Financial services information technology (IT) has transformed from order taker to strategic business partner. As part of this transformation, IT organizations are finding they must address key challenges with legacy modernization, data management and digital transformation.
MuleSoft has launched a three-part white paper series discussing these challenges and how financial institutions are overcoming them. In the first installment in our Connected Financial Institution white paper series, we discussed how aging back office systems, operational effectiveness and open source adoption are driving legacy modernization initiatives across the financial services industry. The second installment in the series discusses key data management challenges facing firms including an ever-evolving regulatory compliance landscape, deepening customer relationships with a 360-degree view, and improving data driven decision making.
This third and final installment in our Connected Financial Institution white paper series discusses why financial institutions must prioritize their digital transformation strategies in response to challenges with innovation in APIs and apps, the battle over mobile services, and the increasing complexity of omni-channel delivery. We examine how institutions are responding to these business drivers, and propose best practices that can transform organizations and accelerate the pace of change.
The Rise of APIs and Apps for Digital Transformation
Used by software developers to assemble program components within an application, the new use of APIs is to make business functions available as components on the Internet and serving service-oriented architectures and mobile technologies. By allowing the integration and interaction of software applications, APIs are making it easier for financial services to deliver both traditional applications and mobile apps across multiple delivery channels with a single interaction point. They also provide the flexibility to redirect customer data back to the applications, apps, and devices that a particular consumer prefers to interact with.
The Battle Over Mobile Services
Nearly every industry is connected to mobile services, and everything that’s connected to mobile services is experiencing exponential growth. As mobile continues to increasingly affect every aspect of a consumer’s lives, financial services are having to rapidly expand their digital capabilities to meet the demand. According to Deloitte, mobile capabilities have quickly become table stakes. In fact, today almost all major banks, insurance companies, and investment firms have mobile apps.Whether it’s hardware, software, features, or apps – the mobile banking space has become increasingly competitive. Not only are financial institutions competing head-to-head against one another, but they are also competing against new entrants who are leapfrogging traditional financial services firms.
The Increasing Complexity of Omni-Channel Delivery
It used to be that when financial services firms worried about multi-channel delivery, their focus was on physical locations (branches, offices), call centers, ATMs, and Internet banking. Today, consumer demand for the latest technology is forcing them to look at extending their digital reach and expanding their delivery channels to include mobile, social media networks, and even the latest telematics and wearables (e.g. safe driving monitors, Google Glass, smart watches, wristbands) to engage consumers. However, success in this expanding omni-channel environment requires that financial services do more than simply connect to the Internet of Things (IoT). They must be able to truly engage with customers by creating an ever-present and ongoing dialog with them.
Upcoming Webinar
Integration and APIs have come together as firms need to get data out of legacy systems for consumption by digital devices and apps. MuleSoft’s Anypoint Platform addresses the challenge of quickly exposing legacy data to new digital delivery channels while minimizing changes to your back-end infrastructure. It provides a strategic integration approach that addresses legacy modernization, data management and digital transformation challenges on a single, unified platform. Instead of redesigning applications from the ground up to support digital transformation, the most agile companies are exposing them through APIs designed, tested and deployed using Anypoint Platform. MuleSoft is trusted by many financial services firms and insurance companies, including 4 out of the top 10 global banks, to help them become a “Connected Financial Institution.”
Don’t forget to register for our webinar, “Achieving Digital Transformation Nirvana in Financial Services“ to learn more about digital transformation integration approaches. Register below:
Still interested in more?
Download the white paper, “Achieving Digital Transformation Nirvana in Financial Services” to learn more about how financial institutions taking a holistic view toward digital transformation across APIs and apps, mobile services, and omni-channel delivery have an opportunity to optimize their innovation initiatives across the organization.
