If you scrolled down the current # tags on your twitter or linkedin accounts you would encounter at least twenty to thirty different terms pertaining to business transformation and you would be hard-pressed to find agreement on the meaning of each term. Given this level of confusion it shouldn’t be surprising that the objectives of digital transformation and indeed the solutions are equally bewildering. Some experts focus on technological change while others favour a more cultural approach. Small wonder that the results in terms of business growth and financial gain are disappointing.
Current figures for banks for return on investment leave a lot to be desired. According to a new report from Accenture “The US$1 trillion that traditional retail and commercial banks have invested globally over the past three years to transform their IT operations has not yet delivered the anticipated revenue growth. In addition “Investors are signalling that they lack confidence in the future value of the traditional banking business model, with the industry languishing near the bottom on market valuation metrics.” 50% of banks worldwide have not even begun to address the requirement for a digital transformation strategy. The insurance industry, on the whole, is in the same position, lulled into a fall sense of security, it too is very traditional and very slow to change.
While millions of dollars/euros have been poured into customer-focused front end business processing. the decades-old backend has been largely ignored. #CTOs do the best they can to keep up with the demands of varying departments but over the years they have lost position and trust with the adoption of quick fixes for ERPs, CRMs, and mobile customer solutions. All the while they are stuck with the maintenance of legacy systems that become more open to security issues by the day and consume up to 60% of their IT Budget.
So what options are open to retail and commercial banks, insurers and enterprises if they want to remain relevant and in business in a decades time? Well, cultural change cannot happen in a vacuum. They must come to terms with their legacy systems and the short term fixes and solutions that were adopted over the years. Incumbents part digital transformation is no longer viable as a long term option particularly with the proliferation of more agile and mobile-savvy newer entrants to the market place. By embedding intelligent solutions eg AI, machine learning and analytics into every business process, enterprises could lower their costs while promoting long term customer loyalty. In addition by the introduction of intelligent automation staff can be freed up from more mundane activities to focus on responding to what their valued mobile centred customers want now.
The Business Transformation Network have shared this article in partnership with Pivot Cloud Solutions.
Pivot Cloud Platform, developed by Pivot Cloud Solutions is an easily embedded wholistic solution that requires no downtime. It runs in parallel with existing systems without disruption to day-to-day business processing. It addresses the biggest technological stumbling blocks to the adoption of digital transformation in enterprises today. By giving incumbent Banks, Insurers and Enterprises the tools they need to simplify existing business processes, and create real-time analytics they have the information and the space to respond in new ways to an ever-changing market place into the future.
This piece was written by Jacinta Mandyam (Co-Founder & CMO Pivot Cloud Solutions).
