From Building Societies to specialist lenders, banks to unsecured lenders and beyond, Financial Services providers are planning and executing their digital transformations. You might think that with so many projects of this nature they can hardly be short of good advice and that, frankly, these projects would run smoothly – sadly not so.
The reasons are manifold but in our experience part of the problem is that it is because there are so few organisations that understand the individual nature of financial businesses – even within the same sectors like mutuals. Too often, the client business is simply not as well understood by suppliers as the technical innovations they offer. Pre-determined solutions forced to fit a poorly defined problem often mean the journey from legacy to digital can be needlessly painful and expensive. With no arbiter to ensure fair play, vested interests drive sales agenda and offer nothing in the way of objectivity or independence.
To compound matters, very often, even within the organisation itself, there are misunderstandings and a lack of experience that can make digital transformation feel more like the creation of Frankenstein’s monster than a step to a brave new world of opportunity. Even if the senior executives want to realise transformation, many in the business like familiarity and simply want to replicate what they do already in a shiny digital wrapper rather than truly transform their business. Few in the boardrooms of financial services have coding experience but many carry the scars of precious projects that have not gone to plan. It’s no-one’s fault but it does mean having a partner who can speak truth to both is essential. It’s the only way to understand what you need to change, prioritise, and then deliver it aligned to the business strategy.Results Come From Everyone Understanding The Problem We Are Trying To FixOur client had many sites with significant process and systems duplication, complexity, and technical debt in its core consumer credit division and systems. This was in part as a result of a federated approach to IT across the group over many years. Our task was to identify the real problems and then prioritise the implementation of solutions. Years of no cohesive technology strategy, clearly articulated target systems architecture, and a piece-meal approach to delivery had left many up and down the organisation scarred and reluctant to grasp the nettle.
While digital transformation may not in and of itself seem anything other than sensible, delivering new ways of thinking and a viable approach to transformation requires a thorough understanding of an organisation and its culture. Unacceptable risk and excess cost of support and change had always hampered the organisation’s ability to deliver digital services to employees and customers.
From origination to servicing organically, the business had grown many processes – many of which were no longer truly fit for purpose. Identifying those and tackling them within the context of digital transformation was essential to delivering real enhancements to their Target Operating Model.
We delivered a clear definition of the end state, clearly defined requirements, a business case, and effective planning and prioritisation to deliver the boardroom vision.Delivering £49m From £10m - The Coeus Difference
We mapped the business capabilities needed to unify product lines and to propose an architecture roadmap that would allow sensible phasing of digital transformations. Our capability assessment highlighted the areas where most improvement could be delivered most quickly and where it was business critical to employ solutions sooner rather than later. In terms of the digital transformation, core customer journeys for the various business channels were reviewed and we produced target IT architectures for them which were accompanied by an investment and benefits plan in both IT and business units.
Our experience, expertise and talents meant our client could deliver the initial £10million transformation the business required and ensure the business was cash positive in twenty months to ultimately deliver circa £49m over the coming 3-5 years.
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