Generalist or specialist?

As a CEO, you can decide to either choose a field and deliver very complex projects, or to solve a lot of problems, in many areas, but rather superficially. I believe that the market needs both types of providers. However, specialization allows solving problems of a larger calibre and allows building long-term business relationships. Your partner is aware that this is long-standing cooperation and that you will be able to help them solve the problem now, next year, as well as in two years’ time.

Specialization is also a natural way to create your own products and services. The more you delve into a specific topic, the more you start to see things that could be improved, and the byproduct is a specific product. This is how Payres, our proprietary system for activating banking data in real-time, was created.

Instead of a domain specialization, some companies choose a technological one. For example, the Polish software house STX Next specializes in Python. They consistently build the brand of the largest European Python development company. This label certainly gives them a unique differentiator and distinguishes them in the eyes of both clients and job candidates. Such a strategy can ensure relatively quick niche domination and therefore, global significance in terms of specific solutions.

Pros and cons of specialization

Specialization also has its drawbacks, including recruiting appropriate staff and the possible industry crisis. It requires an extended career path. These days, young people want to be Renaissance men, hence it is more difficult to find people willing to carry out this type of strategy. That is why I am an avid supporter of the T-shaped approach: focusing on a specific domain, with an in-depth understanding of the related topics, complemented by the possibility of using specialists in other fields.

Today, software houses are a bit like film studios. We regularly provide a product, i.e. software, for various projects, based on the joint effort of high-class specialists. This model is spreading to other industries as well. For example, in the construction industry, you will find more and more developers operating as generalists, employing designers or architectural studios that specialize in arranging private or office interiors.

Brand specialization “made in Poland”

The question about the legitimacy of specialization was posed by an association of the programming sector representatives. SoDA already has over 100 members, and their number is growing dynamically, which draws attention to the Polish specialization. There is a chance that a state-of-the-art, well-thought-out code will become a Polish export product.

Poland has already been dubbed “the IT hub of Europe”. In the first quarter of 2018, there were a total of 1,236 BPO, SSC, IT and R&D centres (Polish and international) in Poland, employing a total of 279,000 people. Polish developers are among the best programmers in the world. We have created not only a product brand but also a unique work culture, in which our national determination, persistence and inclination to solve difficult problems has found an outlet.

We need initiatives that broadcast the reputation of Polish developers in the day-to-day “job well done” for foreign clients. In the times of a global pandemic, specialization is worth considering, to prioritize and determine further paths of development in the “new normal”.

The post Generalists or specialists: does narrow specialization pay off? first appeared on CCA Europe.

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Cloud’n’play: the future of banking?

The transition to the cloud is a revolution of a much greater size than the emergence of the core systems 20 years ago. Back then, the leap was contained only inside of the realm of the banking world. Now the banks are transforming in the hope of becoming hubs for all matters of life, not only finances.

This is because In their strive towards improved customer experience, the e-commerce giants such as Amazon or Google have stepped into the realm of payments. They proved that they are technically savvy enough to handle payment processing, and to do it well, i.e. exceeding customer expectations. In response, banks have spotted the red flags and dashed after the runaway train. Their agenda is not only to improve their CX to match that of e-commerce’s, but also to expand their offer with services in such a way that will keep e-commerce at bay. The new standard of banking will include insurance services, investment consulting, or any finance-related service, that Amazon is new to. However, to withstand the competition of agile e-commerce, banks need  more than even a top-class core system. What they need is an entire ecosystem of integrated applications – no longer on-prem, but in the cloud.

In the new ecosystem, each mobile banking application is to bring benefit to the customer and to be standardized. In some time, Apple Store or Google Play will offer several dozen applications meeting all customer needs, not only those related to finance. With standard interfaces, the application can “plug’n’play” into the bank’s IT architecture, regardless of the manufacturer. And when a revolutionary fintech application comes up on the market, a “cloud-native” bank will be able to buy it, connect it to their servers and offer the service to the customer via a plug, available for download in an ordinary app store. 

