Akbank SME Movement – ‘For Your Business’ Service

Akbank, one of the biggest banks in Turkey, launches “For Your Business” service as a part of the SME Digitalization Program. As a bank with innovation and associations with fintechs and its compelling culture, this service was a natural move developed in partnership with Strands by offering the most comprehensive Business Financial Management (BFM) solution for SMEs in Turkey.

The Challenge

For most businesses, the biggest challenge is actually having to run it. From this standpoint, the primary value add of SME banking services is giving businesses more time to focus on their core activities rather than spending time and effort on financial management.

Businesses are in quest for the support of a trusted partner who addresses their operational and financial management needs. As an already trusted partner of its customers and by leveraging from their existing financial information, Akbank identified the opportunity to provide the simplicity, speed and personalization to its SME customers with a financial management tool. To seize the opportunity, Akbank needed a digital solution that fulfills the value proposition.

Solution

Akbank placed the opportunity as a part of the SME Digitalization Program and designed a service called “For Your Business”, which started its journey with the motto: “I’m here for you, so you can focus solely on your core business, and I’ll handle the rest”.

To be able to offer this value proposition to its customers and make it a real thing, Akbank went through with a process of searching for the best BFM solutions all over the world and decided on Strands’ award-winning BFM solution.

By integrating Strands’ BFM solution into Akbank Mobile (the mobile application of Akbank), Akbank provided dashboards such as financial calendar, financial analysis, cashflow & balance, and scheduled transactions that will enable SMEs to be in charge of their finances.

Result

The new service from Akbank offers their SME customers a tool to manage their businesses’ finances in addition to enabling the bank to provide personalized service and experience. Akbank and Strands continue to develop the “For Your Business” service to give more proactive and contextual financial advice for their customers.