The Next Wave of Digital Transformation

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There is no question that digital transformation has been a long-term trend in banking.

However, innovation is not instantaneous. When faced with the obstacles the recent pandemic presented, bankers initially accelerated innovation and digital transformation on the consumer side, thanks to a broad scope of impact and the technology available at the time to streamline human-to-human interactions.

Now, as easy-to-use technology that automates complex interactions between human and machine and machine-to-machine (M2M) interactions becomes more readily available, the banking industry should consider how it can transform their own business and the banking experience for their business clients.

The First Wave
Why were consumers first served in the early days of the pandemic? Because there are often a lot of consumers to serve, with similar use cases and needs. When many account holders share the same finite problems, it can be easier for banks to commit personnel and financial resources to software that addresses those needs. The result is the capability to solve a few big problems while allowing the bank to effectively serve a large base of consumers with a mutual need, generating a quick and viable return on investment.

The first wave of digital transformation in banking concentrated on consumers by focusing on digitizing human-to-human interactions. They created an efficient process for both the bank employee along with the customer end-user, and then quickly moved to enable human-to-machine interactions with the same outcome. This transformation can be seen in previous interactions between consumers and bankers, like account opening, check deposits, personal financial management, credit and debit card disputes and initiating payments — all of which can now be done by a consumer interacting directly through a digital interface. This is also known as human-to-machine interactions.

In contrast, business interactions with banks tend to be more nuanced due to regulations, organizational needs and differences based on varying industries. For instance, banks that manage commercial escrow accounts for property managers and landlords, municipalities, government agencies, law firms or other companies with sub-accounting needs frequently navigate various security protocols and regional and local compliance. Unfortunately, these complexities can slow innovation, like business online account opening that is only now coming to market decades after consumer online account opening.

The Next Wave
Automating these business interactions was once thought to be too large of an undertaking for many banks — as well as software companies. But now, more are looking to digitally transform these interactions; software development is easier, further advanced and less costly, making tackling complex problems achievable for banks.

This will mark the next wave of digital transformation in banking, as the potential benefits have a greater effect for businesses than consumers. Because profits for each business client are much higher than consumer accounts, banks can expect strong returns on investment by investing in value-add services that strengthen the banking experience for business clients. And with so many niche business verticals, there is opportunity for institutions to build a strong commercial portfolio with technology that addresses vertical-specific needs.

While the ongoing, first wave of digital transformation is marked by moving human-to-human interactions to human-to-machine, the next wave will lead to more machine-to-machine interactions. This is not a new concept: Most bankers have connected two separate software systems, and have heard of M2M interactions through discussions about application programming interfaces, or APIs. But what may not be clear to executives is how these M2M interactions can be extremely helpful when solving for frustrating business banking processes.

For example, a law firm may regularly open trust and escrow accounts on behalf of their clients. Through human-to-human interaction, their processes are twofold: recording client information in an internal software system and then providing the necessary documentation to their bank, via branch visit or phone, to open the account. They need to engage in additional communication to learn the balance, move money or close the account.

Transforming this to a human-to-machine interaction could look like the bank providing a portal through which the firm could open, move funds and close the account on their own. While this is an excellent improvement for the law firm and bank, it still requires double data entry into internal software and banking software.

Here, banks can introduce machine-to-machine automation to improve efficiency and accuracy, while avoiding extraneous back and forth. If the bank creates a direct integration with the internal software, the law firm would only need to input the information once into their software to automatically manage their bank accounts.

The digital transformation of business banking has arrived; in the coming years, machine-to-machine automation will become the gold standard in the financial services industry. These changes provide a unique opportunity for banks to help attract and satisfy existing and prospective business clients through distinctive offerings.

The Three Top Reasons For Vendor Consolidation

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vendor-manangement-11-8-16.pngWhy should banks and credit unions consider consolidating their vendor relationships? Here are three top reasons why:

1. Save Time And Money
Banks and credit unions that reduce the number of their vendor partnerships can increase their operational efficiency and productivity. When an institution partners with multiple vendors, typically that means staff has to deal with multiple back-end systems, often accessing each system numerous times a day and struggling to keep abreast of all of the updates for every system. Sometimes, staff is even unnecessarily bogged down with having to deal with duplicative systems from multiple vendors.

Consolidating vendor relationships also can significantly reduce the amount of training for staff as well as for customers. Bank and credit union staff typically has to train customers on how to use vendors’ private-labeled portals, and that can be time-consuming, particularly if a financial institution uses multiple vendors with multiple portals. But if an institution uses the same vendor for multiple solutions that all have the same look and feel and the same technology, then training of both staff and customers is significantly reduced.

When banks and credit unions are able to negotiate fewer contracts, they can conduct less due diligence on potential vendors, as well as get more for their money by reducing the amount of monitoring and reporting required for risk and assessment compliance. On the other hand, having multiple contracts with multiple vendors adds even more burden to staff because they will also have to monitor different contract term dates for renewal, and then they’ll have to determine how one expiring contract could impact solutions from other vendors.

Furthermore, when a bank or credit union uses fewer vendors, the institution has more negotiating power because it frees up more dollars with the remaining vendors. The higher the volume provided to a vendor, the more likely they will offer their best pricing resulting in lower cost.

2. Save On Vendor Due Diligence
Financial institutions are increasingly responsible for keeping up with the third-party vendor management requirements of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the National Credit Union Administration, the Federal Reserve, and for state-chartered institutions, the requirements of state regulators.

For example, the FDIC’s Guidance for Managing Third-Party Risk (FIL-44-2008), provides four main elements of an effective third-party risk management process: risk assessment, due diligence in selecting a third party, contract structuring and review and oversight. But today, there’s even more heightened scrutiny, as a number of high-profile security breaches of major vendors has caused regulators to make sure that financial institutions are actually taking all the necessary steps spelled out in the regulations, such as the IT handbook of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC).

Banks and credit unions can find it very time consuming to conduct the proper due diligence and ongoing monitoring on each vendor. By partnering with a one vendor, financial institutions can significantly reduce their compliance burden.

3. Help Customers
Consolidating vendors can enable banks to greatly elevate the experience for their customers, by providing a single platform that is easy to navigate. Banks may also have access to additional monitoring and reporting of customer activity to help prevent and detect fraud.

Vendor consolidation can provide substantial return on investment by saving time and achieving cost savings, as well as reduce regulatory burdens by providing the right monitoring and reporting to meet compliance requirements. Partnering with a one vendor can not only save time and money and boost return on investment, but also enhance customer loyalty by elevating the user experiences on the platform.