TM TREND REPORT: THE IMPACT OF VIRTUAL COLLABORATION IN THE FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS KEY CONSUMER TRENDS within the Financial Services market 3 REPORT TAKEAWAYS 3 DEMANDS & CHALLENGES 4 CASE STUDY: Video Conferencing ATMs 5 IT CHALLENGES MET AND EXCEEDED 6, 7, 8 FINANCIAL COLLABORATION: PGi s Unique Perspective 10 NOTES 11 2
TREND REPORT: THE IMPACT OF VIRTUAL COLLABORATION IN THE FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY Over the past 10 years, the financial services industry has been bombarded with challenges, setbacks and brick walls. Global economic fluctuations, compliance and regulatory pressures, global expansion, evolving customer demands and operational inefficiencies challenge every financial institution today. These pressures ultimately impact every line of business within the financial institutions, particularly information technology services. The universal adoption of information technology since the early 1990s utterly transformed the way financial institutions now go to market perhaps more than any other industry. The digitalization of the global financial system, while giving rise to global expansion and emerging market opportunities, is struggling to keep up with this rampant market expansion, particularly in the collaboration technology segment. KEY CONSUMER TRENDS within the Financial Services market Consumers are more savvy, educated and self-informed than ever before. All users, both internal and external, want instantaneous communications and rely upon their mobile devices for instant access and connection. Business consumers are demanding new ways to interact with banking and financial services organizations. As market challenges strike financial institutions globally, Information Technology organizations must respond quickly and strategically to keep the lifeblood of modern financial services flowing. Emerging collaboration technologies create an opportunity for financial services organizations to overcome these diverse challenges and achieve operational excellence. REPORT TAKEAWAYS Emerging technologies facilitate competitive differentiation and market growth by capitalizing on business consumer demands for a secure, multi-touch digital experience from any smart mobile device. Collaboration technology solutions enhance the clientadvisor relationship, satisfying the needs of affluent investors that result in improved trust, enhanced customer service and revenue growth at a reduced cost for all parties. Adoption of collaboration tools improves virtual engagement, end user and employee productivity and satisfaction across an increasingly global and remote workforce. Financial services firms and institutions can achieve operational excellence by restructuring and simplifying their communications and collaboration technology infrastructure. Web-based banking, account management and communications are more prevalent than ever before. 3
DEMANDS & CHALLENGES Financial services organizations from the world s largest banks to boutique firms struggle against many of the same obstacles within an increasingly challenging global financial market environment. 1 Stressed macroeconomic and microeconomic conditions Evolving regulatory, compliance and tax uncertainties KEY TREND: Emerging technologies facilitate competitive differentiation and market growth by capitalizing on business consumer demands for a secure, multi-touch digital experience from any device. The statistics surrounding the usage of the Internet to participate in banking activities are staggering. According to a 2012 Pew Research Center study, 81% of Americans bank online. 1 Bottom-line cost pressures versus revenue growth projections Competition for new assets and emerging market opportunities Investor and client fee-and-profit demands Reputation management and brand awareness Human capital competition, management and demands For IT departments, the once-minimal impact of financial market pressures in the 1990s and early 2000s has swelled into complicated IT infrastructures and operations on a global scale. U.S. ONLINE BANKING BEHAVIORS Number of Americans who bank online: 63 Million Percent of those who managed household finances who banked online at least in the past 12 months 81% Online banking customer satisfaction 78% Percent of consumers who receive electronic checking account statements 37% Percent of consumers who paid a bill online through their bank in the past month 54% Challenges INTERNAL Limited people resources IT redundancy and interoperability with market expansion, M&A Budgetary constraints These behaviors run in parallel when you look overseas, with our European counterparts showing even greater comfort with online financial activities. As of 2012, 86% of European Internet users use online financial services, logging onto their bank s website twice a week on average, with 79% of these users already having carried out complex financial transactions online. 2 View account balance 48% Global users with local cultures and needs End user adoption, training and support Complicated IT decision processes EXTERNAL Security breaches, fraud and data loss prevention Regulatory & compliance restrictions, both regional and global Customer technology demands and challenges Client technology demands and challenges Competition for talent resources Digital banking, electronic trading and addressing the impact of big data EUROPEAN ONLINE BANKING BEHAVIORS Percent of those who managed household finances who banked online at least once in the past 12 months 86% Simple transactions: balance transfers, 20% organize checkbook, etc. View/manage financial investments 13% Financial product information search 8% Practical information search (e.g., bank opening hours, etc.) 4% Purchase financial products 4% Contact personal advisor/banker 4% 4
