SIMON BROWN: Welcome to this session, where
we will dive into a conversation on how Deloitte used
its business transformation expertise
and its technical might to help a multinational bank
reach their business goals using Google Cloud's
innovative services for data and Cloud infrastructure.
It's not often we get the inside track
on the Cloud transformation of a globally
recognized world-class bank.
But today we do for ING Group Dutch Multinational
Banking and Financial Services Corporation
In 2020, the company experienced target operating model
challenges and no global streamlined approach
to data and technical Cloud readiness.
Moving the business to the Cloud was the best and right way
forward.
My name is Simon Brown, and I lead Google's Smart Analytics
Business with our GSI partners.
And with me today are two insiders, Kerem Tomak,
ING Group's Global Chief Analytics Officer, and Sandra
Bauer, Partner, Deloitte.
Kerem, Sandra, welcome.
KEREM TOMAK: Hi, Simon, great to be here.
SANDRA BAUER: Hi, Simon, good to be here.
SIMON BROWN: Thank you.
So Kerem, let's jump right in.
You joined the company early in 2021,
and you immediately set to work on this significant
transformation.
What were the three biggest hurdles--
let's call them mountains-- that you had to overcome?
KEREM TOMAK: Simon, it was basically
the three buckets that I always pay attention
to when I build organizations.
It's people, process, technology.
And people part is the hardest part,
because we are talking about changing
a culture of an organization, making
the organization a bit more mature and also more
aligned with the business.
I am a strong believer in making analytics organizations
as strategic partners of businesses and business
counterparts that we work with and that we bring value.
And that only is possible by making sure
the right skills are in place to engage with the business
and that end-to-end delivery is guaranteed by all the skills
that we have in analytics, from technology side
all the way to actual delivery to the business
solution for the stakeholders.
And the second piece is a process.
We have to be safe, secure, and compliant for everything
we do as a bank.
And so that applies to everything
we do in an analytics organization.
Then we build processes.
That is going to scale.
We first make sure that all the guidelines and guardrails are
in place to get to a scalable analytics
operation with a safe and compliant operation in place.
And so that was also what we did when we started to build bridge
to the Cloud with use cases that we started working on, making
sure that the data analytics components are safe, secure,
and compliant and also abiding by all
the regulations and rules that we have to abide
by as a bank in Europe.
And the final component is technology.
For that, we started with looking at all the technology
solutions in place for analytics and making sure
that we are consolidating to the platforms and systems
that we are going to use for exploration
and then in production.
And part of the operation obviously
included to build the bridges from the production
environments into Cloud, Google Cloud,
so that we are able to scale using
compute power off the Cloud for the use cases we deploy,
both on prem and then into the Cloud.
SIMON BROWN: Awesome.
Sandra, you were part of this project from start to finish.
And you're so deeply involved in ING Group's future.
Hearing those three mountains in 2021,
what did Deloitte immediately see as the way forward?
SANDRA BAUER: Being in analytics for most of my life,
we do feel that we need to go from strategy to implementation
and then using technology.
Deloitte provides an insight-driven organization
framework that actually focuses on five pillars, strategy,
people, processes, data, and technology.
So what we did, we did a maturity assessment with ING.
They didn't start from scratch, but they really
wanted to build their ambition going forward
and put that into action.
And based on those four pillars, we actually
developed go-to use cases and capabilities
that need to be developed in those areas.
And one of the main focuses, of course,
was building up the technology to actually help
them be faster in the go-to markets going forward.
So becoming an insight-driven organization encompasses
of a lot of things that need to be
established at the same time, and as such, must move forward.
And that's actually leveraging the data sets going forward
a little bit more proactively than just
having them sit in silos.
So that was one of the approaches that we used.
SIMON BROWN: So Kerem, we chatted beforehand,
and you shared that sandboxing and proofs of concept
were pivotal to getting your board onside.
But why is that?
And what did the process of developing both look like?
KEREM TOMAK: Thanks, Simon.
Yeah, that's essentially an absolute must,
that we have to get buy-in from the business and the board
top-down, obviously, and right and left the different parts
of the organization.
So I think the success of any analytics operation
is starting from how are we capturing the business
requirements and questions we need to answer with analytics,
and that in return, the POCs that we are building,
how well are they bringing value or actually
creating a glimpse into the future value that
will be created if we put the POC results into production?
And obviously along the way, we co-create
with the business to make sure that we are capturing
all the nuances, requirements, and the daily in
and outs of how they are running their business.
We are analytics on the second line.
We need to make sure that we are talking
closely with the first line business
to understand their needs.
And this is the only way, I believe, going forward
that analytics can bring value.
And finally, once the POCs are built,
we also obviously look at, did the POC
capture the right question and right solution,
but also are the KPIs directing us
towards the value that will be captured
if we build them in production?
If all of those are answered as yes in the business
as this is yes, what we are looking for,
only then we put the solutions in production.
And obviously before we do that, we also
have to go to our board members, which I'm reporting in to,
to make sure that they have visibility and transparency
into what analytics is driving for the bank,
because they are heavily vested into the success of analytics,
because they see the value in the analytics for the bank's
future.
And so we follow the standard route of here
is the proof points, and here is the buy-in,
and the solution is there to solve a business problem.
And then we go forward.
SIMON BROWN: Fantastic.
So Sandra, walk us through marrying
the best of Google Cloud and Deloitte
to move ING Group to this new place.
What does that look like?
SANDRA BAUER: Based on the good alliance that we
have between Deloitte and Google Cloud,
which is actually not only based on trust,
but it's also built on a motto that we developed together.
It's challenge with competence and convince with culture.
So we're marrying both worlds, coming from Deloitte
with a clear business perspective,
but with also deep technology expertise
and marrying that with the innovation
and IML capabilities of Google as the key player in that area.
And Google Cloud is definitely the key player.
With us being the first full time
partner of the year for Google, that really brings to the table
the best of both worlds.
So we're not only helping implementing new use
cases and proof of concepts, but we also
help with legal requirements that our clients are facing.
ING is operating in 40 different countries.
So we do have legal experts, for example,
looking into GDPR issues.
But we also help them in establishing the governance
around what actually can go to the Cloud securely.
And we have a risk advisory practice, for example,
that helps out with that.
We also have a cybersecurity practice.
And those different areas need to be on the table
together with a client to help them actually streamline
the approaches that they want to use
to move securely into Cloud.
And that's one of the key success factors
that we as both organizations have and bring to the table
to our clients going forward.
So that's really cool to have.
SIMON BROWN: Thank you.
So that's all we have time for today.
I'd like to thank you both for working with us
to solve these problems.
I'd like to thank you both for joining us for the Data Summit.
And I wish you the best for the rest of the day.
SANDRA BAUER: Thank you.
KEREM TOMAK: Thank you, Simon.