Single Source of Truth as a Service
In the UK we recently witnessed an interesting development in the realm of banking, something that would have been unheard of, possibly not even wanted, just 2 years ago. It certainly wasn’t wanted by the banking establishments themselves but in a brave new world where most organisations are talking about the threat posed by GDPR and loss of data access and in consolidating and blindly chasing after market share; its interesting to see what I would have believed to be a conservative establishment doing something different.
The Lay of the Land — The truth of the matter is that personal banking in the UK has for many years been a minefield of disappointment, disillusionment and loss of trust. Between poor customer service, the exposure of unscrupulous banking practices and a now 10 year old recession crisis which still leaves a nasty taste in the mouth. I and many of the British consumers had very little reason to remain loyal, mix that with the ubiquity of switching services, recommend a friend rewards and you get what we have now; switching has become the consumer practice de rigueur for the cost savvy customer leading to more of the same behaviour, banks competing to get your short term attention and custom with ever more preferential rates for switchers and ever more obscure benefits for ‘premium’ accounts — washing machine insurance anyone? Banks are perfectly aware that banking customers are transitory, like migrating birds moving from one bank to another in search of warmer climes but other than try to capture as much of this market as possible and lock it in, none have attempted to actually provide any value to the customer or to simplify the ecosystem. As a banking customer this has meant that I and every other habitual switcher has left behind a trail of financial data and commitment detritus in the form of still existing but otherwise unused accounts or worse yet, that account that I have to remember to top up because I still pay the water bill from it every quarter (and forget to change). There is nothing fast, nothing simple and nothing for me to value in this way of working so it becomes a chore and actively hinders my awareness of my finances.
So what’s new?
In Europe at least, GDPR is new, and instead of talking about loss of marketing data and audience or the detrimental impact it will have on organisations I want to focus upon one game-changing opportunity that most organisations have overlooked.
A data subject must be able to transfer personal data from one electronic processing system to and into another.
The Right to Data Access -
Every consumer has the right to complete and up to date access to the data any institution holds on them & to be made aware of how that data is being processed by that organisation. This by and large led to a swathe of marketing departments rushing through a set of permissions capturing campaigns to make sure they kept your data, kept your permission to send you umpteen emails offering you better savings rates, conservatory blinds and stylish evening dresses (because you bought something nice for your partner two Christmases ago but still see Google Adwords links for everywhere on every webpage). Fear of GDPR led to a number of things and as we all know, “Fear leads to panic, panic leads to permissioning, and in my case, permissioning leads to wielding the right to be forgotten”. To quote some of my colleagues, May was like second Christmas.
It takes a leap of faith and interpretation then to move past the fear response to protect your own data, to seeking out a value proposition or user experience that would convince consumers to share another organisation’s data about them, with you. In theory at least this gives you a HUGE advantage, you haven't lost data… you’ve gained it, and you’ve gained data you wouldn’t otherwise have ever had and can make connections and add even more value by interpreting a more complete picture of your customer, all because they trust you.
The First Mover and the Fast Follower
HSBC recently (read a couple months ago — I've taken a long time to write this) released a new banking app which connects to and displays the balance and transactions of all of a consumers financial assets, from current accounts to mortgages, even those held with other providers. A single source of truth with unheard of access to the real-time status and behaviour for all of your financial holdings. At a simple level, for the confused consumer this represents a simplification of the user experience, why remember 5 passwords and logins when I can remember one for my week balance check. Why log in to multiple portals when I just want to make sure that bill went out and I have enough to cover that other thing. Barclays have recently announced that they will be following suit with the ability to track accounts and assets held with other organisations. As a premise, the single source of truth is spreading. What was just a single entity doing something different will likely become a growing trend. What will be vital is how these organisations leverage this early display of trust and how they use this data to provide value to their users. Data visibility and portability is the first strategic value add, if my data can be analysed to help me to save money, to pay off debts quicker or to achieve my goals in a way that better suits me, that is where the real differentiator will lie. Each organisation will have to define what that is for themselves in the knowledge that all the other banking institutions will be hot on their heels. I look forward to seeing what they come up with…just let it not be more washing machine insurance.
