The digital revolution has driven many industries to face a fundamental transformation – from media, to education and most notably to banking. But perhaps no other industry beside outside of banking faces such a critical and complex transformation journey.
Here are a few reasons our clients are choosing to invest in transformation now:
- Time to market for new products. This is something we hear from banks all over the world and we have customers who are now able to implement new products within days instead of months.
- Keeping Up with Growth. Some banks have simply outgrown its existing environment and need to have a new environment to scale better. Banks need to have a platform that can support its growth and provide the efficiency to come up with new offerings in an efficient way. We have customers who process millions of transactions and/or grow 30%-40% a year in volume and therefore they need to have the technology in place to handle this.
- Operational risk. Banks have to have confidence not only in new technology platform but also the partner provider implementing the technology.
Beyond these considerations, bank transformations differ significantly from region to region. In mature markets, the focus is on reducing costs and complexity; that is, reducing the number of systems and putting more emphasis on common processes. In emerging markets, it is all about growth and bringing new products faster to market.
Let me give you two examples. There is a customer in South Africa who generates 7,000 new accounts a day or 100,000 a month using our mobile banking solution, and one in Mexico who is handling millions of micro-loans. Banks there have outgrown their system, or they want to get rid of their in-house systems and have turned to new technology to keep up with growth.
It’s all about growth, volume, and reaching new customer segments. Or is it more than that?
At the recent SAP SAPPHIRE NOW conference, it was a record-breaking year for SAP Financial Services. Over 15% of the attendees were from this sector! In case you missed them, I invite you to watch these video replays from the conference:
Hear Financial Services Customers Discuss How Innovation Impacts Business. Find out what critical factors are at play in a core business transformation program. Hear representatives from several financial services companies share their successful experiences across different regions and lines of business
Go Beyond Traditional Core Banking to Optimize Cash Operations. The power of an integrated comprehensive solution has moved beyond the office of the CFO into the realm of core insurance processing. Examine a new road map for innovation, beginning with product design and underwriting and continuing through policy, billing, and claims management.