When asked to list his top three information technology priorities at Atlantic Southern Financial Group Inc., Daniel Robbins doesn't hesitate: reduce the bank's information technology expenses, improve systems efficiencies and deliver consistent customer service across the markets that the Macon, Ga.,bank serves. Accomplishing these goals comes down to a single strategy — automating manual processes.
Robbins, Atlanic Southern's senior vice president and director of retail operations, said the bank relies "very heavily" on its vendors in its efforts to automate. The $1.1 billion-asset bank utilizes Fidelity National Information Services for its core banking system, Wolters Kluwer to maintain the platform software and Jack Henry & Associates Inc.'s ProfitStars to provide document imaging as well as e-signature and customer identification programs.
Robbins said this model integrates the bank's platform like a stream flowing into a lake — with Fidelity at the head, Wolters Kluwers in the middle and everything feeding into ProfitStars. "We can have a platform-independent core banking system and we can have a core banking-independent platform system."
High on Robbin's automation to-do list is automating risk and fraud management processes. Atlantic Southern uses Bankers Toolbox Inc. to help manage data on the compliance side and uses ProfitStars' Synergy DataMart for data mining. Robbins said he is also looking for more integrated products with Banker's Dashboard to give senior executives at Atlantic Southern more streamlined daily financial performance data.
So far, Robbin's efforts are yielding measurable expense reductions and improved customer service. For example, to go along with its commitment to reducing its environmental footprint, the bank was able to cut the cost of paper printing and processing by more than 40% this year. Atlantic Southern also decreased the amount of time it takes to enroll retail and commercial customers in new products by two-thirds, Robbins said.
And despite the bank's heavy reliance on outside vendors, there are no turf wars among them because Atlantic Southern — as the end user — does all the driving, Robbins said. "Each vendor realizes they have to play well in this space for them to be able to provide the best service to us," he said. He said he has no plans to make any changes to the mix, because the bank is working with a "World Series team of vendors."
Robbins might be a bit biased in this assessment, though, given the time he spent has been on the vendor side. He joined Atlantic Southern three years ago from Fidelity, where he worked with new sales teams in developing business cases for banking companies.
When he first became a banker in 2006, it was trial by fire. In his first year at Atlantic Southern, he was busy managing technology integrations after the company made two acquisitions: First Community Bank of Georgia in Roberta for $18.3 million and Sapelo Bancshares Inc. in Darien for $15.4 million. Atlantic Southern now has 16 branches in Georgia and one in Jacksonville, Fla.
Those acquisitions brought in the bulk of the Atlantic Southern's retail clients, who now make up about 55% of its customer base. The biggest IT challenge after the buyouts was tying different systems together and ensuring that information was "flowing seamlessly," Robbins said.
In his three years at Atlantic Southern, Robbins has shown a knack for conveying information technology issues to senior executives in plain English, according to his boss.
"Daniel possesses a skill set that no one else I really know has," said Mark A. Stevens, Atlantic Southern's president and chief executive. "Most executive management teams aren't that savvy when it comes to technology issues. We needed someone like Daniel to break it down for us and communicate it for us in a language that we can understand."
Robbins said that working for two of the largest bank technology vendors before becoming a banker himself (he worked for Fiserv Inc. before Fidelity) helped him see where community banks were lacking in communicating their technoloy vision and strategy.
In addition, Robbins literally paid for himself during his first year at Atlantic Southern by renegotiating its information technology contracts, primarily with Fidelity. The move saved Atlantic Southern about $1 million over five years. "That's substantial for a bank of our size," Stevens said.
Robbins has some simple advice to vendors when it comes to dealing with bank clients: "I encourage them to be totally up front about what they want." He also tells other community bankers to be up front about their technology plans and strategic needs when dealing with their vendors. "You have to have great vendor relationships to succeed," he said.
Success in the community banking sphere also requires innovation. The bankers have to have a technology blueprint, then make sure their vendors follow it, Robbins said. "Once the vendors catch your vision and strategy, it's easier to be a technologically innovative community bank executive," he said.
Robbins cited a passage from Andy Stanley's book "Visioneering" when asked how he manages Atlantic Southern's vendor relationships: Vision is "a clear mental picture of what could be, fueled by the conviction that it should be."
"We would rather share our vision with our vendors," Robbins said.
Marian Raab, a former editor at American Banker, is a freelance writer in Maplewood, N.J.
