• Rupal Karia, VP – UK&I at UiPath


• 28.04.2023 01:45 pm
#banking

The perception of the finance industry has long been that established brands are chasing agile challengers. The assumption that challengers don’t have the issue of legacy systems, specifically in relation to customer communication and journeys, however, is no longer accurate. 

In the technology of the finance industry, innovation moves, and ages, fast. Challenger organisations are now at a point where their tech is not too new, and often their customer data is sitting on aging, siloed systems. With this, and increased complexities due to user journeys being omnichannel and crossing multiple touchpoints, it has become more difficult for developer teams to improve customer experience. The initial challenger banks then, are now the challenged. 

For challenger banks to return to their disruptor status, they need to get back to the approach which brought them their initial wave of success – embracing innovation. With demand for new applications and services increasing as the customer experience goes digital, banks need innovative tech in their operations. In the current economic climate, individuals want to make the most of their money, and, as such, banks must be readily available to support their customers regardless of channel. Automation can help.

With automation, banks can streamline their operations, reduce costs, and increase efficiency. This enables them to offer more competitive products and services while, at the same time, freeing up developers’ time to innovate. 

Freeing up developer time

To keep pace with established competitors, challenger banks must be arming developers with the tools needed to produce the newest and most innovative products. 

With the increasing demand for digitised customer journeys, there is new opportunity to use automation to enhance the testing experience. Testing automation allows developers to cover a larger area of their banks applications and ensure that each new development or update works without causing disruption to the customer. 

Developers often spend a significant amount of time on time-consuming tasks, such as application testing, data analysis, deployment, and maintenance. In fact, our own research found that over 75% of end-to-end customer journeys are currently tested manually – consuming around 5% of a bank’s full time employee’s time. By automating these, developers can shift their focus to shaking up the industry again, while ensuring that any updates deployed are interoperable between different banks’ systems.

Streamlining the digital experience

With their lack of physical branches, challenger banks were the first to break the mould when it came to customer touchpoints. However, since the pandemic and rapid digital transformation of the financial services industry – both in investment banking and on the High Street – not having a physical branch is no longer an innovative approach. To keep up with consumer demands, all banks need to put their focus on creating the most streamlined and accessible experience possible.

End-to-end automation gives banks a much deeper level of access to their customer information, which makes it easier to optimise the omnichannel experiences that are so critical to success in today’s landscape. A typical customer in 2023 will interact with their bank across multiple touchpoints, such as a dedicated mobile app or online banking website, and it is essential to have access to their data to provide a personalised experience. By automating the collection, analysis, and utilisation of customer data, developers can create customised experiences that better meet their audience’s needs and preferences. For example, if the data shows most customers using the mobile app are under 30, the app could be optimised for budgeting and long-term savings, rather than mortgages. This improved convenience will certainly help to maintain a positive relationship between bank and customer. 

What next?

While challenger banks were once seen as the disruptors in the finance industry, they are now facing the same challenges as established players from legacy systems and a lack of innovation.

The fast and efficient development of new products and services is crucial for the success of the industry, and automation can play a key role in helping them overcome these challenges. By embracing automation in their operations, from the front-office to the back-office, companies can free up developer time to work on more creative tasks, improve access to customer data to optimise the omnichannel experience, and create better customer experiences.