Alliance speeds service for customers

Steve Jurkovich.

Tens of thousands of ASB Bank customers use a service integrating the bank's FastNet Business accounts with Xero online accounting.

ASB executive general manager Steve Jurkovich says the number is about to jump when ASB extends the service to the small businesses and sole proprietors using the standard retail FastNet online banking.

The service is part of an alliance between the bank and Xero that has seen ASB customers get facilities not seen elsewhere, such as being able to run credit cards, term deposits and foreign currency accounts through Xero.

Jurkovich says the take-up has been in line with expectations. "At first it was just about early adopters and the people who get it. They moved quickly. Then more joined as their accountants and bookkeepers encouraged them and told them how it can make dealing with money so much easier."

Integration between ASB online banking and accounting software is highly automated. There's no need to fill out paper forms or visit a branch to connect an account to Xero. There's much less double-handling of data: Jurkovich says information now flows seamlessly between companies, their accountants and the bank.

This then introduces the ability to do things that were either time-consuming or otherwise complex before the service was first introduced: "Accountants, bankers can collaborate on planning. Instead of waiting until something happens, we can support customers, share ideas and even anticipate matters. It reduces a lot of the noise and overheads. Suddenly we are all taking about the same set of data".

In practice, this might mean the bank noticing a pattern to the way cash flows in and out of a business and offering to set up a facility to manage money.

He says this is about taking a forward-looking approach to serving customers rather than basing offers on what has happened in the past.

Next up are moves to extend the links between ASB, Xero and customers so that other professionals and advisors can see the same single view of a business's financial data. Jurkovich says: "In the past banks have been insular, the job has been about building walls around the data. Now we're building bridges. Of course there's still a need for privacy and security, but we're looking at ways of giving people safe, secure access to data."

Jurkovich sees potential in adding payroll processing to the ASB-Xero mix.

He says until now this has been a fragmented market, however there is potential for seamless integration.

Customer feedback has been positive. Jurkovich says they find it much easier to work with accounts and perform simple tasks like scheduling payments. It's good for bank professionals who now get instant insights into customers in place of lagging reports. He says: "We get quicker, clear information; that will mean reduced costs and savings for customers".

There are pockets of resistance - not everyone is comfortable with the Xero-ASB way of working. Jurkovich sees this as a challenge and quotes Xero's Rod Drury, who says: "So what if you've always done it that way?" He says this spurs the bank to attempt further simplification; ideally, customers will eventually be able to perform complex tasks with a single mouse click.

Simplification is also behind extending the service to mobile banking, now the main way many customers communicate with the bank. By April customers will be able to load and schedule a long list of payments without a lot of manual form-filling from a remote location while using a smartphone.

The Xero partnership extends to Commonwealth Bank of Australia and BankWest, who belong to the same group. Jurkovich says each bank operates in a slightly different way, but there's a commonality at group level and a sharing of best practices.