More Observability, More Opportunity: Ten Steps to Banking Tech Success

Since the mid-2000s, we’ve seen profound transformation in banking–from the establishment of FinTech and the emergence of crypto assets, blockchains and programmable Web3 over the last decade to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) more recently. In fact, it’s estimated that AI could contribute up to $4 trillion to GDP growth over the next several years.

Across financial services, technology like machine learning is already being applied from the back office to the front, as it is used to replace human judgement in underwriting, assess risk in the payments industry, provide customers with conversational interfaces in mobile banking apps, and more.

The question is, how can banks keep up, get ahead, and capitalize on these exciting new advancements? Here are our top tips.

Meet your peers

Today, chains like Ethereum, Polygon and Solana have over 1.3 billion addresses–the equivalent of a bank account–and there are thousands of developers working on an open-source way to extend financial software, right now as you read this.

Essentially, FinTechs and neobanks have taken on the biggest names in the business, the likes of Visa and MasterCard, and they’re winning. An estimated $4 billion in capital is going into the FinTech sector a month and the decentralization of the finance industry is happening in front of our eyes. So, even the most established banks shouldn’t become complacent, and must embrace the opportunity to adapt.

Partner up

However, this seismic change can’t be tackled alone. Transformation begins with collaboration, and banks must find the right technology partners if they want to stay competitive.

Relationships work both ways, too, as tech giants lean on financial firms to offer their customers integrated banking solutions. For example, Apple Card was created in partnership with Goldman Sachs, or Amazon connecting pools of capital to underwrite the commerce that takes place on it.

Explore new platforms

In addition to the right partner, you need the right platform; one that’ll empower you to improve your visibility and understanding of what banking with you looks like for your customer. This is because digital experience is everything.

In Riverbed’s Global Digital Employee Experience (DEX) survey, 98% of FSI-leader respondents agreed DEX is important to remain competitive.

Keep your customers ‘appy’

So, let’s look at the user’s perspective for a moment. To them, this industry advancement is fantastic. They no longer need to distinguish payments, banking, and investing; as they are all integrated, usually in one easy-to-use, quick-to-navigate app or website.

They can send money to friends and family through social media messaging apps. They can save through payment apps. They can invest in treasuries through savings apps. They can oversee all their accounts, budgets, incomings, outgoings and more through financial management apps. Remember, if they can’t do all this on your app–preferably facilitated by a friendly robo-advisor–they’ll switch to a competitor, where they can.

Delve into your data

What lies at the heart of creating actionable insights and delivering these relevant digital experiences? Data.

It’s never been more vital to collect, analyze and extract actionable insight from full-fidelity data across all your platforms. To have great AI outcomes, you need great data.

The key is understanding what ‘normal’ looks like to you, so you can avoid falling below this benchmark and know when you’re achieving above it.

Invest in intelligent monitoring

By partnering with an AI observability leader and implementing their platform to monitor your data (that’s all the previous steps sorted), you can begin to establish that ‘normal’, discover the experiences of your employees and customers, and make improvements – all based on fact, rather than your best guesswork.

Automate, automate, automate

The best platforms in the market will even have integrated tools, powered by AI and machine learning, that automate those improvements. By automatically performing tasks like cutting complexity by creating logical shortcuts; addressing lower-level service desk issues; and fixing bugs; organizations can boost employee productivity and fine-tune apps. So, when new functionality does go live, it makes superior experiences for everyone.

Review your resources and make smart choices

By gaining insight into what resources you have, which you actually use, where you need more and how often they truly need updating or upgrading, you can make smarter choices, working more efficiently, and cost-effectively.

For example, consider:

• Right-sizing hardware – do you really need all those laptops, or would VDI spaces do the trick?
• Software – how many of those licenses actually have users assigned to them?
• Storage – how much data are we honestly using?
• And maintenance – do all our devices need replacing at once or are some still performing well?

These can all have a significant impact on your IT investment.

Monitor trends and patterns today and into the future

With all the data you are monitoring, AI can be used not only to see what’s going on today, but also to model what might happen tomorrow, and how you can stay on top of it.

Let’s say, for example, customers regularly visit your banking app on payday to spend, save and invest their cash. You can predict this pattern, allocating additional bandwidth towards the end of the month so network performance stays smooth.

Protect your budget and our planet

Investing in, and releasing, new tech can be costly. But in turn, these technologies can allow you to save money and cut your carbon footprint. By carrying out all the steps above–using data-driven insight to right-size, increase productivity and predict trends–you can improve ROI while using fewer resources.

Riverbed’s AI-powered observability solutions are transforming the digital financial landscape by providing seamless and secure user experiences across every channel–integrating with other technologies, and incorporating AI and machine learning, to provide proactive remediation, reduce costs and cut carbon impact. Get in touch with our expert team, so we can work together to bring your bank into the future.