Start-ups provide RBS with 'injection of working differently'

'More than ever there's a recognition of what they can do,' says RBS head of analytics Christiaan Nelissen

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is working with start-ups and small to medium sizes businesses (SMBs) because it believes they can change the way the organisation delivers technology and provide an "injection of working differently".

That's what Christian Nelissen, head of data analytics at RBS told Computing about how the bank approaches its relationships smaller partners.

The bank recently looked into how smaller software companies could provide benefits to its staff and its customers, which led it to working with San Francisco big data firm Trifacta via an outreach office in Silicon Valley.

According to Nelissen, this arrangement has already paid dividends for the business

"You get this injection of working differently, so I think as an organisation one of the reasons we started working in Silicon Valley is that more than ever there's a recognition of what they can do," he explained.

Influenced by the way start-ups operate, RBS has demonstrated to staff that it's possible to work in a more innovative and collaborative manner which can bring benefits to both the bank and its customers.

"We're heavily supportive of the start-up space ourselves and we're hosting start-ups on our campus. We think that gives our people a different way of looking at what's possible, how to operate, how to work together, how to collaborate, how people get things done," said Nelissen.

He referenced the bank's decision to deploy Facebook at Work across 100,000 employees as an example of how RBS is actively looking to change the way people work.

"If we work differently internally there's a chance to change the way we deliver technology and you can see that in our partnership with Facebook at work," he said.

"By partnering with Facebook at Work it demonstrates that we want to work differently and that's what this sort of start-up space gives us," Nelissen added.

RBS isn't the only large corporation which sees value in working in start-ups. Michael Keegan, chairman of the UK & Ireland region for Fujitsu recently described collaborating with SMBs as ‘vital' for innovation.