Core modernization driving digital transformation

Core modernization driving digital transformation

Summary Digital banking is becoming the norm for consumers right across the globe. 90% of all banking interactions are performed online with mobile rapidly becoming the channel of choice. Individuals now demand a similar customer experience when managing their finances as they enjoy from the likes of Amazon and Google and if they don t get it are quick to look elsewhere. The market today is strewn with innovative fintechs and challenger banks keen to take a profitable slice of the action. So it s no wonder that digital transformation is top of the agenda for more traditional, established banks as they seek to compete and thrive in this new banking landscape. 2 01.

Defining what digital means is open to interpretation, however; what banks think of as going digital varies widely. For some it means allowing consumers to manage their finances themselves via online and mobile banking. There are many examples of how banks have enhanced their customer-facing, front-end operations with digitalchannel solutions in an attempt to deliver such service. But being truly digital and able to take advantage of the massive opportunities for profitable growth and improved efficiencies that digital brings requires more radical change. As well as allowing customers to do all their financial management themselves, it also means doing what they ask in real time. This is not possible unless the bank also transforms its back office processes and systems to make them straight through and remove bulk. Modernisation of the core banking platform is therefore critical to go beyond simple online and mobile channels to a fully digital bank. Book keeping was fine before the bank needed to let people manage their own finances. Now the bank needs to keep real time records of their customers and their arrangements with the bank, not just accounts. To provide the high levels of service that consumers currently expect requires banks to fully understand their needs. At its simplest that means knowing all the financial arrangement they have and not just within the bank but across all their finances; just knowing this within the bank is a challenge when there are multiple-siloed systems. Banks need integrated core systems that provide all the information someone needs to understand their finances, match them to their goals and then plan their finances to achieve those goals. This could be a bucket list, or saving to make a purchase, or saving to educate children. But there s more to it than that, because consumers these days want a relevant experience that is personalised solely to them. This can only be achieved with a deep understanding of consumer behaviour, preferences, buying traits and lifestyle. Many banks have had their core systems in place for more than 30 years, dating back to the days when transactions were done by tellers within bank branches. What s more, a history of mergers and acquisitions means some banks have multiple core systems unable to talk to one another. So many find themselves saddled with old, outdated legacy systems which are no longer fit for purpose. With crippling maintenance costs of up to 76% of IT budget, this is stifling banks ability to innovate. Hardware is rarely the issue; most banks run on equipment that is state-of-the-art. No, the problem lies with the architecture behind that technology and its inability to integrate with other systems. In particular, the legacy architecture is built on a large overnight bulk book keeping operation, exactly what a bank cannot afford for real time operation. Banks almost need to be able to predict what consumers may do before they know it themselves. Thus it is crucial to capture different types of data from a range of sources, access that data, analyse it, act upon it and learn from it. 02.

There are also increasing opportunities for banks to take advantage of non-traditional but highly-valuable data types often referred to as Big Data such as clickstream, social media and geo-location. For those saddled with outmoded core banking systems, extracting value from existing banking data is a challenge in itself. For these banks being able to leverage Big Data is a step too far. Banking is data rich and one of the biggest competitive assets that established financial institutions have. However, managing massive data volumes, variety and veracity and drawing value from these requires simplified architectures and modern data-lifecycle management tools and processes not conducive to legacy core-banking systems. In addition to the obvious benefits gained from the automation of fulfilment processes reduced costs, improved operational efficiencies and speed there are other significant wins that real-time, straight-through processing can bring. For example, the bank can better optimize its working capital, improve predictability on liquidity and have a real-time view on fund positions. optimize its working capital Another consequence of consumers turning to digital channels is the frequency of use, increased volume of interactions and enquiries and improved look-to-book ratio. This has a huge impact on the performance, scalability and efficiencies of core systems. Speed and convenience are key to providing the levels of customer experience demanded today. A bank that chooses to overlay customer-facing digital channels on top of outdated IT infrastructures will quickly run into significant problems as the core banking system struggles in the background to cope. There are numerous examples of high-street banks suffering outage problems and performance glitches due to high levels of customer use. improve predictability on liquidity real-time view on fund positions Customers demand real-time, fast straightthrough processing with as little human intervention as possible and they want it 24/7. These are all benefits that can be gained from digital transformation not just in the front office facing the consumers, but through back office automation too. With traditional core banking systems designed for end-of-theday, batch processing runs with many such processes still requiring manual intervention without modernisation of the core banking systems these benefits can be regarded as a pipedream. 03.

