Barclays Plugs Into Surface

Barclays Bank has come up with an innovative way of reducing the wait times for customers and at the same time potentially increasing the customer’s business with the bank. 

As part of an ongoing program to refurbish its 1,733-branch network in the UK, Nicolas Parmaksizian, head of business development, and Deanna Oppenheimer, CEO of UK Retail Banking, paid a visit to Microsoft in Seattle to learn about new technologies that could be incorporated into the bank’s branch design. While visiting the Home of the Future and the Office of the Future, they came across Microsoft Surface. 

The surface-computing platform allows customers to grab digital information and interact with the content using their hands and objects instead of a keyboard and mouse. The camera system recognizes fingers, hands, paintbrushes, tagged objects and other items. 

“The Holy Grail is to take advantage of the multi-user capabilities to enable the banks to do collaborative selling,” says Marley Gray, industry technology strategist for banking in Microsoft’s Financial Services Group. “The personal banker and the customer work together to determine the customer’s needs, and they get into account opening and fulfillment right there on the device.”

Barclays is the first European bank to pilot test the technology in its Piccadilly Circus branch in London. The site has been developed into the first “brand concept” bank branch in the UK, covering 8,000 square feet of retail space over three floors and making extensive use of new technology and design. 

Three surface-computing devices are installed in the Premier Lounge, an area designated for Premier Life customers. Customers can use the technology to learn about the Premier Life value proposition and the exclusive financial products and services available to them. They can access a calendar of events that may be of interest, as well as obtain the addresses for Premier Global Lounges in other cities. In addition, the devices can be used to send information to their mobile phones via SMS.

“It’s a great mix of different digital media to get across the benefits of the Premier Life proposition in a fun, informative and attractive way,” says Parmaksizian, adding that the feedback so far has been very good. “Our research shows our customers really love the design. They tell us it’s a great way to showcase a product.”

For relationship managers, the devices help to break the ice with customers and enable them to explain the benefits of products. In the future, Barclays intends to include simulation tools that advisors can use to enhance financial planning sessions.

Barclays hired New York-based Infusion Development to develop the application, which it did using its staff of information architects, designers, and developers.

“When we were working with Barclays, it was important that the application flowed,” says Christian Schneider, chief operating officer at Infusion Development. “A Surface device should not have an instruction manual with it. An individual should have a rich human being-to-machine experience that’s different from a PC and that is self-explanatory.” 

Properly integrating that experience with their other channels also is important, he adds.

Parmaksizian advises other banks that may be interested in implementing Microsoft Surface to clarify how the device is going to be used and what response it is intended to drive. “Our research shows that customers only dedicate up to five minutes to those applications, and they want to move to different things,” he says. “So it’s really about making sure that the application gives them access to the information that they need at their fingertips in a very easy and fun way.”

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