Five Questions to Ask Before Choosing Responsive Web Design for Your Financial Services Firm

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1 Five Questions to Ask Before Choosing Responsive Web Design for Your Financial Services Firm How to evaluate this technology for improved customer satisfaction, enhanced operational efficiencies, and competitive advantage By Girish Chhabra WHITEPAPER December 16, 2013

2 Introduction On the go customers around the world are demanding access to the same application across multiple devices, at any time and place. With mobile offerings proliferating, this natural desire for multi-device access will continue to grow stronger. Bank customers as well as employees not only want, but expect, to access information easily across different devices, with Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) a sign of the times. Responsive web design is emerging as a compelling solution to this heated demand for multi-device application access, and growing numbers of banks and financial institutions are exploring and adopting this new technology. Should your firm do the same? Though responsive web design may not always be the best solution, it offers extremely attractive advantages, and is a powerful option to increase the number of customers who can use your applications effectively. After a brief overview, we list five questions that will help you assess whether responsive design is the right choice for your financial services organization What is responsive web design and how does it work? Responsive web design (RWD) is a set of guidelines and frameworks used to write a single web app that can adapt to the varying screen resolutions of multiple devices, eliminating the need for maintaining separate code bases. Layout is flexible, so grid-based columns can easily move beneath one another if resized. Images are scaled to different sizes for fluid effect across different screen resolutions. Decisions are made as to how much content is shown, and how much concealed, to avoid clutter and information overload for smaller screen resolutions. S&T Bank U.S. based S&T Bank listened to its customer requirements and decided to adopt responsive design. At left are screen shots of the same responsively designed web application, as it appears for desktop, tablet, and mobile phone. Nagarro Inc. pg. 2

3 Dissatisfaction with Current Banking Technologies Points to Need, and Opportunity, with Responsive Web Design User satisfaction with mobile and online technologies offered by financial service institutions is at a remarkable low point, as these providers scramble to keep up with the challenges of supporting new mobile technologies. Consumers are registering deep frustration and disappointment, with many banks losing customers as a result. Wakefield Research reports that mobile banking applications fall short of consumer expectations, with nearly half the respondents in the U.S. admitting they ve thought about deleting the app they downloaded from their bank or credit union. Worse still, this user frustration is echoed in a more recent study by Xtreme Labs, finding that one in six U.S. consumers who switched banks indicated a poor mobile banking experience prompted the switch. There is significant upside for those companies who can master the challenges of effective mobile application development and delivery. Responsive design provides a powerful tool for IT leaders of banks and financial service firms to regain control over consumers unmet technology demands. Responsive Design Offers Numerous Benefits: Improves Customer Satisfaction Seamless access across multiple devices, better meeting customer expectations Consistent content delivery across platforms Nagarro Inc. pg. 3

4 Reduces Cost of Ownership & Increases Support Efficiencies Lower development and lifetime support costs using a single code base Single info base for content management team (for consistent messaging and images); Simplified focus for SEO team (with single URL structure to promote, instead of several) Strengthens Competitive Advantage Access to broader customer base by supporting a wider variety of devices Higher revenues, attributable to improved user experience and extended reach Improved brand visibility by reducing competition from multiple internal product teams Increased corporate agility and future-readiness, enabling additional device adoption as opportunity arises Responsive Design Has a Few Limitations: Increased initial design costs & time for first device: Additional up-front design is needed to prepare for multidevice adaptability. Responsive design should not be undertaken blindly; it must fulfill a clear business requirement. Possibly Reduced Functionality Compared to Native Apps: For those cases which require accessing device specific functionality or need very high local performance, native applications may offer a better but more costly option to web-based solutions. Nagarro Inc. pg. 4

