With Bank Innovation 2013 just around the corner for Perficient’s Financial Services team, I’ve been immersed in conversations, developing content, and preparing for what bank executives will likely want to talk to us about at the conference. Focused on the future of customer experience in banking, we’ll hear the normal buzzwords – mobile banking, social media, mobile wallets, and of course Big Data. There’s been a flurry of media around Big Data the past few weeks actually. The WSJ’s ‘Silk Roads’ article shared some great real world use cases for four of the nation’s top banks. Bank Systems and Technology released their digital issue covering innovators to watch and an interview with J.P. Morgan’s Treasury Services department. I also read American Banker’s, “Tame Risk with ‘Smart Data’, Not Big Data” which provided some great practical advice for financial institutions around data governance and the use of cloud computing for cost savings.
So it’s great timing we just published a new Big Data white paper on the heels of these other insightful financial services articles. You can view the white paper in its entirety here, and I’ve also shared a sneak peek below of a few tips we compiled as part of this comprehensive guide.
Tip #1 – Doing Nothing is Not an Option
There is consensus in the industry and among top CIOs that they will all have to embark on this journey with Big Data – it’s just a matter of understanding how they do that. As with any other emerging technology, it is wise for businesses to tread lightly when starting Big Data projects, but doing nothing is the last thing a bank should do. Doing so will make it hard to compete regardless of size. Companies in general are already streamlining business intelligence. Forward-thinking financial institutions need a CIO who is a visionary, strategist, operational thinker and understands the business’s goal to reach the ‘enlightenment’ with Big Data.
Tip #2 – “Don’t Boil the Ocean”
Banks need to prioritize their technology investments with Big Data use cases that provide the best opportunity for the business and demonstrate value. Take baby steps with Big Data but be prepared for the future with deployment of enterprise scalability, flexibility and data governance best practices that will support the project as data volumes continue to grow.
Tip #3 – Develop A Roadmap
In order to not “boil the ocean”, banks should look to their strategic IT partners and service providers to guide them on what technologies are the ones that will help the most. IT consulting companies can provide a technology-agnostic view for organizations with the development of a Big Data strategy, roadmap and implementation plan that encompasses their existing investment in conventional data warehousing technologies to take things to the next level with a Big Data ecosystem.
