Common Sense Management Vs Conventional Management Practice. Access Bank

Who experienced the abysmal customer service delivery by Access Bank this past week? Under the guise of system cut-over, this to a large extent one could see that it is not a success. This was expected to happen given their management style ever since they took over Intercontinental Bank.

Let’s start with their core banking application software, Flexcube. Their action in this regard makes one doubt their strategic managerial experience. I would portray their action as somebody who was using a Volkswagen beetle and was eventually blessed either by hook or crook with a 2011 V6 passat and for whatever reason wanted the Passat engine replaced with that of the beetle.

Access bank uses Flexcube 6.2 version, this works well for their style of banking (corporate), their customer base and their number of branches. Intercontinental Bank uses the same Flexcube but a higher version 6.6 which works well for intercontinental given their number of branches and customer base. One would think Access will migrate from Flexcube 6.2 to 6.6 but NO, in their own school of management practice a downgrade will best serve their purpose. The end result is what customers have started experiencing starting last Friday. Customers had been advised a new account number only for a text to be sent to disregard the initial account number sent that the correct one will be sent soon.

The vendor of Flexcube software informed Access bank that they don’t do downgrade when they were contacted for consultation on system migration. I don’t see how the passat will perform optimally with that beetle engine.

Secondly is the rationalization of intercontinental staff, it is true that every businesses is out to make profit and increase its shareholders value, however it feels this can be achieved is welcomed as long as it is within the ambit law of the land. If Access feels it needs to cut down on staff overhead and staff rationalization is the way to go about it, no problem. However timing becomes crucial when one wants to do this.

Access acquired Intercontinental bank and set out a plan to fully integrate the two entities seamlessly within a year, somewhere along the line this was reduced to nine months, six months, four months and eventually down to two months plus. Despite this goal post shifting staffs were willing to work and ensure the success of the plan because the vital aspect of project management was observed; all stakeholders must be carried along.
Now I stand corrected, is it not common sense (managerial) to ensure that the critical phase of integration and consolidation (system wise) is concluded and ensure that all systems are ok and working perfectly before rocking the boat with staff rationalization? . Let’s say for the moment the staff rationalization has to be done at that point in time, I believe some staff should have been excluded no matter the criteria used in coming to the decision, the staffs in the IT department.

These are staffs that were able to integrate and consolidate four banks (intercontinental, Global, Equity and Gateway) seamlessly; their experience and knowledge must count for something, but to wake up and asked them to go at the critical point in the new entity life cast doubt on the managerial prowess of the present management of the bank.

As at Friday, you can hardly collect your money, if you deposit it won’t be posted till days if posted eventually. Their staffs are closing at ungodly hours waiting endlessly for systems to come up if it ever comes up.

Hoping this coming week will be better.

For ♏έ, its one thing, ℓ̊ take my business elsewhere.

To think i was contemplatin depositin my critical allowance there *picks race*

To think i was contemplatin depositin my critical allowance there *picks race*

4q

Aig is a 419. Honestly, nothing good will come out of this merger.

Poster is completely right because since their integration as a customer of intercontinental bank,I have not been able to access my account and till now we dont know what these people are doing.Access Bank should just leave intercontinental bank with their existing internet banking because this over-hype accessonline is not something we want.Infact,I now believe Intercontinental Bank is better than Access Bank.One week no way to check your account?They are lucky that am not in Nigeria!

6. hallmark77:

Poster is completely right because since their integration as a customer of intercontinental bank,I have not been able to access my account and till now we dont know what these people are doing.Access Bank should just leave intercontinental bank with their existing internet banking because this over-hype accessonline is not something we want.Infact,I now believe Intercontinental Bank is better than Access Bank.One week no way to check your account?They are lucky that am not in Nigeria!

Men I think say na only me no fit access my online account, it keeps telling me "no account detail" since last week. In fact I just had to call my banker to find out wats wrong. This fraud of a merger better be managed properly.

mojak: Aig is a 419. Honestly, nothing good will come out of this merger.

How can you just say that, its unfair to call people names, got a problem with him, then go write petition or at least say why he is 419.

as for me i av withdrawn my money and left small money that i can give to them as a gift. Intercontinental on its own is way better than Access. to think that i closed my account with access to open with intercontinental, now back to my vomit. gush

Am a long existing customer of Access Bank . . . and overall I will say they are not doing badly overall as a bank, though there are always room for improvement as with all life endeavor. I totally understand that in any form of integration like this..there will always be issues surrounding such mergers...but the critical issue is whether those concern appreciate the fact that there are issues and the extent they can grapple with such. In this instance I think I will give the team handling the system integration a pass mark. what customers are experiencing is the initial teething problem which I believe will be surmounted in the shortest possible time.

With my hardware token, I have been doing inter bank transfer of funds.

Access bank sent me a February month end balance by e-mail, the opening deposite was 0 and the closing balance was 0.
I excused them assuming it is system problem and that they were trying to staighten this up.

