娇色导航

? Cathy O'Sullivan?

Welcome to 娇色导航Leadership Live Australia. I'm Cathy O'Sullivan, editorial director for Foundry's enterprise and channel brands in Australia and New Zealand. On today's episode, I'm delighted to be joined by Stevie-Ann Dovico, who is Chief Information Officer at Beyond Bank. Hi, Stevie, welcome to the podcast.

Thanks for being with us today. ? Stevie-Ann Dovico?

Hi, thanks for having me. ? Cathy O'Sullivan? Great stuff.

Look, I would love to hear more at that your career to date. Can you tell us a bit about how you got your start in IT/technology? And what have been your some of your career milestones? ? Stevie-Ann Dovico? Yeah.

So I've spent almost all of my career in banking. I started in consulting at EY and KPMG. But even then, it was kind of tech and banking clients. So a career in banking, and not necessarily the most typical 娇色导航career path.

You know, I studied a double degree in commerce and tech. So a good grounding from the start.

But then, instead of say, starting as a dev, and kind of working my way up, I've worked in almost every aspect of banking, from running risk and compliance, auditing, product and proposition development, strategy, innovation, enterprise transformation, and then tech.? And in tech, I've run systems and platforms and kind of been accountable for taking almost every line of business in the retail banking sector.

And martech, which is really exciting technology, customer facing. And then I've spent, you know, a few years running digital platforms across all of retail and business banking, and corporate and institutional bank. And I've run big global teams. And now I'm the 娇色导航of Beyond Bank.

And that's really different to big banking world, but a really exciting, new opportunity. ? Cathy O'Sullivan?

So tell us more than about Beyond Bank, it's not a name that will be on the top of mind for most people, when they think of banks in Australia. Can you give us a bit of an overview of the organization?

And I guess its purpose and what you and the team look after there? ? Stevie-Ann Dovico? Yeah, sure.

So as the 娇色导航of Beyond Bank, I'm accountable for all aspects of technology. So across the business, and so that's banking, tech, and data and business intelligence. So that's literally everything from 'my computer won't turn on. And can you fix this', you know, i.e.

workplace and kind of service desk, to engineering and build and running of the systems that power the bank, the branch tech ATMs tellers, call centres tech, the infrastructure and architecture, cyber Incident Management and the NOC, and basically the whole lot.

And so yeah, it's a really big broad role which I love. So Beyond Bank is one of the largest customer-owned banks in Australia, and one of the best B Corps in the country. So that's, that's a score that measures your company's social and environmental impact.

And that's both something we're super proud of, but it's also deeply rooted in our culture.

Beyond Bank has got a huge real focus on customers who are the members and owners of the bank, and all the money that's made goes back into the bank, which is kind of a bit different slant to say, the big banks or large corporates that have shareholders and then have to kind of pay dividends out of their profits.

So we particularly focused on communities and last year, we partnered with over 5000 community organizations around Australia, and we kind of work with them on some of Australia's most pressing issues from you know, housing affordability to helping older Australians and driving stronger levels of financial well being and we're very relationship led bank.

So a big part of my role in tech is to ensure that we're always thinking about how technology can be used to empower the frontline to have better and more meaningful interactions with our customers.

So you know, getting the data right thinking about ways to use both proven and nascent tech to kind of bring forward insights in real time to our frontline so that they can do their jobs more easily.

And also, you know, the branch tech is important because sort of going against the grain, we're more likely to open branches, than close them. So yeah. ? Cathy O'Sullivan?

Sounds like a very purpose-led organisation there. And look, you have spent, as you said most of your career in in banking and financial services. So what do you think then are some of the biggest challenges that face CIOs in the sector? ? Stevie-Ann Dovico?

I think the role of CIOs has transformed quite a lot over the years. So extending sort of beyond traditional tech responsibilities, only CIOs, because I mean, especially in banking, if you think about what is fundamentally powering a bank, it's people in technology, right.

And so the responsibilities are both broad and deep.

And it's a lot about, you know, sometimes being the jack of all trades at that 娇色导航level, because you're in there in the exec facing the board, keeping up with like, multiple board expectations, expectations of executives, and your team and stakeholders, but being able to discuss not only, like the depth of tech, but the breadth of business, and how technology helps to power the business.

And then there's a broader stuff like, you know, economic uncertainty, which means, you know, really interesting choices about where you invest in technology, and the short term long term trade offs, hybrid workplaces, global workplaces, and the mobility and how to get kind of the tech right and humming with that, you know, nascent technologies, AI, GenAI, you know, IoT, quantum, all of that kind of stuff, and how to, like safely incorporate that into your operations is really, really important.

