Introduction
Huaxia Bank was established in October 1992 in Beijing. It is a national commercial bank solely funded and founded by Shougang Group Co., Ltd., making it the only joint-stock commercial bank in China initiated by a manufacturing enterprise.
In recent years, under the policy and regulatory requirements, Huaxia Bank has identified digital transformation as a key strategic initiative. The bank has continuously increased its investment in technology, built a digital talent system, and actively promoted comprehensive digital development.
The primary focus of investment is on digital technology transformation, encompassing multiple key initiatives and departmental transformation plans. These efforts aim to enhance the bank’s fintech capabilities in empowering business growth and improving service efficiency.
Pain Points in Digital Transformation
Pain point 1: This is primarily reflected in the difficulty of data access, understanding, usage, and lack of intelligent support. Business users often don’t know where to find the data they need, or simply cannot locate it. Even when they do obtain the necessary data, differences in individual technical skills mean they may not know how to use it effectively. As a result, these tasks end up being handed over to technical teams, leading to longer development cycles.
Pain point 2: It is difficult to establish a unified data management system.
To break down data silos across branches and improve data quality and usability, the headquarters plans to promote the construction of a unified data management framework. However, in reality, different platforms are used by headquarters and branches to store data, making it challenging to ensure data consistency, standardization, and reliability.
FanRuan Digital Transformation Solution
1. Data Integration
To achieve the core goals of data standardization and efficient collaboration, we designed a new data architecture that connects to the data foundation and data middle platform as data sources, and integrates multiple resources.
2. Platform Building
The Data Cube platform is deeply integrated with desktop data tools, enabling reports created with these tools to be quickly and independently published as Data Cube products. Once published, they are displayed in the data marketplace for sharing, allowing other users to apply for access—thus fostering rapid promotion and reuse.
The platform is built using cloud-native development tools and the bank's standardized technology stack, and is deeply integrated with FanRuan’s FineBI and FineReport solutions.
3. Operations and Promotion
To ensure the successful achievement of Data Cube’s strategic objectives and effectively enhance user engagement, a comprehensive operations strategy has been implemented. This initiative also provides a clear and objective basis for evaluating the performance of branches in Data Cube adoption and promotion.
The operational efforts focus on four key areas:
Team Collaboration in application development
User Activity and engagement metrics
Talent Development to cultivate data proficiency
Ecosystem and Community Building through knowledge sharing and peer support
These efforts aim to foster widespread adoption, improve platform utilization, and create a sustainable, data-driven culture across the organization.
4. Application Scenarios
To meet the needs of various users and data analysis situations, the Data Cube platform offers five core types of analysis scenarios, enabling users to effectively explore, utilize, and share data resources:
Report Viewing
Conducted through the Data Marketplace module, this scenario provides users with access to a wide range of data products, including reports, dashboards, charts, thematic wide tables, and KPIs.
Popular examples include:Real-time deposit balance reports
Personal pension analytics
Marketing reports for the “Quick Win” campaign
Data Exploration and Analysis
Self-Service Report Creation
Multi-Terminal Publishing and Management of Data Products
Sharing and Subscribing to Data Products
These scenarios are designed to support users across all departments in turning data into actionable insights efficiently and securely.
2. Data Exploration and Analysis
This scenario is executed within the Data Resource module. The “Data Resource” module visualizes curated data tables with business analysis value directly from the database, addressing the common challenge of data discovery for business users.
Key features include:
Efficient Search & Discovery: Business users can easily search for and locate the data they need.
Data Dictionary Access: Each dataset comes with clear metadata and dictionary information to enhance understanding.
One-Click Analysis Access: After obtaining data access permissions, users can jump directly into the visual analysis tool to explore and analyze the data.
This process empowers non-technical users to independently explore high-value data and extract insights without relying heavily on IT teams.
3. Self-Service Report Creation
This scenario is realized through the Data Tools module. The Data Cube platform integrates multiple tools including a self-service BI tool, a report development tool, and commonly used query tools, enabling users to conduct data analysis and create reports in a one-stop workflow.
Key Benefits:
Empowered Non-Technical Users: Even users without technical backgrounds can easily analyze data and build reports.
Streamlined Workflow: One platform supports the full reporting process—from data access to visualization—without switching tools.
Increased Efficiency: Reduces reliance on IT support, shortens report development cycles, and improves overall productivity.
This scenario supports a data-driven culture by lowering the barrier to entry for business users and accelerating data adoption across departments.
4. Multi-Terminal Data Product Publishing & Management
After reports are created, they can be rapidly published across multiple endpoints—PC, mobile, and large-screen displays—as fully functional data products. Once published, these products are managed and reviewed by the original publisher, ensuring access control and approval workflows are maintained.
