2nd Annual Opex Africa 2013, Opens In Johannesburg

A two day conference on achieving banking operational excellence

Johannesburg – South Africa, 10 April 2013: The 2nd Annual OPEX Africa 2013, commenced today at Hyatt Regency. The forum will witness a unique exchange of ideas on process change management, customer engagement to process centralization and business growth.

This forum was opened by the event chairman, Pritesh Kotecha, Vice President Middle East, South Asia and Africa at Smart Stream Technologies. Kotecha will later be moderating the two highlighted sessions of the day – the COO Panel entitled.”From Banking & Beyond” and the panel discussion on Change management – How Essential is it?

The keynote speech titled “Operational Excellence – The Road Ahead”, was delivered by Raj Singh, Chief Operating Officer at Chase Bank, where he emphasised on the future scope of operational excellence.

Raj Singh will be addressing the audience in an afternoon session on customer engagement for an organisation, which will focus on the trends of service quality and levels of personalization and rebuilding customer loyalty by simultaneous growth of revenue and wallet share. According to him, “ The introduction of rapid technological changes and new operating channels in banking and financial sector, operations have become very complex and thus banks require to raise the bar in terms of optimum output.”

Following the key note, an exclusive COO panel discussion commenced which outlined the future of banking operations. The session, “COO Panel – From Banking & Beyond ”, debated on the old vs new banking methodologies, emphasising on re-inventing new processes to cope with technological advancements, expanding the market reach and enhancing efficiency. This panel was joined by COOs of different banks, namely Melt van der Spuy from Standard Bank, David Shelly from Rand Merchant Bank, Nkosinathi Solomon from ABSA Financial Services; Wonder Nyabereka from Barclays Bank Zimbabwe and Raj Singh from Chase Bank.

Wipro Technologies, the platinum sponsor of this forum presented a dedicated session on “Process Excellence as a Strategic lever for cost Savings and competitive Advantage”. Rohan Dabke, Quality Leader of Banking BPO Process Excellence and Advisory Group at Wipro Ltd addressed this session where he focused on how process excellence can be a significant source of cost savings and competitive advantage in the challenging banking environment.

Roland Brandli, Sales Manager, Middle East and Africa at SmartStream Technologies, focused on achieving operational excellence through automation in his presentation entitled “Redefining Transaction Processing Through Flexibility, Efficiency and Control”.

The post lunch sessions will include presentations on Implications and Risks of Basel 3, by Martin Van der Walt, Member – South Africa Chapter Executive Committee of GARP, maximising output through enhancement of branch operations by Wonder Nyabereka, Chief Operating Officer of Barclays Bank Zimbabwe. Darryl Poonan, Head: Product Operations at Standard Bank Africa, will address issues on using a client-based operating model emphasising on channel mapping through filtering products and services in a dedicated session.

The first day of the conference will conclude with a panel discussion entitled, “Change management – How Essential
is it?”, where the panellists will brainstorm the need and significance of change in the operational structure identifying opportunities and adapting the system to the changes in the customer market. The panellists participating in this session are
Gerrie Butler, Head of eSolutions at RMB corporate Banking; Chris Wood, Head: Group Innovation at Nedbank; Kanabaran Naidoo, Executive Coach and Consultant: Change Management at ABSA and Rohan Dabke, Quality Leader – Banking BPO Process Excellence and Advisory Group at Wipro Ltd.

Tomorrow, day two of the conference, will begin with a presentation entitled, “Enhancing the client Experience in Structured
Lending” by David Shelly, Chief Operating Officer – Investment Banking Division from Rand Merchant Bank. Operational Excellence in a multi-channel Environment”, will be addressed by Brinsley Du Plessis, Executive: Operations, Support & Technology from Nedbank. In his presentation Brinsley will focus on efficient customer-centric banking by integrating and coordinating multi-channels. The other sessions will include presentations from Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, First Bank of Nigeria Plc, Kenya Commercial Bank, Central Bank of Swaziland and many more.

2nd Annual OPEX Africa 2013, features case studies, panel discussions and presentations outlining financial fraud, continuous process improvement, delivering quality service to customers, cost cutting and business efficiency.

For more information about this ongoing conference please contact mohor.mukherjee@flemiggulf.com

Media Contact
Mohor Mukherjee Mohor.mukherjee@fleminggulf.com +97146091570

URL: http://www.fleminggulf.com/conferenceview/2nd-Annual-OPEX-Africa-2013/387
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Author: Mohor Mukherjee from Fleming Gulf. Originally distributed by MyPR.co.za.