Then a few days ago, I went to do some transaction, and I spent 2hrs plus just to get a simple draft.
A friend went to apply for a new ATM card, and was spoken to very rudely by the lady at the branch she went.

Access bank Fans, what is happening?

Does not sound convincing enough

mamale8:

How can you just say that, its unfair to call people names, got a problem with him, then go write petition or at least say why he is 419.

Av worked with him for years... The guy is too wayword. Do you know hw he come about acquiring inter? Do u know about the loan he got from inter through his personal united security? Do u know hw much was written off by CBN? As time goes on, we shall know the 419

I dont know about Access Bank that much and if I was in Nigeria before this merger bulllshit,ofcourse I will close my account and move to Gtb or firstbank,even with union bank I feel safer.If access bank is incapable of integrating customer of Intercontinental to their own internet banking system then they can allow us to keep using our old internet account with IB but they seem to be in a rush to take over the accounts of customers in Intercontinental Bank without clear vission.They have sent mail about their accessonline and it look interesting but go to their website and try to register by yourself the computer will keep telling you invalid phone numbers.Someone need to re-evaluate this funny take-over bid,so many things is wrong with this acquisition.But I am sure my money is safe but I wont allow any deposit into my account untill they sort this issue and whether they like it or not I will withdrawl all my accounts including my FD and move to first bank for 100% safety.

Ever since Access bank took over Intercontinental, that bank has been a torn in my flesh. I cannot collect my February salary all in the name of system integration. Anyway, am changing my salary account to another bank.

To think i was contemplatin depositin my critical allowance there *picks race*

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Virtuous Woman: Access bank sent me a February month end balance by e-mail, the opening deposite was 0 and the closing balance was 0.
I excused them assuming it is system problem and that they were trying to staighten this up.

Then a few days ago, I went to do some transaction, and I spent 2hrs plus just to get a simple draft.
A friend went to apply for a new ATM card, and was spoken to very rudely by the lady at the branch she went.

Access bank Fans, what is happening?

if your friend was attended to by a rude staff, then he should have lodged a complaint with the branch manager. You friend is part of those that pay her salary.

I don't want to be quick be pull down Access Bank because of the events of last week. The question I want us to answer is, what was your experience with the bank (Access) before the merger? If the service level was bad pre the merger then we can conclude that customer service is poor in Access Bank.

In life there are challenges and what count is the ability to overcome such obstacles. Let us give the bank time to work on their systems and see if they can serve us better.

We should not allow emotions to becloud our sense of reasoning.

Word Pipo!!!!! una don carry gist enter here...he he he

I just had an experience at the Access Bank in Maryland and i must confess it wasn't pleasant at all

I went to make a deposit, stepping into the bank the sight that welcomed me in was the crowd ( am sure they are short of hands), the queue was not moving fast at all...
In the bulk room, there was just 2 ladies attending to customers and the queue, the whole place was stuffy i mean really smelly and the AC was not working well.

I can bear the queue if the air was cool and all that but in a stuffy room, i barely manages to pay into the account and get out.

Please Access Bank mgt work on this and for the staff, teach them good customer relationship, there's nothing bad for someone been apologetic repeatedly abt the long queue. I will never owe an Account with this poor management.

True talk by d poster. Am even planning to close my account wt them.

Don't worry. . . . the crooked way they bought/took over IBPLC, it is that same way that their downfall will come about. Instead of allowing the experts in Retail banking(IBPLC) show them(Access) how it is done.

The way you manage corporate customers is not the same way U manage retail customers. Imagine, customers accounts cannot be credited or debited. Staff sleeping in the office till 5am. A simple button like "HOLD FUNDS" , they don't have.

Where on earth in this corporate world have you heard of an organisation downgrading their software. . . unless the software manufacturer noticed some major bugs in the software. . .hence they either issue a recall or send out the patches to fix the various bugs. . . but instead Access is downgrading from IBPLC's Flexcube 6.6 to their Flexcube 6.2

What Access is experiencing are not teething problems. . . this is utter stubborness on the part of Access management to completely do without anything that involves IBPLC name
If Access had the power, they would go to CAC(Corporate Affairs Commission) and wipe out that name completely from their books. . . . but I guess they don't.

I commend all the IBPLC's staff for taking the courage to resign after seeing through the numerous lies of Access.

A personal mantra i hold dearly "Always too soon to pull down"
I have been banking with access for over 4 years now and its hard to take some comments on this post, cos my experience is entirely different. While logical reasoning would argue in favor of the correctness of this post, i bet to disagree that the management of the bank are at best clueless. we are talking about an underdog bank that steadily grew its might over the years to be in top 10. I study their financials and to be fair their results are pretty amazing. app upgrade nomenclature reasons that 6.6 version of any app should be well advanced over a 6.2, but will they be stupid enough to ignore the fact if it wasn't a better business choice? "If its that obvious to you, why not to them?"
I have been privileged to witness few m&a's and if it counts, i haven't experienced one that went without hitches. Staff rationalization, system issues are the necessary evils that come with the process.

