The importance of technology in the implementation of the Queues.Net program of Sberbank. Sberbank believes that the panic around ATMs was artificially inflated

For objective reasons, I rarely visit any bank, so I experience their innovations much later than they appeared. However, I still show up at the bank at least once a year (for example, to pay for hosting and/or domain name). And today, at a nearby Sberbank office, I came across another paper innovation.

The innovation is called “Electronic queue”. What is its essence? Previously, in order to pay, you had to come to the savings bank, stand in the usual line (if there was one, of course), do your thing and then leave. Now another point has been added to this technology: receiving a token. For that, to get in in the “regular” queue, I must first withstand“electronic”, the essence of which is to receive a check, proudly called a “token”.

To do this, there is an ATM in the office, the screen of which you poke your finger at and they immediately give you this check. After that you you get the right go to the desired cash register and do what you previously did without this check-token. The funny thing is that the ATM is literally four meters from this very cash desk. If they had placed it at the checkout itself, it would have been much funnier :) (and more practical, by the way).

However, as I already said, I visit the bank about once a year, so I almost never encounter queues there (I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t exist anymore). That is why all the delights of waiting in line did not affect me today - I received a check token, paid for the domain name and two minutes later I was drinking tea at home. But the thought came to me - maybe the management of Sberbank deliberately introduced two queues, instead of one, in order to somehow remember the old Soviet times? You never know, maybe they really miss the queues 😀

However, I am more than sure that this is another “innovative” decision of Sberbank made for the sake of show, they say, we are working, we are improving. After all, how beautiful it sounds - ELECTRONIC queue. And recent failures in the operation of ATMs due to a software error are “not typical for us.” According to the same type, in my hospital they once introduced “electronic” document flow, the essence of which is that previously all certificates/extracts/cards were only paper, but now they are also electronic... They were not introduced instead of paper ones, but simply introduced. For what? I still don't understand. In fact:

• No one has access to them (not even 90% of the employees themselves)
• Nobody uses them (100% of employees and 100% of patients)
• The archive is still only paper (the whole building)
• If a copy of a document is required, then they make a photocopy of the paper original, rather than print an electronic copy (sometimes they also require an electronic copy of the paper original)

Eh, the electronic backwardness of our bureaucracy personally depresses me (sometimes also)... With my modest strength I still struggle with this, because if you want to change something, start with yourself.

P.S. I am not a representative of the current opposition liberalism. Therefore, my words should not be taken as criticism of the state in general and V.V. Putin in particular 🙂 I am only stating a bureaucratic-bureaucratic fact.

P.P.S. There have been no jokes for a long time:

Lotox: What happened to the server?
Connect: Nashchalnika, may servira pastavil, fribizdya instalya made, Apaches sabral, pyhape patklyuchil, sapuskayu, and ano - ajambeh pashambe eshelbe shaitanama!
Lotox: Kirill, if you don’t start expressing yourself normally, we will find a new system administrator. I repeat the question - what happened?
Connect: Wha-oh?.. Happened...)

With the help of coupons, Sberbank learned to better manage queues in offices

Photo: Alexander Ryumin/TASS

In the future, perhaps, interaction between a person and a bank will occur exclusively via remote access. And customers are likely to pay extra for the luxury of real communication as an additional service, representatives of the financial sector predict. In the meantime, although more and more transactions are being transferred to remote service channels, the flow of clients to banks does not dry out. Banki.ru studied how bank electronic queues are managed and how much time clients of the largest credit institutions spend waiting.

You weren't standing here

Banks are one of those organizations where queues are inevitable. To effectively manage customer flows, credit institutions use electronic queues. There are already technologies that allow you to “stand” in such a queue without physically being in the bank.

Queue management systems are constantly being improved and refined in accordance with market requirements and customer requests, says Marina Moskaleva, head of the development department at Neuroniq. “Now you can be in line without being physically present in the department, for example, using the “remote viewing of the information board” function. The printed coupon with the queue number contains a generated QR code that allows you to track the status of the queue using a smartphone. The client, reading this QR code with any mobile application to recognize it, receives a link, clicking on which displays a page with data about the called client numbers. These data are similar to those displayed on the information board in the department. Thus, it becomes unnecessary for the client to be present directly in the display area. If a client comes to a bank branch at the time of peak load and sees a large number of people waiting, he can, when choosing a service at the terminal, take advantage of the option of pre-registration for the current day. For example, indicate the time of your visit in an hour or two. In this case, a person can be sure that his number will not be called earlier than after the specified time,” explains Moskaleva.

