We spoke to our global community of Financial Services leaders around the world to gain insights into their understanding and usage of intelligent data and automation in their Enterprise. This piece of research was primarily targeted at c-level roles both on the business and I.T. side of the house.
Digital Transformation is by no means a new concept yet most business are still on that journey.
The top priorities for 2020 as stated by leaders are automation, better, faster customer service and cost savings and efficiencies.
70% believe their technology is not flexible, cannot scale and is incapable of helping them meet their goals and priorities.
A top priority for 75% of leaders
40% are focusing on greater automation to bolster customer service,
Scale, growth and Customer Service is the the common thread when considering Automation. 40% are solely focusing on opening and streamlining new digital channels for customers such as digital assistants or online applications.
It's natural to immediately think about customer-facing automation. But what about the operational workforce, in the background, tasked with processing requests, claims etc. The middle to back office is where we have identified Automation as a vital element to the customer experience.
Intelligent technology and it's uses are not fully understood, yet 75% of participants say its a top priority.
It should be noted that Intelligent technology and its uses are understood differently from business to business even person to person. In the majority of cases, participants were less knowledgeable about it and is often not seen as a key part of successful automation.
Ultimately, the benefits of intelligent technology is not recognized as easily as Automation. Having a central platform collect important data about work patterns and trends, to then feed it back to Team Leaders and managers to assist with making better, faster decisions is key.
We recommend businesses consider the possibilities of Intelligence hand in hand with automation initiatives for a successful digital transformation.
Just under 60% believe they are unable to move away from traditional ways work working.
Technology, security and concerns around trust were all noted as key barriers. Focusing in on trust – at a deeper level this comes down the culture of the business. There’s a 2-speed world here whereby newer companies have a different culture and are not confined to “that’s always how we’ve done things” traditions and legacy systems.
60% recognize working-from-anywhere and flexible working as a trend and understand it will become a requirement in the next 3-5 years. They understand they will need a solution that will enable them in this area.
Of the 60% of participants who don’t think they can move to new ways of working – half of those are taking steps to move forward in other ways.
Efforts are being made to re-train and up-skill the workforce, to allow them to bring their knowledge into different areas of the business. This approach of applying peoples' skills in a variety of ways is believed to be a key pillar in the Evolution of Work.