I however agree with you on the timing of the whole process, a little too soon, in my opinion, they would have taken time to merge the two institutions knowing fully well they run widely different business models "Corporate vs Largely Retail". so which is the cart or the horse (staff rationalisation, system integration). My little knowledge of IT tells me, in cases like this, whatever could go wrong, will go wrong and maybe it has (damn those complex algorithms), but then its a merger and acquisition, not a nose rubbing, peck on the cheek, business 'collabo'" things get messy in M&A.

+ sometime last week, i waited out my turn on a queue just to withdraw some money, i was tempted to get mad and rant at the cashier who was as much as i, trying to make a living, happy i didnt though every muscle in me ached to beat the crap out of all of them. I kept it cool cos i knew this is just a phase for access, they were never like this, i pray it gets better for them.

Always too soon to pull down guys..ALWAYS

A personal mantra i hold dearly "Always too soon to pull down"
I have been banking with access for over 4 years now and its hard to take some comments on this post, cos my experience is entirely different. While logical reasoning would argue in favor of the correctness of this post, i bet to disagree that the management of the bank are at best clueless. we are talking about an underdog bank that steadily grew its might over the years to be in top 10. I study their financials and to be fair their results are pretty amazing. app upgrade nomenclature reasons that 6.6 version of any app should be well advanced over a 6.2, but will they be stupid enough to ignore the fact if it wasn't a better business choice? "If its that obvious to you, why not to them?"
I have been privileged to witness few m&a's and if it counts, i haven't experienced one that went without hitches. Staff rationalization, system issues are the necessary evils that come with the process.

I however agree with you on the timing of the whole process, a little too soon, in my opinion, they would have taken time to merge the two institutions knowing fully well they run widely different business models "Corporate vs Largely Retail". so which is the cart or the horse (staff rationalisation, system integration). My little knowledge of IT tells me, in cases like this, whatever could go wrong, will go wrong and maybe it has (damn those complex algorithms), but then its a merger and acquisition, not a nose rubbing, peck on the cheek, business 'collabo'" things get messy in M&A.

+ sometime last week, i waited out my turn on a queue just to withdraw some money, i was tempted to get mad and rant at the cashier who was as much as i, trying to make a living, happy i didnt though every muscle in me ached to beat the crap out of all of them. I kept it cool cos i knew this is just a phase for access, they were never like this, i pray it gets better for them.

Always too soon to pull down guys..ALWAYS

yogun: I just had an experience at the Access Bank in Maryland and i must confess it wasn't pleasant at all

I went to make a deposit, stepping into the bank the sight that welcomed me in was the crowd ( am sure they are short of hands), the queue was not moving fast at all...
In the bulk room, there was just 2 ladies attending to customers and the queue, the whole place was stuffy i mean really smelly and the AC was not working well.

I can bear the queue if the air was cool and all that but in a stuffy room, i barely manages to pay into the account and get out.

Please Access Bank mgt work on this and for the staff, teach them good customer relationship, there's nothing bad for someone been apologetic repeatedly abt the long queue. I will never owe an Account with this poor management.

The queue U saw was probably the result of Access closing one IBPLC big branch and forcing them to move into their crappy small branch.......and also lets not forget the mass sack and also the mass resignation of staff.
Better carry ur money and go somewhere else 'cos I can guarantee U that things aren't going to get better.

Keeping it SIMPLE. . . .when you rush M&A's, things are going to definitely get messy e.g customer account swapping.

learn: 4q you are obviously a staff or an ex staff to have these kind of infor on access and the grade of software they use, i advise you take it easy and critcize creatively, has your post in anyway suggested anything better? accepted they may have been lapses but am sure it been rectified soonest, as for me, Access Bank remains the best, customer friendly etc, sorry ohhh 4q this is my opinon, go hug transformer if you dont agree with me

You are only saying this because you don't have a huge amount of money grounded in that God forsaken Bank...

They obviously did not manage this transition well @ all. I'm also having issues with them and i've made it known to them, i wont love to come down to their office, they wont love it either.

i went into the bank (access bank)today to make a deposit at around 2:05 pm i manage to get through at around 3:20 pm.just only 2 staff attending to the long quie of customers weting to make a deposit.too bad in this modern days of our banking.access bank should please step up before things get out of hands.althouhg it is not my bank i use eco bank and gt bank.

Mojak: Aig is a 419. Honestly, nothing good will come out of this merger.


How can you just say that, its unfair to call people names, got a problem with him, then go write petition or at least say why he is 419

Complete 419, how would sanusi claim to have injected over N400B in IBPLC and then sell 75% of it to AIG's Access fraud bank for only N50B. Where on earth is it done? How would they close and sell over 100 IB branches to saraki's defunct SGBN and not expect a crowded bank. I hear they have started their OJC deposit drive again, they are behaving like they have liquidity crises. Omo na to take off from them O.