TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentral TechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      New Openview channels coming as platform turns profitable

      27 May 2022

      Wapa’s Paul Colmer on why Icasa should open up 6GHz for Wi-Fi

      27 May 2022

      How Broadcom’s blockbuster VMware deal happened

      27 May 2022

      The cost for South Africa to quit its coal habit: R4-trillion – study

      26 May 2022

      Apple is feeling the smartphone industry chill

      26 May 2022
    • World

      Musk sued by Twitter investors for stock ‘manipulation’

      27 May 2022

      Broadcom agrees to buy VMware for $61-billion

      26 May 2022

      Musk pledges more equity to fund Twitter deal

      26 May 2022

      Sony looks beyond the console to PC and mobile gaming

      26 May 2022

      Andreessen Horowitz raises world’s largest crypto fund

      26 May 2022
    • In-depth

      Bernie Fanaroff – the scientist who put African astronomy on the map

      23 May 2022

      Chip giant ASML places big bets on a tiny future

      20 May 2022

      Elon Musk is becoming like Henry Ford – and that’s not a good thing

      17 May 2022

      Stablecoins wend wobbly way into the unknown

      17 May 2022

      The standard model of particle physics may be broken

      11 May 2022
    • Podcasts

      Spectrum auction opens up big growth opportunities – Ruckus Networks

      26 May 2022

      Everything PC S01E03 – ‘The story of Intel – part 1’

      25 May 2022

      The rewarding and lucrative careers to be had in infosec

      23 May 2022

      Dean Broadley on why product design at Yoco is an evolving art

      18 May 2022

      Everything PC S01E02 – ‘AMD: Ryzen from the dead – part 2’

      17 May 2022
    • Opinion

      A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

      19 May 2022

      From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

      19 April 2022

      How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

      8 April 2022

      Cash is still king … but not for much longer

      31 March 2022

      Icasa on the role of TV white spaces and dynamic spectrum access

      31 March 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»Editor's pick»Standard Bank gets start-up fever

    Standard Bank gets start-up fever

    Editor's pick By Duncan McLeod28 January 2015
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email

    Standard Bank has launched a new innovation centre in Rosebank in Johannesburg in an attempt to, it said, “think and act like a 150-year-old start-up”.

    Launching the facility on Wednesday, the bank’s head of innovation and channel design, Vuyo Mpako, said the thinking behind the 1 927sq m facility, called the PlayRoom, is to develop and test new technology ideas in a creative environment and bring them to market.

    Because the facility is built upstairs from an existing Standard Bank branch, it will allow PlayRoom developers to test new ideas with clients before launching them commercially.

    “Before we take anything to market, we embed customers in the journey,” said Mpako.

    He said the facility is meant to help motivate and excite staff about innovation in the bank. “We think the biggest and best ideas will come from our employees.”

    The idea, he said, is to allow employees to act more like entrepreneurs, still within the confines of a large organisation. It will also work closely with partners — as it did with the launch of the SnapScan mobile payments application — and solicit ideas from customers.

    Standard Bank wants the PlayRoom to allow it to act like a “lean start-up” to develop new technologies and ideas and bring them to market, Mpako said.

    “To be really creative you have to think differently. The idea is that this is a fun-filled environment and we want to unearth creativity.”

    Not everything developed in the PlayRoom will be customer facing, said Mpako. Some of the concepts that will be created will involve changing the bank’s internal systems and processes.

    He said the bank is making good progress in modernising its systems, replacing its core banking systems and building a new customer relation management platform to give it a single view of each of its clients.

    That said, many of the people who will work in the PlayRoom are not bankers but young graduates from disciplines other than financial services.

    Mpako said the PlayRoom is “probably the biggest step we have taken to bring us closer to our customers”.

    He added that the PlayRoom has already used to put together Standard Bank’s new Internet banking site, which will be launched in the next two weeks.

    “The concept, redesign, beta testing and extensive group testing sessions all took place at the PlayRoom. This experience proved not only to be valuable in terms of creating a remarkable user experience based on customers’ needs but also a learning curve for us in how we use this space.”  — (c) 2015 NewsCentral Media

    bigpicture PlayRoom Standard Bank Standard Bank PlayRoom Vuyo Mpako
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleApple smashes quarterly profit record
    Next Article Motsoeneng defends SABC coverage

    Related Posts

    Standard Bank CEO apologises for weekend downtime

    24 May 2022

    South Africa fifth in Africa for blockchain funding

    24 May 2022

    Standard Bank on how businesses can benefit from a data-driven culture

    28 April 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    Financial advisers: manage your commission and analyse revenue effortlessly

    27 May 2022

    BT, MTN Business form strategic alliance in Africa

    26 May 2022

    Think like a start-up: how to build a competitive digital enterprise

    26 May 2022
    Opinion

    A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

    19 May 2022

    From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

    19 April 2022

    How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

    8 April 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.