According to the recent Gartner CIO Survey, over 50% of financial services CIOs believe that a greater portion of business will come through digital channels, and digital initiatives will generate more revenue and value.

However, organizations using antiquated business management applications or siloed systems will be unable to keep up with this increasingly digital-first world. Without a solid, forward-thinking technological foundation, organizations will miss out on critical business evolution. In other words, digital transformation is not just a good idea — it’s become imperative for survival.

While technologies such as blockchain may still be too immature to realize significant returns from their implementation in the near future, technologies like cloud computing, AI, and bots all offer significant advantages for institutions looking to reduce costs while improving customer satisfaction and growing wallet share.

Cloud computing via software as a service and platform as a service solutions enable firms previously burdened with disparate legacy systems to simplify and standardize IT estates. In doing so, banks and credit unions are able to reduce costs and improve data analytics, all while leveraging leading edge technologies. AI offers a significant competitive advantage by providing deep insights into customer behaviors and needs, giving financial institutions the ability to sell the right product at the right time to the right customer. Additionally, AI can provide key organizational insights required to identify operational opportunities and maintain agility.

Sustainable success in business requires insight, agility, rich client relationships, and continuous innovation. Bench marking effective practices throughout the industry can provide valuable insight, helping banks and credit unions stay competitive. However, bench marking alone only enables institutions to keep up with the pack — it rarely leads to innovation. As the cliché goes, businesses must benchmark to survive, but innovate to thrive; innovation is a key differentiation that separates the wheat from the chaff.

Innovation stems from insights, and insights are discovered through customer interactions and continuous organizational analysis. Insights without action, however, are impotent — it’s vital that financial institutions be prepared to pivot when necessary to address market demands while improving upon the customer experience.

Financial service organizations leveraging the latest business technology, particularly around cloud applications, have a key advantage in the digital transformation race: They can innovate faster. The power of cloud technology is its agility and scalability. Without system hardware limiting flexibility, cloud technology enables systems to evolve along with your business.

ThoughtData’s solutions helps enterprise businesses in BANKING, FINANCE & INSURANCE to embrace new technologies with confidence without worrying about their customer experience