Change you can Bank On

Two words that are not synonymous with each other are banking and simplicity. Picture your last call with your bank, and you can almost guarantee that you left it frustrated. With the reassuring recorded message from that bank that, “Your call is very important to us” while being intermittently irritated by terrible on-hold music. And all this while having to repeat the same information to multiple departments, as you explore the seemingly endless telephone trees.

Thankfully, change is on the horizon and this time it is a question of when, not if. The difference to all previous proclamations of change is twofold; the overwhelming pressure to change and the evolution of technology. These factors have produced a perfect storm, which will force change upon an industry that is known for not wanting to take risks.

Pressure to change

The pressure to change has come from three areas; the cost of outsourced labor, outsider challengers and demand from customers to provide a modern service. In the past, the only way to provide an affordable service was to outsource to offshore labor, but this has become increasingly expensive and strategically illogical for organizations. Companies have had to reconsider how they can handle customer requests with local outsourcing and keep costs at a reasonable level. While the cost of offshore labor has increased, customers have been demanding a simple, coherent and modern service from their finance companies. Where you can have multiple access points to get the information you need, simply and without having to enter telephone trees. The growing frustration and resentment from customers of finance companies has not gone unnoticed, with outside tech companies and Silicon valley, trying their hand at changing finance. They believe as they have changed so many other industries, they can deliver a better, faster and more customer-centric service using the latest technology. Think uber or another disruptive business, but instead for the world of finance. Finance companies need not despair, as due to technology developments that are readily available, they can continue to lead the way.

Modern Process Automation

Technology for finance companies in the past tended to have a slow return on investment, due to a difficult or lengthy process to implement. In part, this was due to many finance businesses having a number of legacy systems within their infrastructure, that they can’t change due to the cost or the potential for operational disruption. With legacy automation, this would mean they could only automate set systems, with a large amount of work required -generally taking up to 9 months to deploy. Modern automation is different, with RPA and AI working on top of current systems and with a company such as Thoughtonomy, delivery is possible in 30 days or less. Due to this flexibility of deployment, previous processes that would not have brought a return on investment are easily automated and quickly give a return. The combination of these factors means that finance companies can weather the storm, and deliver a modern customer experience.

Sam Gannon – Digital Marketing Executive, Thoughtonomy