And also, like, just, you know, if you think about expectations of the board and the excitement around some of this really nascent technology, but you know, as a technologist, you understand probably deeper the risks and the controls that you need to put in place.

Like they're kind of some of those balancing challenges you've got to do. You know, talent and acquisition or retention, always a big issue. And I think, predominantly for CIOs and CISOs? it's about, you know, the evolving cyber security landscape and the threats that are associated with that.

? Cathy O'Sullivan?

And look, I know you're relatively new to the Beyond Bank 娇色导航role, but how is the bank's digitalization journey tracking? ? Stevie-Ann Dovico? Yeah.

So there's digital and digitization, and they're both super high on the list for us. So in terms of digital, I'm really proud of the team and our digital capabilities, like our app is super sleek, you know, for such a small bank relative to the market.

You know, it's won a number of awards, Canstar in particular is one that we have won multiple times. So in fact, every time in digital since 2015, in the customer and banking sector. So that's really cool.

And something that, you know, the team and I are very, very proud of, and very focused on continuing to maintain.? We're really not focused on replacing human to human banking, because that's kind of part of our core values.

But you know, in terms of digital, it's about enhancing that experience, and providing our customers with convenience, the convenience of banking mobility, and the ability to drive value and financial wellbeing through real-time insights. And advice is something we're really interested in.

I have a very strong belief that you don't make digital awesome by just pumping in a ton of features into your asset.

But instead, you know, really using data to qual and quant and getting out there and listening to your customers about what they're actually experiencing, what they're using -? the pain, the gains, the jobs to be done all of that.

And really focusing your investment quite specifically on this type of thing and continuing to measure and pivot what you do around this data. So it's really about investing in intently the difference that will make the difference to make that experience awesome.

And then the other? thing the team are really working hard on the new website, which is about to launch in late June. And that been a lot of fun thinking about interesting ways to use tech to drive personalized experiences.

And then in terms of digitization, we're really focused heavily on this from an efficiency and productivity perspective, because it really does influence cost-to-income, and the more cost effective we are, the more we can put back into the business and do for our customers and communities, so, you know, the traditional stuff like RPA and automation, and also thinking about ways to leverage Gen AI for efficiencies, and to enhance customer experience and to prevent frauds and scams and all of that.

? Cathy O'Sullivan?

So that leads me nicely and I guess you've touched on some of that there, what are you thinking about when it comes to the tech strategy going forward?

I mean, how are you ensuring that those initiatives align with that overall strategic goals and that mission of being so customer-led at Beyond Bank? ? Stevie-Ann Dovico?

Yeah, so caveat, I've been in the role for less than 90 days, I'm still playing the new girl card. So I'm in this listening phase. But for those who know me know, I am extremely action orientated.

So absolutely in the depths of formulating the new technology strategy, and that is deeply connected to the business strategy.

And it's actually really great timing, because we've just spent the last few months formulating as an executive team, the new business strategy, which we're about to launch in two weeks to the broader organization. So our purpose doesn't change in this new strategy.

We exist to change the lives of our customers and communities, through financial well being. And we're really focused on being Australia's best relationship bank. And technology plays such a big role in this.

You know, as I mentioned before, it's about using tech to give our customers and communities greater access to banking services, and insights into their financial state and advice on their financial wellbeing. You know, it's about using tech to enhance our frontline capabilities.

So the bank is in the call centers, so that they can spend more time focusing on the customer and less time battling with the friction in say, clunky systems or having to traverse multiple systems to do their jobs.

So kind of proactively bringing forward insights based on the data we have about our customers. So our frontline can have richer conversations with their customers. And then you know, there's efficiencies we can gain by using tech to run or better run our operations is obviously really important.

For me, I'm a really get the fundamentals right kind of tech leader, so I take it down to this basic concept. We're a bank, and we have customers, and customers give us their money to look after.

So there's really two fundamental things customers expect from us at the core and that's: 'Keep my money safe' and 'Give it to me when I want it'. And it takes speed. There's just security and availability.

So if I'm gonna give you a bit of snippet into kind of the things that are front of mind for me, when it comes to driving a tech strategy is absolutely those two things that are front and centre. ? Cathy O'Sullivan?

Yeah, that's so crystal clear and easy for any stakeholder in your organization to understand I'm sure. So look, are there any new and emerging technologies that you're super excited about? And that you may be looking at for Beyond Bank? ? Stevie-Ann Dovico? Yeah, definitely.

