With the FCA regulator scrutinising everything in the financial services sector lifecycle and high inflation rates impacting everybody, having a tech strategy which improves your firm’s efficiency is crucial …

We focus here on the financial services sector but all businesses should have a clear IT strategy which includes an assessment of where their tech is at currently, a vision of where they want to go and a plan to get them there. This is because your technology is your ticket to competitive success in this online world and there is no getting away from that fact. This should be discussed at board level (if it isn’t already).

Remember too, that even if you do have an IT Strategy already, unless you have communicated it to the right people and got their buy-in, it is unlikely to get far.

If you don’t have an IT Strategy or the resources needed, take a look at our guide here and have a chat to us if you’d like further help.

Why Financial Services firms need to revisit their tech strategy

The right IT products and services will make your business more productive, efficient and profitable.

The current cost of living crisis may require you to prioritise certain areas of your IT plan though. For example, the FCA is scrutinising the standard of service provided to vulnerable clients – and the numbers of these customers are increasing and will need to be managed on ever tightening budgets. So part of the solution will be to make your operating model more efficient.

Automate for efficiency

Once upon a time the word ‘automation’ struck fear into traditional businesses but now it is an indispensable part of daily operations and there are robust automation tools which will improve the way your firm works. Have you included automation apps in your tech strategy? The important thing is to select the right ones for you as there are many options out there.

Benefits from automation apps

    • Automate repetitive and mundane tasks that have to be done. This will be faster and remove the risk of human errors creeping in.
    • Frees up your workforce to focus on other tasks, saving the need to recruit additional staff to ensure a good standard of client service. Also enables employees to carry out more interesting and rewarding activities, which could help with staff retention.
    • Provides all kinds of insights and data to use in developing your products and services, in staff training and in improving your customer experience. For example, with the cost of living crisis, the FCA is scrutinising the service provided by financial services firms to vulnerable clients even more than usual in terms of Quality Assurance. So you might use insights to work out where you need to put most focus and resource according to importance/risk.

These are a few areas which you could include in your Tech Strategy and plan in order to lower your total cost base. For further information take a look at our page for financial services firms.

If you would like to chat to us about these ideas or our IT Strategy and audit services, we’d like to hear from you – you could use the form below or call us on 0330 124 3599.