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• Project name: Account opening process optimization
• Class: 4IT496 Simulation of Systems (WS 2013/2014)
• Author: Yulia Zinchenko
• Model type: Descrete-event simulation
• Software used: SimProcess

Introduction

Simulation is based on real data gained in terms of the project aimed to optimize the process of account opening at branches of one of the Czech banks. This bank is rather small and new to Czech market. Its market share is around 1%. Currently this bank has 23 branches in the country, which are open Monday to Friday 9:00 - 18:00. Bank does not have innovative information systems and does not plan to make major investments in it in the nearest future. According to customers` feedback its competetive advantage is very personal attitude to each client providing them with high-quality service meeting their personal needs.

As-Is Process Description

That project was initiated by feedback from account officers working at the branches, who stated that it takes around 45 minutes on average to open a current account package for customer, however sometimes it may take up to 90 minutes (for example in case customer wants to have current accounts in a few currencies). Current account package includes:

• Current account in currency CZK, EUR or USD
• Payment card Visa or MasterCard
• Online Banking
• Savings account (optional)

As-is process steps:

• Customer Arrival - 2 new-to-bank customers wishing to open a current account package per hour (at every branch).
• Available sales manager meets the customer and identifies his/her needs using a "Sales map", which is an opportunity to cross-sell other products and services. This procedure takes 5 minutes on avergae, however time varies significantly. Some customers come just to arrange a concrete product and don`t have time for extra talking, on the other hand other customers are pleased to discuss their financial situation with a sales manager and look at the benefits of other products. So this process step may take from 30 seconds up to 15 minutes.
• Sales manager asks for identification documents, performs online check of the person and makes a copy of the ID. Every potential customer needs to be checked in a few online sources, which takes some time. Together with making a copy of the ID this step takes 5 minutes on average.
• Sales manager enters client`s personal data into information system and creates new account package accordingly. Unfortunately there are a few information systems and applications, where data need to be entered. So account type, payment card type and online banking settings are set on three separate places. That is time-consuming, however new IT solution is out of scope, so the project does not focus on this issue. Entering data into systems takes 12 minutes on average, however there may be some extreme situations when systems` response time is longer, so this procedure may take up to 30 minutes.
• Sales manager prints the contracts, staples them and signs together with the customer. Because of the fact that there are several information systems, contracts are printed separately from each of them (depending on the product). Each contract consists of 2,5 pages on average and all the documentation has 22 pages per every current account package on average (in case client does not have any disponent). Because of so many pages of documentation it becomes very difficult and time-consuming to bring it all together, separate and staple it and sign together with the customer explaining the meaning of each paragraph. This procedure takes 17 minutes on average.
• Sales manager prepares a folder with all the documents, online banking access key (token), flash drive with terms and conditions, infocard and gives it to client. This procedure takes up to 9 minutes on average. And the most time-consuming part is manually filling in a paper card with an account number (especially when a client opens several accounts at once - in this case sales manager needs to fill in several cards).
• Client leaves the bank.