Go Where Your Customers Are As more consumers utilize digital banking interactions, financial services companies both large and small struggle to meet shifting demands and the rapid evolution of technology. Mobile and web-based applications are in high demand by consumers, and this new market has sparked a race to the consumer device for top institutions, including industry forerunners Chase and La Caixa in Europe. 2 This shift to anywhere banking has moved from the pure-play features and functionality of the early 2000s to a full-service banking experience on any device PC, Mac, smartphone, tablet and phablet. For top institutions, this new anywhere collaboration facilitates not only customer satisfaction, but also competitive differentiation and market growth. CONSUMER COMMUNICATIONS: PREFERRED ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT METHODS 3 The Shift to Virtual Customer Care The rise of web-based consumer financial management raises key questions for financial institutions everywhere: How do we capitalize on consumer mobile banking demands to grow market share? How do we make the online banking process secure and simple? 47%: Email 22%: Text/SMS messages 13%: Mobile apps 9%: Postcard 9%: Automated voice messages Financial services organizations are utilizing new collaboration technologies to grow market share and improve customer satisfaction by meeting consumer demands for anywhere banking. CASE STUDY: Video Conferencing ATMs In 2013, Bank of America and Citibank took the first step towards personalizing the virtual banking experience with video conferencing ATMs. 3 These new-era ATMs enable customers to speak face-to-face with a banking employee without having to enter a physical branch office, providing a valuable and personal customer care tool outside of traditional banking hours when consumers often need financial services most. Benefits: $1.25 per ATM transaction versus $4.25 for branch transaction. 4 Satisfy customer demands for live interaction for complex banking needs from ATM devices. Extended hours for market growth opportunities, such as loan applications, investment management, account enrollment and more. Improved customer care through face-to-face teller interactions for custom ATM requests, such as loan and credit card payments. Additional security measures, including fingerprint readers and photo ID verification. With the success of video ATMs and the growing movement toward mobile banking, financial services institutions who will lead the way will be those that tap into this virtual momentum and make the shift to online video collaboration. These technologies meet consumers where they are: smartphone, tablet, PC or Mac. With a lower transactional cost, reduced IT management demands with cloud-hosted infrastructure and higher customer service results, smart financial services organizations will use these peer-to-peer video tools to meet consumer demands for anywhere banking on their personal devices, outpace the competition and drive market growth in untapped consumer segments. How do we facilitate customer satisfaction without face-to-face branch engagement? 5
IT CHALLENGES MET AND EXCEEDED INTERNAL Limited people resources IT redundancy and interoperability with market expansion, M&A Budgetary constraints Global users with local cultures and needs End user adoption, training and support Complicated IT decision processes Clients and advisors are geographically dispersed. Clients expect to actively participate in the advice generation process. Multi-touch interactions improve account acquisition, customer service and fee generation. Emerging digital technologies open new opportunities for financial services firms, particularly in the wealth management and advisement sectors, to meet more often and more productively with clients to improve client service, generate new business opportunities and, ultimately, increase profits from these interactions. EXTERNAL Security breaches, fraud and data loss prevention Regulatory & compliance restrictions, both regional and global Customer technology demands and challenges Client technology demands and challenges Competition for talent resources Digital banking, electronic trading and addressing (Total) Interactions In Person.234 Via Phone.246 Via Website.295 Via Email.390 ViaText Message.435 Via Online Chat/IM.446 Via Social.461 Touch Point.475 x the impact of big data Strength of association with advisor payment KEY TREND: Collaboration technology solutions enrich the advisor-client relationship, satisfying the needs of affluent investors that result in improved trust, enhanced customer service and revenue growth at a reduced cost for both parties. Information about money is more important than money itself. Walter Wriston, former Citibank CEO As the world embraces digital communications, such