I've been spending a lot of time working on dissecting and reconnecting the pieces that make the suite of online and mobile banking services we have all become accustomed to using. I've been getting a lot of feedback from progressive financial institutions around the country as well as end-users about the need for something new. There is strong consensus about the idea that online applications are becoming the dominant customer-facing retail channel for financial institutions and that the same old transaction based systems aren't cutting it anymore.People want more.
For banks in particular I recommend taking a more consultative approach to serving customers as opposed to the purely transactional approach most currently take. Many banks say they want to help their customers, but are you walking the walk? Many just give it lip service. Where you really see progress are in financial institutions run by progressive thinking management who truly walk the walk. Unless the entire organization sees a new approach from the top down, it will be the same-old, same-old.
Transaction processing is the absolute lowest common denominator. If you don't already have spectacularly beautiful online interfaces with superior usability, mobile optimization and a demo of each on your website, you're behind competitively.
If I could relay only one piece of advice to bankers it would this: make the selection of your online banking applications an entirely separate process from the selection of core processing. Consider this question: would you let your contractor design your next branch? (and for the sake of this argument, assume that your builder has no architects or interior folks on staff - and trust me - from what I've seen, your core has no one qualified to design web apps on staff). Believe it or not, there are people who now shop banks and credit unions strictly based on the quality of your online applications. Consider that when your core processor is "throwing in" the online banking applications when you're busy evaluating their core platform. Get your marketing people involved and know that you don't have to use their application.
