Be ready or be dead!

"If you Know Yourself and you know your enemies, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles..."

- Sun Tzu -

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Digital Maturity Model for Banks' Digital Transformation


As I noted in my last post, Banks should define their roadmap for Digital Transformation, But it is mandatory to have in hand the definitive Digital Maturity Model, something like the well-known CMMI for the Software Industry. This model should provide levels of maturity for Banks. I´ve been amazed to see a lot of banks struggling with their own models. Consultants imposing their models, models built on the GO.

Since the Banking industry, just try searching the web for this term and easily there will be more than 250K results, none of them is a clear standard, none of them comes from a common source. So, as we are in such a state of multiple efforts to have a good model, the only way out is to evaluate the success possibilities around and take one. Any other suggestions? Yes, right, the best path eventually be not the best one. We fail in the dilemma of choosing the best based on the nearest truth. This means, that after benchmarking the market that affects the bank, something will come up and that will be the ideal model. Sad but true, as Metallica´s song says??. Not at all, the truth is that the banking industry is big, the threats vary from place to place, and it is not practical to compare one bank in New York to another one in Sri Lanka. Different realities? yes. In the end, there are different approaches, full of good intentions. This means that the bank across the street will implement a different model than its neighbor.  boooo, scary!

It is scary just if you think that Bank 1 considers that the level of digitalization for, let´s say its front office is roughly 80% and the Bank 2 assumes that for them the same level is 70%, but wait, The Bank A has 40 applications and Bank 2 has 110 applications. Sorry for Bank 2, now is paying for having a lot more in applications than its rival.

Now, the point here shows how important is to adopt the right Maturity Model and be prepared to understand where is located the bank in question. Something like the problem of two-speed runners, the first one like Bolt, tall, slender, etc, the second one will be a small man from X country who runs 100 m just 0.2 seconds behind Bolt. It is clear that regardless of the runner´s height and other physical factors, the winner is the one who scores less time for the same distance.

A common approach to measure the maturity index is to consider

1. Front Office
2. Middle Office
3. Back Office

and determine the percentage of Medium, Basic and Advanced degree of digitalization in everyone.  As far as now, the Front Office in all banks has more chances to improve its digital face, nevertheless, all 3 have an impact on Customer Experience and are affected by Service Design. Again, the Maturity Model comes to show that it is important to measure Digital Maturity as a whole. What an intersting point,  isn´t it?



Keep in mind to have KPIs and adopt a standardized model.

Most solutions fall in Customer Service digitalization, but the real Digital Transformation is a whole.   Hence, the maturity model should encompass internal and external actors affected by systems and operations.

Back in 2011, the vision of the branch of the future defined a revolutionary approach in customer service at the branch level, it depicted integrated channels for service, Mobile as the biggest container, then inside these web applications that covered call center and the call center keeping inside the traditional Branch and the philosophy behind the concept is to have a continuous process of performance improvement. The missing concept behind this proposal was the model itself, there are thousands of banks, each one living a particular reality, that is why we need a common framework, no less no more.





Thursday, April 5, 2018

Crafting the path for a real Digital Transformation for Banks

Days ago talking with friends and after a short survey, I could confirm something that I just was wondering, in the Digital Transformation (DX) adventure it's easy to find financial institutions that believe in DX and have its roadmap, others that have been watching and have some steps addressed to change things but are misunderstanding transformation with filling themselves with a bunch of systems and applications, others that are aware of this change but do not know where to start, others who have not done anything. To cut short, the scale is full of representatives at any level.

One thing that attracted my attention is the majority is talking about FinTechs, FinTechs up, FinTechs down, in the sky, at the gym, FinTechs (FTs) everywhere and do not see that the main threat are themselves.  First, Banks should learn to survive and live with those alternate "money and financial disruptors", never ever better than today to say: If you cannot defeat them, be part of them".

Let's be clear,  there's a bunch of FT flourishing everywhere,  giant technology companies like Apple or Google with humongous numbers of data form credit card holders and users, PayPal running wild on money transfers,  in Asia the social networks allow for money transfers, Facebook and WhatsApp can take the hell upside down if they provide with money transfers and personal loans. Let's face it, FinTechs are the face of simplicity, that's why they are the best alternative in disruptive solutions.

But, DX it is not just fighting against FTs, it is about simplification, it is about do more with less effort. Unfortunately, less effort means less headcount in many situations. Here, it is important to plan with people in mind. Your workforce knowledge can lead to a bright future with better business services and lines. Who can tell what is wrong or right? Your people, who else, so why do you will fire them?

The roadmap definition is not enough, there's a lot to take in account:

- Customer
- Processes
- Key Services
- Technology
- Security
- Key indicators
- Follow up dashboards
- Strategy

Nevertheless, the main pillars to define a real  DT roadmap are:

Customer on board Strategy Technology Operations Culture. Organization. People
Aquisition Brand Management Applications Agile Change Management Culture
Customer Experience Ecosystem Management Connectivity Automatic Resource Management Leadership and Governance
Behavior Knowledge Investment and Financing Data and Analytics Integrated Services Management Organizational Talent Design Management
Trust and Perception Market and customers Distribution Gonvernance Understanding and Real Time Analysis Workforce enablement
Portfolio, Concept and Innovation Networking Adaptive and Intelligent process management
Stakeholders Management Security Standards' Automation and Governance
Strategic Management Architecture

There are advices, yes of course, a lot. But every company is quite different. So, it is mandatory to have master advisors at hand. Take care when dealing with technologies like Blockchain or Kubernets implementations (to name a couple) , technical resources are scarce and you need good ones.

To finish this post, take a look at BBVA, they have an innovation pool, good to check for Apps ideas for your bank. Take a look, reinvent your services, get better ones.