The benchmarks of core transformation, be it from the product, process or customer experience perspective, relate back to the quality of the solution. A best in class BPM application brings little value until the goal of process improvement is institutionalised and absorbed into the organisation’s DNA. The real benefits of core transformation will flow in when people at all levels are empowered, processes optimised and frontline staff equipped to satisfactorily handle customers. A robust and agile core banking transformation solution plays an enabling role in meeting these conditions.

The benchmarks of agility from a process perspective include the speed of response to customer requests, turnaround time for complaint resolution in various channels or the flexibility with which processes can be changed. On the flip side, bottlenecks in customer service created by inadequate guidelines and documentation or lack of clarity are symptomatic of lethargic processes.

The best benchmark of customer experience is growth combined with stickiness. A bank reporting high customer attrition and acquisition is not on a safe wicket. Nor is the one in which service staff deal with all callers in the same fashion, without knowing if they are speaking with a no-frills account holder or high net worth individual. The Quality of Experience indicator reflects measures of customer satisfaction such as cross-sales ratio, customer longevity, contribution from long- standing accounts, profitability per customer, complaint incidence and so on.

Average time to market for new products is a good indicator of product development agility. Legacy systems are probably to blame if a rollout takes the better part of a year; however, if a bank takes several months to launch a product despite having a modern core platform, it needs to re-examine its processes. But what about the bank which rolls out a new product with agility only to receive a muted response? Obviously, it has a larger strategic problem on hand – quite likely, the product does not meet customer needs as well as other offerings in the market. This brings up an important point, which is, agility is not only determined by how fast a product goes but also how far. Obviously, a bank’s “segment of one” customer approach cannot be backed by a “segment of one” product strategy! The answer lies in an agile, intelligent product which, with quick and slight modification, can be made to fulfil a multitude of distinct needs.