. A Pareto chart helps to determine the main causes of
low-process performance (Andersen, 1999), and is important for analysing a process
(Brue, 2002). Used as ABC analysis, 80 percent of the problems are extracted from
20 percent of the factors (Howell, 2006). A very wise decision is to target this 20 percent
of vital factors and improve a new process (Andersen and Fagerhaug, 2001).
Figure 4 shows that existing process is giving birth to various types of maker errors,
which means errors occurring at the time of E-CAPS entry by the new accounts team

Maker Error Reasons (Top 15)

3.5 100%
90%
3
80%
2.5 70%
No. of errors

2 60%
50%
1.5 40%
1 30%
20%
0.5
10%
Figure 4. 0 0%
R Q L N P A B C D E F G H I J
Maker errors of
No of errors 3 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
existing process
Cum% 38% 63% 75% 88% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
(NAT) of Cards Operations. Errors entered here represent one particular month, which is Business process
in turn representative of other months of the year. Meanings of the errors are in Table II. improvement
A cause and effect diagram is very useful (Longest, 2004) showing the root causes of
many errors in the current process. This diagram breaks down a problem or an effect into
its components (Cook, 2004, p. 121). The causes of the problem are categorised so that the
completed diagram looks like the skeleton of a fish. This can be used to enable team
members to categorise the sources of the problems and provide ideas about the root causes. 295
There are many reasons for the credit card maker’s errors as shown in Figure 5. The
most significant errors emanate from the existing process. Process improvement gives
better performance in terms of minimising the errors. Figure 5 also further shows that
the present process is complicated because of the physical documents moving
repeatedly through a number of staff; this requires training for staff to understand and
apply it properly. Documents may have been delivered late with errors from another
unit. In addition, the process is being implemented using the maximum load without
reducing the probability of maker’s errors. The process is less than perfect as it prohibits
proper communication among the units, and management does not monitor, control or

Key Errors

L DOB
M Passport no.
N Mother’s name
O Nationality
P Residence address
Q Office address
R Contact tel. no.
S E-mail
T Friend details
U GMI/income Table II.
V Billing address List of errors for
W Country code the Pareto chart

Figure 5.
Cause and effect diagram
of maker errors
BPMJ review it at regular intervals to look for opportunities to adopt, and to improve. The
18,2 architecture of the AS-IS process is time-consuming in producing a final output to both
internal and external customers.

6. SIPOC diagram of credit card process

A SIPOC diagram is one of the most useful and often-used techniques of process
296 management and improvement (Pande et al., 2000, p. 168). The authors present in an
“At-a-glance” view of workflows and also specify that the components of a SIPOC
diagram are: supplier (the people who provide information, material and resources into
the process), input (providing information, material and output that is consumed or
transformed by the process), process (the series of steps that transform the inputs),
output (the product or service used by the customer) and control (the people, company
or another process that receive output from the process). SIPOC diagram is shown in
Figures 6 and 7 (SIPOC Levels 1 and 2).

7. Proposed business process

In the existing process, an average of eight or nine days is required to deliver a credit
card to a customer, which exacerbates customer dissatisfaction. It frustrates customers
and motivates them to switch to another bank. The proposed process, as shown in
Figure 8, targets the delivery of the credit card in a maximum of four days from
application receipt. This is a significant improvement in customer waiting time.
On the first day, the CCU receives applications from the sources (instead of the Cards
Operations department). CCU then conducts preliminary screening of the applications
and returns them if any required documents or information are pending or missing. An
application receives approval for further processing, or declined status if it satisfies,

SIPOC LEVEL- 1 PROCESS NAME : ACCOUNTS

Supplier Input Process Output Customer

APPLICATION /
CARDS ASSESSED NEW ACCOUNT CARD ACCOUNT PIN / STATEMENT / ARCHIVING & CARD
SALES APPLICATIONS CALL BACK / PROCESSED
DOCS EMBOSSING MAINTENANCE STATIONERY DOCS. HOLDER
PROCESSING BILLS