Now you can be in line without being physically present in the department, for example, using the remote viewing of the information board function. The printed coupon with the queue number contains a generated QR code that allows you to track the status of the queue using a smartphone

In addition, banks are actively introducing biometric technologies to identify clients. “Biometric technologies are used to identify VIP clients at the time of registration at the queue terminal to confirm service priority. For this purpose, the terminal is additionally equipped with a face recognition camera or a fingerprint scanner. Also, similar technologies are used in the case of integration of a queue management system with ACS ( access control and management system. - Approx. Banki.ru) to confirm the client’s identity when accessing special storage facilities. In this case, not only identification of an individual can be used by a facial image or fingerprint, but also voice identification or scanning of the iris,” says Marina Moskaleva.

The queue at Sberbank is no longer the same

Despite the increase in the number of transactions in remote service channels, the number of clients visiting bank offices to carry out transactions is not decreasing, Banki.ru reported in Sberbank.

“Sberbank is systematically addressing the issue of reducing queues in its branches. 90% of clients wait in line for transactions for no more than 10 minutes. The average waiting time in line dropped to 4.5 minutes. This is a good indicator, given the level of penetration of non-cash transactions in the country and the age structure of the bank’s clients. On average, one employee serves more than 100 individual clients per day,” Sberbank told us.

In the press service VTB 24 noted that the waiting time for a client at a bank branch is influenced by several important factors: the structure of operations, the duration of service and the number of clients per employee.

“One of the bank’s tasks, which we have been successfully solving in recent years, is the transfer of fast service operations from branches to remote channels. Accordingly, the front line was able to focus on more complex targeted operations. For example, this is taking out a mortgage loan. At the same time, VTB 24 continues to reduce the average client waiting time in the office - now it is about 4 minutes. Currently, one VTB 24 employee serves about 20 clients per day. This figure has decreased by 20% over the past year and a half, and the total client flow to the office has decreased by 40%. The average waiting time decreased from 4 minutes 37 seconds to 4 minutes 13 seconds,” the bank reported.

IN RNKB said that over the past year, waiting time in line has been halved: from 24 minutes in June 2016 to 13 minutes in June 2017.

“The introduction of an electronic queue management system in operational offices, optimization of intrabank processes, and transfer of clients to remote service channels (Internet banking, mobile application, self-service terminals) allowed us to reduce waiting times. Thus, if the number of payments at the cash desks of RNKB branches in May 2017 was about 740 thousand, then in the same month, using remote service channels, RNKB clients made 1.7 million payments. On average, a specialist in the sales and service sector of RNKB serves up to 13 clients a day,” the bank’s press service commented.

How to outwit an electronic queue

In an electronic queue, standard life hacks of people who hardly know the word “life hack” will not work - for example, “I was borrowing money from this woman” or “I just need to ask,” which have long been actively used in traditional queues.

But Banki.ru readers assure that the electronic queue can be “dispersed” so that service occurs faster. “In order to speed up the queue, you need to select the service you need and collect more coupons, then it will be displayed in the system as a priority and it will be served faster,” Banki.ru reader Ekaterina S. shared her experience.

In order to speed up the queue, you need to select the service you need and collect more coupons, then it will be displayed in the system as a priority and will be served faster

According to Marina Moskaleva, the only trick for the client is to take a coupon not for the service that is required, but for the one for which the queue goes faster (higher priority). “But in this case, the operator who called him for the wrong service redirects the client to the desired service, and the system provides for redirection to a place in the queue corresponding to the moment of registration. So the client doesn’t win anything,” she explained.