as email, text messaging, social media, web and video conferencing, financial service organizations are experiencing a shift in their traditional go-to-market strategy within the wealth management and financial advisement segments. In-person meetings are no longer the clients preferred method of engagement. Successful firms are utilizing virtual collaboration technologies to meet the needs and demands of today s modern clients. These tools improve both productivity and profitability by enabling remote, face-to-face capabilities and are significantly more cost-efficient than the traditional methods of in-person meetings and phone calls. Online, cloud-based collaboration tools offer all of the touch points shown to improve advisor payments. Simple, web-based log-in for clients with lower technology acumen. Multi-touch meeting options, including phone, website, text and face-to-face meetings utilizing easy-to-use webcam technology. On-demand or planned meeting options for reactive or proactive face-to-face touch points. 6
Flexible security options allowing advisors to protect client information, including username and password for log-in, additional access codes to access the web interface, lock the meeting to avoid unwelcome intrusions and secure phone connections. Mobility options for secure access to client-advisor meetings on any smartphone, tablet, phablet, laptop or other computing device. Global availability for anywhere access to clients and advisors using either local or toll-free numbers and universal web addresses. Reliable, enterprise-class technology for face-to-face connections regardless of the advisor and client s location. For IT departments, web-based video collaboration tools give advisors the technology they require to improve profits and reduce overhead without impacting IT infrastructure. The hosted, secure cloud service technologies provide seamless interoperability and vendor-hosted support substantially reduces internal help desk costs for regional and global organizations. IT CHALLENGES MET AND EXCEEDED INTERNAL Limited people resources IT redundancy and interoperability with market expansion, M&A Budgetary constraints Global users with local cultures and needs End user adoption, training and support Complicated IT decision processes EXTERNAL KEY TREND: Adoption of emerging collaboration tools improves engagement, productivity and satisfaction across an increasingly global and remote workforce. Satisfying the demands of clients and prospects both banking consumers and high net-worth investors is vital for expanding business run rate and growing profits through capitalizing on emerging market opportunities. As financial services organizations evaluate bottom-line growth, however, smart firms shift their focus internally. Mergers and acquisitions, while central to expansion into emerging markets, have caused workforce dislocation complications for multi-region and global financial organizations. This disconnected workforce, comprised of legacy and M&A people resources, causes a multitude of complications for banking firms: Global talent outside the organization s physical locations; Globally disconnected workforce with legacy operating and management procedures; Multi-location work teams with multi-location clients and prospects; Pressures to increase profits and global expansion with reduced people and operating resources; and, Emerging worker demands, including the consumerization of IT, flexible work arrangements, social media and mobility. For financial services organizations facing investor and market demands for increased profits while pressured to reduce overhead, these complications cause disruption in go-to-market strategies. Emerging collaboration tools, however, offer an opportunity to balance the demands of the organization with those of the workers. Security breaches, fraud and data loss prevention Regulatory & compliance restrictions, both regional and global Customer technology demands and challenges Client technology demands and challenges Competition for talent resources Digital banking, electronic trading and addressing the impact of big data 7
PROBLEM Globally dispersed and disconnected workforce Global clients and prospects SOLUTION Simple to use, on-demand virtual meeting solutions that make meeting face-to-face possible from anywhere Secure, anywhere collaboration to enable multiple touch points VALUE Improved productivity and engagement Improved customer service, increased revenue, reduced overhead costs Regionally inoperable IT infrastructure and user systems Reduced people resources Worker technology demands Hosted cloud collaboration services for device-agnostic anywhere access Unified collaboration technology to reduce downtime and improve processes (client advisement, financial management, etc.) Web-based, enterprise-quality collaboration tools with secure mobile applications Improved productivity and engagement, reduced overhead costs, IT interoperability Improved productivity, reduced IT help desk costs, improved customer service Improved satisfaction, engagement and productivity, reduced overhead costs, IT interoperability IT CHALLENGES MET AND EXCEEDED INTERNAL Limited people resources IT redundancy and interoperability with market expansion, M&A Budgetary constraints Global users with local