With the on-going turbulent pandemic, organizations in the BFSI sector are facing a growing list of challenges that increasingly require digital solutions. These challenges are a result of the changing technology and customer experience landscape.
The Challenges
- Heavy competition from loaded multi-national brethren
- Increase in customer expectations with a sharp decline in branch visits
- Changing compliance and regulatory requisites
The Solution
Financial institutions must – sooner than later – adapt to the digital age and leverage digital tools to keep pace, or outperform, their competition. Here is a guide of how organizations in the BFSI sector can win the next normal.
Small or mid-size organizations can start by optimizing their existing investment. Digital transformation often begins with the adoption of digital workplaces, where collaboration and teamwork are facilitated by technology rather than by a physical location. By cutting out the office real estate cost, you can save a ton on your OPEX, a part of which can be then re-invested in digital tools for remote working. By investing in digital workplaces that connect employees and subject-matter experts across departments and geographical locations, organizations can provide:
- Greater alignment between teams, resulting in faster and more accurate customer service
- The ability for teams to automate administrative tasks and customise workflows, freeing them up to tackle more complex and challenging work
- Faster escalation and resolution for critical incidents
- Broader organisational transparency
Consensus On Organization-Wide Digital Transformation
The digital transformation journey is unique for every organization but there are best practices available for getting started. By focusing on employee needs, processes and tools, organization leaders can gain momentum and get employees to buy in to their digital transformation strategy.
- Sell the vision
Change is stressful, especially an undertaking such as digital transformation in banking and financial services. According to the Boston Consulting Group, the key for senior leadership executing a digital transformation is to be wholly committed to radically changing the financial institution.
‘Digital transformation must be a clearly articulated strategic priority, supported by appropriate funding, talent recruitment, openness to new agile ways of working and a willingness to take risks.’
-BCG
Don’t forget to reinforce the “why” when you articulate the digital transformation taking place and to regularly highlight benefits for both employees and customers. This will inspire a sense of purpose and help employees to stay motivated.
- Provide ongoing support and learning programmes
While it’s important for senior leadership to help people to get to grips with new processes, tools and infrastructures during an organization-wide digital transformation in banking and financial services, it’s hard to guide everyone at once. In order to provide ongoing support, create an internal champions’ network to help to keep momentum going.
Champions are specially appointed believers and experts of digital transformation within regions, business units and departments who can lead digital changes and bring the best practices with them. They can be nominated by managers who have noticed their aptitude and positivity. Or, more often than not, champions can emerge organically during an organization’s digital transformation, raising their hands and volunteering to help their colleagues.
Provide organization-wide skills training for new tools and processes being introduced during the digital transformation process. Invest in employee learning and development opportunities that will help them adapt to changes and thrive in a new digital workplace. Nurturing your employees’ growth will support your digital transformation and keep employees engaged.
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Also Read: Is your organization ready for the new normal?
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- Invest in digital tools that enable collaboration
Establishing a collaborative digital workplace creates a strong foundation for an organization’s digital transformation in the BFSI sector. That’s why it’s important to invest in technological tools that enable knowledge sharing, organization-wide collaboration, virtual communication, and knowledge management. Document managers such as Box, Google Drive, content databases such as confluence, and virtual conferencing services such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc. are few such digital tools.
With the help of digital tools, data can be gathered at one place, enabling the employees to break out of the silos and focus on delivering top-notch services and competitive customer experiences. Once you’ve established a digital workplace, ensure that your organization’s databases, tools and applications are interoperable. That way, your organization can optimise data analytics efforts and operating patterns, while developing new cloud-based services more quickly.
The Journey
Clover Infotech recommends that you prioritise:
- Updating your IT operating model (monolith to micro-services)
- Simplifying legacy systems (upgrades and/or performance tuning)
- Taking software to the cloud (on-premise to cloud migration)
- Adopting automation/business intelligence (RPA/Data analytics/Data warehouses)
- Embrace the change and lead the charge (Consultation on tailor-made digital transformation journey)
An organization-wide digital transformation in the BFSI sector isn’t without its obstacles. But ultimately, it will make your business more innovative, keep your employees more engaged and help to grow your customer offerings. By investing in a digital transformation, you’re investing in your organization’s and employees’ capacity to be agile, competitive and, most importantly, adaptable in today’s financial world.
