CIO 100: Bank of New Zealand

ENSURING SYSTEM STABILITY and convenience contributes to enhanced customer experience, says Aaron Toatelegese, head of technology, as he explains the key focus of his team at Bank of New Zealand.

Toatelegese says he and his 281-strong team will be working on innovative technologies that are focused on ensuring BNZ is “positioned to deliver an improved customer experience”.

“This will be underpinned by a new technology architecture and highly resilient set of platforms that is making banking easier and better for our customers,” he says.

Outside of continued system stability, he says the biggest improvements delivered by ICT have been automation for things like credit decision engines and improved mobility platforms for staff. “It’s anything we can do to ensure people can spend more time with customers,” he states.

This year, the team’s major programmes of work are around information and analytics, information security, APIs, automation of processes and platform resilience.

He says the team is expected to grow, together with project numbers (up by over 20 per cent from 2015) and up to 20 per cent rise in budgets.

Top ICT investments will include big data and analytics, application modernisation, customer experience technologies, information security, risk management and digital tools.

He says some of the challenges he will have in upcoming months are meeting the changing needs of the business, managing complexity and moving to digital platforms or two-speed IT.