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Frictionless transformation: No strings attached!
December 12, 2013 by Richard Buckle — Founder and CEO, Pyalla Technologies, LLC
The extreme cold and icy conditions that have kept many of us in Colorado housebound are beginning to ease, and once again, intrepid drivers are heading back to the highways. Looking up at the Continental Divide and absorbing the breathtaking view of snowcapped peaks has enticed the more adventurous among us to strap skis onto roof racks and make the annual pilgrimage to the slopes.
While the snow has been a nuisance along Colorado's front ranges, it's certainly making a big difference up in the resorts and deep powder is giving the skiers exactly what they want ...
Trolling around the ATM Marketplace website while confined indoors, cherry-picking articles that looked promising, I came across a news update featuring the Royal Bank of Scotland.
In the piece about RBS' focus on customer experience, NCR Financial Services SVP Andy Heyman said, "The [financial] industry is in the midst of a transformation." Further on, he said, "We are pleased to be working with on delivering convenient services for their customers, as they seek to transform their business, provide their customers with a great experience, and grow their brand."
I don't know Heyman, but in this context I fully agree with him. We are in transformation, up and down the "stack," from client device to server to OLTP database to back-end data warehouse to the business analytics that have become critical to differentiating financial services industry products.
Furthermore, in a clear case of the tail wagging the dog, the "user experience" is fueling much of this transformation, as anyone studying Apple can tell you. Bottom line, there's no going back and the pace of transformation will only continue to accelerate.
In the article about RBS, CEO Ross McEwan acknowledged that "[W]e need to prepare for a future based on being there for our customers on their terms." RBS has its fair share of naysayers among bankers, but if this observation by McEwan is indicative of where they are heading then the pundits may be wrong.
If the user experience and the ease of operation of a client device is the tail wagging the dog then clearly, the customer holds all the keys in today's business world. Mess around with the customer and you will lose them within a few keystrokes.
Selecting the features tab, I scrolled down to "ATM innovation: Give the people what they want," in which ATM Marketplace editor Suzanne Cluckey recounts an interview with Diebold Inc. EVP and CIO, Frank Natoli. Asked about the pace of innovation, Natoli said, "It does feel slow … There's a lot of reasons for that, I understand. If I'm a bank, I'm spending 40 percent or more of my IT budget on compliance, and with new regulations coming out, I'm really going to have to pick and choose."
Transformation to better support customers will take time, according to Natoli, and I think he is right in one sense but it's also going to depend upon prioritization. There's much that can be done simply that will move transformation along more quickly. However it is also Natoli who raises a very good point about what's potentially going to slow down innovation and possibly lessen transformation.
"Any system, any process that stands on its own, that requires you to transfer information you know, or get it from another channel — all those things are friction. Additional steps are friction, memorizing things are friction, having to carry additional items — all of those are friction", notes Natoli. "As we try to innovate, we have to be conscious of the fact that we're dealing with people's secure financial information … And that gives us a lag between what consumers experience in other facets of their life and what we're able to provide in the financial sector."
What Diebold and NCR recognize is that indeed, transformation is gathering momentum as we give customers what they want. However, there is friction also that is creating drag and holding us back.
In my current post to the NonStop community blog, Real Time View, Give the people what they want … I note that friction might be a bad thing for sailors as it creates drag and slows the vessel down, whereas for a racecar driver, friction might improve grip and that's a good thing.
Understanding what the customer wants — and then implementing it with an understanding of the need to prioritize carefully — will generate friction and in so doing, give the financial institution the kind of checks and balances we always hope are in place.
Frictionless transformation holds grave consequences, no matter the discipline. RBS is right of course, "being there for our customers on their terms" should influence how they prioritize the steps taken to fill in the infrastructure that such goals dictate. And in doing so, they will likely see other business objectives fall by the wayside. But what of the price to be paid, and will it cause friction?
In the view of Yash Kapadia, CEO of payment platform solutions provider OmniPayments Inc., price will be one very big source of friction — and it's something he is already dealing with as a software vendor.
"Having everything in the one box at an affordable price is the most important number of all — the additional performance is great but it's still all about price/performance," Yash said in my current post to Real Time View.
Providing just one piece in the transformation chain, albeit an important piece, has provided Yash with insight into just how price sensitive financial institutions remain even when pursuing high priority goals and again, there can't be any strings attached when it comes to interacting with customers!
"Give the customer what they want" will continue to dominate discussions at all levels. Institution, vendor, solutions provider — all will have their sights set on helping transform our industry.
The move to "being there for customers" is just the latest iteration of placing the customer first, but it's a real necessity for all financial institutions looking to stay in business.
The catch will be navigating priorities in such a way that reduces friction to a minimum — without removing the checks and balances fundamental to good business. Drag, after all, adds to our delay and in this game, Olympian struggle that it is, no one wants to be held back!
About Richard Buckle
Richard Buckle is the founder and CEO of Pyalla Technologies, LLC. He has enjoyed a long association with the Information Technology (IT) industry as a user, vendor, and more recently, as an industry commentator, thought leader, columnist and blogger. Richard participates in the HPE VIP Community where he is part of their influencer team.
