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Within the pages of CIONET Cookbook No. 3, discover a compilation of success recipes shared by 21 of today’s most influential and dynamic information technology leaders across all business sectors. This unique volume presents new recipes for digital success based on CIONET TV interviews with top digital leaders across Europe.
Right now, it’s clear that we all face extraordinary technical and business challenges. This third edition of the Cookbook presents further insights into the best practices required to flourish in a new digital era.
Unveiling the future of finance: Sławomir Soszyński, Vice President of the Board and Chief Information Officer at ING Bank Śląski, shares groundbreaking strategies for personalised banking services.
Sławomir Soszyński says his finance firm is eager to move away from the monolithic systems that hold many banks back and to embrace digital technologies.
Sławomir Soszyński started his career in Linux administration and software development. He moved into technology management with Citi and then held senior positions in London, New York and Singapore. After moving back to Poland to run the global shared services organisation for JP Morgan, he became CIO and board member at ING Bank Śląski in September 2019.
ING Group is a Dutch multinational financial services firm headquartered in Amsterdam. ING Bank Śląski is part of this group, and Sławomir’s IT function supports retail, SMB and enterprise-level banking. The bank has had to deal with “black swan” challenges during the past two years, including the coronavirus pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Digitalisation plays a key role in helping ING deal with these challenges.
Sławomir is running the Next-Gen Core Banking Programme at ING Bank Śląski, a digital transformation initiative involving a full re-architecture of the bank. The transformation, which is the biggest in the bank’s history, will embrace Agile, boost system availability and offer new levels of personalisation to customers.
The first step of the transformation strategy, which began at the end of 2021, was to choose a core banking system based on the smart contract concept. This concept allows the bank to integrate services delivered as containers in an iterative manner.
His team has started to migrate the firm’s technology products to the new, cloud-based banking system. The system is run from an internal data centre, but the long-term plan is to move to the public cloud. The aim is to complete the digital transformation programme by the end of 2025.
Sławomir’s team has to keep older banking systems running while introducing the new banking platform. The bank has a close relationship with its technology provider, who helps ensure the transformation is completed on time.
The first product to be delivered allowed customers to apply for loans in a simplified manner. There is full integration between the front-end, middleware and back-end systems. Sławomir then turned his attention to mortgage applications and savings accounts.
Digital transformation is run via BizDevOps, where tribes manage programme elements. A specific tribe runs large projects. Smaller projects are led by a collective of tribes. Sławomir says there is close integration between business and technology. He wants developers to see customers’ “happy faces” as the projects succeed.
Sławomir has introduced a cloud-first strategy at ING Bank Śląski. Every new technology investment is assessed on its potential for running in the public cloud. The aim is to find new, cloud-based solutions when legacy applications can’t be moved from the internal data centre.
He says any transition must be undertaken in a cloud-native manner, which means using open standards that make it easy to move workloads between providers. The bank also prioritises risk and security. Cloud services are compliant with governance mechanisms around the globe, particularly given the geopolitical situation in Europe.
Sławomir says moving applications to the cloud is far from straightforward. He says the team’s factory, which includes the frameworks and processes for moving workloads to the cloud, is now in place, so the pace of transition will quicken.
ING Bank Śląski is Poland’s biggest bank with 1,200 IT professionals. Sławomir’s IT operating model has two principles: technology talent is aligned to individual lines of business; key IT functions are centralised and run across the lines of business.
A centre of excellence creates rules and regulations for the bank’s technology services, such as developing standards for enterprise architecture. Learning and development are also centralised and help ensure IT professionals across the bank have the right skills.
Sławomir’s joint role as CIO and board member means he wears two hats. As a board member, he co-leads the bank with his management colleagues and helps set strategy. As a CIO, he maintains existing technologies and delivers new capabilities.
He believes CIOs have done a great job of explaining the transformative power of digital and data to the rest of the organisation, building the right culture and developing people. These achievements mean CIOs are increasingly rising to board-level positions.
In the future, Sławomir believes CIOs will be less technology-focused and more closely wedded to the rest of the business. While CIOs should have the skills to become CEOs, the transition from IT to business leadership remains rare. He says CIOs who want to become CEOs must convince regulators that they are ready for the role.
Sławomir says his role is to set the values and expected behaviours for his team and to ensure that those values and behaviours make sense to the people who follow them. He wants to help his managers become leaders by trying, failing and learning.
His own leadership style is defined by taking calculated risks. He gives his team members space to try different things and have new career opportunities. His role is to ensure the bank has the best technology, which can be challenging because of the speed of change and IT labour market shortages.
Sławomir advises next-generation leaders to never give up on their core values – you must look in the mirror daily and recognise yourself. Also, don’t be afraid to try new things. For those who embrace risks, the rewards are there.
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