What are the challenges faced by financial services when trying to deliver digital transformation ?

More companies are moving towards cloud technologies for increased efficiency, improving cash flow and removing legacy estate.  All of this while trying to operate in an increasingly complex regulated financial sector and while fending off challenges from new competition into their sector from organisations not burdened with legacy applications and IT systems.

In our experience of working in leading Financial Services Organisations with hundreds of applications depending on one another, there is fear of decommissioning legacy applications and systems.  APS is able to assist organisations with embracing their adoption of cloud technologies.  Many have taken tentative steps so far as they move down this road.  Our capability in helping organisations transform and future proof their business as they embrace the cloud enables them to achieve their business goals and realise the benefits sooner and with greater confidence.

Below are some of the key takeaways APS have encountered when delivering transformation:

• Conflicting priorities: regulatory change keeps the doors open. It takes priority over many programmes.
• Testing: the window for testing is reduced or squeezed as the business want to see the benefit from the change. Without solid testing assurance the quality of the delivery could be impacted.
• What do you start with first? Current state v future state v channels? You can’t do everything at once and how do you bring all these ultimately together?
• Impacts to business / IT Business as usual activities are not documented or understood. Many go live without this fully documented and signed off.
• The current infrastructure and back-end applications are strung together and not capable of supporting the rapid increase in mobile, omnichannel, and other solutions influenced by consumer-friendly applications created by such giants as Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple.
• End User Computing (EUC) operating outside of core IT functions, supporting business operations and decision-making.  EUC’s operate across all organisations and the role they perform within organisations need to be carefully considered while transformation is undertaken.
• Compliance and Risk requirements are not understood or signed off.
• Understand any future requirements and ensure you future proof systems to make any changes as needed (e.g for the regulator) to save you doing any rework.

At APS we help both clients and providers with assurance, consultancy expertise, our delivery knowledge within financial services, operational impacts and benefits management delivery to ensure the changes being implemented are received and benefit the organisation as a whole