DFCC Bank launches ‘DFCC Agile’: An innovation centre of excellence

IQ CEO Mafaz Ishaq handing over the partnership agreement to DFCC Bank CEO Lakshman Silva. Also pictured are (from left) DFCC Bank Senior VP – HR Sonali Jayasinghe, DFCC Bank Head of IT Nishan Weerasooriya, IQ Co-Founder/Chief Commercial Officer Shafraz Faleel, DFCC Bank VP – Digital Strategy Dinesh Jebamani, DFCC Bank Deputy CEO Thimal Perera, DFCC Bank VP – Marketing and Sustainability Nilmini Gunaratne 

DFCC Bank, in striving towards the goal of becoming the most customer-centric and digitally-enabled financial institution by 2025, recently launched its own innovation centre of excellence (Innovation Hub) in collaboration with Innovation Quotient (IQ).

‘DFCC Agile’, the title given to the Innovation Centre of Excellence (ICOE) was based on employee feedback, who will be the key stakeholders in this endeavour. This hub referred to as ‘DFCC Agile – Innovation Centre of Excellence’ will develop an innovation road map with external partners and varied teams in the bank through multiple iterations and reviews on an ongoing basis. This process will facilitate the outcome of many out-of-the-box initiatives that will be taken to market as new financial propositions for customers.

The process of creating future value requires its own process and facilitation. This was a key realisation by strategists at DFCC Bank as well as the potential in collaborating with external expertise to bridge the gap between human insights, bold creativity and technical capabilities on innovation management and design thinking. This will also help accelerate the development of next-generation banking solutions and services using technology and consumer insights at its core.

Functioning as a strategic think-tank and creative engine, DFCC Agile’s operations will trickle down throughout the organisational structure at DFCC Bank, acting as a hub for incubation and testing. This will ensure that new and innovative ideas, products, services, and design thinking principles will go through an innovation management process before implementation.

In order to set up such a hub, DFCC Bank has chosen Innovation Quotient (IQ) to be a partner in their journey to collaborate and implement the innovation management process and strategy in two phases. DFCC selected IQ due to its local expertise in innovation, design thinking and business design with over 100,000 hours of expertise, which will be leveraged to co-create an innovation roadmap, build capacity, launch a DFCC innovation toolkit and facilitate creative transformation. The IQ team consists of a group of strategists, futurists, creators, designers, and technologists. The entire innovation management process will be managed by an innovation leadership team chaired by the Chief Executive Officer and leadership team. Being the first design thinking company to be established in Sri Lanka, DFCC Bank also engaged IQ to assist in designing the user interface for their new online banking platform.

Speaking on this new chapter for the bank, DFCC Bank CEO Lakshman Silva stated: “As we embark on this new digital-first and innovation forward drive at DFCC Bank, it brings me great joy to announce the launch of ‘DFCC Agile - Innovation Centre of Excellence’, which will be instrumental in benchmarking the future of banking in Sri Lanka. We at DFCC believe in the design thinking process as a practice that facilitates divergent and innovative thinking yet anchors it within the realms of the bank and its strategic aspirations since the future is all about customer experience and agility. I encourage all interested parties to join us in this endeavour and I am confident that the specially appointed team to spearhead this effort will use design thinking methodologies with cross-functional flair.

IQ CEO Mafaz Ishaq added: “IQ is delighted to partner DFCC Agile. The ‘ICOE’ unit will reach the length and breadth of DFCC and will act as a catalyst in applying design thinking principles and incubating innovative ideas, products and services working with both internal and external stakeholders.”

Another key role to be played by DFCC Agile will be the validation of the Bank’s internal capacity, in order to better leverage for growth. Specific road maps will then be driven by those identified in house cross-functional teams, resulting in increased creative capacity within the organisation. This is also expected to focus on measuring and defining the immediate opportunities present before the business, before integrating the same. 

DFCC Agile ICOE will focus on key areas such as exploring new technology and digital trends that can impact the future of banking and offer differentiated, more seamless and convenient offerings to customers. Further, the adoption of digital products and services by constantly obtaining user feedback, reviews to enhance user-friendliness and engagement values is encouraged. Finally, the hub will focus on product, process innovation, new business models and achieving efficiency by aligning and optimising internal processes and teams.

The establishment of a sandbox program, coupled with an accelerator environment, will encourage young startups and Universities to collaborate and co-create solutions for the bank’s operations as well which will be another activity planned. DFCC Bank is confident that through the outlined strategies for DFCC Agile, technology and digital trends, influenced by current and future market trends, will be effectively harnessed and implemented, resulting in even more seamless and convenient customer experiences and offerings.