In January, BEC Financial Technologies launched its new development hub Scoutz. The ambition is to create the strongest innovation and development hub for Salesforce in the Nordics and elevate qualified customer advice to a completely new level.
Over time, the financial ecosystem has changed significantly in the sense that more and more financial services and offerings have become much more nuanced than before. In other words, the options for consumers have become more diverse, as they can now combine different loan offers and types in ways that were not previously possible. At the same time, new technological platforms open up a higher degree of self-service.
This means that the daily routine has changed for the customer advisors employed in banks. Previously, when a customer wanted a loan, it was typically the advisor’s responsibility to handle the entire process from start to finish. Today, it often happens that the customer research different loan options in advance and therefore only contacts their financial institution at a later stage in the process.
“I have very high expectations for Scoutz. I am sure that we have created a fantastic workplace and a fantastic organization, which means that we can move very quickly in line with consumers’ increasing demands and expectations.”
John Lundsgaard,
Managing Director, Spar Nord bank
More of a partnership with the customer
“You could say that it is now more often a partnership, where the customer and the advisor together figure out how to solve a current loan situation. It is a daily reality that banks must be prepared to handle, and it is a reality that places entirely new demands on the customer advisors,” explains Peter Smith, Head of Scoutz, an innovation and development hub established by BEC Financial Technologies.
The goal is to boost IT development in the 17 affiliated Danish financial institutions and create a modern platform that can connect customers and advisors in a way that elevates customer service to a whole new level. At the same time, it is a platform that opens up new collaboration opportunities with the fintech environment, allowing them to contribute new and customer-friendly solutions.
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Northern Europe’s largest competence centre
“We have chosen to base future development work on Salesforce, and with Scoutz, we have established Northern Europe’s largest combined Salesforce competence centre. For several years, we have worked with Salesforce at BEC, and some of our larger financial institutions have used solutions developed here plus they had own Salesforce teams. However, they have been somewhat diverse, so now we have chosen a strategy where all Salesforce development is moved to Scoutz for the benefit of our community.”
This is according to bank director John Lundsgaard from one of the affiliated banks, Spar Nord. He further explains that by pooling resources, agility is increased, allowing new technological solutions to be brought to the banks more quickly, enabling them to better serve consumers – both through their own solutions and third-party solutions.
“We strongly believe that the consumer and the customer advisor should be brought closer together.”
Peter Smith, Head of Scoutz
A common platform offers new opportunities
“With a common platform like Salesforce, it is relatively easy to create an API (Application Programming Interface) for new solutions and thus make it possible to deploy them in our environment,” John Lundsgaard continues. Peter Smith fully agrees and emphasizes that the establishment of Scoutz is based on a strategic decision involving all 17 member banks in BEC.
“Fundamentally, the banking and customer advisory solutions developed at BEC are good, but we can make them even better by pooling the teams, and we have had a clear plan for this since we launched Scoutz in January 2024. It is entirely up to each bank how they want to serve their customers, but we need to provide the foundation that creates the optimal synergy between the digital world and personal advice,” Peter Smith elaborates.
Based on a leading global platform
Initially, 11 solutions previously developed within the BEC framework will now benefit all the banks, but in the long term, only the imagination sets the limit for what new Salesforce solutions can be developed. Salesforce is one of the leading platforms globally for customer service, so Peter Smith clearly sees opportunities to be inspired by good solutions from other industries.
“Today, traditional banking services are increasingly intertwined with other types of services, such as insurance and pensions. This means that the financial universe is becoming more complex, and as consumers, we are also increasingly motivated to operate on digital platforms, which means that entirely new demands are being placed on customer advisors in financial institutions,” Peter Smith continues.
Recommended: Explore the Future of Finance at Nordic Fintech Week
Technology as a competitive parameter
Both he and John Lundsgaard are convinced that agility combined with technology is an essential competitive parameter today. They are therefore pleased that they have managed to create a competence centre with employees who know the industry. The financial sector is characterized by a high degree of regulation and legislation, so technological knowledge alone is not enough.
“We all need to be ready to fully enter the digital world, but we must not forget compliance with legislation. Therefore, we also make extensive use of the financial sector’s educational programs so that customer advisors in banks can feel up to the task when serving customers. But with Salesforce backing us, I am confident that we have strategically chosen the right solution,” concludes Peter Smith.
A Completely new organization has been created
Scoutz consists of approximately 120 employees located in Aalborg, Copenhagen, and Warsaw. The employees in Aalborg came from Spar Nord, while the employees in Copenhagen came from BEC, Nykredit, and Arbejdernes Landsbank. The employees in Warsaw came from BEC, which already has a large presence in the Polish capital. At all three locations, employees have moved to new offices to strengthen the specific Scoutz culture, which should be characterized by a shared drive for innovation.
Scoutz is established as a separate unit under BEC Financial Technologies, and a board of directors has been set up with people from BEC’s management, Arbejdernes Landsbank, Nykredit, and Spar Nord. In daily development work, Scoutz itself handles direct contact with the customers, i.e., the 17 banks in the BEC community. All Salesforce competencies have now been transferred from BEC and the banks to Scoutz, and through collaboration with Salesforce, Scoutz has gained a very strong technology partner.