But, uh, probably probably just a combination of kind of new and existing tech, which I find, like, creates the biggest potential, you know, I mean, everyone's very excited by Gen AI and like, so am I, but it's not new on it's been around for like a long time, let's call it 2018 when OpenAI developed GPT.

And so you know, it's very easy to get carried away with these things. But I'm particularly excited by our like, greater ability to analyze data and find patterns and generate insights and make predictions and then kind of automate tasks at pace and at scale.

I'm really excited about how we use this to personalize the experience for customers and to optimize productivity and enable speed to market. I'm very passionate about how we use new tech to foster greater inclusivity.

So I was reading about emerging tech, which is helping people living with disabilities to participate more fully in society, and linking that to financial wellbeing which is super cool and kind of the augmentation of human capability for good, which is something I really love.

And then there's quantum computing, which is something I find really fascinating personally, actually, a while ago, I was at a dinner at like Sydney Uni alumni and I was chatting to one of the guys from IBM and the about building encryption capability to withstand the assault of a future quantum computer and the risks of you know, around tech decoding today's cyber security measures as it becomes kind of more accessible to masses.

So, like, I find that really interesting.

And yeah, in terms of us implementing new and emerging tech, like everyone were very cautiously optimistic and working around how we safely experiment in a controlled way, and really thinking about the nature of our policies and frameworks to ensure the ethical use of these technologies and privacy and how to ensure customers and organizational data still remain safe, while reaping the benefits of emerging tech.

? Cathy O'Sullivan?

Now of course legacy tech is an issue in in many organisations.

So I mean, either from previous roles, or what you're looking at here, how do you balance that within the team on, you know, the focus on on maintaining existing IT infrastructure, but also looking at cutting edge technology and emerging tech? How do you balance that? ? Stevie-Ann Dovico?

Yeah, so um, it's really easy to be carried away by the hype of kind of cutting edge technology. So for me, it's really about making sure that you always ask yourself, like, am I solving the actual business problem?

That's got to be front of mind, as opposed to being kind of solution or tech first. And I always say, you know, ask yourself, Does this business problem require nascent or proven tech? And once you figure that out, like that tech side answer is relatively straightforward.

So even with leveraging emerging tech, you need to think about your business model congruent. So there's this real focus, at the moment, I think of getting efficiencies out of automation, and AI and whatever.

But I mean, like it or lump it, these efficiencies mean, we replace what a human does with technology.

So that means your business model needs to either support reducing the number of humans you have, or you have to balance that have a balance sheet that can actually support those humans, giving them something else to do. And that actually isn't financially viable for every business.

I mean, it's probably more financially viable when you're a larger organization. But when you increase the technology budget, in your expense line, and you don't take down the people line, then you just have a higher overall cost line.

And in this economic climate, where there's so much focus on cost to income, you really need to think about the broader implications of your investments and what that does to your business. And people.

And is that in line, like in line or aligned take on a broader business model and your culture? And maybe, but maybe not. And that's just that's something that should be front of mind when we talk about implementing new tech or leveraging old tech.

In the mutual space where the budgets are small, like super critical to think very carefully about your investments, and where you put your money.

And yes, we do have a focus on maintaining some of our tech and modernizing core infrastructure and systems, you know, we have a way to go there. And you know, as I said before, I'm a real, get the fundamentals right kind of person.

So we are highly skewed in our tech investments around security and ensuring availability of our critical systems, which I tell my team all the time isn't always the most exciting stuff. But it is the most important. ? Cathy O'Sullivan?

So just expanding on that, then, you know, you've outlined a couple of times now about security and availability being so fundamental, what is your overall approach to cyber security? And how are you ensuring that security and privacy of data in your system? Yeah, for sure.

And look, I'm keen to understand, you know, what you look for when you're going out to market and looking for technology partners, I mean, what's important to you, from a partnership point of view? ? Stevie-Ann Dovico?

Yeah, so it's definitely the first thing I looked at. In fact, even in my interview, I said, it would be the first thing I looked at, and I and I have.

So when I came into the role, you know, it's where we are investing heavily in because security and privacy are just the basic foundations of trust, and my customer and community trust is what our business is actually built on.

So my approach is to spend money to bring in deep, deep expertise, which I have, and empower them to go really deep on current state and be really honest about any gaps we might have.

And to really have a think about where do we implement both tactical and strategic ways to bridge those gaps?

And then, you know, it's about being really clear about the risk we hold, and for how long we want to hold it for, and, you know, really focused on building a response plan.

