Case Notes/Answers
ING DIRECT CANADA by Michiel Leenders Robert
Klassen Natasha Ebanks
Discussion Questions:
SUGGESTED STUDENT ASSIGNMENT
If you were in the position of Basil Bell:
1. What would be your analysis of the current methods used for the processing of
accounts?
2. What would be your alternatives and decision criteria, and what action, if any, would
you recommend and why?
POSSIBLE DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. If no changes were made in any of the bank’s back-office operations, what total
staffing levels in operations might be expected in the years ahead?
2. Would it be possible to minimize variability in daily demand and what might be
required?
3. What is “burn-out”? Is this serious?
4. What impact will the growth in accounts have on the various processing tasks currently
performed in the mailroom?
5. How much would you be willing to spend on a longer-term, overall operations system
solution?
6. What are the key criteria for a longer-term systems solution that will minimize manual
labor?
7. What kinds of time targets are reasonable under these circumstances for both the
shorter- and longer-term solutions?
, 802D11
Teaching Note
ING DIRECT CANADA
SUMMARY OF CASE
On March 6, 2000, Basil Bell, senior vice-president of operations at ING Direct in Toronto,
Canada, was reviewing the processing of new accounts. He believed that back-office processing
capacity had reached its limit, and he had, therefore, recently requested the transfer of Hadley
MacDonald from the credit area to head up the department and address staffing level concerns in
back-office operations. Major space, budget and head-count constraints made it impossible to
increase staffing levels to cope with the bank’s rapidly growing client base. In Basil’s opinion, it
was critical for ING Direct to develop and implement ways and means of coping with the
immediate challenges of growth and to suggest longer-term solutions. Basil and Hadley had
selected the processing of new accounts as the first set of operations to review and had
documented the procedures currently in use. The processing of new accounts by the mailroom
staff was a significant part of the tasks performed by back-office personnel and was required to be
completed on a same-day basis.
IMMEDIATE ISSUES
A. In the short term, how can the processing of new accounts be streamlined, improved and re-
engineered to avoid costly increases in staffing levels, in order to cope with increasing and
variable demand.
, Page 2 8B02D11
B. In the long term, can a solution be found using new scanning and encoding technology that
will fit with the bank’s existing information/financial systems to prevent the need for
substantial increases in staffing levels in operations?
SUGGESTED STUDENT ASSIGNMENT
If you were in the position of Basil Bell:
1. What would be your analysis of the current methods used for the processing of accounts?
2. What would be your alternatives and decision criteria, and what action, if any, would you
recommend and why?
POSSIBLE DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. If no changes were made in any of the bank’s back office operations, what total staffing levels
in operations might be expected in the years ahead?
2. Would it be possible to minimize variability in daily demand and what might be required?
3. What is “burn-out”? Is this serious?
4. What impact will the growth in accounts have on the various processing tasks currently
performed in the mailroom?
5. How much would you be willing to spend on a longer-term, overall operations system
solution?
6. What are the key criteria for a longer-term systems solution that will minimize manual labor?
7. What kinds of time targets are reasonable under these circumstances for both the shorter- and
longer-term solutions?
ANALYSIS
Introduction
• The high growth of the bank requires significant capacity increases in operations. As long as
operations are largely manual, the only way to meet daily demand is to increase the number of
hours worked by overtime or by increasing staff.
• The balance of workload between new and existing accounts is changing rapidly also.
Whereas in the early years the opening of new accounts required the largest percentage of
mailroom operations capacity, the servicing of existing accounts in 2000 is coming close to
being the largest component of demand. Certainly by the end of 2000, one would expect the
servicing required for existing accounts to be dominant.
• On new accounts, CIFing is the activity requiring the most OA time, closely followed by
posting.
• On existing accounts, posting requires the largest percentage of OA time.
• Since posting is required for all incoming cheques, for both new and existing accounts,
improvements in the posting process could potentially have the largest impact.
