Nationwide Building Society has partnered with Qlik to help 18,000 employees improve their data literacy as the lender drives forward its £4.1 billion technology and data transformation programme.

Nationwide said the partnership with Qlik, a Swedish data visualisation and analytics software company, would offer staff the tools and data insights they need to perform more accurate decision-making and help the UK’s largest building society to become a ‘data enabled’ organisation.

As a result of the new data culture, Nationwide said it is aiming to drive improved practices and adopt new methods of analysis using connected data in areas such as project management & delivery.

First used as a departmental solution for Nationwide’s commercial team, the organisation has quickly expanded its use of Qlik’s business intelligence software in line with the acceleration of its data and analytics strategy.

The lender has also introduced data innovation days, quarterly analytics deep dives and hackathons, are part of a programme of initiatives aimed at engaging employees in the value of data, boost data literacy at all levels and provide fresh insights on business issues.

In an update on its data-first strategy, Nationwide said the creation of a single chief data officer (CDO) function had brought together Nationwide’s data governance, business intelligence, data warehousing, data lakes and many data science employees into one team, with a view to creating a data and analytics hub.

Lee Raybould, chief data officer at Nationwide, said: “By democratising access to data throughout Nationwide, we are starting to build our culture around it and enhancing its credibility as the basis for new ideas and insights.”

Nationwide has pledged to invest a total of £4.1 billion in technology transformation over next five years, including the re-platforming of digital assets.

The building society is looking to create up to 1,000 new jobs and open a new UK technology hub, with a strategy focused on driving UK service leadership through digitisation and multi-channel technology integration across the High Street and mobile channels.

Paul French, director of business intelligence, visualisation and reporting, data analytics at Nationwide, said.“Data is a crucial part of our DNA and employees’ everyday work."

He added:“In the same way that pilots don’t just enter the cockpit of a plane and take off, staff need to be ‘Fit to Fly’ in terms of working with data. Therefore, empowering employees with the right information and the confidence to make decisions with it is vital."

Last month, Nationwide announced plans to open a new digital innovation centre in London, aimed at attracting the talent it needs for the future whilst building on the existing skills of its workforce.

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