Regulation and legacy IT have tended to stifle large-scale digital transformation initiatives in Financial Services Institutions (FSI). However, the tide is turning. For example, mobile banking in the UK has overtaken physical branches and the Internet as the most popular channel amongst banking customers. When it goes live in 2016, Atom Bank will be the first of its kind: a mobile app offering banking services fully licensed by the Bank of England.
Atom will have no physical branches, and, unlike other online banks, its website will only provide general information and customer support functions. According to analysts, digital laggards in the financial services sector may lose up to 35 percent market share to digital pure-plays such as Atom. And if this bank is unlikely to be the last of its kind, what should other incumbent players be being doing when they don’t have the luxury of being born mobile? The answer may well lie in the digital partnerships they are able to forge.
Four Types of Digital Partnerships
Half of FSI executives say that their partnerships have already proven value ‘beyond doubt’. So what types of partnerships can lead to success in digital transformation strategy? Our data pointed to four key types that firms should consider:
Banks and insurance companies have yet to be shaken to the core by digital disruption. As that time comes closer, those firms plugged into a network of digital partners should be in a stronger position to cope with it, or better still to capitalise upon it.
Nevertheless, in our experience, the ability to convince reluctant colleagues of the virtues of digital partnerships, or the benefits to be gained from involvement in a technology-focused network or ecosystem, will become a highly desired skill for aspiring senior managers. In fact, today’s senior executives must be able to convince reluctant colleagues of the virtues of digital partnerships, so that their financial services organisations can survive and thrive in the present and future.
Tom Homer is managing director EMEA at Telstra Global Enterprise & Services
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