ING DIRECT CANADA by Michiel Leenders Robert
Klassen Natasha Ebanks
Discussion Questions:
SUGGESTED STUDENT ASSIGNMENT
If you were in the position of Basil Bell:
1. What would be your analysis of the current methods used for the processing of
accounts?
2. What would be your alternatives and decision criteria, and what action, if any, would
you recommend and why?
POSSIBLE DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. If no changes were made in any of the bank’s back-office operations, what total
staffing levels in operations might be expected in the years ahead?
2. Would it be possible to minimize variability in daily demand and what might be
required?
3. What is “burn-out”? Is this serious?
4. What impact will the growth in accounts have on the various processing tasks currently
performed in the mailroom?
5. How much would you be willing to spend on a longer-term, overall operations system
solution?
6. What are the key criteria for a longer-term systems solution that will minimize manual
labor?
7. What kinds of time targets are reasonable under these circumstances for both the
shorter- and longer-term solutions?
, 802D11
Teaching Note
ING DIRECT CANADA
SUMMARY OF CASE
On March 6, 2000, Basil Bell, senior vice-president of operations at ING Direct in Toronto,
Canada, was reviewing the processing of new accounts. He believed that back-office processing
capacity had reached its limit, and he had, therefore, recently requested the transfer of Hadley
MacDonald from the credit area to head up the department and address staffing level concerns in
back-office operations. Major space, budget and head-count constraints made it impossible to
increase staffing levels to cope with the bank’s rapidly growing client base. In Basil’s opinion, it
was critical for ING Direct to develop and implement ways and means of coping with the
immediate challenges of growth and to suggest longer-term solutions. Basil and Hadley had
selected the processing of new accounts as the first set of operations to review and had
documented the procedures currently in use. The processing of new accounts by the mailroom
staff was a significant part of the tasks performed by back-office personnel and was required to be
completed on a same-day basis.
IMMEDIATE ISSUES
A. In the short term, how can the processing of new accounts be streamlined, improved and re-
engineered to avoid costly increases in staffing levels, in order to cope with increasing and
variable demand.
, Page 2 8B02D11
B. In the long term, can a solution be found using new scanning and encoding technology that
will fit with the bank’s existing information/financial systems to prevent the need for
substantial increases in staffing levels in operations?
SUGGESTED STUDENT ASSIGNMENT
If you were in the position of Basil Bell:
1. What would be your analysis of the current methods used for the processing of accounts?
2. What would be your alternatives and decision criteria, and what action, if any, would you
recommend and why?
POSSIBLE DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. If no changes were made in any of the bank’s back office operations, what total staffing levels
in operations might be expected in the years ahead?
2. Would it be possible to minimize variability in daily demand and what might be required?
3. What is “burn-out”? Is this serious?
4. What impact will the growth in accounts have on the various processing tasks currently
performed in the mailroom?
5. How much would you be willing to spend on a longer-term, overall operations system
solution?
6. What are the key criteria for a longer-term systems solution that will minimize manual labor?
7. What kinds of time targets are reasonable under these circumstances for both the shorter- and
longer-term solutions?
ANALYSIS
Introduction
• The high growth of the bank requires significant capacity increases in operations. As long as
operations are largely manual, the only way to meet daily demand is to increase the number of
hours worked by overtime or by increasing staff.
• The balance of workload between new and existing accounts is changing rapidly also.
Whereas in the early years the opening of new accounts required the largest percentage of
mailroom operations capacity, the servicing of existing accounts in 2000 is coming close to
being the largest component of demand. Certainly by the end of 2000, one would expect the
servicing required for existing accounts to be dominant.
• On new accounts, CIFing is the activity requiring the most OA time, closely followed by
posting.
• On existing accounts, posting requires the largest percentage of OA time.
• Since posting is required for all incoming cheques, for both new and existing accounts,
improvements in the posting process could potentially have the largest impact.
