Globally, digitisation has pushed the frontiers of business transactions – from an era when businesses had to rely solely on brick-and-mortar banking to one wherein the customer can now have absolute control of transactions from regular deposits to complex universal financial services. One of such innovations is Stanbic Bank’s Host-to-Host service.
Stanbic Bank’s Host-to-Host service has made significant strides in leading the provision of innovative financial solutions to corporate clients in Ghana, thereby emphasising the bank’s commitment to providing its clients with bespoke solutions which meet their specific financial needs. The Stanbic Host-to-Host Service is a secured automated integrated channel for managing high volume financial transactions and reporting. While the service gives clients multiple options to upload a range of file formats, it also has features that allow for viewing and managing transmitted files, status dashboard and alerts among others.
The secure and seamless integration allows corporate clients to carry out banking transactions from their financial management system without having separate access to the bank’s electronic platform. It also enables them to receive extracts and transaction reports on their own financial management system in a seamless manner; providing greater operational speed, independence, confidentiality and security.
Through an Enterprise Planning Resource system, clients can transmit payment instructions to the bank and are also able to get periodic updates on transactional activity on their accounts. This reduces the cost of operating clients’ finances as well as time spent on running such operations.
As a client-centric organisation, Stanbic Bank has deployed this service to some key corporate clients in Ghana. These include Goldfields Ghana, Accra Brewery, Huawei, Enterprise Trustees, Scancom and FanMilk.
One of the key beneficiaries of the Host-to-Host platform is Gold Fields Ghana. Unit Manager of the Finance Department at Gold Fields, Bernice Armah, says the platform has transformed the way business is conducted at the multinational company.
“Before implementation of the Host-to-Host system, we used to run payments from our ERP system and manually recapture those payments onto the online banking system. We spent a lot of time doing this, and it was prone to a lot of errors as well,” she said.
She further noted that: “Stanbic’s Host-to-Host system is one of the best things that ever happened to the Finance Department. It has helped us to be more efficient because we are able to run a lot of payments within a short time. We don’t have to process payments in our ERP system and recapture them anymore. We can process payments without errors since there are no manual interventions. I believe the system will be useful to other corporate institutions because it is efficient, it’s reliable, it’s well-secured and gives a lot of feedback in terms of payment processes”.
Speaking on the significance of meeting the needs of clients through innovative interventions, Head-Client Coverage, Wholesale Clients at Stanbic Bank, Dinah Kaleo-Bioh, said the needs of their clients is the foundation and starting point for all the bank’s interventions.
“Universal banking is our way of life, because we look at the value chain of the consumer company and see how best we can offer solutions, bespoke for that matter, which address their need. A case for example is that of FanMilk. We started off with FX export. I am proud to say today that we have workplace banking for about 700 employees in Ghana; we are also doing cash collection with a teller implant in addition to other trade business that we offer. But all this was achieved because, first, we got the employees to trust in our system in terms of their salary payments, and that made them sign on,” she said.
She added that: “We are replicating same with Unilever, GB Foods and Nestle. At every point in their value chain there is an opportunity to address specific needs. What we do is, once we have the trust of the client and demonstrate a good understanding of their client business, we leverage all opportunities that come up to create value for the client”.
The Host-to-Host service allows for full two-way secured integration into customers’ in-house financial management systems – making transactions seamless, efficient and secured. Automation also optimises efficiency of the organisation’s business, allowing the employees to focus on their core business. The Host-to-Host platform is a novelty and can be integrated with a large number of ERP systems used by corporates globally. Stanbic Bank is currently expanding the service to cover more corporate organisations in Ghana.