5 Financial institutions must carefully consider their strategic needs and explore creative combinations of approaches to best meet their priorities. Question #1: Do I really need responsive design? It s critical to perform an objective assessment of your bank s current technology commitments and strategic priorities for the future. More often than not, IT projects fail because they can t establish a clear business objective. Be sure to map your business goals to the corresponding technology initiatives. Mobile Application Design Options: A native application for a mobile device offers the best access to unique functionality or specific features, since it is written for a specific device or platform. A mobile optimized web app is a website that looks like an application. Because it has been optimized for mobile devices, it requires a separate code base from your desktop web application. A hybrid application is a combination of native and mobile. It s typically built on a native app base, but has browsers embedded in the application, to gather and display web info. A responsive design web app works from a single code base, optimizing its presentation across a variety of devices. Because it s built as a web application, it may lack specific features that are only available on a particular native app. (For instance, native gestures of swiping and dragging may not be supported as well in a responsively designed app as they would be in a specially targeted native app.) Don t make the mistake of jumping into the latest technology if it s not warranted for your corporate goals. For example, a Nagarro client wanted to adopt responsive design for a single internal application that would be accessed solely in office from desktop by its employees. Proceeding with responsive design in this case would be wasteful and unnecessary, and Nagarro recommended against it, saving the customer money. Conversely, if your business goals suggest an activity where the same functionality needs to be accessed across many different form factors, or if the set of devices requiring support is likely to change over time, then responsive web design would be an attractive solution. Nagarro Inc. pg. 5

6 Another key consideration is whether or not a flagship application for your financial institution requires the platform specific features of a native application. Responsive web design would be a clear choice if all the necessary functionality is supported universally by the target devices using the single web application. In cases where a functionality is not universally supported, it might be wiser to develop a native app for the strategically critical deployment first, and reserve responsive web design for other areas, where the cost and time of supporting multiple code bases is prohibitive. Another possibility involves a dominant platform today (for which you might prioritize a native app), which overshadows secondary platforms (for which you might develop a responsively designed app). As the market evolves, you might be able to retire the native app, and transition it to the responsively designed app, assuming its platform diminishes in demand. Many financial institutions are finding that responsive web design provides an excellent solution for their needs. Kiwibank New Zealand Kiwibank has over 800K customers across New Zealand. As a new bank, it chose to adopt responsive design from the beginning. At right are screen shots from the tablet, phone, and desktop perspective of Kiwibank s single, responsively designed web application. Question #2: responsive? I already have HTML5 incorporated.isn t that One of the popular misconceptions is that incorporating HTML5, by itself, produces responsive design. While HTML5 facilitates responsive design, it is ultimately just a language. The application must be designed around responsive design principles, at which point the HTML5 language can help express those responsive directives. Given this type of confusion about which technologies and techniques produce the desired results, financial services firms seeking to adopt responsive design might benefit from consulting with a trusted development partner, to avoid costly errors and keep new initiatives on track. Nagarro Inc. pg. 6

7 Question #3: Will responsive design leave my existing native apps redundant? On the contrary, investing in responsive design typically enhances usability in all respects, improving your return on investment. For starters, if you can migrate your existing native app into a responsive design web app, then you ve increased the number of users who can access it, for better ROI. In other cases, where you choose to retain some key native apps for their special functionality, and also work with a responsive design app to cover the rest of your needs, you should find improved usage and customer satisfaction with the entire portfolio of applications. Basic functions such as brand building can be better handled with the responsively designed app. Your remaining native apps can now cater to more specialized needs, such as navigation, geo location, voice, etc., with tighter focus, resulting in improved user satisfaction. Responsive Design for Broad Needs, Combined with Native Apps for Special Needs Nagarro recently prepared a detailed roadmap and strategy for mobile enablement of existing applications for one of the major European banks. As a result of our recommendation, the bank decided to use a combination of responsive web application and native apps for its net banking platform to capture market opportunity by steering ahead of its competition. Question #4: Is it the right time to change? Timing is everything when it comes to adopting a new technology. One important consideration is how ready the user base appears. In the case of responsive design, early deployments are meeting with extremely strong user adoption, demonstrating a positive state of user readiness and a great opportunity for new providers to capture competitive advantage. Nagarro Inc. pg. 7

