Bci: Transforming banking with Google Workspace

Banco de Crédito e Inversiones (Bci) is Chile’s third-largest bank, with total assets exceeding US$47 billion and international risk ratings of “A” from Standard & Poors, “A1” from Moodys, and “A-” from Fitch. With operations in Miami and representative offices in Mexico, Lima, São Paulo, Madrid, Bogota, and Shanghai, Bci holds a solid position across all market segments where it is present. Bci is part of the Santiago Stock Exchange index and serves millions of customers in Chile, Latin America, and Florida. The bank’s excellent corporate governance and its 80-year history in Chile’s banking industry are a source of pride and strength for the institution.

Banco de Crédito e Inversiones (Bci), one of Chile’s largest banks, faced the challenge of meeting the changing expectations of its employees and customers who were increasingly comfortable using internet-based tools and services. The traditional ways of banking did not resonate with the younger workforce, particularly the millennials, and the bank needed to evolve to meet their changing expectations. The bank also aimed to get closer to its increasingly digitally engaged customer base. To do this, Bci decided it needed a digital transformation that would bring interactions between employees and with customers closer to their more intuitive digital experiences with consumer apps. The bank also needed greater support for working off-site, including finding ways to replace in-person and telephone meetings with simple, reliable videoconferencing. Bci also hoped to move beyond email as the means for sharing and document collaboration.

Bci decided to adopt Google Workspace to meet these challenges. The bank embarked on a pilot, with 100 people using Microsoft tools and 100 people using Google Workspace for three months. The results of the survey were clear: the Google users quickly began working more collaboratively, while the other users didn’t change their way of working as much. Bci promoted the move internally, using the motto “collaboration for your work.” Google Workspace was immediately popular with Bci staff. In fact, 95% of the company approved of the change. The migration to Google Workspace, which was supported by Google staffers and Google Cloud Premier Partner Tigabytes, was seamless despite its scale. Bci closely followed the change management model Google suggested. For example, before migrating all 10,000 employees, Bci started with 425 IT team members. Next, Bci moved a second round of employees—a total of 1,100 people who volunteered—across all areas of the bank.

• Since adopting Google Workspace, Bci has seen increased collaboration across parts of the company that rarely communicated before. The salesforce uses Google Forms to collect information in interviews with potential clients. Team members in the Business Intelligence area use the information to generate offers for those prospective clients, which enables a faster time to market. Employees now regularly use Google Chat and Google Meet to connect, and they frequently collaborate in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, often across remote sites that need to collect and present their combined data. Google Workspace has especially improved frequency of collaboration between the bank’s offices in Chile and the United States. An added advantage of adopting Google Workspace has been increased customer interaction. Because so many customers use Gmail, bank representatives who communicate by email with clients have begun conducting business in Google Meet as needed, providing real-time engagement and assistance.

• Migrated 10,000+ employees to Google Workspace in 1 week without interrupting service or employee productivity

• Increased collaboration between different departments and offices

• Rapid adoption of Google Drive at 85% and Google Sheets at 70%