You need to take a coupon with a number from the terminal located right there in the lobby, and then sit quietly on the sofa or stand (depending on your luck) waiting for a call. The first thing that catches your eye is the calm that reigns in the hall. There are no arguments over who took charge of whom, and no real nervousness when the operator announces that the window is closing for a technical break. “Boring, girls!” - the great schemer Ostap Bender would say. And I would be wrong. Visitors to the central branch are not yet bored. A client visiting Sberbank for the first time after a long break feels cheerful as soon as he enters. Where to go, what to do is unclear. This information can only be obtained from kind-hearted people in line. Just sitting and waiting after you have the treasured coupon in your hands is also not as easy as it seems. If in a “live” queue it is more or less clear how many people are ahead of the queue, then in an “electronic” queue you can’t figure out anything. You have, say, number 114, and the numbers “95”, “60” and “73” are displayed on the scoreboard. How much longer to wait? It's good if not more than 15 minutes. According to research conducted by the international company Nexter, this is how much time the average Russian is willing to spend in line. A resident of the European Union, by the way, “explodes” already in the third minute of waiting. But we are people seasoned in queues and therefore we obediently stand for almost an hour. Although, perhaps, we will soon also relax like the Europeans, because “electronic” queues are being introduced to reduce these same queues. The management of VTB-24, where 85 percent of visitors are served this way (Sosnovy Bor is still an exception), for example, claims that the branch’s throughput increases by an average of ten percent just three months after the system is introduced. During approximately the same period, clients get used to queuing with coupons. However, it cannot be said that what is good for VTB-24 will also suit Sberbank. Clients are different. Moreover, their quantity. A typical visitor to Sberbank is a pensioner who comes to receive a pension, deposit or withdraw money from a savings book and pay utility bills. For him, getting a ticket through the terminal is a big problem, as is any communication with electronic devices in general. However, no employees were seen in the lobby helping to understand the intricacies of the terminal. Therefore, an elderly person will have to spend time to navigate the innovations. At the same time, there are thousands of pensioners who are accustomed to trusting a stable “Soviet” bank. Moreover, after problems arose with accepting utility payments at the post office, their number increased even more. Therefore, working people who do not have enough free time will have to get used to sitting in an electronic queue, just as they previously got used to standing in its “live” counterpart - some payments can only be paid at Sberbank, and nowhere else. For now, however, Sosnovy Bor residents have a choice. You can stand the old fashioned way in four other city branches of Sberbank, which have not yet been affected by new trends. When will they switch to “electronic” queues? Considering that the cost of installing an electronic system in a department ranges from half a million to a million rubles, this is unlikely to happen soon. A more precise answer could have been given by the management of the Sosnovy Bor branch, but they turned out to be unprepared to answer our questions without a written request to the head press service. *** Self-tested On Monday, after the end of the working day (at 18.30), a Mayak correspondent went to Sberbank to pay several bills. The terminal was covered with an information board, since the branch is open until 19.00, and there were still quite a few people in the lobby. People standing in line advised us to ask the security guard about coupons left by visitors who did not want to stand in line. One of the four such coupons left, issued at 18.00, was given to the correspondent, which caused some dissatisfaction among people who had already spent half an hour in the “electronic” queue. The invitation to the box office was displayed on the information board at 18.50 - ten minutes before closing. There were still people with coupons in the Sberbank lobby. Numbers After the introduction of electronic queues, sales of banking products increase by 9%.

Deputy Chairman of Sberbank Alexander Torbakhov spoke about the role of information technology in the implementation of the Queues.Net program

What is the strategic significance of the Queues.Net Program for Sberbank?

The problem of queues in branches was raised by the President of Sberbank of Russia German Gref in 2010. A series of surveys found that waiting in line for more than 15 minutes left most customers feeling irritated and unhappy. Then Sberbank set itself an ambitious goal - to reduce the waiting time in line for its clients so that 85% of clients spent less than 15 minutes in line.

Subsequently, the bar was raised even higher, and the requirements became stricter. Today, 90% of customers spend less than 10 minutes in queues.

The program includes the following interrelated activities:

• equipping bank service offices (more than 5,000 branches throughout the country) with queue management systems;
• development and replication of methods and work standards for VSP employees to combat queues;
• creation of a centralized system for monitoring electronic queues.

What role has information technology played and is playing in the implementation of the Program in general and in the project of creating queue management systems in particular?

It is difficult to overestimate the role of information technology in the implementation of a program half consisting of IT projects. The IT block was directly involved in almost all stages of project implementation: from developing requirements and conducting competitive events to replication, commissioning and organizing support.

