CBA implements SAP SuccessFactors platform to improve on productivity and service delivery

In an age where banking is becoming increasingly automated, Commercial Bank of Africa in partnership with Altura Consulting have started the implementation of SAP SuccessFactors talent solution.

The new platform will allow CBA to plan, reward and retain its human capital, track performance against targets, and engage in continuous learning and development therefore leading to increased productivity and unprecedented service delivery.

CBA employs approximately 1,200 employees in a diverse workforce. As the largest privately owned bank in Kenya, its primary focus is Corporate, Institutional and Personal Banking. It seeks to provide a comfortable, elegant and secure environment for corporate clients, institutional clients, foreign missions and NGOs.

The bank needed a robust system that could streamline and unify its HR processes and help build, develop and retain an effective workforce globally.

“The World Bank projects that Kenya’s economy will rise by 6 percent in 2017. Whilst the economic performance remains solid, this is an opportunity for banks to reimage their business operations to create more and better jobs. SAP believes that CBA’s investment in its workforce is a positive step in this direction,” commented Dr Gilbert Saggia, Managing Director, SAP East Africa in a press statement.

The ideal technology platform was one with the ability to integrate many disparate systems and entities. CBA was faced with many challenges, arising primarily from its acquisition strategy. To date, the bank has acquired eight separate entities since it started operations in 1962, making it the one of the largest private banks in Africa.

The bank was looking for a homogeneous system with the capability to integrate the core banking system across functions such as Procurement, Finance and Human Resources and across all groups, entities and functions.

According to Ms Roopa Karemungikar, Managing Director of Altura, an SAP specialist HR transformation partner, the SAP SuccessFactors implementation was seamless and successful across all three implementation territories, namely; Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

The ability to align all business processes in these key countries was a highlight of the solution and will help CBA to reduce paperwork, increase the productivity of the HR department and automate the bank transfer of salaries.

Automated processes such e-recruitment, candidate tracking, shortlisting and interview feedback enable HR departments to do more with the time and resources they have. In addition, the employees become much more engaged with their own careers and performance because of the self-service functionality available including online leave application, automated calculations for overtime, payroll components and reporting.