Client-Centric Design Principles Drive
Development of Access Products

The pace of change in the corporate treasury management field is driving a unique approach to client access product development at Deutsche Bank.

Regulatory, market and technological change is accelerating rapidly and introducing new risks to our treasury management clients every day. How do we keep up with those changes and respond with flexible products to address those risks? It's simple: We stay very close to our clients and make them the center of our development efforts. We call this "client-centric" design.

Client Access

Deutsche Bank offers a wide range of client access products. These are the channels through which we deliver our core products. A couple examples of client access products are db-direct internet, our flagship channel for delivering cash management products, and db-direct connect, our host-to-host global file transfer solution.

These days, product delivery channels often set a bank apart as much as the products themselves. After all, it's these client access channels that are at the heart of the user experience.

Researching User Experience

Our goal is to provide client access channels that are easy to use, interactive and meets clients' changing needs. We do this by engaging clients in the design, development and testing of every new access product we develop.

For example, we recently sent product managers and user experience experts into the offices of 45 of our clients worldwide. In order to gain a greater understanding of our clients' needs and behaviors, we watched how clients operated on a daily basis and how they used our treasury products. The information we gain from this type of shadowing helps us make our products simple, easy to use and part of our clients' seamless daily workflow.

In fact, through efforts such as these, we've established a list of about two dozen design principles that drive all of our client access channel development efforts.

Creating Unique Solutions

The traditional approach to developing products for the corporate treasury market involves identifying a need, spending months behind bank walls creating a solution in a vacuum, and then maybe a year later launching a product and trying to force it upon clients. We don't subscribe to that approach, chiefly because it doesn't address today's pace of change and our clients' quickly evolving needs.

In contrast, our approach typically involves a dedicated Deutsche Bank project team working closely with an individual client to discover their challenges and needs through "whiteboarding" sessions where we discuss their pain points and brainstorm ways to address them.

Once we start creating a solution, we communicate regularly with the client to involve them in testing and to ensure the product meets all of their core needs.

This is the client-centered design process we used recently in partnering with a major technology company to create a consolidated payment engine combining both daily electronic payments and foreign exchange transactions — and to develop an integrated trade and supply chain solution for one of the country's leading retailers.

Future Directions

As we move forward working in this consultative manner with clients to meet their complex needs, we are cognizant of our clients' increasingly holistic approach. They want delivery channels that integrate their full range of duties, from cash management to liquidity management to trade finance.

We also understand that our clients are embracing new technology, so our focus is on developing access products that are browser and device agnostic. We want to support whatever means by which our clients want to access our products.

And, finally, maybe the most significant new direction in client access at Deutsche Bank is the development of a common distribution channel through the Autobahn App Market. Look for more information about this in the months to come.

Partner with Us

In keeping with our client-centric design philosophy, we always welcome feedback on our products. Furthermore, if you have a specific complex challenge you want to tackle with us, contact your relationship manager and let us know.