However, the process operates across siloed and separate participants, who change their operations as functions and technology change. Consequently, other teams are operating on constantly changing information, resulting in disjointed, inconsistent end-to-end operations which lead to delays and errors. Disjointed process operations require monitoring and reconciliation to correct errors, increasing operating costs. Using Luther’s Deep Process Automation technology to streamline cross-border customer onboarding, Citigroup was able to reduce the estimated cost of the process by 40%. The estimated onboarding process time was reduced from 12 hours to just 4.5 hours.

Citigroup operates the cross-border customer onboarding process as part of the customer relations management value chain. This process operates across 6 teams & 18 software systems. To operate the process end-to-end, each system performs the same cycle of steps; i) send data & info to the System, ii) receive response from System, iii) compute & validate response, iv) share & store execution of step, v) evaluate & initiate next step. For reliable operations, all teams & systems involved should operate the same end-to-end Process. They often don’t! Enterprises attempt to i) set up local connectors between directly linked systems in the process, ii) Develop local operations scripts to manage the process. Both bespoke connectors and operations scripts require regular updates as teams, process operations, and systems evolve. These updates are reactive and localized, without fully considering the entire process. This leads to operational & technical challenges, which make process operations unreliable. The opportunity is providing a platform to reliably operate the end-to-end process, across all teams & systems involved.

These teams and participants are: Customer, Citigroup Verification, Citigroup Account Management, Citigroup Credit Risk, and both countries’ Citigroup Data Management teams. These systems are: Jumio, Email (SMTP), Oracle Database, Apache Airflow ETL, FIS Core Banking, Citigroup Online Portal, Oracle Data Integrator, Citigroup Online Platform, World-Check, Fenergo, Avoka Transact, FICO, and SAS Credit Scoring.

Traditional solutions to end-to-end process operations are unreliable & expensive. Enterprise Operations are generally function-first, meaning they continue to improve functions & their systems in isolation. Processes are considered secondary. The thinking is that if we have great functions & systems, the business can operate any process! Luther's platform is designed process-first, & primarily focuses on end-to-end processes.

Reliable end-to-end process operations include consistent operation, and great functions & systems. Traditionally enterprises use bespoke connectors & local operations scripts for process operations, which are fragmented, siloed, and change separately, and so are ineffective for reliable process operations. To remedy this, enterprises use automation tools. However they are ineffective at end-to-end process operations, due to their limited scope and scale, and stitching them together also doesn’t solve the problem.

Luther’s unique value for reliable end-to-end Process Operations is providing i) standard connectivity & ii) a common operations script, across all teams & software systems. Luther’s platform vertically integrates; i) distributed system technology ii) optimal resource allocation & management, iii) real time event ordering & streaming, iv) deterministic event processing & execution, for reliable end-to-end process operations. Luther’s platform does this by i) connecting systems to standard platform nodes, rather than to each other, and ii) teams & systems can change the common operations script but all teams & systems have to know & agree to the change, so all teams & systems involved operate the same end-to-end Process all the time!

To implement the platform; i) Luther’s team mapped the Process, ii) identified teams & software systems in the process, iii) allocated nodes (servers) to teams, iv) connected nodes to systems, v) set up the Platform on the nodes, vi) Citi’s team along with Luther’s team developed the  Common Operations Script (code) for Process Operations, vii) the process went Live. The process can now be completed in 4.5 hours and operational costs have been reduced by 40%.

Beyond the commercial results, this led to operational benefits in production, i) reliable operations across the end-to-end process & over time, ii) 5X smaller Ops teams, iii) real-time monitoring, iv) enforced compliance checks, v) real-time and consistent updates across all teams, vi) reduction of reconciliation. Also, technical benefits during development, i) standard dev. process so developers can focus on operations, ii) 5X smaller Dev teams, iii) standard process connectors, iv) automated infrastructure and connectors setup, v) real-time and consistent updates with the rest of operations. Ultimately, this leads to reliable end-to-end process operations!

For operational reliability, financial efficiency, regulatory reporting, and to avoid delays which adversely impact customer experience, each step of the onboarding process must be operated, documented, validated and completed effectively and consistently. To complete the onboarding process, Citigroup works with customers, external verifiers, and other countries’ Citi teams.

The cross-border customer onboarding process has these steps: i) customer initiates the onboarding process, ii) customer fills out basic personal information fields, iii) Citigroup verifies identity documents, iv) Citigroup runs additional KYC checks, v) customer answers questions regarding their financial goals, vi) Citigroup carry out a credit evaluation, vii) Citigroup provides creditworthiness feedback, viii) Citigroup approves the customer and generates new account, ix) Citigroup activates the customer’s account, x) Citigroup reconcile the customer’s accounts. Step 10 is a process itself which includes these steps: i) Citigroup verify customer identification information, ii) Citigroup team in one country request customer data from other country, iii) Citigroup team in other country retrieve data, iv) Citigroup team in other country send data, v) Citigroup verify customer identity for each country, vi) Citigroup check account eligibility for both accounts, vii) Citigroup inform customer of account eligibility, viii) Citigroup initiate the account update process, ix) Citigroup create unified login point for the customer

Enterprises are complex organizations operating many processes. Enterprises operate Processes across fragmented and siloed teams and software systems resulting in disjointed, inconsistent  and inefficient end to end operations, leading to high costs, delays and errors.

Specifically, operating processes across fragmented and siloed teams and software systems affect process operations both technically during the development phase & operationally once they go live in production.

Citigroup’s cross-border customer onboarding process encompasses multiple participants, who are fragmented and siloed throughout the process. Due to the siloed nature of the participants, teams will often change their operations without the knowledge of other teams operating the process. This often requires monitoring and reconciliation by Citigroup to correct errors and ensure the process functions correctly, increasing operational costs of the process. Delays impact customer access to services, which decreases customer satisfaction. The siloed process also increases the risk of fraud.

To operate an end to end process enterprises traditionally set up projects, with i) dedicated  large teams,  & ii) infrastructure set up, to iii) develop application (end to end process) code, & iv) set up maintenance systems. This bespoke approach results in high operations cost & multiple technical & operational problems.

To attempt to remedy the inefficiencies of this approach, enterprises use automation tools such as RPA and workflow automation tools to operate the process. These tools are effective at operating local task and workflow operations, usually for 1-2 teams - but do not scale to end-to-end process operations across multiple teams and software systems. This approach does not solve the problems of operational friction, inefficiencies, delays and errors. For more details please visit the Full Case Study.

• Discover Phase (12 weeks)
• Platform Set-up (1 day): Luther's team deployed the platform on all nodes.
• Common Operations Script for Process Operations (24 weeks): Citigroup’s development team, in collaboration with Luther, developed the application code to operate the end-to-end process.
• Go Live (Production)

How it all comes together reliably, with the Luther Platform

Luther’s platform reliably operates the end-to-end cross-border customer onboarding process by providing standard connectivity and common operations scripts.

Operational and Technical Results

The Luther Platform streamlines operations across enterprise processes, reducing process time and cost while maintaining transparency and flexibility.