So like if and when an incident occurs, that we can recover, and respond really gracefully, and you know, having really solid comms plans in place and playbooks.

So people know what they need to do in a time where, you know, it's a crisis mode, and they don't necessarily can't really necessarily think laterally, you know, it's like, just follow, this is how you would execute.

And things like red teaming exercise drills and game days, I'm a massive fan of, because I think, like any skill, you're learning, you actually have to put in the reps to get the games.

And then in terms of designing new solutions, I think it's really critical that, you know, we embed controls to ensure that things are secure by design right up front. So there's both kind of preventative and detective ways of, of enhancing that cyber environment.

I think it's like, the real essence of partnership in all the sense of the word.

So you know, I'm looking for, you know, like an actual partnership with my tech partners, so you know, actual proven experience in the thing that you're asking them to help you with, because you're usually partnering with something because you don't either don't have the skills internally or can't afford to hire them, either permanently, or even in that kind of interim state.

So that's really important that deep expertise, I'm really action orientated. So having a partner that's also equally as action orientated to is really important. And someone that gives gives you someone to talk to when stuff goes wrong.

So you know, again, because of that action orientation, it's really important that you can pick up the phone or talk to someone directly in the face of crisis, or issues.

I love a partner that proactively gives me insight into what's going on in the market and what I should be thinking about and what's next.

And then someone who proactively sort of supports us to optimize what we've got not just kind of selling you the next best thing, but really telling you about like, are you actually using what you've got as effectively as you could? ? Cathy O'Sullivan?

Now I've heard the saying that a 娇色导航is only as good as their team. So what's your approach when it comes to getting the best out of the people that are in your team? How do you create that environment that really helps them thrive?

? Stevie-Ann Dovico? Yeah, absolutely.

You're only as good as your team. And for me, that number one thing is really psychological safety. So I'm a huge people person, and I have a really big focus on creating an environment where people feel safe to speak up.

And, you know, I pride myself on being connected to what's going on on the ground, because people in the frontline are the people who know the most about, like pains and gains, and you know, all of that kind of stuff.

So I spend a lot of time face to face with all parts of the team.

I'm a big fan of skip level conversations and meetings, and I have an open door policy, so that like to run things like Ask Me Anything type sessions, where literally people can ask me anything. And I do that really frequently.

And I'm very open and honest in the way that I answer those questions. So that's kind of in the day to day. And then I think there's fostering a strong cohesive culture that's really important. So there's kind of a few non negotiables for me.

And the first one is recruiting for diversity. And that's not just gender diversity, but I mean, like, real diversity of thought and style and perspective. I really, honestly believe the best teams are diverse. So getting the right people with diverse skill sets and capabilities is super critical.

And then those right people in the right roles are recruiting for strong, capable people and then giving them clarity, real clarity on what's the vision, the strategy, what are our measures of success.

Getting their input into that strategy to development is really important because people need to buy in and agree that you know, these are the outcomes and here's how we're going to drive to get there.

I'm a big fan of co-creating team charters, values and behaviours that we accept and don't and they're just using that to really point to in life scenarios. Because it's not just it's definitely not just about what you do, it's about how you do it too.

And then celebrating success, it is really easy to get super focused on what you want to achieve. And then you just do it. And then you just, 'great jump to the next thing', and keep jumping to the next thing and just ticking the boxes.

But it's in order to kind of stop and champion, what you've done and celebrate that and champion your people and make noise about the great things they do and I think most people know I'm pretty good at making a lot of noise about what we do. So yeah.

? Cathy O'Sullivan?

Love to hear it. So look just on the diversity piece, you know, what kind of practical things do you think can be done to get those diverse perspectives, those minds of all kinds to even consider IT as a career? ? Stevie-Ann Dovico? Yeah.

So as I said, strong believe in diverse teams. So getting different people from different backgrounds into it is really, really important.

I think at the very basic level, it's about breaking down the stereotypes that exist around working in tech, and some of which are like, you know, people thinking everyone needs to be a developer. And that's actually just not true at all.

Like, I mean, we need developers in tech, but like, not everyone is a developer. And I mean, especially now with the advent of generative AI, like, maybe the next coding language is actually just English and clear instructions. But who knows.

But you know, there's so many cool jobs in tech, which don't necessarily require what is the A typical thought about what, you know, technology is or you know, traditional software engineering background.

