In common with business leaders in almost every industry, decision makers in Financial Services organisations are increasingly turning to digitisation to deliver their strategic objectives. Understanding that mobilising business processes can help improve customer satisfaction and response times, boost employee productivity, increase competitive advantage, and much more, financial services organisations are keen to find solutions that can help transform their business faster.
However, whilst it is no secret that the financial services sector is on the pathway to becoming a digital industry, the speed and extent of the transition is downright disappointing. Indeed, while the Financial Conduct Authority’s 2015/2016 Business Plan identified technology as a top-four priority area, the mainstream financial services industry has been a slow adopter. Many companies are opting for a “fast follower” approach, proceeding cautiously with new technologies, and leaving themselves exposed to disruptive newcomers. It’s not surprising, therefore, that a recent 2017 report found that more than 40% of financial services businesses are worried about how they’re going to appeal to their new generation of customers. If the sector is to adapt to the new demands of the marketplace, this cautious strategy must change.
One of the challenges holding financial services back in particular is that posed by legacy IT infrastructure. Simply ‘bolting on’ new offerings to existing core systems is unsustainable, as they are not agile enough to support the innovative solutions that will enable such organisations to remain competitive.
One factor we need to bear in mind is that digital transformation is not only about internal organisational processes and systems development, but also about the final product or service that is being rolled out by a business to its customers. The fact is that customers have been spoiled. They now expect every organisation to deliver innovative, tailored products and services, with a seamless digital experience. Oh, and did I mention that they want it all now?
Using OutSystems Deloitte was able to develop its first AI app during a competitive tender for a large life insurer. The innovative Behavioural and Emotional Analytics Tool (BEAT), created in a three day hackathon, can be used by Deloitte and its clients to better manage conduct risk and to guard against insurance being sold fraudulently to customers. Insurers are now able to listen to a series of calls coming from a call centre and identify which segments of a call pose a conduct risk based on a series of machine learnings and AI algorithms that are then applied to data. Thanks to the low-code platform’s visual development ability, the newly developed app could be put in the hands of the potential client so that they could immediately visualise its capabilities, subsequently winning the bid for Deloitte.
Ultimately, financial service organisations that mobilise processes will find themselves in a stronger position to improve their bottom lines and delight customers. Failure to do so will leave them exposed to competition from fast-moving and disruptive industry newcomers, who are already doing a very good job of digitising work processes. These competitors will continue to raise the bar time and time again for traditional organisations, making a transformative mindset critical to future success for all players.
The key to cracking the digital mobile transformation challenge really is as simple as bringing in the right technology to empower organisations to swiftly build solutions that are as innovative and seamless as their customers want them to be.
