Union Bank Success Story
On the heels of two unsuccessful Workflow and DAM implementations, Union Bank needed a modern solution that its marketers, business, compliance partners, and agencies could use to manage all aspects of the content lifecycle. Marketing and other departments were mired in manual processes, unable to scale content management operations to meet demand. Using Aprimo Digital Asset Management (DAM) and Productivity Management (PM), the bank now has a single source of truth for all branded assets and has streamlined work management by automating each step of the content management process. Within two years, the company has managed 2,000 projects with less resources and no impact on productivity, achieved widespread user adoption across departments and agencies, reduced full-time equivalent (FTE), and slashed the time it takes to support an audit from three weeks to 10 minutes.
Challenge
Union Bank faced increased demand to quickly plan and execute large-scale marketing initiatives and campaigns. But they were unable to scale with demand due to a lack of automation, standardization, transparency, and tracking across teams, a highly complex approval process, and resource inefficiency.
The bank knew they needed a modern solution to manage their content operations but were wary due to previously failed implementations. ?We were coming off the heels of a second failed attempt to implement Workflow and DAM. It was a difficult three years of just pain and misery?, reflects Alejo Marugán, Director of Marketing Program Management for Union Bank. ?We were left with a very basic DAM and intake system. We only had marketing on the platform, none of our key partners, and a lot of other very unhappy marketers that resisted using the tool.?
In addition to addressing the limited time and resources required to sustain their growth initiatives, Union Bank needed a solution that could meet the rigorous demands of their highly regulated banking industry to ensure compliance and comprehensive reporting at every step of the content lifecycle.
?With our previous solution, every audit turned into a hectic two-week fire drill ? with the team searching for information within a basic repository on multiple network drives, and on people’s individual computers.? ? Alejo Marugán, Director of Marketing Program Management for Union Bank
Solution
Aprimo Digital Asset Management & Productivity Management
When it came to choosing a new technology solution and partner, the team left nothing to chance, conducting more than 20 separate vendor pre-screening discussions and demos. Given their struggles in the past, they expected an uphill internal cultural struggle when it came to user adoption.
?People don’t like change; many have been doing things the same way for numerous years and are always concerned about regulations, compliance, and quality control. Human resistance is natural.? To facilitate a smooth change management process, Marugán made sure the requirements of their business and compliance partners were front and center in the request for proposal (RFP). They were part of the final decision-making process during the on-site demos and a couple of the Compliance Officers were instrumental during the pilot phase. Without Marketing’s key stakeholders fully engaged and resistant to adoption they would have had another ineffective platform.
Today, Union bank is using Aprimo Digital Asset Management (DAM) and Aprimo Productivity Management (PM) as their single source of truth for all branded assets, content planning, and work management. With Aprimo DAM, they now have a single, centralized repository where team members can store all assets and quickly find current, on-brand, and compliant content. Aprimo DAM enables the bank to scale operations to manage the rapid growth the Marketing team had been experiencing over the past few years.
Using Aprimo PM in conjunction with Aprimo DAM, Union Bank has automated and streamlined the workflow process to ensure that requests are properly routed through creative development and multiple approval stages, saving valuable time and resources. With Aprimo, Union Bank now has a single view into strategy, planning, execution, review, and delivery workflows across all teams and locations in real-time to eliminate the work about work.
Results
Increased efficiency and accelerated time to market
Using Aprimo’s intelligent automation capabilities, they have been able to scale the bank’s content management operations and approvals flows supporting 2,000 projects within two years with less resources and increased productivity.
?We?ve automated several manual tasks. For example, in terms of routing projects and reviews, we were able to bypass manual processes and directly route things based on clear business rules to the correct Marketing support teams and Reviewers. As a result, we gained 30% of an FTE,? explains Marugán. ?We also picked up productivity gains with reporting. Marketing and compliance relied on Excel spreadsheets with tens of columns and hundreds of rows. That has all disappeared ? everything is now tracked within the platform.?
With the ability to meet request for RFP requirements right out of the gate, the Union Bank team accelerated their speed to market for campaigns.
?Supporting an audit request using our antiquated approval systems could take up to three weeks. With Aprimo, we can perform that same task within minutes.? ? Alejo Marugán, Director of Marketing Program, Management for Union Bank
Widespread user adoption
The team’s commitment to user adoption was driven by a Power User team dedicated to enhancing the UX, driving optimizations, and fostering engagement within their Marketing teams and key stakeholders. This group was formed during the platform’s Activation and continues to meet regularly which has been one of the key drivers of the platform’s success. The user base is comprised of approximately 40 lines of business (LOB) partners, 30 compliance officers, 60 internal marketing users, and 7 external agencies equating to 150+ active users in their workflow, collaborating in unison, putting risk and audit mitigation controls on cruise control. ‘The main success is not only having a great system for Marketing’s creative development processes, but the fact that our LOB and Compliance partners adopted the platform so that our development and approval life-cycle processes are running within the same tool,? says Alejo.
?We have a very satisfied and engaged user community ? team members support each other and share best practices. Project tracking and reporting is streamlined and significantly improved, compliance appreciates the control and audit trail capabilities, team collaboration with agencies is elevated and project workflows have generated efficiencies across the board.?
Union Bank and Aprimo worked as a team to ensure the project’s success. Aprimo experts learned everything about the business to set them up for success, also providing some additional training for different business units within the organization. ?It was a well-rounded team effort between Aprimo and Union Bank.?
About Union Bank
Union Bank is a nationally chartered full-service bank operating 305 branches within the U.S. Union Bank offers a wide spectrum of corporate, commercial, and retail banking and wealth management solutions, as well as an extensive portfolio of value-added solutions including investment banking, personal and corporate trust, global custody, transaction banking, capital markets, and other services.