Federico Verri
“Banche Estere” Business Unit Lead at Armundia Group
You joined Armundia at a very young age, 13 years ago.
I joined for a six month experience and I’m still here! During all these years, the main reason why I stuck with Armundia Group has been the work dynamism, hence the opportunity of working across very different projects. For example, I first worked on two different support desks, for Data Quality and Risk Management, for the SGR of a leading Italian banking group. I then worked on the development and installation of our Wealth Management platform for foreign banks managed by the same group, and subsequently I worked on similar projects between Luxembourg and Switzerland.
And, now, what’s your involvement in the Armundia generational handover?
Having joined Armundia Group ten years ago, I have grown, personally and professionally together with the company. Now I am Business Unit Manager of a division that manages projects for foreign banks with a team of about 28 people operating across the various offices in Milan, Rome, L’Aquila and Tirana. I coordinate the technical, functional and Application Management departments, and I am also the first point of contact for the client.
Internally, on the other hand, I was lucky enough to be personally involved in the corporate reorganisation project and this was a truly formative experience. Collaborating with the board to give a new direction to the company, resize it, assign roles and structures, and define internal processes is a very interesting and unusual experience, which I could not have done in other companies.
What are you currently working on?
I am working on the migration from our wealth management platform to the new generation Armundia 3SIXTY – ADVISORY, for our clients. We are also expanding the scope of the project, by adding the Bancassurance and Private Banking modules to the Finance component, as we aim to extend our strategic consultancy services to support our clients with all their needs to guarantee the success of the initiatives.
What is the project release timeline and overall approach?
The migration project of the Finance solution has been developed over a whole year and involves 4 banks, as well as six/seven systems. A truly challenging project: the migration will also add new features and will be released with a Big-Bang approach, in a single phase and simultaneously for the four banks.
How do you see technological evolution of the banking and insurance sector?
I think we are living in times of critical irremediable changes; what is new today will probably become the standard in the future. After all, the never-ending historical cycles in the journey of the human being are part of a continuous global evolution that goes on without stopping. The current digital transition phase is involving almost every aspect of the value chains: operational processes, contact channels, customer experience, ways of working, business strategies. Even relocation shows advantages: people in smart working from Treviso, Bari, Syracuse or Aosta, just to mention Italian locations, can work in our group without difficulty.
What matters the most is to never lose sight of the human factor. And this aspect is key in our customer journey for the banking and financial sector, where we currently work to develop and enhance the digital channels, but without overlooking the importance of human contact for specific needs. This duality between digitization and human experience is reflected in the multi-channel strategies of many banks, which aim to enhance the connection between digital channels and human interaction.
At the same time, as new customer service models arise, banks are prompted to review internal processes, introducing innovations through structured workflows to build and manage highly innovative strategies that puts the customer at the core of the experience, while rationalising processes to innovate in a safe, integrated and sustainable way.