PKO Bank Polski Brokerage Office (PKO BP BO) is a market leader and one of the first brokerage offices in Poland. It provides a wide range of services to individual and institutional investors, both domestic and foreign. It has the largest sales network, which includes more than 1,000 Brokerage Service Points (PUMs) and 27 Customer Service Points (POKs).
63% of new accounts opened remotely
Full access to global stock markets.
Stock market investors’ expectations and interest in accessing global markets are growing. As a result, the management of PKO BP BO began to implement IT tools that would provide users with convenience at every stage of investing. The new solutions had to take advantage of the latest technologies and design achievements, as well as offer high quality, flexibility, security and provide intuitive operation. By observing the latest trends in Internet services and service development, PKO BP BO opted for best-in-class WEB and mobile solutions - ePROMAK NEXT and mPROMAK NEXT systems. They were developed by Asseco and made available to customers under the name PKO supermakler.
Convenience at every stage of investment
The main goal of the project was to meet the expectations of stock market investors and provide them with effective tools that provide not only comfortable, efficient and secure access to their account, but also the ability to invest in stock markets from anywhere in the world.
PKO BP BO began the implementation of PKO supermakler in May 2020 and scheduled it for 25 months. Due to its scale, the brokerage divided the project into 3 main stages, each of which ended with the release of specific system functionalities to clients. As a result, investors were able to use some of them as early as 12 months after the work began.
In the first stage of the project, PKO BP BO launched the basic elements of the ePROMAK NEXT and mPROMAK NEXT solutions, necessary for effective investment account management. The challenge here was to design and build functionality that would allow the clients to remotely onboard and contract brokerage services online. Its implementation required integration with three different systems. This involved detailed assumptions, very good coordination of work and precision in the execution of individual tasks, which had to be performed in the right sequence.
In the second stage, PKO BP BO integrated the brokerage’s system with PKO Bank Polski’s online and mobile banking, namely iPKO and iKO. This allowed users to move seamlessly from the banking application to the brokerage section, without having to log into the system additionally.
The new solution also gained new features. The system enabled remote user authorization and delivery of mobile and SMS notifications that inform the users about market changes, execution, modification, or cancellation of orders, thus guaranteeing full control and efficiency of investment activities. Asseco made a high-quality, ergonomic user interface with a high level of UX, and equipped the solution with a service providing access to a complete set of market information, including, among others, reports and analyses, business announcements, as well as the WSE statistics.
The goal of the third and final phase was, among other things, to automate the handling of additional instructions and requests made by clients, and to provide functions for analyzing and graphically displaying corporate events, news and account information. Investors gained a tool allowing them to quickly assess the past and current situation of the portfolio, but also to grasp the ongoing market trends.
A major challenge in the project was the need to provide investors with constant and uninterrupted access to PKO BP BM’s brokerage services. This required launching the PKO supermakler system while the previous system was still in operation.
PKO BP BO, with support from Asseco, implemented the system by conducting: 3 cycles of performance tests, 5 cycles of security tests and acceptance tests. PKO BP BO carried them out automatically, based on scenarios provided by Asseco for specific functionalities, which significantly improved the efficiency of this stage of work. The company also conducted 14 training sessions for the office’s employees.
An undeniable success, with such a large and complex project, was the fact that it was implemented remotely and according to the planned schedule. The implementation was completed in April 2022, thanks to the successful cooperation between Asseco experts and the PKO BP BO team.
PKO supermakler in a nutshell:
- intuitive placement of buy and sell orders on the WSE,
- real-time preview of quotations,
- detailed overview of the account status and transaction history with the possibility of saving the data,
- valuation of assets in the account according to current stock exchange rates,
- submitting requests for activation of additional services, including linking to a bank account at PKO BP,
- any configuration of the layout and range of displayed information,
- remembering individual settings,
- help for novice investors.
A new quality of investment in international markets
The launch of the high-tech PKO supermakler system has opened up new ways of development for PKO BP BO and has led to more than 63% of new investment accounts being now opened remotely. The modifications introduced not only provided full access to brokerage services and insight into market information updated on an ongoing basis, but also allowed the efficient expansion of the offer and reaching out to new investors. In addition, PKO BP BO has raised the level of security of funds and transactions, which has become particularly important in times of increasing cyber attacks on clients of financial institutions.
Thanks to the new PKO supermakler system, BM PKO BO clients have gained secure and unlimited access to the WSE and international markets, regardless of the device they use. They have a complete set of investment tools at their disposal, so they can keep up-to-date with changes on the stock market and, if necessary, place orders immediately. The speed, reliability and high comfort provided by the solution encourage about 7.5 thousand users to download it every month.
The new system has given investors the ability to freely configure the appearance and range of information displayed, so they can easily build their own customized application. Those who are new to investing have dedicated options to simplify account management and provide assistance in using the system.
