Nationwide isn’t like most other financial services organisations. Because we’re owned by our millions of members across the UK, we can invest everything back into the business. Our mission is to provide outstanding services that make life better for our members—and our product offering includes personal banking, credit cards, mortgages, and more.
As the CIO for customer experience platforms, I’m responsible for everything relating to customer communications—from account statements to the latest information on our products and services. The aim is to deliver personalized, relevant and consistent experiences to each of our 16 million members.
Communication is a crucial topic for our business, sitting at the intersection of data, tools and technology. It’s a fast-evolving space, which means it’s an exciting and engaging area to work in. It’s also a timely topic: the Consumer Duty regulation from the UK Financial Conduct Authority now mandates all players in the UK financial services industry to provide clear communications to their customers.
Transforming customer communications
In the past, we worked with an external provider to build and manage our print communications; however, we wanted to do things differently. We wanted to move much, much faster.
Working together with OpenText™, we’ve transformed our approach to customer communications. With OpenText™ Exstream deployed securely in the Microsoft Azure cloud, we can now create compelling, personalized content faster than ever.
Of all the solutions we considered for our transformation project, Exstream stood out as the strongest performer. Despite being extremely easy to use and deploy, the solution offers enterprise-class flexibility and scalability. I didn’t have to take OpenText’s word for it; I’d already deployed Exstream in a previous role, so I knew first-hand that the solution was powerful enough to meet our needs.
Migrating with zero disruption
I was anticipating a smooth deployment but OpenText Professional Services exceeded all my expectations. We successfully migrated all our print communications from our legacy provider to the in-house Exstream platform in just eight weeks, which was an outstanding result. Even though we were moving quickly, the Professional Services team never let quality slip—and we completed the migration with zero disruption for the business.
The difference between our old and new approaches to customer communications is like night and day. We’re now empowering the business to update their templates without any assistance from IT. What’s more, our teams can complete the entire process within just two weeks—83% faster than before. As a result, it’s easier than ever for us to deliver compelling, compliant and personalized communications to our customers.
Continuing the transformation journey
Today, we’re using Exstream to produce 133 million print communications every year—but our transformation journey is far from over. Because Exstream is an omnichannel solution, it fits perfectly into our wider sustainability strategy. We’re now inviting our members to switch from paper to digital documents—and with Exstream, we can deliver personalized customer communications just as easily online and on mobile as we can in print.
Working with OpenText, we’ll be ready for the next evolution of the communications space. We’re currently deploying OpenText Digital Asset Management to help us optimize our use of content assets. Next, we plan to explore how new technologies like generative AI could help us revolutionize our approach to member engagement.
To learn more about our work with OpenText, click here to read our case study now.
