Leicester-based Cambridge and Counties Bank has been using a modern middleware platform from SnapLogic to help it drive out manual processes.
Chief transformation officer (CTO) David Holton has worked at the 10-year-old bank for four years and is responsible for integrating more technology into the bank and its processes. Cambridge and Counties Bank operates mainly in the real estate finance and asset finance markets serving small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
“Our bank was set up primarily through a manual underwriting lens to assess things that were a little bit harder, but we thought we could overcome,” says Holton, who describes the work with SnapLogic as “trying to reimagine the asset finance business”, including financing required by SMEs that need to purchase machinery.
While the majority of the bank’s balance sheet covers real estate, Holton says asset finance propositions are highly manual: “A lot of the benefit to your broker or your customer is pace, so the ability to get back quickly is quite a differentiator, but we find this very difficult with a highly manual process.”
According to Holton, working with SnapLogic has enabled the bank to remove a lot of the point-to-point integrations between systems that it previously needed, which has gotten rid of much of the manual work its staff used to do as SnapLogic connects data sources.
While the bank is just 10 years old, it has evolved during this time, which means some of its IT systems may not be functioning the way the bank currently operates. Holton has spent the past few years building on the bank’s expertise in understanding the business processes. “Things have drifted into a process that we don’t necessarily need to do anymore,” he says.
The old system needed a workaround to get access to data – which is now available using SnapLogic – meaning that the business process had to be revisited. “In some ways, process rationalisation is as important as the new technology,” adds Holton.
Partnership based on business value
Holton describes the way the bank has been working with SnapLogic as a partnership: “When I’m working with SnapLogic, I’m looking at the business outcomes I want to achieve, and then I ask them to help me deliver that rather than setting out a very detailed set of business requirements for building a widget. That’s quite a different way of working.”
For instance, Holton says the bank has partnered with SnapLogic for a specific piece of work looking at agentic AI: “SnapLogic experts have effectively come in-house with us to help us build on their AI environment because this is emerging tech. So, we’re leveraging their expertise.”
“Any AI system that I bring in has to empower colleagues to do more [face-to-face interation], not less”
David Holton, Cambridge and Counties Bank
Discussing the possibilities of AI at the bank, Holton says: “Obviously, there’s a lot of narrative about the risks, which need to be managed and far more understood.” While some banks may consider AI-powered chatbots as online interactions with their customers, Holton says Cambridge and Counties Bank believes the real value it provides is in the face-to-face human interaction it has with its customers, adding: “Any AI system that I bring in has to empower colleagues to do more of that, not less.”
Holton does not see AI replacing humans in the bank’s customer dialogue and relationship. However, he says: “I do see AI replacing humans in the processing and the non-value-add tasks that are necessary to get the customer what they need. ” These are the tasks that need to happen in the background, which, for Holton, means that customer does not necessarily see as valuable.
Given that there is so much AI hype, Holton believes that IT and business leaders need to have a thorough grasp of the business proposition and the customer. He says that this understanding is as important now in the era of AI innovation as in previous technology waves, such as digital innovation.
“You’ve got to be very clear on your business proposition before you go on the AI journey,” he says. “There’s a risk that if you don’t set your stall out at the start and really understand what it is that your customers value and what you value about your offering, you could end up running down the road to greater efficiency and using an AI agent to achieve this.”
As Holton notes, if businesses replace too many facilities and tasks with AI agents, customers may actually move away.