In my opinion, this is what the banking of the future will look like in the cloud model. The clients “plug” the preferred application package into the architecture of the selected bank, and “uninstall” as they wish. In such an arrangement, the bank will do everything to encourage customers to “plug in” with them, and not with their competition. To retain the customer, the existing central systems must become at least “plug’n’play-ready”, either natively or via adapters. There is only one “but” – no mature central banking system in the world is ready for this yet. 

Is the runaway train worth chasing?

Of course, there are visionary solutions such as @Frank Sanchez’ Finxact, a cloud-native Core as a Service. In March this year, the new digital banking app One and FirstBank operating in western US announced that they chose Finxact to power their services. In late 2019, Finxact launched cooperation with the US Clearing House (TCH) to bring real-time payments capabilities to its customers through the RTP® network, a new payment network financial institutions can use to clear and settle real-time consumer and business payments. 

Finxact initiative is a big leap towards genuine cloud freedom, but it still has a long way to go, as does all the industry. Perhaps, since the system was designed natively for the cloud, its “plug’n’play” features will allow it to supplement any missing functionalities with third party cloud native plugins? In the meantime, what are small and medium-sized banks to do? First of all, they don’t have a core system that could handle cloud solutions well. The solutions available so far have limited functionalities, but over time we can expect core system upgrades to the cloud, with several pre-integrated applications.

FIS, a leading technology provider for the financial world, recently announced that it already has 74 external SLA-guaranteed applications ready for its cloud-ready core system. Still, replacing the core system, or even upgrading its version, is a multi-million dollar investment, which amortizes within a dozen or so years.

When faced with such decisions, banks, especially medium and small-sized, will probably try to patch up the old systems with makeshifts. However, for some operations, these temporary solutions will not be enough. In-house solutions will certainly not be able to compete with the proposals of those players who join ranks with Amazon, Google and Facebook. How will this translate into customer satisfaction? I’m sure the customer will vote with their feet. As a result, within 12 years time, 80% of financial firms will either go out of business or be rendered irrelevant by new competition, changing customer behaviour and advancements in technology, according to forecasts by Gartner.

The giants have enormous money sacks, which they use easily when there is a potential to earn even more in the future. With modern solutions in place, the largest players will be able to adapt to the client overnight, at the same time dividing and conquering the market among themselves and leaving no room for third-party competition. It will impact business partners, customers and IT suppliers of minor players. The question is not if it happens, but when.

Focus on the customer, and not on the chase

However, traditional banking is not without a chance. In its fervor of chasing the next exciting technology the top players can actually lose their touch with reality and the customer will be lost on the way. This is where the banking model based on a proven, long-term partnership has the upper hand. While a part of society feels good about constant change, it is still in the minority, albeit growing. The latter part is focused on stability and gradual evolution. After all, the average length of a relationship with a bank in the UK is 17 years, often longer than a marriage! 

Before the central system vendors are ready with the product and the race leaders reach the “cloud’n’play level”, customer satisfaction is the safest bet. Instead of building virtual worlds, it is worth putting your efforts into a relationship with the client and showing that it is you who is trying harder. There already is a way to genuinely care for the customer, and have them attached enough so that they won’t change ship in the first wave to come as soon as Google Pay offers them a bank account.

How to emerge a winner?

I believe the quick wins strategy is most effective. The clients will feel appreciated when they notice the bank cares for them through frequent, yet not necessarily major, improvements and changes. 

Our proprietary system Payres is based on this idea. It activates banking data in real-time and keeps the customer engaged, or even appreciated thanks to push notifications. The bank is following the e-commerce trends we got us accustomed to – instant response combined with proximity.

The point is not to give up the cloud altogether, but to think about which applications are crucial from the bank’s point of view, and to have them ready when the time comes. Meanwhile, you can consider redirecting the flow of investments from the cloud race to pro-customer solutions. 

If you want to learn more about how the Payres system works, or talk about cloud solutions for banking, do not hesitate to contact me!

Jacek Nowak, CEO CCA Europe

Jacek has been working in the IT sector of the banking industry since 1997, and is a business owner since 2004. He specializes in the digitization of global and local processes related to payment processing, card payments and customer satisfaction. In his limited spare time, he plays board games. LinkedIn profile: linkedin.com/in/jacekvonnowak/

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Migrating applications, running additional instances, testing or separating them to ensure security and stability jeopardizes the environment’s balance. Do you really have to reinstall the application and restore its configuration every time? What if we need a thousand, or ten thousand copies, or if each instance requires a different IP address? And what if the OS doesn’t include the required dependencies? 

