When considering digital transformation from a business perspective and using new capabilities to enhance organisational infrastructures, the financial sector is a little more reluctant to jump on the bandwagon. Many industries have fully embraced technological advancements, but financial businesses, understandably, worry about disruption, tensions and potential interference to their staff and processes.
In reality, digital transformation for financial businesses is hugely beneficial, if managed correctly. It’s important to recognise that by avoiding investment in new digital capabilities, your company will be at risk of being left behind, as customers choose companies that provide more up-to-date, seamless services. When talking about digital transformation in financial institutions, Deloitte say:
“The technologies needed to reimagine Finance are here, and they will only get better . . . The pace of innovation is accelerating. CFOs can either plan for change or plan to retire.”
By identifying key areas of your business in need of improvement and choosing the correct digital technologies to implement; your financial organisation will undoubtedly evolve in a positive way and gain a competitive edge. Ensure to look closely at your business and project manage a digital transformation in line with your company goals and overall strategy. By looking at new technology as an enabler instead of a hindrance, your financial business will be propelled forward and reap the benefits.
Digital Transformation In Your Business
Financial Technologies, also known as FinTech, is being rapidly embraced by mainstream financial institutions in efforts to sharpen operational efficiency, according to a report from PwC. So what does this mean to you?
Whether your business focuses on banking, insurance or investment, it’s undeniable that by adopting the right technologies, your processes, structure and efficiency can be significantly improved, providing a great return on investment. Rather than simply implementing new technologies for the sake of it, however, a strategy personal to your business is imperative. There are a number of factors to consider when embarking on a digital transformation, which includes, but is not limited to, the following:
- Clearly identify the problems you are trying to solve. Avoid implementing technologies that won’t serve a specific purpose. Use your workforce to help determine what would make their lives easier and go from there.
- Consider any changes that new technology could have on Notifiable Data Breach or GDPR laws, to ensure that your business remains compliant.
- Be prepared to re-visit your transformation on a regular basis. With ever-evolving digital capabilities, it’s imperative to stay ahead of the game and be willing to digitally adapt continually to get the very best out of your digital transformation.
- Consider the structural changes this may have to your business, in terms of staff. While many financial companies worry that the implementation of new technology will result in team members becoming redundant, this needn’t be the case. It’s important, however, to consider how roles will need to be adapted to fit in with a digital transformation.
- Be ready to get your staff up to speed, through workshops or one-to-one training if necessary; to ensure that they are ready and fully onboard with the technological changes.
Having considered the importance of digital transformation within the financial sector and what it means to your business, we can begin to look at the specific ways a transformation could enhance your company. Having provided financial IT Solutions and digital transformation to a range of businesses within the industry, we’ve selected some of the most popular technologies to have been adopted in finance, and how they could improve your business.
Cloud Migration
With a huge amount of sensitive data passing through financial organisations, many firms have found the prospect of migrating to a cloud-based system very unsettling. As outlined in this article from Finextra, misconceptions include a lack of security and greater disruption, however, this simply isn’t the case. The opposite is, in fact, true, with any trustworthy cloud service investing heavily in excellent security, making it just as safe if not more so than in-house options.
While business disruption has been a key factor in financial businesses opposing new technologies, cloud migration is actually a fantastic way to limit disruptions. Moving systems to the cloud and adopting a cloud-based system can be done seamlessly, with things like hosted phone systems, offsite backup and document management systems, such as Sharepoint, becoming effective and tangible options.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI is an increasingly popular technology used in every industry. Simply put, it’s purpose it to mimic human intelligence. While this particular technological advancement strikes fear into many employees, it shouldn’t! The use of AI simply helps to free up team members, so they have time to do more important things. AI has a number of benefits when incorporated into financial businesses, one of which being a greater level of customer service.
The millennial generation has brought with them the need for services to be provided instantly and efficiently, which in turn has changed the way customer service needs to be delivered. With this in mind, Chatbots are being implemented more and more within organisations, in a bid to improve the consumer’s experience. As well as having the ability to talk to customers immediately about any problems they are facing and advise them accordingly, many bots are now able to detect fraud; tracking the likelihood of it occurring based on recurring patterns and victim information.
In businesses where credit eligibility is at the forefront, AI technology has the ability to carry out an incredibly in-depth risk assessment, providing highly accurate results. Not only is this more efficient, but will undoubtedly reduce your firm’s overheads and eradicate human error. AI can also assist within trading firms, accurately tracking and predicting patterns in the market, breaking down masses amount of data to reliably advise on investment decisions.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
As opposed to AI, RPA is the use of technology in place of human actions. In short, its purpose within financial institutions is to automate processes and free up time for team members. RPA can assist with areas such as invoice processing and reading data, handling laborious tasks with ease. As stated in this publication from EY, RPA will indeed become a standard practice for financial businesses, rather than just a possibility, in order to ensure survival.
Put simply, RPA aids financial automation, reduces operational costs, while being more efficient and accurate; making it a no brainer when it comes to companies handling a large amount of forms, applications, documents and files. In a survey carried out by PwC in 2017, they found that only 22% of financial services were in the exploration stage of RPA, with the remaining 78% already carrying out widespread adoption of the technology or on their way to implementing it within their business. With the vast amount of benefits it can bring to the financial sector, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it was purposefully created for such companies.
Dark Web Protection
According to statistics gathered by FraudWatch International, $1.45 trillion is lost annually to online financial crimes! With financial based services remaining the primary target for cyber criminals and attacks, it’s becoming a necessity to turn to technology in order to fully protect sensitive information. With an endless stream of phishing scams, identity theft and account hacking, the dark web works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, never off duty. Because of this, protection from dark web threats is critical for financial business and should be a key element in your digital transformation strategy.
By incorporating dark web protection in some form, you’ll be arming your business against the many threats your financial business will continue to face. You’ll be alerted in real-time to any breach in data and when information of a sensitive nature has been compromised, allowing you to remain vigilant and effectively stop any data from being used in criminal activity. Dark Web technology not only protects financial companies against crime, but also works continuously in the background to recognise any threats and effectively prevent systems from being compromised.
Data Visualisation and Business Intelligence
With a continual need to manage, read and analyse data effectively, financial businesses need to constantly draw meaning from huge volumes of data to function correctly. Data visualisation and BI tools, therefore, are requested regularly by financial companies when undergoing a digital transformation. Technology specifically designed to analyse data uses the latest visualisation techniques to help businesses and their teams comprehend the information easily.
As broken down in this article from Digitialist Magazine, ‘data visualisation is one of the best ways for our brains to analyse and comprehend data. By placing data in a graphic form, the decision-maker can more easily understand the significance of the data, compare multiple pieces of data, or even set goals and objectives based on the data’.
As well as offering an easier way to view data, it provides improved collaboration between departments, making communication of data insights amongst teams extremely simple. According to Hacker Noon, data visualisation is used by financial leaders to track KPIs and improve team performance. Oracle also report that top-performing finance leaders are more likely to prioritise data visualisation than their peers. With these kinds of stats, it’s definitely worth looking into incorporating this technology within your digital transformation.
Digital Enhancement For Your Financial Business
The financial sector may still have a way to go in becoming digitally up-to-date, but with the necessity to transform fixed firmly on the horizon, digital transformation is an inevitability should businesses wish to keep up.
Why not use this to your advantage and solidify your transformation strategy now? In doing so, you’ll be securing your company’s future, standing head and shoulders above the competition. Embrace advances in technology and make your financial business a front runner in your industry. For any questions regarding digital transformation, the team at ONGC Systems are more than qualified to assist and advice on what would be best for your company. We’d love to hear from you!
