Global Banking and Finance Review: Head of Cognizant’s Banking and Financial Services Practice in the UK & Ireland Writes About Digital Transformation in Banking

“Increased regulations to avoid another credit crisis have led to a need for greater transparency, changing traditional working habits and patterns,” writes Tony Virdi. “The rapid advancement of technologies such as mobile, social, analytics and cloud have created major opportunities to drive a better customer experience, but are also spawning headaches when it comes to integrating them into ageing systems. Considering that banks and financial services firms often pride themselves on their heritage and generations of service, their infrastructure is often equally dated and can struggle to take advantage of the newer technologies, platforms, systems and solutions on offer.”

According to Virdi, with profitability and return on equity under challenge, when faced with legacy systems, banks and financial services companies have to find cost-effective ways of upgrading them, so they can take advantage of the new technologies available and ultimately offer their customers a better service and increase their own revenues. “This transformation and upgrade is not a one-off situation,” he notes. “Banks need to continually re-evaluate their IT systems to find more cost-effective ways of working while freeing up time, resources and investment capital to explore new models, from omni-channel banking and digital-only branches to flexible working for their employees.”

Another challenge, he adds, that banks and financial services companies face in embracing new technologies is that they need to think in terms of what the customer wants. “With research showing that smartphone sales have finally outstripped basic feature phone devices, more consumers will want to take advantage of their smartphone to engage with their financial services companies and banks—to drive a simpler and better customer experience—but they also expect security in tandem with convenience. This adds another layer of technology and business process change for each company in the midst of ‘transformation’ to consider.”

As technology becomes more evasive, ever more intuitive, Virdi avers that there is an opportunity for banks and financial services companies to ensure their next generation solutions match this trend. “The worlds of technology and traditional design are colliding as companies look for solutions that can deliver on the technology at the back-end, while offering an enjoyable experience to consumers (and banking and financial services company employees) at the front end.”

Virdi writes, “This personalized, mobile, social experience can only occur if the banking and financial services industry continues to transform its technology platforms and solutions, with the ultimate aim being channel integration and embracing the digital opportunity. While it is a never-ending task given the restrictions around this industry in particular and the challenges that legacy infrastructures present, it is heartening to see that forward-thinking banks and financial services companies are ‘transforming’ their businesses, putting IT and technology at the heart of future operations,” he observes.

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