Today’s digitally-savvy, always-on banking customers demand personalized experiences that are fast, easy, and seamless regardless of the channel they use. Customers expect a singular, integrated experience across various banking channels—Web, Mobile, Wearables, Chatbots or even voice assistants. To cater to these new-age customers, banks need to have a robust digital-first roadmap along with cutting-edge tech and also optimize existing business operations. Today, most global banks have a digital strategy in place, but not all banks are progressing at the same pace.
Gartner’s 2020 CIO Survey suggests that “71% of the surveyed banks had delivered on some level of their digital initiatives, but many banking CIOs are still struggling to harvest results from digitalization.“
As part of the report, Gartner has outlined four key recommendations for banking CIOs to implement a thriving financial service digital business strategy.
Align digital strategy with business objectives.
Banks need to invest in digital tech, tools, and platforms that help them move faster toward achieving business goals and metrics and supercharges the existing tech stack. Bringing such significant and sometimes sweeping changes is not possible without a buy-in from the leadership team. Hence banks need to align the C-suite to the digital initiative. Besides, banks need to continuously measure and report success metrics to ensure that the spotlights stay on business goals.
Stay focused on safety and security.
The World Retail Banking Report 2020 found that more than 57% of banking customers prefer e-banking given the ongoing pandemic, changing customer demographics, and increasing online platforms’ acceptance. These changes in customer behavior have made banks focus on growth and enhance CX. This growth has also led the concerns around security and risks. Any data breach can impact a bank’s reputation, compromise customer information, lead to financial losses, and attract legal repercussions. Hence, it is prudent for a bank to invest in digital platforms that deliver business growth without comprising security and risks.
Balance transformation and optimization.
Banks need to strike the right balance between driving organizational change and ensuring process optimization for implementing a successful digital banking strategy and maximizing ROI. A multi-year roadmap and a tightly integrated digital banking, IT, and business strategy are fundamental to becoming future-ready. It places banking CIOs in the driver’s seat to push the transformational agenda while staying focused on optimizing operations and minimizing disruption.
Start small, refine, iterate and evolve.
Long-lasting, transformational changes do not happen overnight. It is essential to recognize that more than the tech stack, organizational culture is likely to be the biggest differentiator to the success of a bank’s digital strategy. Gartner’s findings suggest that banks that are successful in their digital transformation are consistently better at maintaining culture traits that support the role of their digital investments. Taking a progressive and staggered approach not only accelerates deployment but also minimizes business disruption and overheads.
Conclusion
As the pandemic forced businesses to go virtual almost overnight, it has reemphasized the need for building rock-solid customer engagements. Banks are now under increased pressure to transform themselves digitally or risk customer attrition. A balanced, iterative, and security-driven approach to digital investments is fundamental to the success and impact on business. Banks that scale their spending and evolve gradually will be the frontrunners in harvesting results faster and better.
Discover how CIOs can embrace best practices and learn from the mistakes of others for a successful digital banking strategy. Download Gartner’s Lessons in Digital Banking Prioritization From Savvy Trailblazers report now.
