Digital transformation is happening rapidly in every business around the world. Of course, each organization has its own starting points and goals. On this digital road, Ngern Tid Lor aims to provide our customers with convenient, fast services to keep up with the world in which everything is changing in order to embrace technology. Therefore, our starting point is to keep our employees on the same page on this digital road.
We have stories from one of our executives, Ded - Thitided Srimarayat, SVP - Marketing and Business Development, who is helping to drive this journey. Ded has witnessed rapid technological and customer behavior changes. Especially over the past two years, increasing numbers of Thai people have used social media. Most of our customers have smartphones and almost half of them were using mobile banking to make various transactions. The Bank of Thailand issued a policy to call for all banks and financial institutions to embrace digital technology and many began to use AI and blockchain technologies.
These changes led Ded to think that we had to do something so that we were not left behind. Looking at information from both inside and outside the country, Ded saw that many small companies have turned into fintechs. Therefore, to better understand the digital road, we needed to go out and see it ourselves. This was when a digital tour was started, leading to stories in many dimensions to be shared with you here.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates, may be known for its oil but the city has attached great importance to digital technology as well. Dubai is regarded as a new oil resource of the Middle East. As it aims to become a regional oil center, Dubai has substantially invested in technology and brought in skilled personnel from both Europe and America to work in the National Central Bank. They supervise and encourage financial institutions to become fintechs and to keep up with changing technology and consumer behavior; they also drive businesses in the country toward digital technology.
This site visit to Dubai gave us the idea of STP (straight through processing). It is a technology development process that allows customers to use services on their own without an intermediary. It is one of the technological concepts that will be used to develop future services of Ngern Tid Lor, including access to insurance products or even loans through tablets and mobile applications.
After visiting Dubai, our team, together with 10 executives, traveled to Europe to visit England, one of the world’s biggest tech hubs.
“Europe, especially England, is noted for GDPR (general data protection regulation), which is a regulation on data protection and privacy. This time, we took a product development team, a risk management team, and an IT team with us to broaden our horizons, to gain understanding, and to get a grasp on the big picture. This site visit was quite different from the previous one. Dubai has just started to use fintech, but the technology has long been embraced in the EU, allowing us to see the promise of fintech clearly from actual cases.”
From this site visit, the Ngern Tid Lor team has adapted the data security management and protection guidelines to prepare our personnel for the Personal Data Protection Act B.E. 2562, which will come into effect on 27 May 2020. Data collection, use, disclosure, and transfer must be consented to by users. This will also facilitate further development of our products and services, especially with regard to customer data collection to support loan approval.
Another trip that allowed us to grasp a clear picture was the one to China, one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world. This time, our team consisted of over 40 personnel from all fields.
“This trip was an innovation tour to bring team leaders from every field together in a site visit to China, a country with advanced technologies in almost every field, and the number one cashless society in the world. We wanted everyone to learn about digital technology use from real experience, especially when related to finance, including account opening and the use of cashless and Alipay technology to buy products. We saw examples of how blockchain can be used to raise funds, and how face recognition is used to verify identity, as well as EV (electric vehicle) and AV (autonomous vehicle) unmanned vehicles. We also had a chance to visit Alibaba Campus, the headquarters of Alibaba, a large e-commerce company that runs integrated businesses including B2B, C2C, and B2C. All of these gave our team an insight into what would affect our business in the future.”
Seeing all of this ourselves, each and every one of us agreed that technology is important in facilitating customers, or helping them to use the service more easily. We can start to make future plans to present to our customers when they are ready.
From the road of learning to digital organization, we have new tools and equipment for better customer services, especially in the field of creating BX (branch experience), which is to create a fast working experience for branch staff and to deliver good service to customers. By using tablets to sell insurance, branch staff can work easier and more quickly, reduce paper use and processes, and build a closer relationship with customers. The technology is expected to be used at all branches throughout the country by the middle of 2020 and is being tested on motorcycle loans, the most popular loan that customers take out from us.
Digital transformation is the destination that Ngern Tid Lor is trying to reach. Transition to the digital world will allow our employees and customers to receive good experiences from our services, to access products and services more easily, and come back to use our services when needs arise in the future.
