Making the SaaS Transition Easier | Stewart Davies | Temenos Community Forum 2024

This year’s Temenos Community Forum in Dublin was a blast.

We had a number of interesting conversations with attendees and partners, one of whom was Temenos Global SaaS commercial Director, Stewart Davies.

In this video, he discusses several key factors influencing banks to adopt SaaS. Initially, the shift was driven by technological advantages like utilizing hyperscalers, but it has evolved into a strategic and cultural decision. Banks now prioritize their core activities, focusing on delivering value to their customers, whether in retail, corporate, or wealth sectors. The broader accessibility of SaaS, with more data centers and regulatory support, also facilitates this transition, allowing banks to better serve their clients.

Despite the benefits, banks face several challenges when adopting SaaS. The decision involves not just technology and architecture considerations, but also a significant emphasis on trust. This includes data security, service resilience, and meeting regulatory obligations. Davies goes on to explain that banks need assurance on how their data is handled and kept secure, the robustness of the service, and how to maintain compliance with regulatory standards.

Of course, when adopting SaaS, banks must consider how they will integrate these services into their operations. A key consideration is ensuring commonality of services among all users, adhering to best practices, and focusing on a unified approach that simplifies the investment and implementation process. This unified approach allows Temenos to offer a consistent and high-quality service across all clients, making the adoption process smoother.

Temenos aids banks in transitioning to SaaS by offering enterprise services based on its Foundation platform. This platform supports continuous updates, eliminating the need for extensive and costly upgrade projects every few years. This approach ensures that banks can maintain control and oversight while seamlessly meeting regulatory requirements and benefiting from ongoing improvements and updates.

All of this information is highly useful but we also wanted to know what Davies thought about the Temenos Community Forum. Our write up of the event, which took place in Dublin this year, highlighted how customers and innovation were front and centre. He may be a little biased of course, but points out that it facilitates numerous conversations within a short timeframe. It offers a neutral setting away from the pressures of office environments, fostering collaborative and productive discussions among partners, existing customers, and potential clients. This environment enhances the quality of interactions and meetings, making the forum a highly valuable event for all participants.

Be sure to watch the video to hear his thoughts on the topics above and stay tuned for further coverage from the conference.