Hailing a ride, ordering food, opening a checking account: customers expect all their daily transactions to be instant, intuitive, and always available.
Is your architecture legacy, early modern, or future-ready?
Many financial institutions (FIs) struggle to meet consumers’ expectations for digital banking because they’re held back by decades-old technology. Whether still operating on fully legacy systems or using early modern hybrid platforms originally built on-premises and patched with cloud add-ons, they face a daily reality of system bottlenecks, delayed deployments, security concerns, and rising costs.
Nimble fintechs born in the cloud don’t have these problems. Their platforms were built for the expectations and pace of today’s digital world. Their future-ready architecture includes microservices, containers, and APIs so they can fully embrace cloud capabilities like real-time data monitoring, independent service updates, and continuous, iterative feature deliveries. Updates are fast and non-disruptive, launches are on time, and unscheduled downtime becomes a distant memory.
Some of the early modern digital banking suites offer a UI/UX that appears comparable to a cloud-native platform. But look under the hood. Monolithic architecture lifted into the cloud won’t have the flexibility, scalability, speed to market, or elasticity of the fully cloud-native fintech. Changes or failures impact the performance of the entire system instead of just one self-contained service. Glue code connecting old and new systems is brittle and hard to maintain, making data migration difficult and integrations fragile, with systems likely to go offline.
Assess: Are these five areas helping you meet user expectations, meet the needs of your community, and grow? Or, are they holding you back?
Nearly 60% of consumers said in a recent survey that they would change financial institutions if they weren’t happy with their digital experience. And six out of 10 FI leaders say legacy infrastructure is the top challenge impeding growth.
To ensure growth, it’s critical to give members and customers the online and mobile experiences they expect. Start by assessing your current digital platform in these five areas:
| Digital experience and usability | Is the website and mobile app user-friendly and easy to navigate? How intuitive is the account registration and login process? Are digital channels optimized for accessibility? Is there a seamless experience across devices? Are members or customers able to easily complete key tasks? |
| Feature availability | Is there mobile check deposit and instant fund availability? Are account alerts customizable and easy to set up? Can users access and manage all account types through digital channels? Are there financial wellness tools? Are self-service options comprehensive? |
| Personalization and customer engagement | Are you leveraging member/customer data to provide personalized recommendations and insights? Do you use member/customer behavior data to tailor messages and services? Are marketing push notifications relevant and timely? How well do you integrate AI or chatbots for personalized assistance? Can members or customers customize their digital dashboard to suit their needs? |
| Security and privacy | Are digital platforms equipped with robust security measures? How transparent are you about data usage and privacy policies? Do you proactively educate users about security best practices? Are you in compliance with relevant security data protection regulations? |
| Innovation and scalability | How often do you introduce new digital features or upgrades? Are digital systems built on scalable and cloud-native technology? Is there a capability to integrate with third-party tools and APIs? Are you investing in emerging technologies like AI, blockchain, or biometric authentication? |
Positioning for growth
If users are suffering a subpar digital experience, you’re at risk of losing them to a more forward-looking FI.
Take the next step to ensure your institution is poised to grow. Read “The High Cost of Standing Still” to learn more about the differences between legacy, early modern, and future-ready platforms, and how to prepare your organization to offer members and clients a user experience that will fuel loyalty and trust.