But true transformation has to begin with the core. The question is not if or when, but how can a bank make this move to deliver new-age services critical to ongoing profitable growth and survival. There is no doubt that solid business cases exist for banks to embark and invest in their digital journeys to compete and thrive in this new era of banking. The final option is to build and migrate, whereby a new core system is developed purely to support a new digital bank. Once this is in place, business sub-sets are converted book by book when business and IT opportunities allow. Gradually each business unit runs on the new real-time architecture, enabling it to compete with competitors low-cost, high-volume models. Effectively the bank builds its most fearsome competitor, its own digital bank, and then that bank takes over the existing bank. With core banking systems being 100% mission critical, it is no wonder that banks are daunted by the prospect of initiating change. Even so, an increasing number are looking to take the leap to enable them to meet both their short-term and long-term goals. There are several options available. The first was referred to earlier and involves a bank retaining its core system on which it overlays new digital channels linking front and back offices. The interface between the two is typically complex, time-consuming and fails to address the issues highlighted in this article. It may provide a short-term sticking plaster by enabling customers to manage their finances online, but it will not be sustainable long term for the reasons discussed above namely human intervention instead of straight through processing, and bulk instead of real time. The second is a new greenfield core system total replacement, in other words. This would involve the installation of a completely new core banking system in place of the legacy system. It can be achieved by purchasing an industry banking-software package or choosing to develop in-house. Such an approach is typically considered the most complex and high risk, and entails very long time frames often many years. This option is only suitable for smaller banks with much simpler IT landscapes. For bigger banks a third way is needed. Nordea, for example, is undergoing a major core replacement as part of its Nordea Simplification Program. This includes migration to a real time core banking platform and common architecture across four Nordic countries serving 11m customers so no small undertaking. The move will enable Nordea to significantly reduce the number of IT systems that are currently being supported and maintained. And by simplifying processes and products, the new platform will provide the framework for an end-to-end digital business model, improving agility and benefits of scale. The success of any large-scale undertaking is generally driven by the degree and efficiency of advance planning; IT transformation projects are no different. 04.

50% of core banking transformations only partially achieve their objectives According to Cognizant, 50% of core banking transformations only partially achieve their objectives; 25% achieve nothing. Here are some of the many factors to be considered and executed beforehand: Define the business goals IT strategy has to be aligned with business objectives, so it is critical to understand exactly what you are trying to achieve both short term and long term and have some measurable goals in place. These may include operational improvement, revenue growth, cost reduction, customer experience or a combination of these. Without defined goals and measurements, any project is flawed from the outset. Moving to digital is not just about implementing mobile and Internet channels, after all, most banks have done that already. It is really about a new operating model for banking. Stakeholder support Successful core transformation requires 100% commitment and support from the top down. Strong leadership with a focus on change management is critical for success. The roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders need to be clearly defined; effective communication and reporting between stakeholders is essential. Core banking replacement is always a business project, never an IT project. In particular, as noted above, moving to digital requires a new operating model for the bank and this makes it much more a cultural and organisational challenge than a technological challenge. Package selection Core banking systems are typically replaced every 20-30 years, so it is vital to choose a package to meet both immediate and future needs. Pace of change in this digital era is unprecedented and must be taken into account; flexible architecture, agility and scalability are key. It is important to consider the level of customisation and ongoing maintenance that maybe required for bespoke functionality or to ensure regional regulatory compliance needs. Implementation and deployment options Experienced banking software suppliers will have witnessed many different approaches from big bang to progressive renovation. For larger banks, the build and migrate strategy mentioned earlier often gives the best balance between early benefits and long-term certainty. Modern technology also offers new deployment options, but with a general move towards cloud and, in particular, SaaS (Software as a Service). As regulated institutions for which a basic business value is trust, banks will rightly be cautious about SaaS. You should consider this for any major software migration, but if you decide the time is not yet right, it would be prudent to ensure that your chosen software and supplier will enable you to migrate to this option in the future. The next 20 years will undoubtedly see a massive shift where cloud will almost certainly have replaced traditional on-premise deployments. Vendor selection A typical core banking transformation takes about five years, depending on its scale. Work on the replacement project at Nordea, for example, will happen gradually over the next four or five years in close partnership with Temenos and Accenture. Clearly the long-term viability of software-package vendors and systems integrators is critical as is proven experience of implementing similar large-scale projects. It is also vital to choose a vendor that understands and shares your objectives and vision, and is a cultural fit with your organization. You should be confident of the vendor s capability to continuously enrich the solution driven by a strong product roadmap to meet evolving future needs and customer expectations. 05.

Conclusion Technological innovation and the digital era have changed the world we live in. Not least the ways in which people expect to manage their finances and the experience they demand of their financial providers. Banks have to rise to this challenge to ensure that they survive and thrive. The transformation of core banking systems and processes is fundamental to becoming fully digital, which is vital to succeed in this exciting new environment. Becoming digital involves far more than providing online and mobile banking services with a revamped front-end. Core banking transformation projects are journeys that banks need to embark upon and which will no doubt see ups and downs along the way. But with the right planning, product, people and processes, the benefits and potential for profitable growth are limitless. Author John Schlesinger Chief Enterprise Architect John is the Chief Enterprise Architect at Temenos. He previously led the enterprise architecture practice at Atos Consulting and before that alternated being chief architect for a software company, with being a consulting enterprise architect. John started his career at IBM. He has taken over 30 program products to market in various product management roles and has run integration projects in capital markets, retail banking and insurance across Europe and the US. 06.

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