Driving Digital Transformation at NORD/LB with Center of Excellence Success

Within the financial services industry, digital transformation is more than just a strategic priority—it is a critical business necessity. NORD/LB, one of Germany’s largest commercial banks, has embarked on a transformative journey to revolutionize its operations by implementing a workflow automation center of excellence (CoE).

Leveraging Camunda across multiple domains, NORD/LB set out to enhance operational efficiency and deliver a superior customer experience.

During their presentation at CamundaCon Berlin 2024, Florian Sparta, NORD/LB’s deputy head of digital platforms, and Michael Rehfisch, cofounder of specialist business process management consultants WayT, spoke with Camunda’s Leon Strauch about NORD/LB’s strategy to scale its CoE. They examined the significant impact achieved through process orchestration and their future plans involving hyperautomation and Camunda 8.

The genesis of NORD/LB’s CoE

NORD/LB’s journey began in 2020 when they initiated a comprehensive digital transformation project. Recognizing the need for a robust framework to support this transformation, the bank partnered with process orchestration leader Camunda. This partnership was pivotal in establishing the Workflow Automation CoE, a centralized team dedicated to driving digital initiatives across the organization.

The role of the CoE in digital transformation

NORD/LB’s CoE is crucial to the bank’s digital transformation strategy. It acts as a central hub for process orchestration, enabling the bank to streamline operations, reduce inefficiencies, and enhance customer experiences.

The CoE’s responsibilities include:

• Technology enablement: Providing the necessary tech stack and tools to support process automation.
• Vision and strategy: Defining the strategic direction for digital initiatives and aligning them with business goals.
• People and processes: Enabling teams through training, support, and best practices.
• Solution delivery: Facilitating the development and deployment of automated solutions.
• Impact measurement: Tracking and analyzing the business impact of digital initiatives.

Scaling the CoE: Strategies and frameworks

Scaling the CoE was a multifaceted endeavor that involved several strategic initiatives:

1. Adoption framework.
   NORD/LB adopted Camunda’s Process Orchestration Adoption Framework, which consists of five drivers:
   • Vision: Articulating a clear vision that aligns technology efforts with business objectives.
   • People: Defining roles and responsibilities to deliver solutions at scale.
   • Technology: Implementing the right tech stack to support the organizational goals to be achieved through scaled process orchestration adoption.
   • Delivery: Standardizing solution delivery processes to accelerate time-to-market.
   • Measurement: Establishing metrics to measure the impact of digital initiatives.
2. Centralized and decentralized collaboration.
   The CoE fosters a balanced approach between centralization and autonomy. While maintaining centralized governance for best practices and standards, it empowers autonomous teams to innovate and implement solutions independently. This hybrid model ensures consistency while promoting agility.
3. Project templates and reusable components. 
   To streamline solution delivery, the CoE developed project templates and reusable components. These templates serve as kickstarters for project teams, enabling them to focus on business logic rather than reinventing the wheel. This approach significantly reduces development time and ensures high-quality, consistent outputs.
4. Enhanced communication and training. 
   Effective communication and continuous training with the business units it supports are vital for the CoE’s success. The CoE conducts regular workshops, training sessions, and value workshops to keep teams informed and skilled in the latest process automation techniques and tools.

Impact and value delivered by the CoE 

The CoE has been instrumental in transforming NORD/LB’s operations and delivering substantial business value:

• Improved operational efficiency: By automating repetitive tasks and standardizing processes, the CoE has significantly reduced operational inefficiencies. This has led to faster processing times and lower operational costs.
• Enhanced customer experience: Automation has enabled NORD/LB to offer more responsive and personalized services to its customers. The bank can now quickly adapt to changing customer needs and regulatory requirements.
• Accelerated time-to-market: The use of project templates and reusable components has reduced the time required to develop and deploy new solutions. This has allowed NORD/LB to bring new products and services to market faster than ever before.
• Better regulatory compliance: Automation has improved the bank’s compliance with regulatory requirements. The CoE ensures that all processes are well-documented and auditable, reducing non-compliance risk.
• Data-driven decision-making: The CoE’s focus on impact measurement has provided valuable insights into the performance of digital initiatives. This data-driven approach enables NORD/LB to continuously optimize its processes and strategies.

Future plans: Embracing hyperautomation and Camunda 8

Looking ahead, NORD/LB plans to further enhance its digital capabilities by embracing hyperautomation and deploying Camunda 8. Hyperautomation involves the use of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and robotic process automation (RPA) to automate complex business processes end-to-end.

Key initiatives include:

1. Integration of AI and ML: NORD/LB plans to integrate AI and ML technologies into its process automation framework. This will enable the bank to automate decision-making processes and predict customer needs with greater accuracy.
2. Deployment of Camunda 8: Camunda 8 will serve as a centralized workflow engine, offering low-code accelerators that simplify the development of automated solutions. This will make it easier for non-technical teams to participate in the automation journey.
3. Expansion of use cases: The bank aims to expand the use of process automation across all business units. By 2025, NORD/LB expects to have 100% of its business units leveraging Camunda for process orchestration.
4. Enhanced collaboration tools: The CoE will continue to develop and refine tools that facilitate collaboration across teams. This includes enhanced project templates, integrated subprocesses, and centralized hosting platforms.
5. Continuous improvement: NORD/LB plans to conduct ongoing value workshops to refine its metrics and ensure that digital transformation and initiatives continue to deliver meaningful business value.

NORD/LB’s workflow automation CoE is a testament to the power of process orchestration in driving digital transformation. Through strategic initiatives, innovative technologies, and a commitment to continuous improvement, the CoE has delivered remarkable results, positioning NORD/LB as a leader in digital banking.

As the bank looks to the future, its focus on hyperautomation and the deployment of Camunda 8 promises to unlock even greater efficiencies and business benefits. By fostering a culture of innovation and leveraging cutting-edge technologies, NORD/LB is well-equipped to navigate the complexities of digital transformation and deliver superior experiences to its customers.

NORD/LB’s CoE exemplifies how a well-defined strategy, robust technology, and a collaborative approach can drive meaningful digital transformation and create lasting business value. For more information, please see NORD/LB, WayT, and Camunda’s presentation at CamundaCon 2024 in Berlin.