Ecobank Transnational has a larger footprint in Africa than any other bank, covering 35 countries with a network of 1100+ branches, seven million customers and nearly 25,000 employees. It is also the first among its pan-African peers to have centralised enterprise-wide on a single core banking platform.
GIEOM, an India-based business transformation specialist, was called in to help with the change management process.
Change management was also a challenge. Ecobank grew largely by acquisitions (14 or so in the last five years), and each new addition came with its own business process models, systems, products and corporate culture. The objective was to harmonise business, operations and technology across the group, and this required a lot of educational work, training and successful communication, says Ekpe. Specialist input from GIEOM was also very useful. ‘Change management is never easy, as you have to convince people to abandon old practices and learn new ones.’ Thus, it was very important to have enough trained people on the ground, to explain, assist and ease the pains of transition, he emphasises. Flexcube experts were also required on location to check the quality of the installed software. Read more