Those kinds of problems are solved with a virtual machine, which can be easily migrated. At the same time, you can adjust resources, assign addressing and isolate the new system from others. But why the whole system, if you only need the application? 

This is where containerization comes into play.

Containerization vs virtualization  

Most of the existing virtualization methods assume a stack consisting of hardware on which the operating system is running, and a hypervisor, i.e. the controller of the next layer: virtual machines. These machines re-use the operating system as the bottom layer of the stack. Above are the libraries and binaries. The application is running at the very top of the stack. 

Virtual machines are isolated from each other, creating a complete and independent environment. The system administrator can adjust the assigned hardware resources quite freely. However, applications running on virtual machines have lower performance than those running on physical hardware, i.e. without virtualization. This is because the virtual machine’s operating system and hypervisor take up hardware resources. Just like a buyer who buys goods via a chain of brokers must take into account higher purchase costs, so each subsequent abstraction layer separating physical hardware from the application depletes its performance. Fortunately, there is a way to lean down the abstraction layers. 

Apps all packed and ready to go

The basic idea of containerization is to place the application, its processes, configuration and dependencies in a virtual unit called a container. From the application’s point of view, these containers are separate and independent instances of the runtime environment. They have a separate RAM and disk space, as well as a private IP address. Despite the isolation, containers can communicate with each other through well-defined information exchange channels.

Containerization allows removing a duplicated operating system and hypervisor, which dramatically reduces the performance gap between the container application and the application running on physical hardware. Simultaneously, it allows the same scalability, portability and instance separation. 

However, please remember that containerization is by no means a successor to virtualization, or some virtualization 2.0. Instead, it is an improved and cheaper way to make the IT ecosystem more flexible, to match individual business needs and make it both on-prem-, and cloud-ready.

Docker, Kubernetes and Docker Swarm

Implementing containerization and then managing such a stack requires an appropriate platform. Undoubtedly, the most well-known and commonly used containerization tool is Docker. It is an open-source solution and a container file format. Due to its popularity, this technology has even become synonymous with the word “containerization”.

When there are more and more containers, and they are deployed on many servers, Kubernetes comes handy. This most popular container orchestration platform was created by Google for its own needs and later released as open-source software. Kubernetes is used to manage, automate and scale container applications. The platform allows managing a large number of containerized application instances and offers a proprietary, integrated form of load balancing. 

Kubernetes enables not only automation but also creating declarative tasks. It is often compared with Docker Swarm, the orchestration software for Docker. The latter solution, although it allows less flexibility, requires much less configuration, offers a faster publishing process and is easier to use. The choice between these two solutions often depends on the preferences of the DevOps team and the needs of the project itself.

SoDA in the cloud

Due to the favourable pros and cons balance, containerization and orchestration are extremely dynamically developing fields of computer science, especially in the face of increasing requirements for business IT.

CCA Europe.pl cooperates with 5 partner companies from the Polish Software Development Association (SoDA) in implementing containerization of applications and migrating applications to the cloud. Each of these companies has its character and specialization. Based on them, we precisely choose the partner’s skill set for a specific project:

1. Specialization: applications, Java technology-based stack and a well-thought-out application development process, in line with Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery. The partner offers a solid testing strategy based on a standard pyramid, including a Nexus artifacts repository, as well as building Docker Swarm container farms. 
2. Specialization: AWS cloud, including Jenkins CI/CD GitLab Pipelines for running the OS scripts. 
3. Specialization: automatic, performance and stress tests for CI processes. The partner offers consulting services for CI process testing strategies.
4. Specialization: Google cloud, with experience in creating a public cloud. We move Java-based applications to the cloud. Our partner offers Kubernetes certificates for administration and development. 
5. Specialization: MS Azure cloud. The partner offers full coverage of the CI/CD process with Azure DevOps and Azure Pipelines with Jenkins, GitLabs, Bamboo or Concourse, when applicable. Both Kubernetes and Docker Swarm can be freely selected. We use Azure Artifacts or Artifactory as an artifacts repository. We specialize in migrating applications to the cloud in the .NET stack, but we also have experience in application environments based on other technology stacks.

