Today, companies have to adapt many of their manual processes to support them virtually, either full-time or some of the time. However, not all businesses can easily make this leap. Banks, for example, are a mixed bag when it comes to change.<\/p>\n
Many have invested more to automate<\/a> or digitize customer channels<\/a> and to address cybersecurity threats<\/a>. But they haven\u2019t lent as much investment to back-office needs and operations<\/a>, such as updating or automating core systems and processes, especially when the workforce is suddenly required to be primarily virtual.<\/p>\n Most disaster recovery and business continuity<\/a> plans account for the need for temporary off-site work. However, global interruptions \u2014 like the pandemic \u2014 create challenges far more reaching than something temporary.<\/strong> While workforce impacts, customer expectations, competition and government impacts create such hurdles, they also offer new opportunities to banks and the financial services<\/a> sector.<\/p>\n Seeing the likely benefits to a \u201cbusiness anywhere<\/a>\u201d approach, financial services leaders need to consider their workforce needs and changing processes and technology for the long-term, rather than the finite period of time encompassed in most business-interruption plans.<\/p>\n When creating successful plans to prepare for what\u2019s next in banking and financial services, you should include workforce, processes and technology in those plans.<\/p>\n Obviously, most businesses have had to quickly transition to working remote, which can be difficult in an industry with compliance requirements.<\/strong><\/p>\n Rather than looking at this as an obstacle, however, this is an opportunity to create an adaptable workforce that can work effectively, whether remote full-time or in a hybrid model. Even if your long-term strategy is to transition back to on-site full-time, this flexibility in your workforce will ensure your team is ready no matter what will come in the future.<\/p>\n But how do you go about doing this permanently, rather than as a temporary model? Here are a few questions to think through as you adapt:<\/strong><\/p>\n Most importantly, ensure your employees view their working conditions and expectations as safe not only for themselves but also for their families and friends.<\/p>\n Manual processes have had to adjust to accommodate a remote workforce quickly, so many organizations might be experiencing inefficiencies. However, this allows your company to streamline process changes with continuity and contingency for greater resiliency in the future.<\/strong><\/p>\n To start making these updates:<\/p>\n Most organizations largely sustain their traditional technology solutions with manual processes and on-site resource requirements. However, while core systems have been relatively unaffected by COVID-19, support of these systems, planned changes and enhancements, and major transformations such as mergers and conversions have been affected by delivery slow-downs or change cancellations.<\/strong><\/p>\n As a result, this also presents the opportunity to embrace automation, digitization and workflow tools to eliminate manual processes \u2014 and the need for customer and workforce \u201ctouch\u201d \u2014 which were already cumbersome before the pandemic.<\/p>\n Plus, customers will demand increased online and mobile capabilities to complete banking transactions versus visiting branches and physical locations now that they\u2019ve gotten a stronger taste during the pandemic.<\/p>\n To start transitioning your technology, consider automation for both customer-facing and back-office functions. This includes robotic process automation<\/a> (RPA), digitization and workflow automation.<\/p>\n Back-office functions such as mail handling, payments or items processing, loan document management, and reconciliation require automation to effectively accommodate on-site and off-site workers.<\/p>\n As you go through these changes, the most common hurdles will be regulatory and compliance considerations. A virtual workforce introduces challenges with managing data outside the bank\u2019s physical walls. While you already manage most core systems in the Cloud, you must consider security when accessing customer data from remote networks outside of the traditional locations’ firewalls, which could introduce additional costs.<\/strong><\/p>\nMoving Forward in Banking<\/h2>\n
1. Workforce<\/h3>\n
\n
2. Processes<\/h3>\n
\n
3. Technology<\/h3>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n