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Customer Experience and Design

Top 5 Technology Trends in Financial Services – June 2013

Trying to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to IT issues is a challenging task. Emerging technology forces in the financial services industry are already impacting business. The convergence of these forces does present challenges; however, it also provides a window of opportunity for financial institutions to elevate business performance and gain a competitive advantage. Perficient provides a monthly perspective on some of the most talked about IT issues and emerging trends to help industry professionals identify and rationalize their IT investments.

Consumers Call the Shots with Mobile

Digital disruption threats, rising customer expectations and new technologies continue to advance mobile banking in the financial services industry.  Wearable technologies like Google Glass and smart watches may soon allow consumers to manage finances in a whole new way.  As a result, mobile banking has become a seemingly ubiquitous part of our lives and banking culture. How consumers’ changing digital financial expectations impacts banks, credit unions and non-banks is evident through the evolving mobile banking and marketing strategies for delivering services and communicating value to their customers.    

New Paradigms and Players in Payments 

With worldwide mobile payment transactions set to $235 billion this year, based on Gartner’s most recent forecast, payment providers must rationalize payments as a key customer channel to be competitive, not only in banking, but also in retail and commerce.  Based on these predictions the financial services industry we’ll likely see growth in P2P payments, money transfers, new bill payment capabilities, and virtual currency.  Disruption is also at a feverish pitch right now as key non-banking service providers accelerate offerings to differentiate themselves from others in the marketplace. 

Fusing Innovation with IT Leadership 

2013 has been a watershed year for many financial institutions leading to a crossroads in innovation.  They must innovate or die.  As organizations face financial disruption head-on they will need more than just technology to make this happen. Banks need to challenge their development processes, tap into existing frameworks (like APIs), invest in partnerships (many of them may be disruptors), focus on in-house talent development, and reward strategic thinking to spur financial innovation for your organization.

Social Business & Collaboration

Portal and social collaboration solutions put power into the hands of business users. They are the gateway to content, transactions, and processes.  Whether content is distributed over the internet, captured and stored through electronic documentation, or used for internal communication, Financial Services organizations must have the strategy, processes, and tools in place to effectively manage their content. 

Will FIs Adapt to Become ‘Retailers’?

In the age of information, customers expect more from their on-line experience — better service, options, price, and ultimately delivery of products and/or services. Technology enables them to research information, compare products, and interact across channels seamlessly. The buyer/seller dynamic has evolved and experienced a remarkable transformation with the consumer empowered by access to virtually unlimited information and tools that ultimately raises the bar on expectations.   This retail mindset is becoming more apparent in financial services as digital channels continue to see growth.  A more integrated and innovative approach will be required for keeping up with business challenges to service the banking customer effectively and efficiently. 

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Elizabeth Dias

Elizabeth Dias is an experienced technology marketing strategist focused on the financial services and retail industry at Perficient. With over nine years of experience as a professional business-to-business (B2B) marketer, Elizabeth is knowledgeable in technology strategies for the financial services industry focusing on mobile banking and payments, data analytics, and enterprise information management. She also closely follows the fintech community as well as tech trends in social and digital, and is also an active blogger and thought leader on Twitter (@techmktggirl).

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