Raiffeisenbank International Makes Their Marketing Automation Strategy Come True

Background and Challenge Story 

Raiffeisenbank International makes a constant effort to innovate further in all areas of its operation. The project took place within the activity called “Technological Upgrade of the Retail CRM“. Luckily, there was no need to solve any problems. Instead, we worked on improving several areas of interest.  

To design continuous improvements of digital customer experience, it was necessary to determine the status of the CRM environment in each of the 13 countries where RBI operates. 

First, we focused on the technologies of the single banks from the perspective of the CRM infrastructure, data availability and processing, usage and integration of digital and classic communication channels and campaign management tools. 

The second inseparable part was the business part, which focused on the overall preparation and implementation of campaign communication and customer feedback and organization of the retail CRM organization and related processes. 

A project team consisting of professionals from RBI and Adastra was the basis for success. A second important factor was the preparation of a detailed activities plan including a visit to each country and the organization of meetings with retail, commercial and IT departments including an exhaustive and structured questionnaire. These key elements contributed to effective management and successful completion of the whole activity. 

Solution Story 

The final solution delivered to RBI included not only a detailed assessment of the single countries, which is for sure a highly valued document for the entire Group, but also a solution proposal with detailed design of the target architecture of the retail CRM, including recommendations of specific actions that would help RBI achieve their goal. 

Adastra consultants helped with the project preparation phase, which included a very intensive period focusing on the discovery of strengths, weaknesses, and selection of suitable modern stack if tools. We are also currently present and helping with the project delivery of Omnichannel Campaigning Tool, Customer Data Analytics Foundation and Real-Time Data Processing Infrastructure. 

We supported RBI with their program’s implementation in an Agile manner, including Scrum and Kanban methodologies which we have applied in each project stream. An Agile playbook was put together, serving as a guideline throughout the whole duration. After the official kick-off, our Scrum master initially defined the stream backlogs with each Product owner, facilitated all ceremonies (sprint plannings, reviews, retrospective sessions, and daily stand-ups), and after an increase of scope onboarded new Scum masters. As time went by and new countries started adopting the agile project management for the initiative, we were there as their backbone and inspiration for local set up. 

We currently coordinate, consult, and support the projects rolled out in more than 5 countries out of 13 scoped and for 4 additional banks products. Our coordinating activities bring together all internal and external project parties, different departments, and different experts from several corners of the company. 

Impact 

We were successful in delivering all expected outputs of the entire program. Our recommendations led to several positive changes implemented by RBI, for example in the field of planned investments in specific digital tools, infrastructure automation and customer experience. Our common goal is to continue to develop digital marketing and innovations not only in the CRM world. 

Together with RBI teams and vendors, we managed as one single goal-driven team, in all above-mentioned counties and bank products, to achieve full legal and technical compliance and enablement of several communication channels. Through enablement, the local banks started using them for business as usual in a short period. Automated data pipelines are being developed internally and are already in an intermediate stage. 

Selected countries are already leveraging from stream products such as micro-segmentation based on customer behavior and campaign management tool. Also, we drive several internal initiatives to become a part of the omnichannel environment, which will enable frontlines with personalized campaigning, customer feedback, modeling, customer advisory.