Many firms grapple with decades of legacy data stored in dozens of disparate systems. Thus, digital transformation in finance may seem like a challenge. Time is growing short for banks, insurers, and others in the sector that haven’t yet made the move to digital.

The Struggle for Security

In keeping with the trend of recent years, data thieves and hackers were able to score a number of high-profile hits in 2017. Firms such as Verifone, Dun & Bradstreet, Equifax, even the SEC have all reported theft of data in the past year. The result of this will be a continuing stream of new and stricter privacy and security regulations, coming from both internal and external sources.

An external example is the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a stringent new set of regulations that will apply to any enterprise doing business with EU citizens. By most current accounts, many organizations are woefully underprepared for the additional strain these new regulations will put on their data infrastructure and will need to take strong steps to develop and implement effective compliance programs — and quickly.

Internal security efforts will also be on the rise, as the bottom-line impact of data breaches grows. A number of financial services companies are investigating blockchain technology as a means to securely transfer information while depriving data thieves of the sizable targets that on-site data warehouses or cloud-based storage often provide. Although still very much at the experimental stage, the technology does hold promise, provided some of its more thorny problems can be resolved.

IoT, Artificial Intelligence, and Improving Customer Experience

The dawning of the Age of the Smartphone has brought with it a host of new challenges for banks and other financial services companies, as well new opportunities. By combining the features of the typical smartphone — geolocation, camera, touchscreen biometrics — with advanced analytics, institutions can streamline common processes and provide up-sell or cross-sell offers in real time, increasing revenue and cementing the customer relationship.

However, most organizations are slow to develop such solutions as their in-house analytics and data science teams are often overloaded with day-to-day tasks. As a result, outside resources are required. So, many organisations partner with trusted third-party vendors to build up smart development teams.

In either case, innovation with analytics needs to be a top priority for financial services companies. ELEKS can help your business adopt digital transformation and remain relevant in this age of digital disruption. Contact us now!