HSBC Malaysia has received an award for its automate@HSBC, a service that seems to have been successful in persuading Malaysian small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to manage some aspects of letters of credit (L/Cs) online.

The judging panel for the CIO Awards 2004 - awarded by the well regarded journal for chief information officers - was apparently impressed by the way the bank had enabled client SMEs access to online services at a time when smaller businesses were struggling to work out how to incorporate and utilise the Internet in their business strategies.

Value added

The seeds of automate@HSBC apparently grew out of discussions between the bank and a Malaysian company offering hosting services for SMEs in the country, suggested that the firm work with HSBC to provide a range of online value added services.

Out of that idea the bank developed and launched several electronic services for SMEs in phases.

Roll out

An e-commerce-enabled storefront and gateway service was launched in April 2001, at the same time as statements and advice became available on SMEs' computers or telephones via secure SMS (short messaging system) or email.

The service was enhanced in 2002 when HSBC unveiled a system allowing SMEs to prepare, exchange, manage, and archive electronic trade documents using HSBC's own IT infrastructure.

Track and trace

Electronic L/C advice notification, and Internet banking services tailored for these businesses were subsequently added.

In February 2003 the bank added, in collaboration with DHL, a document tracking services enabling trade customers to track and trace export bills and L/Cs via SMS and email status updates or through HSBC's website.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of ICC or the other partners in DC-PRO.