REQUEST/
BRANCHES INSTRUCTION / PIN INSTRUCTION /
SOURCE DOC CONFIRMATION REQUEST PIN RCVD / ARCHIVING CARDS CUSTOMER
RECEIVED &
RECVD. & RCVD & DATE PREPARE APPLICATIONS & SERVICE
DATE STAMP
MEMBER FILE STAMP DESPATCH LIST / / FORMS & PINS
CREDIT & CARD400/ CAPS DOWNLOAD HAND OVER TO REPORTS
COLLECTION / REMB / COURIER
PHOTO +32
/ CMBOS SCRUTINY & SCAN STATEMENT BRANCHES
/ E MAIL / BBS SEND BACK PHOTO & SCRUTINY & & ADVISORY
SIGNATURE SEND BACK RETRIEVING LETTERS
CARDS
ACCOUNTS RETURN PIN SOURCE DOCS
RCVD / ON REQUIREMENT
CARDS
FOLLOW UP SALES
PEOPLE DATA AUTHORISATION
AMEND / \& RESEND
INPUT IN CAPS & RUN REMB/
PHOTO+32 & UPDATE REPORTS
ACQUIRING IN SYSTEMS
CMBOSS STATIONERY
TEAM
REORDER /
POLICY DESTROY ACQUIRING
CROSS STOCK MAINT /
UNDELIVERED DISTRIBUTION TEAM
CHECK VERIFY /
PRINTING & PINS
GENERATE LTR RETRIEVED
LEADS EMBOSSING & APPROVE DOCS.
OF CREDIT CARD
SOFT FILES APPLI.
& MERCHANT
FORWARD TO CARDS
PLATE
CCU CREATE STATEMENT OPS
GROUP BRIDGE FILE DELIVERY /
PLASTIC / IN CAPS & FOLLOW UP
TECHNOLOGY
MERCHANT ASSESSED CARD 400 & TRACKING STATIONERY
PLATE APPLI. PREPARE CREDIT
RCVD FM DESPATCH LIST &
CCU & HAND OVER COLLECTION
HR &
TO COURIER
ADMIN LETTERS
INFRA- HAND OVER PROCESSED
STRUCTURE TO COURIER BILLS &
CCU DECISION
UPDATE RETURN CARDS POD
RCVD / FOLLOW UP ACCOUNT
VENDOR IN CAPS
& RESEND SERVICE /

Figure 6. STATIONERY /
CONSUMABLES
SOFT FILES
&
ASSET OPS /
CREDIT
OPS
SIPOC diagram of Level 1 CPV
AGENT
MIS

CONTD…
SIPOC LEVEL- 2 PROCESS NAME : ACCOUNTS Business process
Supplier Input Process Output Customer improvement
PENDING APPLI TRACING
STOCK MAINT. UPLOAD GOLD CARD / UPDATED
COURIER REPORT SEND BACK & ADMIN
& REPORTS IVR FILE IN USD CARD & DATABASE
REJECT. LTR COMPILATION SYSTEMS
GENERATE ADDRESS
CHANGE
LETTER
BILLS
UAE APPROVED REPORTS COURIER
DESTROY
CARDS OPS CASE GOES CHECKING & & CPV
UNDELIVERED
TO CPV COMPILATION
CARDS
BILL
NEW LETTER/
USD CARD/
GOLD CARD
CPV REPORT
RECVD &
FORWARD TO MIS MIS
PROCESSING
& MIS
CARDS
OPS-UAE
297
CCU

CCU DECISION
RECVD &
MODIFIED
IN CAPS

VERIFY /
NEG CHECK/
LTR GENERATE &
CREATE BRIDGE
FILE

MARK / LIFT
LIEN IN
SYSTEM

SECURITY
Figure 7.
DOCS
MAINTENANCE SIPOC diagram of Level 2

Figure 8.
TO-BE (proposed) process
of credit cards delivery

or fails to satisfy, the preliminary selection criteria. Preliminary approved applications

are then sent to a third-party (CPV agency) for verifying contact information such as
present and permanent addresses, phone numbers. The CPV agency usually spends the
second day producing CPV reports for these applications. CCU also generates the CPV
reports and cross checks them with the CPV agency over the phone. A data-matching
BPMJ application, if available, can expedite the cross checking process. CCU then, subject to
18,2 the satisfactory verification and data matching results, forwards these applications to
the NAT within the COD for recording them in the E-CAPS. In the case of
non-satisfactory matching results, CCU returns the applications for re-do, or regenerates
the CPV reports. Declined applications are reviewed simultaneously by the sales
department for further information and re-submission.
298 On the third day, NAT records all these applications, including the reconsidered
applications after re-do CPVs, if there are any, in E-CAPS. On completion of data entry,
NAT checks de-dup against the existing customer database for the identification of
fraudulent applications. On day four, the embossing unit for cards production
downloads the de-dup results and immediately prepares the cards for the new customer.

8. Key features of the new business process

For each product and service, customers have a very specific expectation regarding the
time to deliver the service or product. The proposed TO-BE process considers
reduction in delivery time by four days to increase customer satisfaction and to help
the development of a core competency in the Bank’s Credit Card Unit. Currently, the
AS-IS process takes almost eight to nine days from application receipt to card
production. This significant reduction in TO-BE processing encourages customers to
be loyal and committed towards the other products of the Bank.
The simplicity and straightforward nature of the suggested model directly influences
process adaptability, efficiency, effectiveness and timeliness. The proposed TO-BE
model emphasises handing over fewer applications, and reduces activities and improves
tasks completion processes to influence the waiting time to deliver the service, and also
to improve the service quality. For example, in the existing process, the NAT receives all
the applications directly. They key-in all the applications with the same importance level
for all the fields, which requires 25-30 minutes per application. However, applications
that are rejected may not require recording by the fields to expedite processing of the
applications. In the AS-IS process, it is still an important practice for the Bank to track a
rejected application using a number of data attributes such as name, date of birth,
passport number, so that any future application from the same customer may be cross
checked. This cross checking is still be available in the TO-BE process but the Bank will
not record low important data attributes such as address, phone number, bank balances.
In order to increase efficiency (processing more applications per person), effectiveness
(cutting down unnecessary working steps), timeliness (reduction of per application
delivery time) and adaptability (new possibility of handling special requests from
customers at any stage or moment), the proposed model encourages recording details of
only the approved applications, and only brief information from the rejected
applications.

