Yorkshire Building Society: modernising from the ground up
In a competitive market, building societies need to ensure their technology foundations are built for the needs of modern members. By combining the best of Deloitte and our alliance ecosystem, we’re helping some of Britain’s building societies forge a path forward.
Building societies occupy a unique position in the UK’s financial landscape – trusted institutions with deep community roots, a focus on customer service above all else, and a clear sense of purpose. As customer expectations evolve and digital challengers reshape financial services, mutuals are looking to combine the purpose they’re known for with the digital agility their members now expect.
“A new cloud solution has empowered colleagues to leverage best-practice workflows and automations to build faster, experiment safely, and deliver value at significant pace.”
- Neil Brown, Partner, Deloitte
Founded in 1864, Yorkshire Building Society has served generations of families – helping them save for the future and buy homes. With over 100 branches and more than 3,000 staff, it’s one of the UK’s largest building societies, serving millions of members with mortgages, savings and insurance products.
Working with Deloitte and our alliance partners such as ServiceNow and Oracle through Converge by Deloitte, Yorkshire Building Society has achieved the first milestone on a far-reaching digital transformation to enhance both its front-end digital experiences for members and the banking systems that power them. Together, we’ve successfully established the secure, scalable IT foundations Yorkshire Building Society needs to future-proof the business.
Serving members from behind the scenes
When teams from Deloitte started working with Yorkshire Building Society in late 2024, the ambition was clear: to strengthen the Society’s technology foundations and build the agility needed to support its members in a fast-changing market.
To remain competitive, Yorkshire Building Society recognised that it needed more than just an improved website or mobile app. Change was required not just to how members engaged with the Society, but also to how colleagues delivered those experiences.
We brought together our transformation knowhow, technology and our alliance ecosystem to simplify and future-proof Yorkshire Building Society’s technology estate.
Changes so far have enabled the Society to improve resilience and streamline day-to-day management.
“This programme has laid the foundations for a more agile and resilient Society,” says Neil Brown, partner at Deloitte. “A new cloud solution has empowered colleagues to leverage best-practice workflows and automations to build faster, experiment safely, and deliver value at significant pace.”
Powered by ServiceNow’s IT service management solution, Yorkshire Building Society is on a journey to enable them to benefit from automated service relationships and embedded security across its systems. By creating a single system for all IT processes, the Society now has a standardised way to manage incident responses, release changes to its systems, and keep track of its technology.
Brown remarked: “Resilient IT infrastructure creates a system and experience that allows the Society’s teams to be more productive, solve issues quickly, and innovate faster.”
By streamlining data sharing capabilities and developing the ability to work from any location through cloud technology, Deloitte has also enabled the Society to foster a more connected workplace. Colleagues are benefitting from a more productive and collaborative experience. Improved access to data and secure, persona-based tools are ensuring stronger member experiences.
A springboard for success
This transformation has done more than modernise technology; it has created the conditions for continued innovation. The new platform enables Yorkshire Building Society to develop, test and deploy new capabilities faster.
“Modernising our technology platforms and enabling a collaborative and flexible colleague experience has improved resilience, security and operational capacity, which has resulted in better outcomes for our members,” said Yorkshire Building Society’s Jason Vickerman, Director of Technology Services. “The strategic guidance that Deloitte provided was key in helping shape our vision, ensuring that this transformation journey futureproofs us for years to come.”
Many of Yorkshire Building Society’s technology areas have now completed strategy, assessment and design phases, paving the way for the next phase – delivery at scale. Over the coming years, this modern foundation will allow Yorkshire Building Society to roll out improvements progressively, building momentum across the organisation and freeing up capacity for innovation.
Neil Brown said: “This collaboration between Yorkshire Building Society, Deloitte and our partners showcases the strength of our alliance model – combining strategic guidance, delivery expertise and world-class technology to help financial institutions to modernise securely and at scale.
“There is not just a sense of achievement for our teams, but also a sense of what comes next. Through this transformation, we have developed a future proof, scalable, and integrated IT landscape that will serve as the foundation at Yorkshire Building Society for many years to come.”
Get in touch
Sam Faulkner
Manager, Public Relations
Phone: +44 20 8071 4071
Email: sjfaulkner@deloitte.co.uk
