Tip 8: Get Your biggest innovation ally: Integrated Banking Platform

In an earlier post I mentioned that inflexible IT systems were cited as one of the biggest barriers to innovation in a survey of European retail banks that we undertook along with EFMA. On the flip side, banks that had modernised their core systems were sitting pretty, secure in the knowledge that their IT infrastructure would enable them to turn their innovative ideas into reality.

While banking is a complex business in which products, channels, processes and customers are highly interdependent, it is the integrated banking platform that actually links everything together. If this core is not sufficiently strong, agile or flexible, banks will have a hard time implementing any innovation. Today, if banks are able to launch new products in a matter of weeks, engage better with customers and reach their services to far flung locations, they have their banking platform to thank.

An integrated banking platform also enables banks to cope in a dynamic environment. It supports disruptive innovation facilitated through product, channel and process strategy revamp. Cutting across organisational silos, it is able to gather huge volumes of data across various touch points, thereby enabling the bank to mount an informed response to change. At the same time, it eases the dissemination of information to various stakeholders.

You can also read the earlier tips –

Tip 1: Transform for greater reward, lesser risk
Tip 2: Make Product Innovation Customer-Centric
Tip 3: Innovate Services for Convenience and Consistency
Tip 4: Innovate with Processes for Efficiency and Improved Experience
Tip 5: Woo the Customer with Innovation
Tip 6: Take the Road towards channel innovation
Tip 7: Leverage the Power of Web 2.0 : The people’s channel