With containerization, microservice farms on cloud platforms are possible. They enable not only easy migration of applications but also virtually unlimited adjustment of the resources to load used. 

With partners demonstrating such a wide range of competences, we can implement even very advanced CI/CD processes or migrate applications to the cloud.

The post Software containerization: IT’s money box first appeared on CCA Europe.

Artykuł Software containerization: IT’s money box pochodzi z serwisu CCA Europe.

Migrating applications, running additional instances, testing or separating them to ensure security and stability jeopardizes the environment’s balance. Do you really have to reinstall the application and restore its configuration every time? What if we need a thousand, or ten thousand copies, or if each instance requires a different IP address? And what if the OS doesn’t include the required dependencies? 

Those kinds of problems are solved with a virtual machine, which can be easily migrated. At the same time, you can adjust resources, assign addressing and isolate the new system from others. But why the whole system, if you only need the application? 

This is where containerization comes into play.

Containerization vs virtualization  

Most of the existing virtualization methods assume a stack consisting of hardware on which the operating system is running, and a hypervisor, i.e. the controller of the next layer: virtual machines. These machines re-use the operating system as the bottom layer of the stack. Above are the libraries and binaries. The application is running at the very top of the stack. 

Virtual machines are isolated from each other, creating a complete and independent environment. The system administrator can adjust the assigned hardware resources quite freely. However, applications running on virtual machines have lower performance than those running on physical hardware, i.e. without virtualization. This is because the virtual machine’s operating system and hypervisor take up hardware resources. Just like a buyer who buys goods via a chain of brokers must take into account higher purchase costs, so each subsequent abstraction layer separating physical hardware from the application depletes its performance. Fortunately, there is a way to lean down the abstraction layers. 

Apps all packed and ready to go

The basic idea of containerization is to place the application, its processes, configuration and dependencies in a virtual unit called a container. From the application’s point of view, these containers are separate and independent instances of the runtime environment. They have a separate RAM and disk space, as well as a private IP address. Despite the isolation, containers can communicate with each other through well-defined information exchange channels.

Containerization allows removing a duplicated operating system and hypervisor, which dramatically reduces the performance gap between the container application and the application running on physical hardware. Simultaneously, it allows the same scalability, portability and instance separation. 

However, please remember that containerization is by no means a successor to virtualization, or some virtualization 2.0. Instead, it is an improved and cheaper way to make the IT ecosystem more flexible, to match individual business needs and make it both on-prem-, and cloud-ready.

Docker, Kubernetes and Docker Swarm

Implementing containerization and then managing such a stack requires an appropriate platform. Undoubtedly, the most well-known and commonly used containerization tool is Docker. It is an open-source solution and a container file format. Due to its popularity, this technology has even become synonymous with the word “containerization”.

When there are more and more containers, and they are deployed on many servers, Kubernetes comes handy. This most popular container orchestration platform was created by Google for its own needs and later released as open-source software. Kubernetes is used to manage, automate and scale container applications. The platform allows managing a large number of containerized application instances and offers a proprietary, integrated form of load balancing. 

Kubernetes enables not only automation but also creating declarative tasks. It is often compared with Docker Swarm, the orchestration software for Docker. The latter solution, although it allows less flexibility, requires much less configuration, offers a faster publishing process and is easier to use. The choice between these two solutions often depends on the preferences of the DevOps team and the needs of the project itself.

SoDA in the cloud

Due to the favourable pros and cons balance, containerization and orchestration are extremely dynamically developing fields of computer science, especially in the face of increasing requirements for business IT.