But even when it comes to engineering type roles, like attracting people into them, that especially women, given how kind of male dominant technology is, is really, really important. So when I was at NAB, like I sponsored a really important, like, awesome program, with AWS, called She Builds.

And that was aimed at getting women certified as cloud practitioners. And we had, like 500 women in the first cohort - many who weren't even from tech? join this -? and some of which went on to work in tech and implement those skills.

So that was like a really practical way that we did that.

And then there's things like giving people internships and shadowing opportunities, so that they can toe deep into the world of tech, and really experience how or somebody is, you know, Beyond Bank, we've had many people that are in my team today, who started like in the actual customer call centre, and sort of moved sideways into tech, by the IT service desk, and you know, we got them ITIL certified and gave them really strong career pathways.

And they progressed from there. And it's been a really successful kind of recruitment model for us internally. And then I think, like, more broadly, we need to start younger with programs to get young girls in particular into tech.

And that's by getting them to choose tech as subject when they study at school. And I know, there's loads of things for graduates and whatever, but I just think that's too late.

Like, if you have you think you have to really go from primary school, so by the time that they get to high school, and they're ready to pick electives, that actually choosing tech subjects, and that's more likely to lead them to study tech in their final years in school, and then they would potentially choose a degree that's grounded in tech.

And that's a real pathway to forge, you know, more females into technology where they might traditionally not have thought of that. ? Cathy O'Sullivan? Yeah, absolutely.

Getting them in early is is definitely much needed. So look Stevie keen to get your thoughts on, you know, for someone who is maybe in a technology role now and aspires to be a 娇色导航or CDO or CTO one day, what advice would you give them?

? Stevie-Ann Dovico?

Yeah, probably the advice I give to anyone aspiring to be anything is really number one, you know, understand your why. And really think about, does your career path align to this?

You know, there's not only one single defined pathway that gets you to kind of a 娇色导航or a CTO or whatever. My personal view is technology foundations, and grounding is is really critical in this role. But actually, what's super, super important is lateral thinking, and business acumen.

Because the expectation, once you get to kind of the C-level, is that your perspective is not purely technology or technically focused, but grounded in business and customer outcomes.

So, you know, getting some broad experiences not only in tech, but you know, across the business puts you in a very good position to have a really strong perspective, when you got a seat at the table with, say, the board or the executive.

The other thing is, especially in tech, not everyone needs to take that leadership pathway in its traditional sense. In fact, there's probably two defined pathways. One is a people leader, and one is an individual contributor.

And those people who are individual contributors who are, like really specialized and are super critical in technology roles have to be given the opportunity to grow and become really senior in their role without actually feeling the need to become a people leader to grow in that role.

Like, if that's not their passion, then like, we shouldn't force them into that pathway just so that they get more senior.

So like, make sure if you're one of those people that you find an organization that really champions and celebrates individual contributors, and then gives them a growth pathway that allows them to be more senior, because that's how we get really good diversity, the top, you know, we make sure that there's people leaders who are really passionate about leading people, and that they are individual contributors who are very technically deep.

And we kind of bring those two together. And that's really important. ? Cathy O'Sullivan?

Very well said, Yes, that's a that's an excellent point. And I think something a lot more organizations need to pay attention to. So look, Stevie, what's important to you in the months ahead, any exciting initiatives in the pipeline? ? Stevie-Ann Dovico?

Yes, there's so much ahead of us, like our business is actually at this really pivotal inflection point, you know, we've got a new CEO, a new CIO, a new CMO, fairly new COO, you know, a new business strategy, as I mentioned before, a very passionate and energized workforce, who genuinely care about our customers and communities.

So what I can say is, you know, like, watch this space. In terms of the tech front, we're very much focused on hardening the foundations, which as I said, sometimes is kind of the not sexy side of technology.

But for me, it's number one, you know, our customer trust, you know, the customers trust us with their money. And as I said, like, that's just two things that they fundamentally expect, keep it safe, and give it to me when I want.

So security and availability very, very strong focus for us, you know, the usual stuff, cloud, cyber, and a big focus on serving current and new markets in a really efficient and effective way.

So obviously, a big focus on digital, digitization, experimenting in a very controlled way or with you know, nascent technology like GenAI and really bolstering our capabilities in data so that we can use that to better service our customers and enable our frontline to have better human-to-human interactions.

So yeah, just a few things on the go. ? Cathy O'Sullivan?

Well, I look forward to hearing more about the initiatives in the months ahead, Stevie-Ann Devico, Chief Information Officer Beyond Bank, thank you so much for your time today. ? Stevie-Ann Dovico? Thank you