Leading bank in Serbia uses SAS Visual Analytics on SAS Viya to derive real-time insights that guide strategy, performance and innovation

CARY, N.C., Nov. 25, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Banca Intesa Beograd, the Serbian unit of international banking group Intesa Sanpaolo, has launched an interactive reporting system with data and AI leader SAS to further democratize analytics in its operations. The result: more efficient processes, improved risk management and enhanced customer experience.

"We are creating a corporate culture where decisions are based on data analytics," said Zoran Šiljković, Head of Commercial Planning and Reporting at Banca Intesa Beograd. "This enables us to make more accurate predictions, identify opportunities and reduce risks."

Turning data into democratized insights
Banca Intesa's advanced reporting engine was developed using SAS Enterprise Guide and SAS Visual Analytics on SAS Viya. It allows senior leadership and bank employees alike to monitor real-time performance and progress – delivering concrete insights on revenues, fees and commissions, risk mitigation, customer retention, cross-sell opportunities and more – so they can adjust as necessary.

The retail dashboard alone – one of several dashboards on the platform – is a "mega repository" of over 80 easy-to-understand graphical reports for Banca Intesa's various segments, including mass market, small business, transactional and pricing. It incorporates all sorts of data: internal and external; categorical and numerical; third-party, customer and transactional. Reports are widely accessible across the bank's 2,000 employees and available in multiple formats to accommodate users' diverse devices and reporting needs.

The reporting system's popularity is a testament to the value it delivers. An average of 1,400 unique users access its dashboards monthly, opening nearly 200 distinct reports and registering almost 160,000 logs. Šiljković said the dashboards help the bank "recognize customer behavior and be proactive" in adapting to fluid market dynamics and its 1.4 million clients' evolving needs.

"Analytics enables us to make strategic but also operative and tactical decisions and optimize processes to better understand customer behavior, provide personalized offers, and more effectively meet customers' expectations and needs," he said.

All the strategic data – on one page
Among the retail dashboard's dozens of reports, two recent additions are making a big impact, according to Šiljković. The One Executive Page was created to simplify reporting for Banca Intesa executives, synthesizing insights from dozens of subreports into a singular view.

"One Page was born out of some specific business needs of management," Šiljković said, "especially board members, who needed more effective, immediate reporting [that was] easy to access and understand, with clear information to reduce decision-making time."

Šiljković said the first step was to ensure accurate, consistent, reliable data. "Thanks to SAS technology," he said, "we were able to ensure the accuracy of the data and automate the creation and distribution of reports, which can be accessed by top management in real time and via mobile devices.

"The initial idea was to create a report with strategic data on a single page – hence the name, One Executive Page. In reality, the report is interactive, and with SAS Visual Analytics, accessible in multiple formats – tables, graphs, descriptions, etc. The manager decides whether to see everything on one page or to deepen certain data and insights with other views."

A real-time view into employee performance
The second new component of the dashboard, Performance and KPI Scheme, has quickly become "a standard in the bank," said Šiljković. Used by nearly 1,400 employees, its interface allows staff to check their up-to-the-minute performance and productivity.

"No IT knowledge is needed to use the dashboard," he said. "It is really very simple and intuitive. Every employee can see the results of their KPIs at any time, in real time. All employees can understand how they are performing and decide in real time if, where and how to improve their performance.

"And Performance and KPI Scheme doesn't just show employees their results; it ties in their projected financial incentives owing to an interactive calculator created in SAS Visual Analytics."

Building on pillars of success
Banca Intesa Beograd is no newcomer to SAS. The bank has used SAS solutions in critical areas like risk management since 2011 to help support what Šiljković identified as the bank's three key pillars of success: technological innovation, data-driven decision making, and investment in talent and skills.

"It's easy to see why Banca Intesa Beograd has been a banking leader in Serbia for many years," said Stu Bradley, Senior Vice President of Risk, Fraud and Compliance Solutions at SAS. "The bank's commitment to a data-driven culture to benefit its customers is deeply ingrained, extending to every employee. The integration of its data on a single, AI-powered platform will enhance agility across the bank, as employees at every level are empowered to make quicker, better-informed decisions."

Šiljković agreed that making the tools accessible to everyday users has been crucial.

"The integration of AI opens many new opportunities for us to achieve success through innovation," he said. "Motivating our employees to learn data analysis guarantees that Banca Intesa Beograd continues as the leader in industry developments.

"SAS tools have helped accelerate the democratization of analytics in the bank, because they enable users of all skills, even those without technical knowledge, to intuitively work with data."

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