CCA Europe.pl cooperates with 5 partner companies from the Polish Software Development Association (SoDA) in implementing containerization of applications and migrating applications to the cloud. Each of these companies has its character and specialization. Based on them, we precisely choose the partner’s skill set for a specific project:

1. Specialization: applications, Java technology-based stack and a well-thought-out application development process, in line with Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery. The partner offers a solid testing strategy based on a standard pyramid, including a Nexus artifacts repository, as well as building Docker Swarm container farms. 
2. Specialization: AWS cloud, including Jenkins CI/CD GitLab Pipelines for running the OS scripts. 
3. Specialization: automatic, performance and stress tests for CI processes. The partner offers consulting services for CI process testing strategies.
4. Specialization: Google cloud, with experience in creating a public cloud. We move Java-based applications to the cloud. Our partner offers Kubernetes certificates for administration and development. 
5. Specialization: MS Azure cloud. The partner offers full coverage of the CI/CD process with Azure DevOps and Azure Pipelines with Jenkins, GitLabs, Bamboo or Concourse, when applicable. Both Kubernetes and Docker Swarm can be freely selected. We use Azure Artifacts or Artifactory as an artifacts repository. We specialize in migrating applications to the cloud in the .NET stack, but we also have experience in application environments based on other technology stacks.

With containerization, microservice farms on cloud platforms are possible. They enable not only easy migration of applications but also virtually unlimited adjustment of the resources to load used. 

With partners demonstrating such a wide range of competences, we can implement even very advanced CI/CD processes or migrate applications to the cloud.

The post Software containerization: IT’s money box first appeared on CCA Europe.

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In the world of shared economy, executing all IT tasks with just in-house resources is neither quite possible nor necessary. How then to increase your teams’ capacity? And how to support the overall business goals, financial results and company growth? The answer: scale in the spirit of lean, for improved economy and organizational agility.

Small is beautiful but still small

Software companies such as CCA Europe are based on highly qualified teams of developers, analysts and experienced managers. And it’s not just about numbers. Small teams of qualified developers often have more capacity to deliver innovative and complex applications on time and within the budget, maintaining high quality. 

As the man behind the term ‘small is beautiful’, E.F. Schumacher, put it, small teams are a key factor of success and innovation in software development. And this is exactly how we have developed our unique skills in the banking IT sector. However, the current IT market challenges require still more specializations.

I believe these days software companies are a bit like film studios: we need to deliver various finished products (in our case software) regularly. That is why in terms of organization, technology companies increasingly mimic Hollywood film production. Our projects require a joint effort of high-class specialists, experts in respective fields.

At CCA Europe, we gladly reach out for the support of domain experts. Outsourcing allows us to quickly scale employment up or down, depending on project requirements. Apart from central bank systems, we also deliver front-end applications. With these tools, our clients can listen to the voice of their customers and implement the expected changes.

A company open for exchange

IT companies are increasingly less like forts, and more like airports. Our employees are sent off to different projects, and new talents arrive to join our team. However, this type of exchange requires high organizational maturity.

First of all, the key to success is the right procedures. If they are effective, the leased employee can quickly adapt to your client’s team, and be operative from day one. Secondly, organizational culture is essential. When building such a “flexible” team, employees should be ready for constant change. Both the company policy and work organization ought also align to this model.

In the recruitment and onboarding of new CCA Europe employees, we strongly emphasize the skills that support the scalability of the organization. Our employees must be able to operate in an open model, i.e. to blend in with the structures of client organizations efficiently, and we encourage such talents to work with us.

Just the other day, one of our partners praised one of our testers, emphasizing not only her technical skills but also her adaptability. “Although she was not a permanent member of the team, the tester was able to perfectly find herself in the new environment and seamlessly blend with the ongoing project pace, according to the applied Agile methodology. In addition, she demonstrated great diligence and focus during testing. She openly discussed her doubts and shared her comments with the remote team, which demonstrates high communication skills,” the client wrote.

Lean scaling: the future of IT?

For the management of a software development organization, scaling is the greatest challenge. However, the possibility to temporarily increase one’s human resources opens access to a new talent pool, and thus increases ROI and productivity. As a result, partner outsourcing works great when you need to strengthen the team with specific skills or as support in larger projects. The exchange allows not only optimizing costs but also proving the company’s culture and organizational maturity.

