Rescuing a Failing Banking Project

The Challenge

The bank was implementing a critical system to digitize commercial banking service enrollment as part of a major M&A integration. The previous consulting firm had built technically sound software, but the project was failing because the customer-facing solution was unusable in practice.

The Real Problem

Through detailed investigation across all affected departments - ARP, Wires, Lockbox, Deposits, Sweeps - I discovered the previous team had fundamentally misunderstood how corporate finance operations actually work. They treated this as pure data collection and routing, missing basic business realities:

• CFOs and authorized signers don't spend hours filling out enrollment wizards - they delegate data gathering and review completed work
• Information comes from multiple sources and departments, requiring coordination across different roles
• Compliance requirements like Know Your Customer meant specific authorization workflows were mandatory
• The wizard eliminated natural workflow patterns that paper forms supported

The Business Operations Insight

The breakthrough was recognizing that the previous team had designed a way for the system to ingest information to distribute and apply. They hadn't considered how real people doing real jobs would collect and supply that information. Corporate finance involves distinct roles, approval hierarchies, and information-gathering processes. You can't just digitize forms. You have to digitize the entire business workflow around those forms. The previous team had built a system that was technically functional but operationally impossible.

The Solution

I recommended fundamental workflow changes that preserved the wizard approach while enabling fiscal officers to delegate form-filling:

• User authentication and audit trails to track contributions and meet compliance needs
• Save and resume functionality to accommodate real-world interruptions
• Complete information preview so users could prepare and gather needed data upfront
• Clear progress indicators showing steps, scope, and current position
• Separate review and approval workflow distinguishing between form completion and authorization

The Results

The rescued system successfully eliminated manual form processing, reduced enrollment cycle times, and provided the audit trails the bank required. The project moved from failure to successful deployment, supporting the broader M&A integration goals.