Reviving the banking sector through technology

During the past few months the banking sector has been under tight scrutiny due to its lack of control of IT systems. As mentioned in a previous blog, the financial industry is failing to keep up with technologies that increase operational intelligence and are instead remaining on archaic systems to get the job done. Since then, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has stepped in to investigate the failings of RBS and now banking technology is being urged to improve before more organisations lose customer and reputation.

In order to progress, banks must learn that there is no better time to innovate and reconnect with customers than 2013. At the start of the year it was announced that smartphone sales had hit £1bn and this growth is set to continue for years to come. This is something that banks are not unaware of. According to research conducted by analyst Celent, the number of banks ranking the branch as one of the two most important channels declined from 73 per cent in 2010 to 54 per cent in 2012.

As the popularity of consumer gadgets continue to rise and the savvy customer becomes more attracted to the idea of banking via their portable devices, it’s important that there is investment in multichannel. However, banks must plan carefully to ensure that they don’t make the same mistakes as they have done previously.

To make a real success of engaging with customers through multiple channels, banks must take the back-office systems that support the front-end technologies as seriously as each other. Careful planning and shopping around for the best solutions will offer organisations the best chance of using technology to innovate, rather than disappoint.

Having operational intelligence flowing throughout the entire IT infrastructure will ensure that IT managers can view what’s happening across their network not only in real-time, but they will also be able to intercept and predict peaks and troughs; avoiding downtime and dissatisfying customers.

If banks do this right, they can offer their customers the very best engagement and restore the trust that was lost through the credit crunch and software errors.