Since last year, we have been a member of the Software Development Association Poland (SoDA). It is a joint venture of over 90 companies, with a total of over 9,000 developers on board, which supports and fosters the scalable operating model. SoDA members are special forces. It is the only organization in Poland that runs hundreds of projects, with thousands of challenges, at the same time. The organization was created in the spirit of agility so that companies from the IT industry could support each other, share knowledge and experience, as well as join hands to deliver larger projects.

As Mariusz Walczak, Head of Marketing Committee at SoDA admitted, the demanding IT market made it difficult to engage qualified employees quickly. On the other hand, hardly ever are all SoDA organizations involved in full capacity at the same time. When some companies have needs, and others have free resources, all you have to do is match them.

Lean scaling is not simple. It can’t be done helter-skelter because the process requires continuous improvement and learning from one’s mistakes. On the one hand, the process is necessary, but on the other hand, improvisation and adaptation should also be allowed. Another key element is strategic partnerships in different configurations, which CCA Europe cherishes in SoDA. Access to resources that provide both the scale and the strength of diversity is a way to achieve increased productivity and improved quality in the current business reality. Quoting Mariusz Walczak from SoDA, “it is better to cooperate than to compete”.

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Sounds insignificant to you? Nothing could be further from the truth. Younger generations pay attention to these matters much more than my peers.

Shift change

Banks can see a new generation change very clearly. Family funds, and sometimes significant fortunes, begin to flow from baby boomers to millennials and their successors, Generation Z, whose values and tastes are radically different from the ideals of their predecessors. Therefore, it is evident that the existing methods of building customer loyalty will soon prove ineffective.

In the UK, banks are already paying cash to their customers for transferring accounts from the competitors. This shows that banks are walking a tightrope in terms of trust, as modern technology companies lure their customers away. So it is obvious that they must adapt to millennials by making the offer more attractive, and changing their communication style. During the summit, Bartłomiej Dajer from Credit Agricole asked the perverse question whether customer loyalty in banking is even possible at all.

Monzo vs Revolut 

The session that especially caught my attention was Monzo’s. This fintech startup, or rather: a neobank decided to buy a banking license, unlike Revolut. Both companies strive to meet the regulatory requirements, however, Monzo’s ambition is to be perceived as a bank. At the same time, Revolut has no intention to invest in the license, even though it publicly claims full compliance with strict banking regulations regarding customers. And as a matter of fact, the customers have been trusting them.

Monzo and Revolut represent two different approaches, two different business models. Both ‘banks’ are growing very quickly, but it is Revolut that has broken the barrier of 10 million users.

Revolut’s innovative product, a secure card with extremely favourable exchange rates, can convince even the most distrustful customers. Revolut clients are travellers, at least most of them. So, what will happen to Revolut during the coronavirus pandemic? Will people still use their card back in their country? Even if they will, we need to remember that the Revolut business model is based on currency exchange margins, which are calculated upon the client’s travels. The unusual situation we are facing now will undoubtedly affect the company’s revenues. Of course, Revolut is trying to expand in other directions, but will they make it on time?

Speed up the changes

One of the summit’s critical topics was the problem of quick response to changes, or rather the lack of it. Some banks have already noted that they need to focus on this area. Our partner, ING Bank, has abandoned the long lasting RFP process or the waterfall approach. Instead, they switched to the iterative and incremental approach.

An interesting approach was presented by Backbase. Their operating model, developed in the course of projects for Societe Generale or BNP Paribas, cuts the decision making process regarding a project to 6 months. The goal is not to exceed even a year’s quarter. As emphasized by Backbase’s speaker, for banks that use the standard approach, the timeline is approx. 2-3 years! Instead of querying several bidders, Backbase experts recommend scanning the market, setting evaluation criteria and developing a Proof of Concept as soon as possible. Besides, they advise to send RFI not only to companies that first come to mind, but to expand the search systematically. The best bidders in a given industry can be found in the databases of Forrester, Celent, Gartner or IDC. According to Backbase, it is worth talking primarily with industry specialists or at least starting the search with them.

People, not clients

For a very long time, the client-centric paradigm was the primary approach in banking. Everything would start with the customer as all the products were developed for them. During the Digital Finance Summit, it was officially announced that everything starts not with a customer, but with a person.

