Change is on the horizon for the financial services industry and it is arriving in the form of technological advancement. Seemingly futuristic financial technology upgrades are either currently available or on the horizon including face recognition CRM software, distributed ledger technology, and robo-advice platforms. Many of these technologies represent quantum shifts in advancement for financial services information management, customer service paradigms, and record and accountability tracking protocols.
The new technologies available and evolving in financial services, while on the surface disruptive in their nature, offer firms nothing but upside revenue and operational potential and a competitive advantage against virtually-based banking and financial start-up companies. All that is required to take advantage of the technology opportunity is some forward-thinking and strategic planning on the part of a firm’s leadership to best reap the benefits these new systems offer.
Integrating new technology first requires firm leadership to thoroughly evaluate the current state of the firm’s technology operations. It is important to know what technology platform is currently employed, which services it can be integrated with, and the scalability of the data and systems used. Armed with that information, a firm should search for a technological partner that provides seamless transition as to assure little to no perceivable shift in operations. A clear understanding of the technology partner’s commitment to the organization in the form of ongoing maintenance, service upgrades, and staff training is also a vital component as it determines the overall long-term viability of the technology investment.
Additionally, in order to effectively integrate new technology a firm must have a clear corporate vision and specific goals for growth, operations, and customer care. It is then possible to evaluate how available technology resources can best assist in their achievement. Current technology resources available in financial services are expansive and cover every imaginable business operation from managing client portfolios, to housing data, projection modeling, and even client lifestyle and goal modeling. Knowing in specific what services your firm is and will be supplying as a competitive differentiator will be vital to navigating through the multitude of technological choices available and landing on the right options that best suit your specific business model.
Once the specific technology protocols are selected for implementation by a firm, a clearly outlined training program needs to be established for staff in order to teach them to successfully use and integrate these new tools into their daily business practices. While it may seem an obvious step, many a firm has faltered after making a significant investment in new technology only to find that their team members on the front lines were ill-prepared to use the new technology. Such a situation causes advisors and staff to devote time away from profit generating activities as they struggle to utilize the new technology, which ultimately leads to poor service to customers and technology resistance on the part of the advisor. This can all be avoided by providing advisors and other staff the education and clearly outlined structure for technology best business practices well in advance of the roll-out of any new technology platforms.
Finally, having a solid understanding of who the firm’s primary customer is, what their financial goals are, and how technology resources can assist them in managing and achieving those goals is key when it comes to client interfacing platforms. These technologies need to walk the fine line between robust and user-friendly. Client data should be both secure while remaining easily accessible to the client themselves. Most importantly, dynamic features, planning tools, forecast modeling, and unique interface systems will be necessary in order to solidify a firm’s image of forward-thinking technological savvy with its customers while engaging them to utilize the new technology services at the same time.
Technology is a symbolic fountain of youth for financial services as through its innovation the industry has the opportunity to reinvent its structure, service level, and results, again and again. Adequately preparing for the technology journey with a clear sense of vision will embolden financial services firms as they venture towards the new horizon of unlimited potential afforded by these remarkable and evolving innovations.
