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.
Winning Mobile Banking Strategies
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.
- The ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ for Banking Transformation
- Time to Start Planning for the Next Generation of Digital Banking
- GoBank’s Viral Growth Plan
- Mobile Marketing: USAA Embeds Preapproved Loan Offers in Mobile App
- Digital Marketing Capabilities Lacking at Many Banks
Payments: Regulatory Compliance & Disruption
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.
- Death By a Thousand Cuts? Google Wallet’s Plan to Take on PayPal
- Google P2P Feature a Wake-up Call for Banks
- First Look: Google Wallet “Pay by Gmail” (and the Pain of Authentication)
- Is the Government Trying to Kill Digital Currency?
- Regulatory Compliance a High-stakes ‘Must’ for Bitcoin Businesses
FinTech Startups & Partnerships Critical
The industry is becoming increasing dependent upon the FinTech community to help organizations deliver innovative technology solutions for their customers. A consistent theme in the financial services technology is surfacing among innovators – partnering. Strategic partnerships with other companies and open APIs encourage innovation and accelerates a FI’s ability to bring new services to market. At the recent FinovateSpring event, a leading FinTech conference, attendees were immersed in demos from financial technology vendors making light bulbs go off in people’s heads and instilling fear in others. For these reasons, its important for financial marketers and technologists to keep a pulse on the FinTech community and look to leverage partnerships and solutions where it makes sense in their business.
- FinTech Startups Will Change Banking and Finance
- 5 Things You Don’t Know Because You Weren’t at Finovate
- Musings of a Finovate Virgin
- FinovateSpring Fling: Another Year of Dazzling Financial Services Delight
- Partnerships With Startups Will Be Key with Mobile Wallet Wars
- These 5 Start-ups Will Change the Way You Pay for Everything
Refocusing on Data for Decisioning
Financial services front offices are increasingly pressured for real-time business intelligence and analytics, customer insights, and centralized customer preference profiles for their delivery channels. Technology vendors and solution providers are also experiencing push-back on the term “big data” and the unrest it causes in the industry. As one of the articles we’ve highlighted states, “It’s not the size of your data that counts; it’s what you do with it”. As we talk about data management and analytics strategies the focus needs to be more on what value is derived from the solution rather how to classify it.
- The “Big” Debate: Classifying Data for Better Decision Making
- Data Brings Banks Closer to Customers
- Forget the “Big” in Big Data and Just Consider the Data
- Big Regulation’s Big Data
- MasterCard Uses Social to Rebrand Its Mobiel Wallet Through Real-time Monitoring
- Improving Business Analytics Through a Single Customer View
Innovation at the “Core” of Banking
Leading a core banking transformation is a major undertaking that requires CIO leadership skills and investment in technologies that help modernize their existing systems. However, banks soon will not have the option to push off this core transformation project. The benefits far outweigh the negatives, as core modernization allows banks to be more agile and respond to changing market opportunities. During this process of implementing new banking platforms, the use of cloud computing services and need for systems integration will become increasingly important.
