CASE STUDY
Many financial institutions remain sceptical of hybrid work . South Africa-based Nedbank isn ’ t among them . As one of the largest banks in South Africa , the financial services and credit provider has gone all in on the new model , and recently announced that employees whose jobs do not require them to be in a branch office can work from home on a permanent basis if they choose . And it is using solutions from Citrix Systems , to provide them with secure and reliable access to everything they need to get work done , wherever it needs to get done . The concept of remote work is nothing new for Nedbank . Ten years ago , the forward-thinking institution laid the foundation for it , using Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops . And it has been building on it ever since .
Delivering the future of work today
Fred Swanepoel , CIO , Nedbank Group , said the core banking modernisation is a critical component of Nedbank ’ s Managed Evolution ( ME ) journey to digitise its banking landscape , delight customers and future proof the business . “ We continue to follow the lower cost , lower risk , incremental modernisation approach as opposed to a big-bang vendor solution implementation and have made considerable strides in progressing this . The programme remains true to the original vision of delivering platforms to enable product configurability and pricing flexibility to drive innovation , agility and time to market . In addition , this work is a fundamental enabler for product and system rationalisation ,” he said .
Remarking on technologies that are crucial for Nedbank Group ’ s strategy and vision , Swanepoel said : “ Those technologies that enable the optimisation of the traditional core operating model but similarly enable the scaling of our exciting ecosystem plays are critical . Nedbank ’ s strategic intent remains to create compelling client experiences that deepen and entrench client engagement , with world-class security always being top of mind .”
Nedbank started using Citrix capabilities in 2011 . The scope has always been to focus on the use of Citrix virtualisation technology to enable a large number of its back-office staff to become location independent in their work . To this end , the banking group was looking for location independence , and a better IT support model .
“ We were looking for location independence , and a better IT support model . Ultimately , we wanted to decouple applications and data from end user devices , so that our employees had the freedom to work from anywhere , accessing any data and application , without being constrained by their device or location ,” he said .
Swanepoel added that the second part of the strategy was to move away from traditional , expensive endpoint devices , and required the ability to secure data , which is now centralised within a secure data centre , meaning that data in no longer stored on endpoint devices . “ As a consequence , Citrix ’ s virtualisation technology has enabled us to pivot from a bank that was largely inoffice , to having more than 18,000 employees working from home . The transformation that took place during the pandemic was nothing short of phenomenal and has helped us tremendously to both futureproof the business and deliver sustainable service to our clients over this challenging period ,” he said .
Having looked around for suitable technology in the market that would help Nedbank Group promote and encourage a hybrid work model and promote location independence , the banking powerhouse decided on Citrix .
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