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With the adoption of new working patterns demanded by the global pandemic, our bank accelerated our digital transformation at UniCredit to forge a truly visible and connected workforce – offering a seamless experience across all devices anytime, anywhere.
UniCredit is committed to empowering our employees with the use of technology. This is no easy task for an organisation employing more than 80,000 people across 13 countries. The way we communicate has changed with the launch of an extensive IT migration program to introduce a unified modern workforce platform and unite all employees.
We embraced collaboration solutions, such as the O365 package, to enable consistently more agile and modern working. In 2022, the project reached nearly 100% completion across geographies and has proven transformational, with the latest migration to our single workplace platform including 15,000 users from Central and Eastern European countries, which was completed in less than six months.
By leveraging digital tools such as Microsoft Teams, OneDrive and Outlook, we offered our colleagues a mobile phone solution that mirrors our laptop and desktop devices. In addition, we reviewed and reduced the number of applications available to simplify the work of our people. For example, the new corporate mobile app catalogue allows colleagues to customise their mobile workspace, cutting down on unnecessary clutter on their phone screens.
Leveraging local skills was crucial to the speed of the rollout, which was made possible through an upskilling and reskilling program launched alongside the main migration. Key to supporting our transformation was ensuring that our users were developing the necessary skills and becoming certified on our new solution to help us in the immediate rollout as well as in the future.
Our employees have changed how they live their day-to-day lives and are more confident using these new solutions: collaborating, sharing documents, brainstorming, and participating in breakout sessions – ultimately embracing a cultural shift that complements simplification with digitalisation.
We understood that if we wanted all our employees to feel confident and inspired, we needed to provide them with the right tools.
Tina Pogacic
Chief Digital and Information Officer CE&EE
A conversation with...
Gianluca Pometto, Head of Group Digital Security
Immagine
Gianluca Pometto
Head of Group Digital Security
Why was this important for UniCredit’s commitments?
At UniCredit, we understand the importance of staying ahead of the curve when it comes to adoption of technologies. That’s why we took the bold step of embracing a digital transformation, with the goal of becoming a truly digital bank. To achieve this, we needed to focus on using digital tools and collaboration solutions on a daily basis to get a first-hand understanding of what the new way of working really means.
Within the Group Digital Security division, we transformed our approach to focus on being user-centric while maintaining the highest levels of security. Our security initiatives were designed to support this journey.
Saying goodbye to the hassle of traditional authentication processes, we embraced the future of customer experience with Secure Internet Access, a cutting-edge solution that simplifies the internal customer experience. It provides integrated authentication, ensures a secure and seamless browsing experience, malware, and advanced threat protection. This solution makes it easier for our colleagues working remotely to access the resources they need to get their work done, without sacrificing security.
We also implemented Single-Sign-On and biometric technology to help our colleagues access their daily tools in a secure and efficient way, without having to remember passwords. All these initiatives have been designed with the goal of providing the best possible user experience, while maintaining the highest levels of security. In conclusion, we have transformed our approach to be user-centric, streamlined our collaboration tools, and ensured that our data is protected at all times.
Why are you particularly proud to have worked on this project?
I am incredibly proud to have been a part of this massive project that equipped our colleagues with collaboration tools across different regions and reshaped the way we think about security. In the past, security was often seen as an obstacle, but we are determined to change this perception. Our teams are working tirelessly to develop a new approach that recognises security as a key enabler for business success across the entire Group.
This new approach and mindset allowed us to embrace new tools and technologies, such as cloud-based solutions, that can be accessed from anywhere in the world without compromising security. Being part of this transformative change is a true honour and I am deeply proud of the work we are doing.
How has this contributed to our Bank’s overall strategy?
As technology evolves, so do the security challenges we face. Our team’s main contribution was to build up a digital security solution to be adopted at Group level (security as a service) and offer effective and efficient protection (security as a differentiator). This new approach to security not only protects our company and its assets, but it enhances the user experience and turns security into a business opportunity (security as a business).
This is critical to our overall strategy, as we strive to be a truly Digital bank that can both prevent potential threats and offer a seamless user experience. By combining a strong foundation for security with a focus on the user, we are making sure that our company stays ahead of the curve in the rapidly changing Digital landscape.
The smart use of data is a core focus of our strategy where both UC Hedge and UC PayFX play an essential role. These digital products help us to collect and analyse data in real time, providing us with valuable insights into our clients and operations. This allows us to then make informed decisions and continuously improve services to our clients. Both digital offerings play an important role helping us achieve our overall strategy and will continue to be a crucial part of our success moving forward – keeping our customers at the centre of what we do.