Context
In corporate banking the person entering a transaction differs from the person approving it — that is an internal control requirement, not a convenience. Yet the manager holding approval authority is often not at a desk. The result was payments delayed awaiting approval, and cash management effectively depending on whether one person was in the office. The real difficulty of a mobile solution was not screen design but keeping the authorisation and approval flow identical regardless of channel.
Approach
- The design principle was that the authorisation and approval flow valid in corporate internet banking would operate identically on mobile.
- Cash management transactions entered via internet banking were made approvable from mobile.
- A manager with a pending approval was routed straight to the approval screen after login, bypassing the home screen.
- Scope was constrained by prioritising the most-used functions: account activity, receipt dispatch and corporate limit display.
- Screen structure, menu flow and site map were proposed within the existing design language.
Outcome
- Delays in corporate payments waiting on an approval bottleneck were reduced.
- The segregation of duties required by internal control was preserved intact on the mobile channel.
- The approval action became independent of where the manager was.
- Constraining scope allowed the project to reach the field with a workable first release.
This case study describes the project through its scope and approach. Client name, commercial figures and performance metrics are withheld under confidentiality obligations.
What This Project Left Behind
Digitalisation is not an excuse to loosen control. If an approval flow changes from channel to channel, a control weakness has been created. This is among the most common situations in internal audit: the process is correctly defined on paper, but when a new channel was added the same rule was not carried across to it.
- Cash Management — Corporate cash management strategies that make your cash flow predictable and reduce liquidity risk.