Get your act together
Reminds me of how something that I read just before the melt-down set me thinking weeks later. It was a report about large US banks not investing in new integrated banking systems. In any case, historically they have always preferred the best-of-breed but siloed approach for their core banking. With the times turning turbulent, technology transformation is edging back onto their radars, as they look to work harder and smarter to emerge as leaders.
Loss of customer trust and the lack of integrated risk perception are now rousing these banks – driven mostly by ‘islands of automation’ - to urgent action. These are difficult times, when banks are revisiting their priorities and mandates to right the wrongs of the recent past. That’s when several of them will see that the siloed best-of-breed approach keeps them from accessing a unified view of customers, products and services. It has unfortunately created operational complexity and redundancy, which could well have been avoided. They will see how they have also been burdened by integration complications and costs they can no longer afford and worse, their ability to respond to a dynamic market has been severely impaired.
Though, inclined for decades to operate in a best-of-breed environment, these banks will increasingly see that an integrated yet modular approach to their banking platform can help them connect processes and information in a way that’ll enable them to flexibly react to customers and competitors.
Then of course, there’s the risk that change entails that these banks must contend with.
But, I believe, building an integrated yet ‘componentized’ setup need not be a risky undertaking. When fused in phases with the help of a trusted transformation partner, it can offer banks what a best-of-breed solution cannot – ease of use, agility, happier customers, lowered costs and increasing profits.
