The Tech Revolutionist, Singapore: Cognizant Experts Say the Banking Industry Must not Overlook the Hidden Treasure in Their Middle- and Back-Offices in Driving Digital Transformation

“There is no escaping the impact of new technologies on work; and the basis for competition amongst banking and financial services companies has expanded beyond the traditional arsenal of price, product features, service quality, and branding, to include a new category ― hyper-personalization,” write Cognizant’s Nachiket Deshpande, Global Delivery Leader, Banking and Financial Services, and Manish Bahl, Senior Director, Center for the Future of Work. Excerpts:

“As companies work towards hyper-personalization, they will move beyond traditional transactional relationships with customers and embrace a new standard of providing highly bespoke and integrated services. Big data and artificial intelligence will spur this change by helping companies modernize and accelerate the pace of change in the front-office.

What about the middle- and back-office? Today, the back office remains a wildly overlooked cost-savings and modernization opportunity for banking and financial services businesses. Despite digital’s significant revenue-generating opportunity, its impact on the expense side of the ledger has thus far been meagre.

Digital has as much to do with streamlining middle and back-office operations and improving processes as it does with defining the face of the company. In truth, very few banks have modernized or replaced their legacy systems to meet the speed of change that defines today’s digital era.

To successfully integrate digital into the back office, banking and financial services companies must focus on the notion of channel integration to unify all their offerings to establish a “one-company” model that delivers enhanced consumer experiences, seamless sharing of data across channels, and valuable consumer insights and opportunities.

The industry will be able to realize the full potential of digital transformation when companies reduce the complexity of their legacy IT systems, business processes, and organizational structures in favor of better overall customer engagement.”

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