It was the IT block that was responsible for installing queue management systems at Sberbank and working with suppliers locally, in regional banks, as well as for the development and implementation of all software releases. We would not have implemented this project without the IT unit. After all, even at the launch of queue management systems, an IT employee had to be present in each internal structural unit in order, together with the supplier, to hand over the working system to the head of VSP.

How do you overall assess the work of the IT team in this project?

Overall good. The IT team developed its own skills as the project progressed. At the first stages, we did not have time to install equipment at the speed required for the project and did not know how to create high-quality software, but we quickly learned. The last problem solved is the availability of installed queue management systems. Today this figure has exceeded 97%, although initially it did not reach 40%.

• centralization at the target audience level of the processes of collecting and analyzing information about incidents throughout the country;
• centralized management of teams of territorial Banks and contractors.

We were able to identify the objective root causes of problems both on the side of Sberbank and on the side of contractors and, in the end, raise the level of availability to 97% within a reasonable budgetary framework. Certain tasks were resolved with the direct participation of board members.

For example, under the leadership of Sberbank Deputy Chairman Viktor Orlovsky, the coordination and signing of an agreement with contractors was organized in three days (instead of 56 according to Sberbank standards). Another example: deputy chairmen Alexander Torbakhov and Igor Artamonov, in their video conferences with the chairmen of territorial banks, gave direct instructions on the tasks of this project.

When the program started, Project Director of the Project Office of the Retail Business Block Vasily Mishchenko headed the project from business. Largely thanks to his persistence, this task was completed on time. The main idea was to distribute and manage customer flows. The topic of a separate big conversation is how these flows were distributed depending on the complexity and duration of operations (short operations are placed in one queue, long ones in another).

This can be illustrated as follows: as it turned out, a person who waits half an hour for one (previous) person in a queue has a psychologically more difficult attitude towards this situation than if ten people pass in front of him in half an hour. Our task was to also cope with social tension and reduce the number of “fights” in queues.

As part of the project, a Support System Center was built from scratch, the work of which can be better described by the Head of the Technical Support Department of the IT Support Department, Marat Khairetdinov.

I would like to take this opportunity to express special gratitude to Pavel Zykov, Leading Project Manager of the DKO SBT. I consider the conversation on the train, which I recently witnessed by chance, to be the highest confirmation that the work performed by our team is useful.

Leading project manager of the Department for the retail block of DKO Sberbank Technologies, Pavel Zykov.

What are the main stages of the project?

In August 2011, the opening of the first phase of the project was held at the Bank's board, and on April 30, 2012, the end of the first phase was held. In just eight months, we equipped the 4100 VSP Bank OMS and developed a monitoring system for each queue (MS LMS) from scratch.

We are faced with a whole set of “BUTs”. I’ll name just four as examples:

• lack of queue software required by the Bank. The existing one on the market did not satisfy us in terms of functionality and stability. In addition, all the LMS contractors at the initial stage of work did not have enough experience to write software according to our requirements;
• OMS components ordered from different manufacturers did not always “want” to work together. But there was no alternative: there is not one manufacturer on the market that is ready to produce the required number of OMS components in such a short time;
• At the initial stage, there was not a sufficient number of qualified installers in the country. There were also no people capable of installing the LMS software from an image, entering it into the domain, and configuring the components. There are plenty of them now;
• strict resource restrictions for the IT Block. For the entire project, people were assigned only to the Moscow Bank (UTP) in the amount of two PSEs. After April 30 last year, all efforts were devoted to organizing support for the installed fire control systems. We also coped with this task. Currently the availability rate is 97%.

The second phase of the project ends this summer; it is quite calm, because... We have already solved the main problems in the first one. The main tasks of the second phase are to connect all LMS to the LMS SM, provide online queue status monitoring in VSP, organization of post-warranty support.

What are your impressions of the project?

I am proud of the completed project. Personally, I was able to gain invaluable experience of how it is necessary and possible to work if necessary. After this project, every task seems a little boring and understandable.

Why were three contractors selected for the supply and installation of the control system?

