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Case Study

Skandiabanken: Developing information capabilities for an effective customer-facing strategy (Abridged)

By Donald A. Marchand and Katarina Paddack

16 pages

December 2001

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Reference: IMD-3-1036

This case describes the development of Sweden’s first e-bank, SkandiaBanken, from 1994-2000. Over this time period, SkandiaBanken, a business unit of the Skandia Group (Sweden’s largest insurance company), broke into the institutional banking system, growing to become Sweden’s fourth largest bank, and outdoing its competitors in customer service and value. The case describes the development of SkandiaBanken’s e-business strategy, the philosophy guiding its management team, and how it built information capabilities for strategic success. The case is set in December 2000 when SkandiaBanken has just won the Bank of the Year award for the third year in a row from Privata Affärer, a leading personal savings magazine. Its CEO and CIO are faced with an increasingly competitive e-banking market as competitors begin to develop their own e-banking capabilities, and the European market opens up to cross-border competition. Readers of the case are asked to assess which capabilities will create long-term, competitive advantage for the company.

Keywords

eBanking, eBusiness Strategy, Information Management Practices, Information Technology Practices, Information Orientation Maturity, Customer Focus, Financial Services, Bancassurance, Banking

Settings

Sweden
2000

Type

Field Research

Available Languages

English

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