Saxo Bank : Lacking global cohesion

Governance issues dilute the impact of a group strategy.

The Site

Saxo Bank, a Denmark-based online international investment bank, does not provide consistent access across country sites to its worldwide toll-free telephone numbers.

Saxo Bank’s global website features a Toll Free Number selector on its Contact page. Its dropdown menu lists 30 countries; choosing one displays the corresponding telephone number, while a note explains that the company is working to establish toll-free numbers in other countries (and that such numbers do not work from mobile phones).

The current list includes five of the six countries for which Saxo Bank has separate group sites – Switzerland, UK, Singapore, Spain and France; the exception is Denmark. However, only two of the sites (UK, Singapore) carry the toll-free selector on their contact pages; none of the remaining three includes its toll-free number either.

The Takeaway

Saxo Bank’s promotion of toll-free numbers is a rarity but fits well with its implied strategy to build a global directory of such numbers within its contact options, which are notably telephone-centric. The intention is, however, undermined to a degree by an apparent inability to promote the toll-free service consistently across the group’s web presence, with the result that users in some major markets cannot find their local toll-free number let alone ones in other countries.

How can this be, given Saxo Bank’s clear desire to develop the toll-free option? The most likely explanation lies in the governance of its web estate or, rather, the weakness of central control over the satellites, which means they are under no obligation to use the toll-free selector or promote their own toll-free number. (Other telltale signs such as localised templates tend to support the conclusion.) In the current financial storm, it’s not the most reassuring of impressions to give of group discipline.

First published on 30 October, 2008