Banks are entering the role of life advisers, working not through the perspective of products they want to sell, but through the people’s needs. In the new paradigm, the banks are not focused on offering only financial products, but also on supporting people in various life situations. Of course, this wouldn’t work without the numbers (revenue metrics?), and specific products, the range of which expands. 

Naturally, banking rhetoric is changing and the industry is walking out of Excel, launching on a journey to communicate with people. It is not about calling the customers to offer them a loan anymore, but about talking to people, understanding their situation and trying to provide support to meet their ongoing needs, without focusing on one product. 

This change of tune will no doubt trigger a strong emphasis on personalization. Reaching an individual cannot be based on random trials anymore. Effective operation in a new paradigm includes collecting enough information to know exactly if the bank’s offer matches the needs of the individual. However, personalization requires activating data. In the age of constant changes, only real-life data can be a source of information that would allow reaching people effectively.

CCA Europe has been working on proprietary IT tools for activating financial data for several years. For more information, visit our website, or contact us on the private channel – we are here to help you.

The post Digital Finance Summit Warsaw 2020: Goodbye Clients, Hello People! first appeared on CCA Europe.

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Technology spendings in banking are going to increase by 4.6% in the coming year, according to Celent, bringing further changes in the offered services and technologies used. In 2020 banks will focus on the clients, even more, meeting their needs by improving customer service, security, and using data to become faster and more reliable. What does it mean for us, clients? 

Customer-centric perspective

Seamless customer experience and consistency across different channels are the goals for all the industries. The same goes for banking. The sector has been investing heavily in technologies and new business models to meet the client’s needs and expectations, e.g. mobile app ATM withdrawals — the process of introducing near-field communications technologies to the ATMs. Adding services like Apple Pay or Google Pay is just the beginning. Soon, we will experience wide adoption of the QR codes in instant payments over social media. 

Banks will also focus on personalized, real-time customer service by using smart bots. According to Gartner, chatbots will handle more than 85% of customer service interactions in 2020. The bots will be not only about simple queries – they are going to offer more advanced financial tips, detect fraudulent activities, and even assist customers during the registration process. This technology not only helps the banking world to provide centralized financial management but also improves the way customers connect with their banks. 

Bitcoin and biometrics for improved security

Since banking has always been one of the most attractive targets for cybercriminals, security solutions need always to be one step ahead of them. Soon banks will use more and more cryptocurrency payments to provide safer, cheaper and faster transfers. Some are already creating blockchain systems with digital currencies for their customers, e.g. Bitcoin, which is a secure and verifiable way to keep track of transactions. The payments and currency exchange are transparent, and therefore, they are very advantageous to be used in banking. Customer data is protected in the decentralized database, in which all the information about real-time payments and profile details on multiple servers are stored. 

In 2020 we will also see more sophisticated biometric authentication into mobile devices. Fingerprint identification or facial recognition will surely be considered as a special precaution in many bank apps, until the day they replace passwords altogether. 

As an additional layer of customer authentication, banks are also going to introduce voice commands. This feature will also be used to make inquiries about transactions, transfer money or report stolen cards.  

Data upshifts business

Shortly we can expect an increased focus on Big Data, not only to identify security threats in mobile and online banking. The value of the big data market in 2019 reached USD 29.87 billion, and by 2025 it is expected to double. Since data-driven organizations are 23 times more likelyto acquire customers than their competition, no business can neglect the importance of data, especially not the banking sector. Banks will take advantage of data by  leveraging them to understand the needs and preferences of their clients, thus creating real value of new experiences, faster business decisions or real-time services. Based on data, banks will help their clients manage their spending habits and control finances. More data is also going to influence the appearance of digital-friendly products thanks to collaborations with third-party providers, such as fintech and startup companies.

Data analytics will also fuel growth and new business models, in which banks will be able to reap income thanks to data, for example, by sharing customer-analytics capabilities with new ecosystem partners. Great analytics will have to go hand in hand with building trust and being relevant to the clients. 

Banks of the future. What to expect?

