Published: August 16, 2010
As the momentum towards better communication, interaction and information sharing accelerates ever more quickly, it seems that few people in today’s business world leave their houses in the morning without a BlackBerry or an iPhone, with an iPad on many people’s Christmas list. However, while smartphones, netbooks or tablets have become essential tools for interacting with a wide range of media and communicating with friends and family worldwide, they are often used for little more than email in their professional role. While a selection of business networking tools exist, such as LinkedIn, in an otherwise increasingly crowded social media marketplace, there remain few opportunities for the financial community to meet, share and learn with like-minded professionals. Recognising this gap, and anticipating the growing importance of collaborative web tools for professional interaction in the future, SEB first launched an independent, online community forum for trade professionals in November 2008, named the Benche (www.thebenche.com) which has since been extended to cash management and custody.
Our customers tell us that one of the benefits of working with SEB is our ability and willingness to facilitate co-operation and collaboration with other corporates, so they can share views and experiences and discuss approaches to evolving challenges. While this remains pivotal to the way that we work with our customers, it is not always easy for finance professionals located in different parts of the world and with full diaries to attend meetings and seminars. We also needed to find an effective way of supporting an increasingly global client base. For example, although most of our clients are headquartered in the Nordics and Baltics, their activities span the globe. No bank can have expert individuals sitting alongside every customer with comprehensive knowledge of every market.
Although the Benche is facilitated by SEB, it is ultimately owned by the membership, who are responsible for driving content, instigating dialogue and defining the future evolution of the site.
We therefore wanted to engage not only our customers, but the wider financial community, in a way that was inclusive, convenient, easy to use and could quickly become part of financial professionals’ daily routine. Embracing, and indeed pioneering, the social media phenomenon to achieve this was a logical decision for SEB, leveraging our innovative approach to technology, and commitment to encouraging dialogue, collaboration and knowledge-sharing amongst the financial community. As new media becomes ubiquitous across the business community, we wanted to harness this new opportunity to deliver services to our customers in a convenient and innovative format.
Since launching the Benche and extending its reach across trade, cash management and custody, it has become a primary reference and communication forum for finance professionals, with around 4,000 members and 14,000 visitors each month. Visitors originate from 200 countries (leaving only six remaining) with members from large multinationals through to small and medium-sized enterprises, together with their banks and advisers. We quickly recognised that the Benche had a major role to play in relieving the professional isolation that many practitioners were experiencing, not only those located outside their company’s headquarters or in countries without an established treasury community, but all those dealing with new challenges or expanding into new countries. [[[PAGE]]]
Being the first bank to introduce such a forum inevitably led to some challenges. With no-one in front to show the way, and no guidebook, we are engaged in a constant exploratory process to find ways to enhance users’ experience, refine the tools that are available through the Benche, and seek innovative and diverse sources of content.
Initially, some people did not understand that it is not just a tool for customers of SEB, but is intended as a forum for meeting, sharing and learning across the financial community, including corporates worldwide, their banks, advisers and suppliers. We recognised that by promoting collaboration not only within our client base but beyond, finance professionals have access to a wider breadth of knowledge, and deeper insights gained from practitioners, by leveraging the full extent of the financial community. As the Benche has matured, and readers see more content from other banks as well as corporates worldwide, they increasingly recognise its universal, inclusive approach. To help further with this, in March 2010, we rebranded the site with the strapline, Your Financial Community. As well as enhancing the site’s accessibility and ease of use, we wanted to emphasise that although the Benche is facilitated by SEB, it is ultimately owned by the membership, who are responsible for driving content, instigating dialogue and defining the future evolution of the site.
Another challenge was the issue of anonymity and trust. While on the one hand, people want to know who is contributing an opinion in order to judge how far it can be trusted, on the other, they themselves may be uncomfortable with, or constrained from, revealing their name and company online. We addressed this paradox by requesting identity details when a member first joins, in order to maintain the integrity of site membership, while enabling members’ contributions and site activities to be performed anonymously. Consequently, a member posing a question or dilemma may receive responses from some identified, and some anonymous users, and can form their opinion accordingly.
The Benche is just the start of a revolution in the use of new media within the financial community. SEB has always been a pioneer of technology, and we are confident that online networking, and the use of social media will become an increasingly important source of contacts and advice amongst our client base and across the wider profession. Recognising that many people have connected to one or more online communities, we already extended the accessibility of the Benche by linking to Facebook and Twitter, and podcasts are now available through iTunes.
SEB has already proved that social media and online collaboration tools have a major role to play in facilitating professional as well as personal objectives.
As nascent media, everyone is still discovering and exploring how these tools can best be used, and how they deliver the greatest value. By continuously analysing how members interact on the Benche and seeking feedback from members, we can refine the experience to deliver the optimum benefit and convenience, and use these insights across other parts of our service offering. While the Benche remains independent of SEB, it has a vital role in enabling us to understand user trends and in time revolutionise the way we deliver support and services. This ongoing analysis has already reaped some significant results. For example, we are using the Benche to establish closed user groups and direct client dialogue in order to facilitate confidential discussion and enable us to provide support in a convenient and innovative way.
Over a relatively short time, during which virtual networking has still been in its infancy, SEB has already proved that social media and online collaboration tools have a major role to play in facilitating professional as well as personal objectives. Looking ahead, the Benche and our wider social media offerings will continue to develop to enable financial professionals with a variety of roles and expertise, from new entrants to experienced senior managers, to share practical insights, engage with likeminded individuals and address topical issues. The expansion of the Benche to cash management and custody respectively were major steps forward for the industry, providing professionals across a wide spectrum of financial activities with opportunities for collaboration that have not been possible in the past.
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