Ismat Ayash, Head of Electronic Banking

Ismat Ayash

Head of Electronic Banking

Bank of Beirut

Location
Lebanon
Education
Diploma, ICMI Certified Strategic Leader
Experience
34 years, 5 Months

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Work Experience

Total years of experience :34 years, 5 Months

Head of Electronic Banking at Bank of Beirut
  • Lebanon - Beirut
  • My current job since January 2003

Formulated and implemented the bank’s digitization strategy
Developed and implemented the customer access strategy
Managing the department; supervising 50 Employees/Supervisors
Oversee recruiting, hiring and training of supervisors and employees
Conduct performance reviews for analysts/supervisors and administer rewards
Work with human resources department to determine new-hires and ongoing training needs
Managing the following units under the e-banking department:

1. Contact Centre
Collaborate with senior-level management to determine the strategic direction of the contact Centre
Align contact Centre objectives with enterprise and customer objectives
Develop and manage budgets; secure required resources
Champion the contact Centre throughout internal and external channels
Oversee and implement contact Centre strategies and tactics
Oversee and implement contact Centre technical and systems’ needs in coordination with the CIO
Work with the workforce management team to ensure accurate staffing and scheduling
Provide on-the-job training and mentoring
Devising and conducting marketing campaign in coordination with Marketing
Conducting effective telesales campaigns in coordination with retail division

Key Achievements:
Improved customer satisfaction and retention rates through consistent complaint handling and effective access strategy
Contributed to the bank’s revenue through productive telesales campaigns
Maintaining service level ratio and response time above 80% and less than 2 hours respectively
Maintaining above 90% first contact resolution ratio
Improved customer experience through integrating effective channels to communicate with clients (web chat, video, social media etc.)
2. E-Services:
Planning, developing and promoting ebanking products and services
Prepare and verify business requirements related to e-services
Suggest online services offerings and developments in line with service delivery strategy
Staying abreast with market innovations and industry trends
Ensure uninterrupted service delivery in coordination with IT
Determine and communicate e-services return on investment to the organization
Conduct business reviews with peers and recommend improvements
Oversee and implement security measures in coordination with IT and security officer

Key Achievements:
Launched a full suite of competitive online services across available electronic channels
Conducted marketing and outbound campaigns to increase subscription and usage, resulted with an increase of 60% in usage the first year
Contributed to the bank’s revenue through cost reduction by offering all possible services online and encouraging usage
Successfully promoted e-banking services as convenient low cost services
3. Self-Service Branches
Responsibilities:
Conduct feasibility study on strategic locations for new self-service branches
Oversee recruiting, hiring and training for the branches
Devise and implement services to provide through the self-service branch
Ensure quality uninterrupted service at branches round the clock
Analyzing activities and frequently asked questions by visitors to improve service and offerings
Report to senior management branches performance and return on investment
Promote the benefits and encourage usage of self-service branches
4. ATM Network
Participate in setting strategic direction for functionality on the bank’s ATM network
Prepare feasibility study and make decisions on strategic ATM offsite locations
Devise and prepare business requirements for ATM services
Looking for innovative ways to use ATMs and conduct analyses to reduce cost and contributes to bank’s revenue
Directs and implements new ATM enhancements based on market trends and business objectives
Measure and report ATM performance to senior management and calculate return on investment
Set guidelines to safe guard ATMs and ATM lifecycle to fight potential fraud attacks

IT Manager at Beirut Riyad Bank
  • Lebanon - Beirut
  • June 1998 to December 2002

 Plan, organize, direct, control and evaluate the operations of information systems
 Develop and implement policies and procedures for computer systems and operations
 Meet with business owners to discuss system requirements, specifications, costs and timelines
 Assemble and manage teams of information systems personnel to design, develop, implement, operate and administer computer and telecommunications software, networks and information systems
 Control the budget and expenditures of the department and projects
 Recruit and supervise computer analysts, engineers, programmers, technicians and other personnel and oversee their professional development and training
Key Achievements
 Participated in the RFP preparation to acquire an advanced core banking system
 Fore fronted a team of business owners to define the business needs, set the Gap analysis, and liaise between the business owners and the technical professionals
 Directed the complete IT operations management in the organization.
 Efficiently handled the Technology Transfer activities along with a team of 30 personnel.
 Managed and controlled the implementation of core banking system “PROFITS” on geographically distributed technologically diverse sites.
 Constantly motivated and mentored the team members for delivering high performance.
 Herein below are some selected projects I managed during this period:
o Core Banking System “PROFITS”
o Credit Card Management System

IT Assistant Manager at Beirut Riyad Bank
  • Lebanon - Beirut
  • January 1994 to May 1998

Orchestrated the design, development, deployment, maintenance, configuration, and monitoring of the core banking system at 25 branches. Managing the development team and resource allocating

Technology Transfer: Lead a team of 10 staff to implement a core banking system designed and developed in-house

Database Development: Developed and implemented database programs in Oracle using cool:gen case tool

Database Administration: Managed database comprised of over 500 user accounts.

End-User Support: Supervised a team of four technical support staff in providing timely telephone and online virtual end-user support for software, email, system administration and banking application.

Analysis and Development: Designed and developed many banking operations programs using RM COBOL under Unix platform

Network Design & Installation: Facilitated the design and installation of new network architecture / infrastructure for the head office and branches to include all cabling, routers, switches and Internet access over 700 PCs.

Analyst Programmer at Middle East Airlines (MEA)
  • Lebanon - Beirut
  • March 1992 to December 1993

Developed an accounting system using IBM mainframe environment (VSE/ESA) using (CICS/COBOL) and RPG report writer

Participated in the Development of an attendance system using (ORACLE/UNIX)

Supported various IT applications running in the company

Analyst Programmer at Self-Employed - FreeLancer
  • Lebanon - Beirut
  • June 1989 to August 1991

Analysis, Design and Development of the following Systems using (MS Visual FoxPro, MS Access, NOVEL network and Windows NT ):
- Integrated Inventory control/Accounting system
- Integrated Shipment System (Import/Export)
- Integrated Pharmacy/Accounting System
- Integrated Jewelry/Accounting System
- Travel agent System
- Video store system
- Payroll system
- Real estate system
- Integrated Stevedoring/Accounting system

Education

Diploma, ICMI Certified Strategic Leader
  • at International Customer Management Institute USA
  • August 2014

specialized for contact center management

Diploma, Project Management Professional (PMP)
  • at Project Management Institute (PMI)
  • February 2008
Master's degree, Executive Masters in Business Administration (MBA)
  • at University of Quebec and Montereal / UQAM
  • March 2007
Diploma, Business Process Mapping
  • at Lebanese American University (LAU)
  • March 2001
Diploma, COOL:GEN case tool
  • at INTRACOM -
  • September 1995
Bachelor's degree, Computer Science
  • at American University of Beirut (AUB)
  • September 1989

Specialties & Skills

Microsoft Access
Administration
Core Banking
System Administration
Negociation
Risk management
Decision making
Visual studio, MVC, Web applications, Business intelligent tools
Communication
Manpower management
Presentations
Problem Solving
MS office automation tools (Excel, word, visio etc.)
SQL server, ORACLE
Conflict Management

Languages

English
Expert
Arabic
Expert

Memberships

Project Management Institution (PMI)
  • Member
  • October 2006