Despite the slow adoption of cloud computing by the banking and financial services industry with security and reliability being the major concerns, financial institutions are quickly resorting to cloud-based services to achieve increased agility and lowered total cost of ownership (TCO). According to IDC, worldwide revenue from public IT cloud services exceeded $21.5 billion in 2010 and is expected to reach $72.9 billion in 2015. There is an emerging trend in which financial institutions are embracing “cloud solutions” as not just a ‘me-too’ option, but as solutions that yield competitive advantage due to shorter cycles of time to market for products and services. (more…)

‘Social’ is clearly at the top of the hyper curve. What does this really mean to businesses? Why should an organization think about social? There are a few fundamental shifts that are making a significant impact in the way businesses are run today. First is the growing Gen Y workforce that is highly active on social platforms. A BPW Foundation’s Gen Y study published in April 2011 noted that by 2025, Generation Y will make up roughly 75% of the world’s workforce. Second is about customers and competition. Rapid globalization and technology are shrinking the world at an unprecedented rate. Essentially this means that if you are unable to adapt and innovate at a fast pace, it is very likely that another company will, and potentially steal your customers. Is your organization in sync with these fundamental shifts in the way employees, customers and competition collaborate, interact and engage? (more…)

Financial services firms globally are investing strategically in enterprise mobile financial service solutions to deliver more mobile-based banking services and reduce the overall cost of operations. According to a recent survey by KPMG, mobile banking has already reached critical mass with 33% of US consumers conducting banking transactions over their mobile devices. This number is expected to significantly increase based on several trends. First of all, more consumers are becoming comfortable with the security of executing mobile transactions. Second is the continued penetration of smart phones and third is the rapid emergence of tablets as both a mobile device and in many circumstances, a replacement for standard desktops/laptops. (more…)

The last few years have seen tremendous changes in the business world; particularly the way customers, employees and partners are interacting and collaborating to conduct their business. Customers are making decisions to buy or discontinue a service with a click of a button. The “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) trend involves employees bringing their own smart phones and tablets to work, which is significantly impacting both IT and business. Brokers and agents are leveraging smart gadgets to speed up the business cycle by educating, building relationships and doing business with customers.  For example, using a tablet, an insurance agent can instantly run illustrations and compare premium quotes for insurance products simultaneously, making it easier for clients to see the various options. The “consumerization of IT” trend is having an enormous impact on businesses and is something they must take steps to embrace. In other words, the “empowered consumer” has arrived and is here to stay! (more…)

In my last blog, I wrote about how ‘Social’ was revolutionizing BPM, providing a gateway for enhanced process efficiency, and in some ways influencing the way we ‘manage’ our process. In certain areas, 2011 was the doorway to the new influences on BPM. The year saw significant advancements in the BPM space with Adaptive Case Management, Social Media and Collaborative Process Modeling re-defining traditional BPM process development and BPM, opening its doors to a ‘ Mobile’ environment. We now find ourselves looking at year 2012.

Looking into the crystal ball, what might we see? Technology advancements will continue and that is obvious, but where will that lead us? (more…)

The economy has disappointed in 2011, and 2012 looks similar. In the US, the housing crisis and high unemployment persist. The euro debt crisis threatens Europe with recession. Healthier regions like Asia are too small and too export-oriented to escape a downturn in the West. The best macro case appears to be halting progress on structural issues and continued weak growth.

Despite this, IT spend in banking and financial services grew in 2011 and looks poised for modest growth in 2012. Why is this happening? Banks and securities firms feel pressure both to reduce costs and to innovate. There are multiple ways to cut costs but the only way to simultaneously reduce unit costs and innovate is through (more…)

Last week I had the pleasure of hosting a webinar with Jeffrey Hammond, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research and Rohit Sharma, Global Head of Mobility at Virtusa.  The topic was “Overcoming Challenges in Early Stage Enterprise Mobility Programs”.  This post is a short synopsis of the webinar.  For those who were not able to attend the session, you can view it here.

The webinar started with Jeffrey Hammond reflecting back to the early 1980’s with the introduction of the personal computer.  He offered his observation that many IT organizations are reacting to mobile devices and smartphones today in the same way IT organizations greeted the PC; with skepticism and doubt.  Today, the personal computer is a dominant platform for computing power, a major productivity tool and a huge segment of the technical market.  Hammond predicted that mobile computing will exceed the personal computer many times over. (more…)