A CATALYST FOR CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND GROWTH IN THE FINANCIAL SERVICES SECTOR

Peter Walker, EMEA CTO, Blue Prism

 

The financial services sector has undergone a period of rapid innovation over the past decade, with the rise of fintechs and digital banking solutions, which are much more agile than traditional banking options. On top of this, the sector is now also experiencing unprecedented effects due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Institutions must transform their core operations to address these industry disruptions, not only to meet the needs of today’s increasingly interconnected society, but also to help weather the impact of the virus.

In order to maintain a competitive advantage within the industry, satisfy the changing demands of their customers and meet intensifying regulations, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technology can offer a way forward by providing a platform that runs Digital Workers – intelligent software robots that complete activities in the same way as humans, by mimicking and learning business processes like people do.

With the unprecedented surge in demand of business operations, work isn’t being delivered at its full potential, and at the pace required. People are increasingly unable to support businesses’ needs of extracting and formatting data into a number of different systems, as well as performing a number of tasks which are better suited to technology. This work can lead to stressful environments and errors in a highly regulated process.

 

Addressing the changes in the financial services landscape

Digital banking apps like Monzo and Starling have in the past few years transformed the way people handle their personal finances, and the banking solutions now available to customers means that they have become accustomed to seamless service.

Speed is everything in financial services, and against a backdrop of economic and political uncertainty, traditional banking institutions need to consider changing the way they operate. They must heed the example of digital natives and become more agile, so that they can quickly adapt to unforeseen circumstances in the market.

As the demand for the sector’s services increases in response to the government’s mandated initiatives, such as the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CIBLS), companies will have to pivot their operations to keep pace with the changing landscape. We always hear about how sectors can digitally transform, and RPA-based Digital Workers can help companies to begin their digital transformation journey and accelerate that innovation.

Implementing Digital Workers

In this challenging climate, where traditional business models have changed overnight, organisations need to fulfil the demands of enterprise operations at the pace required to remain competitive. Increasingly, people won’t be able to support this demand on their own, and technology will plug the gap that humans cannot fill.

A lot of customer-facing activity in financial services is process-heavy by nature. It involves dealing with large amounts of sensitive information and adhering to strict processes, which creates a lot of admin. Strategically deploying Digital Workers and intelligent automation can help businesses to streamline a number of these admin tasks, such as processing loans and mortgage repayments. Automating this process frees up employees’ time so they can improve other areas of the business that automation alone can’t deal with.

Covid-19 has renewed the pressure on financial services organisations – not just simply by increasing the sheer volume of customer service calls, but also by introducing new operational stresses through remote working. Implementing automation technologies in a strategic way can help financial institutions get in better shape to cope, not just during this time of uncertainty, but in the long run. In a recent survey looking at how organisations around the globe are using Digital Workers to stay resilient, positive and competitive in this new economic reality, 95% of business decision makers in financial services revealed that they already have plans in place to extend their use of automation across their business.

 

Support during Covid-19

In response to the pandemic, Blue Prism has set up the Covid-19 Response Programme, donating Digital Workers and services to assist across a number of sectors, including on the front lines of the health emergency, transportation and financial services. These deployments illustrate how RPA can help – as by using Digital Workers, business will be able to maintain business continuity and provide the necessary services to citizens during this difficult time.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Leeds Building Society has turned to Blue Prism’s RPA technology to rapidly increase its deployment of Digital Workers, helping it to cope with the high demand for mortgage holidays. Mortgage payment holiday requests now exceed 2,000 a day and this is all now being handled by the RPA solution, reducing calls to the contact centre by 75% and providing answers to most of these requests within 21 seconds. This allows front-line colleagues to focus on delivering better customer experiences, and back-office processing teams to work on other priorities for the business. Most importantly, at a time of profound uncertainty when many people are under financial pressure, it helps to quickly resolve their issues.

For a long time, the financial services sector has been slow to adopt new technologies which could speed up internal processes, primarily due to the need to comply with regulatory requirements. Yet automation can help these organisations to adjust to rapid regulatory changes. For example, by helping them to audit their data and processes. Without automation technology, businesses might have to recruit and train temporary staff or hire support from a business process outsourcing provider, which could come at a significant cost.

 

The future of automation in the sector

Financial services perform a vital role in our economy. But the pandemic also provides an impetus for organisations in the sector to transform their operations, and automation has huge potential when it comes to this transformation. By 2024, Gartner predicts that automation technologies will replace almost 69% of the managers’ workloads. The Covid-19 crisis could be a catalyst to hasten the migration of routine and rote business processes and help the sector to keep pace with the changing economic environment, as well as rising consumer demands.

 

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