5 Points to ensure your payments business survives
If you’ve not noticed, big things are afoot in the banking world, how could you not notice!? With the introduction of Open Banking in Europe (and similar movements across the world) coupled with the wave of technology-based challengers in the financial markets it’s imperative that you move with the times. Early adaptors will have the head start but being late to the party will leave you with small pickings or worse no business / customers. There’s no doubt that the roadmap ahead is one that requires some great thinking, away from traditional business models, and with that comes many hurdles and challenges to overcome but with the right strategy, and support the opportunities are endless and business will never be better!
2. Ensure you have a plan to implement your Digital Strategy
It’s been a buzz word for so long now, but have you actually achieved it? Do you have a digital presence, is it working and is it creating new revenue? People’s attitude towards traditional banking has changed dramatically and customer expectations are even higher than they ever were. Having a business without a digital strategy is like trying to steer a boat without a rudder! Without one, you will not have clear goals, reach new customers, retain existing customers and be able to compete within your market.
3. Update your legacy systems / technology to the latest stacks
One of the hardest problems when trying to be agile, flexible, achieve innovation, deliver new products fast, adapt and stay ahead is dragging your legacy systems along with you. With the age of open API’s and exposing your services outwards as an almost necessity to staying in the game, it’s almost impossible to achieve this with legacy systems without huge amounts of time and costs involved. Even then you are likely to be restricted by what your vendor will or will not do for you.
Our world is no longer just about financial transactions, now we have millions of other messages (transactions) coming into our systems from multiple difference channels and all needing to be processed or reacted upon. Legacy systems cannot scale horizontally and are so expensive to size that they are no longer fit for purpose. It’s time to think outside the box and enable technology within your business and not let it dictate what can and cannot be achieved.
4. Utilise ALL your data to drive innovation and better targeted product offerings
There’s a good reason why A.I and Machine Learning is the next buzz words and are constantly in our faces, it’s the future. Driving new and innovative products and services requires the ability to understand your customers and compliment their behaviours and needs; almost predicting their needs and targeting those needs. Are you really harnessing the power of the data within your systems? Are you using it to make your customers experience so good that they are becoming ambassadors of your services? Using your data powers should be so seamless in your product offerings that your customers don’t even question your offer but see it as an easy path or even a ‘need’ to what they are trying to achieve.
5. Partnerships are the way forward
For a long time, traditional players have had various reactions to the new fintech companies; create their own innovation centres, buy the innovators, defend against them. There strategies have rarely worked and really there is only one strategy that IS working, and that is partnering with them. Makes complete sense when you think that these businesses are so ‘tech’ orientated with no limitations on scaling, solving problems, creating innovative products customers want and overall being way more agile and nimble than a large giant could ever be. There’s an abundance of these companies the trick is finding the right ones to partner with and who are actually willing to partner with you! That’s right, you may have to change your approach and culture in order to create a true partnership and not a disguised customer-supplier relationship. Ignoring the new world of financial technical companies is as good as a death by a thousand cuts.
If you want to find out more and want a fast and efficient path towards achieving these points, then we are right here ready to help.
We have huge experience in helping your business transform and overcome the cultural changes to achieve success, all whilst addressing each of these points, oh, and bring new revenue in!
