Going Digital pays off as Dividends

Care to know the new style of IT? Well, it’s business-led, with IT supporting the organizational goals. Don’t buy it? You’ll definitely in a while. Having a look at the plus points first, we find that it’s efficient, open, collaborative, scalable and flexible! The thing is that we’re going forward – following the path of a consumption-based and also as-a-service model for speed, cost effectiveness and importantly, agility! You can’t deny that it’s a world where cloud, big data, security, mobility and customer satisfaction are not just technical jargon anymore – these elements should converge towards a comprehensible solution to tap into the end-user’s soft spot. Interested now? This is the new style of IT!
Companies who take it up, clinch onto new digital technologies and revolutionize their conventional retail and service model and these companies are the ones that have massive opportunities because ever-growing customer expectations have the impending ability to bring an organization down that’s too lazy to change. Banks, for example, have that challenge to grapple with – tackling changing consumer behaviors and expectations.
Value- Innovative players and leaders such as Google, HP and Square have already entered the world of financial services. Taking a hint from even the retail sector, from Big names like the Amazon, eBay and Walmart transforming customer experiences, Financial Institutions need to step up to the game, taking up the new style before it’s too late and the non-banking organizations step in to own the customer experience layer and provide alternate means of distribution.

IDC predicts that for APAC banks, 60% of use cases of big data will centre on customer engagement, and mobile financial services will be increasingly important – in fact the first step – in omni-channel outreach. The funny thing is that everything is happening at once – the customer behavior, technology and leveraging competitive advantages are all in flux! The Banks are facing rapid change – and should rightfully do so (to stay alive!)

Figure 1. Some examples of Banks following Value Innovation
The new style of IT is coaxing end users to adopt technology at God-speed, or at least faster than it is incorporated in the business world. Hence, the organizations and IT need to focus more on how technology is applied to answer the user’s question, and less on machines! This is why the Financial Institutions are thinking more on the lines of technology to understand, anticipate and address customer needs.
Creating a full circle approach to drive customer intimacy is possible when you have certain digital enablers in place. The infographic below jots down some of the basic enablers that help bonding with your customers – that certain banks have implemented and managed to pull their customers closer!

In the IT Cloud, banks are looking out for the silver lining in today’s exigent market. These financial institutions are capitalizing on the digital wave, riding on the new style of IT to become the choice of existing and new customers. The impetus for the end-to-end digital bank that is now being pioneered by innovative attackers will, however, only become stronger as the young digital generation gets older and wealthier. Satisfying their expectations will eventually become the inescapable market paradigm. Fancy the new style? Like it or not, organizations need to flaunt it!