Creativity, an enterprising spirit, independence, and the ability to have a direct impact on the Customer Experience: this is how Luciné Yesayan, who has been working nine years in the IT department at BNP Paribas Fortis, sums up the best things about her job today. Want to join her and help the Bank go forward with its digital transformation?
"Digitalisation is a key aspect of the change process at our Bank," underlines Marc Camus, Head of the IT department at BNP Paribas Fortis. "In order to meet the fast-changing needs of our customers, make life as easy as possible for them and provide them with innovative products and services, we’re investing massively in improving the performance of our web and mobile applications and also in adding new functionality. This is what we refer to as ‘enhancing the Customer Journey’."
Taking out a mortgage loan online, being able to run a credit simulation in a much more independent manner or changing credit or debit card details remotely – these are just a few examples among many cases where the Bank’s IT specialists have a vital role to play.
IT in the vanguard of change
"Another important shift at the Bank is the involvement of the IT department in the development of new tools and processes that enable other departments to make efficiency gains – for instance through the use of artificial intelligence techniques and robot technology," points out Marc Camus, adding: "Right now, we’re also working hard to migrate our information systems to new types of infrastructure such as the Cloud. The growing importance of cybersecurity, as well as data analysis and processing, means that IT experts are really in the vanguard of what’s happening."
Belgium’s leading bank is recruiting developers and other IT staff
In order to meet the many challenges arising from the emergence and development of all these novel technologies, BNP Paribas Fortis is currently looking to recruit several dozen new staff.
Explains Marc Camus: "Our IT people are currently a mixture of in-house and external employees, some on temporary contracts with various suppliers. We’d like to have more in-house colleagues in some of our teams so as to keep full control of our applications and the tools we use.
We’re mainly looking for technically-qualified people, especially developers specialising in the Java programming language, plus experts in Cloud technology. But that’s not a closed list. There’s also room for 'generalists' with a flexible attitude, open minds, a ‘can-do’ approach and enterprising spirit who are able to fit into our way of working."
Agile is brilliant!
Our IT department uses a working approach known as the 'Agile' method. This means that we put together small multi-disciplinary teams made up of IT staff – of course – but also people from other supporting functions at the Bank and from the various BNP Paribas Fortis businesses. Taking charge, end-to-end, of a series of applications, products or data, the task of these Agile teams is to make an initial version of a product available to the customer as quickly possible, and then subsequently develop it over time on the basis of customer and user feedback.
"The Agile method is brilliant," says Luciné Yesayan, who has been working at BNP Paribas Fortis for over nine years. She explains: "It enables us to make progress in small, dynamic teams where no-one is left on their own and everyone can say what they think, with everyone aiming for the same goal – to create a product that will make life easier for the user. In fact you kind of get the feeling that you’re working in a small startup, because creativity and an entrepreneurial spirit are strongly encouraged. It’s really satisfying to be able to see how useful your work is in making day-to-day life easier for the Bank’s customers."
IT an increasingly female-friendly world?
Luciné sees no shortage of good reasons for joining BNP Paribas Fortis. She points out: "Our work spaces are very up-to-date, very dynamic, which enables us to work in a highly flexible and creative manner. Moreover, our Bank didn’t wait for the coronavirus crisis to encourage remote working. It’s been common practice here for years and it has really helped me personally to find the right work-life balance."
Luciné is in fact the living proof that IT isn’t an exclusively masculine world. "Not exclusively, but still a bit too much so for our tastes," acknowledges Marc Camus, explaining: "To date, only 24% of BNP Paribas Fortis IT staff are women. To some extent this is simply a reflection of the market. Men are noticeably over-represented among young Information Science graduates. But having said that, we are making strenuous efforts to increase the proportion of female colleagues in our department, because women tend to take a different approach to those of their male counterparts and often bring complementary skills to the tasks. We’re firmly convinced that diversity – in the wider sense, not only in terms of gender – enriches all our teams."
Interested in joining the BNP Paribas Fortis adventure?
Click here for more information on current vacancies at the Bank. We’ll be happy to take a close look at your job application and then – who knows? – we might soon be inducting you into one of our teams!