8 Now is the time to explore how ready your organization is for a change to responsive design. This is another case where consulting a trusted technology partner could help you, by providing a more objective assessment of your internal state of readiness. Measuring Readiness, Then Capturing Advantage, for Improved Bottom Line Nagarro has created metrics to assess the readiness of its clients regarding a possible transition to mobile access for its application portfolio, as well as other technology changes. Overall scores, and scores by platform, help to illuminate the best mobile solution options for each application in the client s IT landscape. This mobile readiness scorecard was recently used for one of Nagarro s clients. As a result of this partnership, the firm decided to adopt responsive web design for some of its key web-based portals. Question #5: Am I taking too many chances, since responsive design is still in the early stages? Certainly being an early adopter carries its own challenges. But the advantages of being in the game early generally outweigh the risks, Early Adopters in Financial Services: especially when considering how difficult it can be to play catch up, with time to market requirements shrinking for both products and services. The ideal strategy is to stay ahead, with well examined decisions. A quick survey of banks around the world which have already initiated responsive web design to achieve competitive advantage is outlined at right. JYSKE Bank, one of the largest Danish banks ( S&T Bank, United States ( Kiwibank, New Zealand ( Handelsbanken, Sweden, has a pilot project at Responsive web design has now been deployed long enough to demonstrate its Gateway Bank, United States, utility and staying power. It will be used reporting 108% increase in new increasingly in the future to meet accelerating user demands, combined with more rationale support strategies. In today s climate, where the number and type of mobile devices and visits to their site, and 56% more mobile visits, since adopting responsive design. ( Nagarro Inc. pg. 8

9 operating systems are diverse and growing, it s reasonable to expect that companies will improve their competitive advantage if they can provide the most satisfying experience across the users choice of devices. Banks and financial service firms that take advantage of responsive design will find themselves well positioned to deliver ever-richer user experiences, with improved back-room support capabilities, for a combined strategic win. Conclusion Responsive web design for a web application allows for an adaptable presentation of content across multiple devices, thus reducing the need for maintaining multiple code bases and providing greater user satisfaction. While responsive design may not provide the same specialized functionality as some native applications for mobile devices, its benefits are numerous and substantial, and it can be cleverly combined with alternate mobile strategies to achieve an overall winning formula. Transitioning your application portfolio to responsive web design should yield higher revenues, lower costs, improved brand awareness, and greater corporate agility to take advantage of new mobile devices as they evolve. Current technology leaders at financial services firms need to consider this important new approach to mobile enablement to maximize efficiencies and capture competitive advantage. Risks of adopting this new technology as part of your mobile strategy can be mitigated by consulting with experienced practitioners. With such high levels of unmet user needs, and evidence of deployment already growing within the financial services industry, now is the time to consider adopting responsive web design solutions for your firm. Nagarro Inc. pg. 9

10 Nagarro specializes in building complex, business-critical software and IT projects for leading companies in multiple industries, including banking and financial services. Headquartered in Silicon Valley and a member of the Allgeier Group in Germany, Nagarro is recognized worldwide for its technical expertise, agile deployment, and bedrock commitment to customer service. Recently, Nagarro was named to the Global Outsourcing 100 List by the IAOP (International Association of Outsourcing Professionals ), earning the highest possible scores in three categories Customer References, Employee Management and Executive Leadership. This ranking identified Nagarro among the 25 Rising Stars, with industry leadership noted in Financial Services (Banking, Markets) among others. Contact us Sales: sales@nagarro.com North America USA > San Jose: +1 (408) New York: +1 (212) Atlanta: +1 (678) Mexico > Monterrey: Europe Germany > Frankfurt: Germany > Munich: Sweden > Kista: +46 (0) Romania > Timisoara: Asia Pacific India > Gurgaon: +91 (124) Website Nagarro Inc. pg. 10