Truist Financial Corp. (NYSE: TFC) unveiled its new Innovation and Technology Center in Charlotte to the public Tuesday night.
The two-story, 100,000-square-foot space, once used for trading, is on floors 14 and 15 at Truist Center. A key design theme is collaboration — journey rooms where client engagement is mapped out on whiteboards for multiple lines of business, a maker space for engineering new products, rooms equipped for a hybrid work model and a lab with augmented- and virtual-reality capabilities, as examples.
There are four "treehouses," suspended rooms overlooking the main floor that showcase prototypes and technologies. "The park," another focal point, features open sitting areas with floor-to-ceiling windows offering city views. Cube lights, forming a "digital tree," hang overhead and change colors.
"The best part about this space, though, is where they get to (innovate), so it's the environment we've created. The philosophy we have is that the environment matters. The open environment, the collaborative space ... it's a place people want to come and work," said Scott Case, chief information officer. Truist declined to give a cost of investment.
Having the innovation center within Truist's corporate headquarters building was intentional. It weaves technology and innovation into the way the bank does business, Case said.
Truist is striving to incorporate client feedback into its development process. It doesn't wait until a product is complete before showing it to customers, said Sherry Graziano, head of digital banking and contact centers. There is a backlog of ideas on what to create, she added.
A contact center is housed in the space to bolster communication with clients. There are also observation rooms, where employees can view how customers interact with a product or experience.
The bank's new space is built around its T3 concept — where tech and touch come together to build trust.
"You can have great space and amazing square footage and beautiful technology in it, but it's really about the output of it," Case said.
One of the promises with the merger between BB&T and SunTrust, forming Truist, was the ability to create scale and put that momentum back into more innovation, Case said. Earlier this year, Truist finished the transition to a new digital experience for clients, which began to roll out in the third quarter of 2021. In February, it also moved millions of heritage SunTrust customers over to new systems. He said Truist has all the tools to compete with its peers and other technology players.
The space is a foundation for innovating quickly, moving with agility and achieving reliability, said Ken Meyer, divisional chief information and experience officer. Previously, Truist and its predecessors would often rely on third-party vendors or be forced to stretch projects over six- to 12-month increments. For context, the team used to release up to 12 new capabilities each year, he said. Truist has deployed more than 100 new features since the merger closed in late 2019, Graziano noted.
Another key part of the center is its Innovators in Residence program, where Truist brings partners in house to work with them. The inaugural partners are Amazon Web Services, Verizon and Unqork, a no-code software platform. Truist is in talks with a fourth partner, Meyer said.
"Now, our work actually starts, and we can create and launch new experiences," he said. "It's not just what we're doing. It's also making sure that we're getting inspired by people outside of the company, we're working with our partners and also trying to make sure that we're connecting to our communities the proper way."