9. Future process improvement scopes

While developed countries are enjoying the facilities of online credit card applications
and processing, and immediate delivery within the shortest period of time, developing
countries are still in the phase of manual calculations because of the lack of sufficient
infrastructure and expertise. However, the scenario is changing: some of the
multinational banks in the developing countries initiated online debit card application
processing, which is a good revolutionary step towards automation in the card market.
This is the time to think about online credit card claim submission and processing, and Business process
to find an appropriate process for that. It can be a good prospect for future research improvement
scope and improvement opportunities in the banking sector to acquire distinctive
competency and higher customer satisfaction.

10. Recommendations
BPI is a suitable solution for improving customer satisfaction (Flanigan and Scott, 1995)
299
and to achieve customer loyalty that benefits organisations (Cook, 1995) through the
increase of profitability. BPI also reduces cycle time, cost and error rate significantly
(Harrington et al., 1997). Designing and implementing a new process requires careful
attention, analysis, investigation and consideration because of the risk factors associated
with it. Managers must assess these risk factors properly (Harrington et al., 1997) and plan
to mitigate them so that the service to the customer is not compromised during
implementation of a new process. Implementation of the redesigned new processes should
be smooth. Many of the hidden risks may occur from, and are related to, the current
practice and cultural aspects exhibited by both the internal and external stakeholders. The
new process model must assess these cultural sensitivities, plan near-future events, and
strategise the implementation and change management processes. Strategy and planning
documents need to have explicitly commitment from top executives and middle
management, and free of any resistance from the affected staff (Phillips, 1995).
Strategic planning for process improvement is difficult and can be done only
through process modelling (Lientz, 2009) but they are difficult to implement because
people normally do not accept changes, for many reasons. In order to overcome the
implementation barriers, top management needs to buy into these changes, creates a
culture of urgency around the organisation (Cendrowski, 2009), provides a clear vision
and also communicates the benefits of change (King, 1997).
BPI is an ongoing activity. Commitment from each individual of the organisation is of
paramount important to continuous improvement (Aft, 2000) but only the frontline
employees lead the way and take initiatives for bringing such changes (Salaman et al.,
2005). Before transforming any business processes these employees needs to be
appropriately trained (Nelson, 2008), which may be conducted by third parties (Mathis
and Jackson, 2010) who have access to more sophisticated training materials and carried
on or off the job. All the initiatives are to be encouraged, acknowledged and rewarded.

11. Conclusion
In the highly competitive and profitable banking industry in Bangladesh, the Bank
needs to guide new ways of improving customer satisfaction through error minimisation
and a flourishing service quality. Developed countries are already far ahead of the race of
Total Quality Management, Six Sigma, Business Process Management and Best
Practices. A multinational Bank like this one in Bangladesh must lead the way and
continuously improve the business processes through BPI and BPR techniques. The
Bank may find it difficult to implement such high tech-based business processes as the
information and communication technology infrastructure of Bangladesh does not
support high-speed data connection (although the recent set-up of fibre optic cable is its
backbone) and secured mode of data transmission. Conversely, alternative business
processes can be implemented very easily within a short period of time.
BPMJ In short, the new model enables real time data processing and monitoring faster and
18,2 easier because of its simple compositions and configurations that help as an enterprise
resources planning tool to boost productivity and fair competition among employees. It
emphasises detailed documentation of each and every existing processes including the
inter-relationships, sequences, and order of execution. These pin-pointed strategies are
also important in the macro perspective, in the prospect that the whole banking sector’s
300 development has a positive correlation with the economy of the country.

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About the authors

Samsul Islam (BBA, MBA, MSc) has years of experiences in a bank’s (leading multinational
bank) credit cards operations. He also worked for FHI (international NGO) as consultant in data
analyzing. At this moment, he is a PhD Student at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He
is interested in statistics, supply chain management, port issues, system dynamics simulation,
discrete event simulation and transportation modeling. Samsul Islam is the corresponding
author and can be contacted at: m.islam@auckland.ac.nz
 M. Daud Ahmed is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Computing and Information Business process
Technology, Faculty of Business, Manukau Institute of Technology, Auckland. He has varied
academic (BSc Engineering in Electrical and Electronics; MBA in Development Management; improvement
PG Dip, MCom and PhD in Management Science and Information Systems) as well as consulting
(systems design and development, DSS modeling and reporting, and strategic management)
background. His primary research interests include: sustainable business transformation
through leveraging of management science concepts and information systems; sustainability
reporting; decision support systems; design and development of comprehensive platforms that 303
allows the creation and integration of information, decision, process and knowledge models and
systems, and project management. He received eight research awards during 2006-2010.

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