With the increasing threat posed by the digitisation of banking, the bank believes it must empower its people with a set of productivity tools that enable them to be more nimble and responsive to customer needs.

To this end, the DBS is initially rolling out Office 365 to 1000 staff. The bank is targeting for its entire workforce to make a shift to cloud over the course of the year, when all 22,000 employees across 18 markets will be equipped with Office 365.

DBS says the cloud-based architecture will enable its workforce to work collaboratively from anywhere, across PCs, tablets and smartphones. Across the organisation, meetings can now be conducted through Skype for Business, cutting down on travelling time. Enterprise social network, Yammer, provides a platform for employees to form closer communities and to collaborate across departments and locations. In addition, to encourage knowledge sharing, every individual will receive an increment of file storage capacity to 1TB per user on OneDrive.

DBS head of technology and operations David Gledhill, says: “In the last few years, we have made good headway in creating a ‘fintech-like’ workforce that is focused on making the customer experience simpler and more seamless. Inculcating a digital mindset in our people aside, it is also important to give them work tools that break down silos, enhance collaboration, foster greater efficiency and facilitate working on the go."

In recent years, DBS has been encouraging its employees to embrace a digital mindset, partnering staff with fintech startups in corporate hackathons and developing prototype applications using agile methodologies. It has also built a 40,000 square foot 'learning centre', packed with new technological tools and training facilities as it bids to future-proof staffers for the digital age.