The SS&C Blue Prism Customer Excellence Awards don’t just celebrate innovation, they spotlight the real-world impact of intelligent automation on businesses and their customers. Winning this award isn’t just about showcasing success; it’s about inspiring others to embrace change and overcome challenges.
Silvina Montemartini and the team at Santander winners of the Innovation Brilliance Americas All-Star in 2024 and Business Value Driver Americas All-Star in 2021
are a prime example of this. They were able to amplify their message across their organization, gaining credibility, buy-in, and ultimately transforming their processes. From addressing long-standing customer complaints to driving cultural change within their branches, their journey demonstrates the profound benefits of participating in the awards.
For those considering entering the 2025 Customer Excellence Awards, this story is a powerful testament to the value of recognition. Let’s dive into how Silvina Montemartini and team Santander turned their automation vision into award-winning reality.
What inspired your organization to participate in the SS&C Blue Prism Customer Excellence Awards?
"Winning the Innovation Excellence Award and Business Value Driver from SS&C Blue Prism was pivotal moment for our organization. It demonstrated the measurable impact of automation in transformed operations, improved customer satisfaction, and driving a cultural shift across the business . This recognition validated our efforts and was crucial in gaining the buy-in needed to expand automation adoption into initially branches, ultimately improving experiences for both internal teams and external customer."
Can you share more about the project that earned you the Innovation Award?
"This RPA was the first one we implemented across our branches, And was able to free up up to 240,000 hrs a week across all our branches in time spent processing customer claims. The radically changed the way branch employees worked, freeing up employee time and improving our customer NPS score."
How did this automation address the specific customer pain points?
"The process was initiated by a customer's complaint about an ATM was stuck in the banknote deposit. An investigation would began to verify the claim, and only after confirmation was the issue resolved for the customer.
After this implementation, we achieved a improvement for the customer experience as the average time to resolution had reduced from 10 days to 24 hours on this type of claim."
Did the project bring benefits beyond resolving customer complaints?
"Not only do we benefit the customer who no longer has to complain, but the
Account officer or the human teller at branches do not have to review long audit strips (Electric Journal) looking for the error to validate the claim made.
In addition, there are no pending accounting items, the accounts are reconciled, it does not generate additional tasks, and it contributes to the balancing of each ATM with minimal risk in the event of operational fraud."
Were there any challenges in implementing this automation solution?
"It was a very big cultural change in the operation of the branches, with a lot of impact, it cost us a lot of effort and training until they understood how this digital collaborator works."
Was there a turning point in the project's journey?
"I remember that there was a decisive meeting, where the continuity of this automated process was taken to the vote. Two factors were what decided this continuity:
- The award we won for Innovation awarded by Blue Prism and Data, because "Data kills Story".
- We were able to show with results the benefit that was achieved."
What are some of the measurable outcomes from this project?
"Today the RPA resolves 70% of errors automatically, preventing customers from coming to make the claim, we lower the 2nd claim of all branches. Currently only 30% claim during banking hours if the traffic jam occurred while the branch was open. Of that group of claims, 50% are resolved by finding the error and closing the claim because it matches the amount claimed.
This leads him to solve 85% of the cases. We have only 15% left, which corresponds to complaints from customers who report another amount or with a difference greater than 10%
of the amount found by the Robot."
Were there any unexpected benefits from the implementation?
"Another collateral effect that this implementation gave us: It allows us to detect deposits with small denomination bills, enabling customers who make this type of deposits at retail banking ATMs to charge a commission, and then make transfers to wholesale banks that do not have branches or are virtual. This generates a collection of more than 1,000 dollars per day."
How has this project positioned your bank in the industry?
"There are no more shortages or surpluses due to deposits not credited to customers, this curve is tending to 0, complying with the BCRA regulations that punish this type of error."
Thank You and What’s Next
A huge thank-you to Silvina Montemartini for sharing their incredible journey of innovation and transformation. Their success is a shining example of how the SS&C Blue Prism Customer Excellence Awards recognize meaningful achievements and inspire others to push the boundaries of what’s possible with intelligent automation.
If their story has inspired you, entry for the 2025 Customer Excellence Awards has now opened, check our previous blog for all the key information.
Stay tuned—we can’t wait to hear your story next!