We had a tight deadline and a huge volume. As a result, we are very pleased with this decision. Thanks to this, we were able to regulate the load of contractors: transfer work from one contractor, who was overloaded at that time, to a less busy one. You cannot rely on one contractor - this is a big risk for the entire system.

I can say that the Bank’s current contractors are the most experienced in our country; they have grown and built processes along with the implementation of the project.

How many people from Sberbank Technologies were involved in the project?

Currently, the development team consists of 10 people, support – four people.

Who else helped with the project?

A lot of effort was spent by the Financial Control Department, Marketing, and the Bank's Tender Commission. I would like to say a special thank you to the Deputy Head of the Financial Control Department, Natalya Nikonova, for her help and support.

Head of the Technical Support Department of the IT Support Department, Marat Khairetdinov.

If we talk about what this project is memorable for, then for me it is interesting, first of all, for its unprecedented nature - decentralized systems have not yet been implemented at Sberbank on such a scale, in such a short time and with such resources. The results are impressive - from 40% availability to almost 100%!

Some analogies can be drawn with the introduction of self-service devices, but the number of people who were involved in these works is absolutely incomparable. Significantly less resources have been allocated for maintenance; however, the architectural support object itself for queue management systems is more complex than self-service devices (elements of electronic queues - screens, displays, servers, kiosks and consoles are located throughout the territory of the VSP and do not represent a compact monolithic device).

This project, like a litmus test, made it possible to identify weaknesses in various areas of the bank’s activities (in personnel motivation, in the allocation of resources, in the incident management process at the VSP level, in interaction with suppliers, etc.).

The organization of the process of maintaining queue management systems has become a good pilot for building proper VSP service throughout the country. The project also showed that even a small, but well-organized, distributed project team can solve large-scale and complex problems.

Now we (the Retail Block, Sberbank Technologies, IT Central Asia and IT TB) have gained trust, we have tested each other “in combat conditions”, and we have confidence that we will cope with new, no less complex projects.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all project participants for their efforts and for the soul invested in solving our common problems! It is very important for our entire team that the results of this project are visible! The fact that we are changing the lives of our clients by improving conditions in Sberbank branches is very inspiring!

Many of our readers are interested in the question of how to properly use the electronic queue at Sberbank offices? We will tell you about this in our article today, after reading which you will be able to feel confident in the branches of this bank.

Description of service

So, first, let's figure out what an electronic queue is and how it works. This is an automated system that distributes bank clients to the specialists they need, depending on what interests them.

As you probably know, in each bank branch there are several specialists who receive people in separate windows. Each such employee has his own specialization, for example, working with cards, processing loans, consulting, etc.

It is in order to direct the client directly to the right specialist who has the necessary knowledge on the issue of interest to you that this system was created. It automatically distributes everyone who wants to receive advice to different windows for faster and better service.

Step-by-step instructions for using the electronic queue

When you enter a bank, the first thing you will see is a special terminal. As a rule, it is located either opposite the entrance or slightly to the side.

1. You need to go to this device and select on its screen the section for which you need help or service. These can be bank cards, loans, transfers, deposits, etc. If you find it difficult to choose, you can always call a consultant and he will help you decide on the right category.
2. The terminal will give you a small paper receipt on which your number will be printed, which consists of an alphanumeric code. Take it and go to the waiting room.
3. Opposite you there will be electronic signs indicating which window is currently receiving a particular specialist and the number of the person who is being invited for a consultation.
4. When the bank employee is released, the line moves on and a new number is displayed on the display.

Thus, you just need to wait for your number from the ticket to appear on the board and go to the window where the operational employee will be.

For most operations, you will be asked for a passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation or another document that can prove your identity, therefore, we recommend preparing in advance all the necessary papers, as well as cards/contracts, if you have them.

Are exceptions possible?

If you have a small child in your arms, or an elderly person with you, or have health restrictions, in particular, a disability, you can ask the staff for priority admission without waiting in line.

In addition, if you are a client who uses the ““ service, then in this case you will have a personal manager with whom you can resolve all issues. In order to get an appointment with him, you must first call the department where you are served and agree with him on a date and time that is convenient for you. In this case, you do not need to take any numbers.

As you can see, there is nothing complicated in using the electronic queue at Sberbank.