Technological development in the last decade changed the way we consume and how we operate with our money. In ten years cards and apps might be replaced by more advanced payment methods, e.g. using biometrics, to make the client’s experience more personalized and satisfying. The era when banks were all things to all customers is long gone; the data-driven ecosystem will rule the financial future. Relying on valuable information will be the starting point to enable the process of disruption in banking.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the future of banking technologies. Please drop me a comment! And if you need more information on how to leverage data in banking, feel free to contact me.

The post Banking of the future is NOW. 3 top trends in 2020 first appeared on CCA Europe.

Artykuł Banking of the future is NOW. 3 top trends in 2020 pochodzi z serwisu CCA Europe.

Traditional banking has to face either fear or some anxiety. Stable, secure, but overwhelmed with their weight and regulatory requirements, banks are not able to keep pace with agile fintech companies, and many times must step aside. Which bank would be able to rewrite its entire payment processing platform three times in five years – exactly like it did AliPayments, achieving 1 million transactions per second? Maybe, instead of racing with fintech, banks should do something else.

2 main trends in banking

During the last Fintech Connect London conference (3-4 December 2019), I observed two main development directions in banking. The first one is B2B payments, the second – activation of collected data in a way they can start working for the bank. Banks in the UK consider themselves to be the most advanced in Europe, but they are still just scratching the surface of data science and B2B payments. Even though large entities create departments of innovation and cooperation with fintech companies, there is no security that popular now, financial start-ups will want to cooperate with them.

Although B2C payments are already mostly available in real-time, regardless of the location of the recipient, and have quite reasonable margins, settlements between companies or institutions are still a long process. In my opinion, this is a new line of cooperation, and at the same time rivalry between banks and fintech companies: who is going to be first and who will do it better. We will observe the development of the situation because as a software house specialized in banking solutions, we are familiar with payments, and we can support them, in terms of new ideas or experience.

One hundred data scientists in one team!

London gave me an exciting inspiration related to the opportunities given to the banks by the massive amount of data they administer. One of my interlocutors, Chief Data Officer in a Scandinavian bank, talked about the Data Scientists team of 100 employees and a Data Students team, consisting of 50 people who are not yet formal employees. The scale of their activity indicates that this area is going to develop further to catch up with companies such as Amazon in using the newly discovered potential. This so-called terra incognita consists of Data-Driven Products, which banks will be able to offer next to primary, mass-supported financial products, such as cards and bills.

Undoubtedly, banks will not be able to share all the data, and none of us would want it. Still, with proper aggregation and anonymization of data, we can already think about how to monetize specific statistics, in terms of segmentation of a given market or even individual corporations. For example, a chain of stores can collect and use data on purchases of their customers, but it is much harder to find industry statistics or a specific customer segment. Banks could process and share such data.

Market data in real-time

Soon, banks will start providing reports on specific market categories, which perfectly fits in with our Payres product, a solution for monitoring, aggregating and announcing payment and card transactions in real-time. In London, I learned that some banks have also created their Payres-like applications, but they are operating with some delay.  Our solution can provide data to a specific customer in real-time so that individual trade actions are tracked. If, for example, Black Friday in all branches sales go high, and in one branch it is really low, Payres will show it right away – not in a week or two, but in real-time, enabling immediate response.

For some time, banks have been looking for a product that they could offer in addition to financial services. Some choose insurance, real estate, and others sell airline tickets with cards. I wonder how many banks are already focusing on translating their data into a specific product – and for whom? This type of product must be dedicated to a corporate audience, not a retail one. Why? Corporations will gladly pay for such a solution because it will provide them with an additional dimension of data, especially if they can receive it regularly. Multinational companies will probably be interested in buying data for a specific market to make decisions about development, acquisition or merger, and enterprises would choose a data subscription to get instant information about their market shares.

Bank as a research institution? Will real-time market data be available in the SaaS model? Banks have a future in offering complementary products that are ‘by-products’ of their work. Do data-based products have a chance to fight for supremacy in this field? Will banks take advantage of the opportunity offered by their resources? I’m curious about that.

The post B2B banking. Who will give agility to the big players? first appeared on CCA Europe.

Artykuł B2B banking. Who will give agility to the big players? pochodzi z serwisu CCA Europe.