CASE STUDY
“ Our selecting of our partner-vendor network is informed by our strategic elections of target state , and our ability to execute on our aspirations and targets with this partner . We considered market insights informed by leading research houses such as Gartner , IDC and Accenture , which helped narrowing down the search to a shortlist of potential vendors and their solutions . Our investments in this space were clearly supported by a comprehensive business case , which reflected the financial and commercial viability of leveraging the Citrix solution ,” he said . “ Citrix ’ s credibility and proven track record in the financial services sector , along with its ability to scale , and flexible licencing model strengthened the business case . Citrix also meets the high security standards required within the banking industry .”
He said following a successful proof of concept ( PoC ) the decision was made to partner with Citrix . “ Ultimately , Citrix ’ s dominance in providing virtual desktop solutions for some of the world ’ s biggest blue-chip companies , made it a logical choice from a banking point of view .”
Creating converged digital client experiences
“ Long before the pandemic , we saw the need to empower our employees to meet an increasingly digital customer base where they are and provide the superior service , they have come to expect from us ,” said Mervyn Savary , Executive Head for End User and Communication Services , Nedbank .
Technology is at the core of Nedbank Group ’ s strategy . Nedbank ’ s Technology capability seeks to unlock sustainable relative outperformance in support of the Nedbank investment case , operating model optimisation and the achievement of medium and long-term strategic enterprise aspirations and targets Swanepoel said today ’ s clients expect seamless experiences that allow them to interact with brands how , when , and where they want . He said new digital technologies are reshaping the value proposition of existing financial products and services as well as how , when and where these are delivered to and consumed by clients .
“ Leveraging our digital expertise has become instrumental in directing the overall business strategy , increasing competitiveness , enabling optimisation and creating new revenue streams .
“ Our digital CVPs are increasingly focused on creating converged digital client experiences across traditional banking and wider ecosystem opportunities .” With innovation evolving fast in the banking and financial services industry , Swanepoel pointed out that Nedbank ’ s vision is to be the most admired financial services provider in Africa by staff , clients , shareholders , regulators and society . “ We continue to consider all client engagements as key opportunities to influence our clients to leverage digital products so that our digital solutions add value to their lives as our clients go about their personal and professional lives .”
Protecting digital assets
Given that the African continent has witnessed a heightened wave of cyberattacks in recent months targeting banks and financial institutions especially with the COVID-19 pandemic , it is imperative that financial lending institutions protect their digital assets . To this end , the Nedbank estate is secured using a defence indepth approach using a multi-layer , multi-vendor strategy which covers both technology components and people , enabled by processes and associated monitoring .
Swanepoel explained that the everchanging cybersecurity landscape has had an accelerated evolution due to COVID-19 and more recently the Russia-Ukraine war with an ever increasing complex and convoluted landscape . “ The Nedbank Security Operations Centre has implemented a vast number of different controls to protect against threats and vulnerabilities and to safeguard the bank ’ s assets , including client information ,” he said .
Managing a distributed workforce
With Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops , Nedbank is able to serve up simple , unified access to the systems , information and tools its 18,000 staff need to engage and be productive and dynamically apply security policies so they can work when , where and how they want with the confidence that their applications , information and devices are safe . In addition , it can also support more than 2,000 India-based developers who access its data using a BYOD model and trust that they too are protected .
“ We can spin up 200 developer users in a day , or two , and it ’ s not a big issue for us ,” Savary said . “ We give them access to the desktop image on Citrix . They use their own devices to connect to us , we set them up and they access our data . Then , when they spin down , the data is still sitting in our data centre intact , and they don ’ t have anything on their local devices .”
Implementing Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops
Regardless of where they are working , employees expect a reliable experience . But like any organisation , Nedbank faces challenges in delivering it .
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