Sberbank : Sber participates in Cheboksary Economic Forum

Anatoly Popov, Deputy Chairman of the Sberbank Executive Board, has participated in the Chuvashia.Transformation plenary session during the Cheboksary Economic Forum, which brought together business people and government officials to discuss digital transformation aspects, industry and technology forecasts worldwide, in Russia and Chuvashia, as well as the specifics of corporate governance and investment in companies in the era of technology that progresses exponentially.

In his welcoming speech, Chuvashia Head Oleg Nikolayev stated that the republic had identified 15 digital transformation verticals that every person deals with every day, letting them enjoy quality services delivered quickly and conveniently.

According to Anatoly Aksakov, Chair of the State Duma Committee on Financial Market, digital transformation is a top five national goal approved by the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. The speaker believes that some vital projects might be launched as soon as this year, including the one to introduce digital rubles into circulation. At the same time, however, digitization poses major risks one cannot forget about - the security of funds and systems must be kept in mind all the time.

Deputy Chairman of the Sberbank Executive Board Anatoly Popov highlighted that a digital transformation entailed the streamlining of chains and reduction of losses in production, and it required that stakeholders carried out a critical analysis of the customer journey. These must be followed by conclusions and transformation process launch.

A big part of that journey is already behind Sber. The world's largest agile transformation has positioned the bank to accelerate the marketing of its products and their reliability dramatically. It has created laboratories to study and adopt innovations at an accelerated pace. Banking services are now available to customers much faster: for instance, a couple of years back it took 16 days to approve a loan for big business, whereas now it takes seven minutes. Furthermore, Sber has been transformed into an ecosystem now offering a wide range of solutions for all kinds of life situations in addition to financial services.

One need to think about the customer journey all the way through, rather than approach some specific service. For instance, a client does not need a mortgage but instead needs to improve one's living conditions, and that's the task we need to work toward as effectively as possible. The ecosystem enables us to focus on the customer journey in the wide sense of the notion.

And most importantly, digitization goes beyond the responsibilities of a republic head, a director, or an IT director of a company only. Each manager should reflect on digitization and engage the entire team into it. Then it will definitely bear fruit.

Anatoly Popov

Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board, Sberbank