Alternative workspaces cut costs at NAB

Computer systems that can alert people when a colleague is available to collaborate online have delivered one of the most fundamental technology changes to wholesale banking in 20 years, according to Thor Essman, chief technology officer of NAB wholesale banking.

Speaking at a Visual Collaboration Summit organised by Cisco and Tandberg in Sydney yesterday, Essman said that the bank had developed a computer-based collaborative workspace, backed by videoconferencing, which was available to NAB wholesale banking employees in the UK, New Zealand, Asia, New York and Australia.

He said the initiative was intended to drive cultural change in the group, and encourage employees to work together closely, wherever they were based.

As a result of using the collaboration platform and videoconferencing the wholesale division had cut travel by 40 per cent, said Essman. Within three months of using the system the division experienced a 15 per cent drop in mail.

He said that the system had achieved payback on investment in less than three months.

It is also starting to drive cultural change among the technology team.  "We are doing quite a large transformation project," said Essman, which involves staff located internationally. In the past it could take a week to organise and hold meetings of the international team.

Now it was possible to hold even ad hoc meetings online. Essman explained that in a recent situation where he needed input from a colleague overseas, he checked the collaboration tool, determined that an NAB employee working in Scotland was online at 9pm from his home in Glasgow and "dragged him in" to the meeting, allowing a decision to be taken quickly.

Essman, who encourages his team to work a day a week from home, and does so himself, denied that this would lead to employees feeling permanently at the beck and call of the bank. It was instead up to them to use the tool to signal when they were or were not available to collaborate.