5. Data Product Sharing & Subscription
Data products created within the Data Cube platform can be shared and subscribed to, enabling seamless collaboration and access. This includes:
Internal sharing via platforms like WeCom (WeChat Work)
Push notifications for subscribers
Bulk subscription management for assigned personnel
These features enhance information accessibility and data-driven collaboration, helping organizations deliver the right insights to the right people at the right time.
Business Application Scenarios
In the banking industry, centralized operations at the head office are critical for ensuring standardized and efficient business processes. However, issues such as dispersed operations, data silos, and lack of transparent management pose challenges for the head office in monitoring and optimizing centralized operations. These problems can lead to low operational efficiency, weak risk control, and difficulties in cost management.
To address these issues, we have designed the "Monthly Report on Centralized Operations at Head Office", which features the following:
Comprehensive Coverage:
The report covers four key dimensions — business volume, business quality, operational efficiency, and outsourced personnel management.Multi-Metric Analysis:
It utilizes 19 performance indicators to provide a holistic view of centralized operations.Historical and Comparative Perspectives:
The report presents trends and current performance from both historical and benchmarking viewpoints.Visualized Charts:
Key metrics are presented through intuitive charts, enabling quick understanding of essential insights.Data-Driven Decision-Making:
It provides a solid data foundation to support more scientific and informed decision-making by management.
The implementation of this monthly report has delivered the following business value and results:
Improved Operational Efficiency:
Monitoring and analysis via the report have reduced processing times, significantly enhancing overall efficiency.Enhanced Risk Management:
The report's quality monitoring helps identify and prevent potential risks, reducing error rates.Optimized Cost Control:
Analysis of outsourced personnel helps optimize resource allocation and reduce outsourcing costs.Better Decision Support:
Data provided in the report empowers management to make more precise business adjustments and resource distribution decisions.Increased Transparency:
Regular publication of the report improves operational transparency, strengthening confidence in internal management and external regulatory oversight.
To effectively monitor and manage loan disbursements across business units, we have designed the “Business Unit Loan Disbursement Dashboard”, which offers the following features:
Comprehensive Coverage:
The dashboard covers loan disbursement data for all business units, including various loan products and business sectors.Real-Time Updates:
It uses real-time data refresh mechanisms to ensure timely and accurate information on loan disbursements.Multi-Dimensional Analysis:
It provides analysis from multiple perspectives — such as by business unit, loan type, and disbursement time — to help the bank gain a complete understanding of disbursement status.Visualized Presentation:
Data is presented through charts and graphical interfaces, enabling quick access to key insights.Risk Assessment:
By integrating loan risk assessment models, the dashboard evaluates potential risks in loan disbursement, offering valuable references for risk management.
Through these design features, the dashboard helps the bank quickly identify issues and opportunities in loan operations, optimizing lending strategies and resource allocation.
The application of the “Business Unit Loan Disbursement Dashboard” has delivered the following value and results for our bank:
Improved Transparency:
With full coverage and real-time updates, the bank can clearly understand loan disbursement across all business units, enhancing transparency in loan management.Better Market Insight:
Multi-dimensional analysis allows the bank to track market trends in a timely manner, adjust strategies, and strengthen competitiveness.Enhanced Risk Management:
By combining risk assessment capabilities, the bank can proactively identify high-risk loans and take preventative measures to reduce potential exposure.Optimized Resource Allocation:
Insights from disbursement performance analysis enable the bank to allocate resources more effectively and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of lending.Stronger Decision Support:
The dashboard provides valuable data to support more scientific and accurate decision-making by senior management.
Summary and Outlook
Since its launch, the Data Cube (Shu Ju Mo Fang) project has brought significant transformation to Huaxia Bank in terms of data management and business decision-making. During the implementation process, we have gained valuable experience.
First, user experience is the core of product design. By continuously collecting user feedback, we have rapidly iterated product features to meet real user needs.
Second, teamwork is essential. Through cross-department collaboration, we have been able to integrate resources and drive the project forward together. Additionally, ongoing training and competition activities have not only enhanced employees’ awareness and skills in data applications but also strengthened team cohesion and innovation capabilities.
Looking ahead, the Data Cube project team will continue to focus on optimizing the interface design and user experience, and developing more data products with real business value. We plan to further improve and promote data products developed by branch offices that have the potential for shared use across the bank, aiming to maximize resource utilization.
At the same time, we look forward to deepening cooperation with partners such as FanRuan, bringing in outstanding external case studies, and continuously upgrading the platform to deliver more user-friendly and practical products.
We believe that through relentless effort and innovation, Huaxia Bank’s digital transformation journey will continue to broaden, laying a solid foundation for the bank’s sustainable development and enhanced market competitiveness.