We have stories from one of our executives, Ded - Thitided Srimarayat, SVP - Marketing and Business Development, who is helping to drive this journey. Ded has witnessed rapid technological and customer behavior changes. Especially over the past two years, increasing numbers of Thai people have used social media. Most of our customers have smartphones and almost half of them were using mobile banking to make various transactions. The Bank of Thailand issued a policy to call for all banks and financial institutions to embrace digital technology and many began to use AI and blockchain technologies.
These changes led Ded to think that we had to do something so that we were not left behind. Looking at information from both inside and outside the country, Ded saw that many small companies have turned into fintechs. Therefore, to better understand the digital road, we needed to go out and see it ourselves. This was when a digital tour was started, leading to stories in many dimensions to be shared with you here.
From a site visit in Dubai
Dubai, United Arab Emirates, may be known for its oil but the city has attached great importance to digital technology as well. Dubai is regarded as a new oil resource of the Middle East. As it aims to become a regional oil center, Dubai has substantially invested in technology and brought in skilled personnel from both Europe and America to work in the National Central Bank. They supervise and encourage financial institutions to become fintechs and to keep up with changing technology and consumer behavior; they also drive businesses in the country toward digital technology.
This site visit to Dubai gave us the idea of STP (straight through processing). It is a technology development process that allows customers to use services on their own without an intermediary. It is one of the technological concepts that will be used to develop future services of Ngern Tid Lor, including access to insurance products or even loans through tablets and mobile applications.
Flying to London
After visiting Dubai, our team, together with 10 executives, traveled to Europe to visit England, one of the world’s biggest tech hubs.
“Europe, especially England, is noted for GDPR (general data protection regulation), which is a regulation on data protection and privacy. This time, we took a product development team, a risk management team, and an IT team with us to broaden our horizons, to gain understanding, and to get a grasp on the big picture. This site visit was quite different from the previous one. Dubai has just started to use fintech, but the technology has long been embraced in the EU, allowing us to see the promise of fintech clearly from actual cases.”
From this site visit, the Ngern Tid Lor team has adapted the data security management and protection guidelines to prepare our personnel for the Personal Data Protection Act B.E. 2562, which will come into effect on 27 May 2020. Data collection, use, disclosure, and transfer must be consented to by users. This will also facilitate further development of our products and services, especially with regard to customer data collection to support loan approval.
Next station: China
Another trip that allowed us to grasp a clear picture was the one to China, one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world. This time, our team consisted of over 40 personnel from all fields.
“This trip was an innovation tour to bring team leaders from every field together in a site visit to China, a country with advanced technologies in almost every field, and the number one cashless society in the world. We wanted everyone to learn about digital technology use from real experience, especially when related to finance, including account opening and the use of cashless and Alipay technology to buy products. We saw examples of how blockchain can be used to raise funds, and how face recognition is used to verify identity, as well as EV (electric vehicle) and AV (autonomous vehicle) unmanned vehicles. We also had a chance to visit Alibaba Campus, the headquarters of Alibaba, a large e-commerce company that runs integrated businesses including B2B, C2C, and B2C. All of these gave our team an insight into what would affect our business in the future.”
Seeing all of this ourselves, each and every one of us agreed that technology is important in facilitating customers, or helping them to use the service more easily. We can start to make future plans to present to our customers when they are ready.
Tangible results from the trips
From the road of learning to digital organization, we have new tools and equipment for better customer services, especially in the field of creating BX (branch experience), which is to create a fast working experience for branch staff and to deliver good service to customers. By using tablets to sell insurance, branch staff can work easier and more quickly, reduce paper use and processes, and build a closer relationship with customers. The technology is expected to be used at all branches throughout the country by the middle of 2020 and is being tested on motorcycle loans, the most popular loan that customers take out from us.
Digital transformation is the destination that Ngern Tid Lor is trying to reach. Transition to the digital world will allow our employees and customers to receive good experiences from our services, to access products and services more easily, and come back to use our services when needs arise in the future.