Make content king… or risk becoming the Blockbuster of FSI

Digital transformation, an overused phrase? Yes — but love it or hate it, it is the keystone of innovation in business, and nowhere more so than in financial services.

When it comes to digital transformation, the financial services industry still lags behind other sectors in many ways think — cheque processing or the familiarity and comfort of manual processes in back offices. With younger, disruptive firms such as Stripe, Robinhood and PayPal nibbling at larger institutions market share (and benefiting from having little to no legacy systems), it’s clear that financial services incumbents need to transform or else risk becoming defunct. Consider, for example, that 53 per cent of Millennials don’t see their banks offering any differentiation and 73 per cent saying they would be more interested in banking if Google, Amazon or Apple were to enter the fray, according to the Millennial Disruption Index.

But transformation is about more than just digitisation: it is the opportunity to improve your business as a whole, or even to change it fundamentally. When embarking on the digital transformation journey it’s important to keep in mind the need to improve the way people, processes and technology work together. These three vital ingredients of any organisation are unchanging but the way we work together has evolved. Today, information sharing and collaboration needs to be quick and easy but also secure and managed.

Content is key

The common denominator in workflow transformation is content. It’s the way we communicate, market ourselves, collaborate and store our digital assets. But, in many cases, systems for managing content have become fragmented and difficult to work with.

Seem familiar?

Look, for example, at the complexity, need for human interaction and paperwork involved in a mortgage application process. Disconnected systems make it difficult to create, digitise, index and archive documentation. For example, the customer will likely need to submit proof of their identity (in person, or via the post), sign paperwork, and transfer documents back and forth from the bank. The bank employee, in addition to managing this set-up process with the customer must scan and upload all of this material onto the network file shares and log all interactions on the company CRM system.

Examples like this can lead to a situation where multiple document copies reside on network file shares and are sent externally over email. This is by no means a frictionless process and certainly not secure.

Content and collaboration go hand-in-hand with most core business processes in financial services, whether they be for mortgage applications, transactions, regulatory requirements or front- and back-office functions. The ability to collaborate around content regardless of lines of business or geographies is imperative. At the same time, the content must be secure and available but not restricted or compromised. With cloud content management, companies have access to single, secure rallying point that reduces risk, advances collaboration and streamlines processes.

Standardise for a coherent, compelling user experience

Digital transformation in the financial services industry involves optimising existing channels and creating new channels or services. This means that relationship managers, bankers, wealth managers and others must be connected to, and have the same information as, the client for mobile or web-based banking. Ideally, this information will also be available in the same format and it will offer a compelling user experience for both.

Today, however, there is often a disconnect between what the customer sees and what the banker sees. This disconnect can cause added complexities and a breakdown in communication. Making information available in a standardised, uniform fashion, regardless of channel or application, sender or recipient is an important step forward

Risks and regulations

Emerging regulations such as GDPR, which came into effect in May 2018, also necessitate the financial services industry to transform digitally or at the very least be well on its way toward a more digital future. Under GDPR, all organisations, not only financial institutions, must be able to provide individuals with their personal data, in a structured and machine-readable format. Individuals have the “right to be forgotten,” where the individual’s data must be deleted. Clients and employees alike will have more control over their data and how it is processed, with firms potentially suffering substantial fines for non-compliance of 4% of global turnover or €20 million.

Knowing what information you hold, where it is stored, why you have access to it and how it is being processed, is the essence of GDPR. This latest development in legislation means that information must be secure and, wherever possible, centralised. Having a way to automatically audit, tag and classify and provide versioning control will help organisations build compliance directly into their workflows. Cloud Content Management is an opportunity to ensure your content is compliant with regulations including recent rules, such as GDPR, and future legislation, such as the ePrivacy Regulation.

Make transformation content-centric

Digital transformation is necessary to instigate innovation, adhere to regulation, beat competition and continuously improve the customer and employee experience. This need to innovate is especially relevant today as it is not difficult to imagine a world where Amazon Mortgages and iLoans are the norm. Cloud Content Management is a vital part of transformation as it enables secure sharing and collaboration of content anywhere, at any time and on any device; revolutionising how companies work by securely connecting their people, information and applications.