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.