cultures and needs End user adoption, training and support Complicated IT decision processes EXTERNAL Security breaches, fraud and data loss prevention Regulatory & compliance restrictions, both regional and global Customer technology demands and challenges Client technology demands and challenges Competition for talent resources Digital banking, electronic trading and addressing the impact of big data KEY TREND: Financial services firms achieve operational excellence by restructuring and simplifying the communications and collaboration technology infrastructure. As financial institutions expand into emerging markets and strive to offer services that satisfy business consumers, IT departments struggle to keep up with the demands of this industry while balancing the need to reduce operational expenses and simplify infrastructures. Some of the many factors influencing IT decision makers in financial institutions include: Globalization of IT infrastructure, people resources and support services with budget limitations and constrictions; Wasteful duplication of IT infrastructure and services due to mergers and acquisitions; Complicated IT management with legacy hardware, software and networking in multiple regions; Interoperability of global IT services and infrastructure with region-specific technology infrastructures, contracts, pricing and workforce cultures; and Regional compliance and audit requirements and reporting. 8
With each merger and acquisition, IT organizations must once again face a monumental task: integrate that organization s legacy communications technology infrastructure to operate seamlessly within a global, holistic architecture. To achieve operational excellence of communication and collaboration infrastructure, forward-thinking firms are looking to emerging collaboration technologies provided by long-standing communications technology leaders. ACHIEVING INTEROPERABILITY THROUGH COLLABORATION TECHNOLOGY PARTNERSHIPS Proven market leadership Consolidated vendor offerings Global, multi-region service Unified support, locally delivered Secure, compliant and enterprise-hardened Interoperability with IT infrastructure Technology organizations want to embrace new technology trends, such as big data, consumerization of IT, mobile access, remote work and video collaboration. Yet, legacy infrastructures, compliance concerns, budgetary restrictions, resource limitations and global complications continue to hold back IT leaders from achieving their goals of modernizing their communication and collaboration offerings to better serve organizations and workers. Today s collaboration innovators utilize their long-standing success of delivering communication technologies to financial organizations to create solutions that help IT teams overcome these barriers. Credible communication and collaboration market leadership Global footprint for cross-region interoperability Interoperability with current IT infrastructure globally and regionally Meet users where they are with multi-touch offerings (cloud-based web, mobile, desktop access) Security protocols and regulation/compliance expertise Reliable service on multiple access points (audio, web, mobile) Local, first-party customer support for regional and global events Central management for collaboration feature and user group controls Meet business consumer demands By partnering with a trusted collaboration leader with a long-standing understanding of the financial services industry and IT demands, forward-looking IT firms are no longer alone against the struggle to connect globally dispersed workers, consolidate infrastructures, manage multiple platforms and support end users all while trying to meet the demands of the business to reduce overhead costs, satisfy user demands and establish operational efficiencies. Instead, by partnering with a market leader focused on delivering best-in-class collaboration solutions, IT teams are empowered by achieving their goals and directly impacting business units to support the overarching organizational goals of growth, profits and competitive advantage. IT CHALLENGES MET AND EXCEEDED INTERNAL Limited people resources IT redundancy and interoperability with market expansion, M&A Budgetary constraints Global users with local cultures and needs End user adoption, training and support Complicated IT decision processes EXTERNAL Security breaches, fraud and data loss prevention Regulatory & compliance restrictions, both regional and global Customer technology demands and challenges Client technology demands and challenges Competition for talent resources Digital banking, electronic trading and addressing the impact of big data 9
FINANCIAL COLLABORATION: PGi s Unique Perspective Cloud-based collaboration technologies are revealing opportunities for financial services and banking organizations to satisfy user demands, reduce the bottom line and expand their global footprint. PGi, a global leader in virtual meetings for over 20 years, believes that the future of business lies in collaborating more efficiently anytime, anywhere. More and more consumers want banking and finance tools that provide on-demand insights into the market, transparency into financial transactions and an anywhere personal interaction with experts, said Sean O Brien, PGi EVP Strategy & Communications. PGi has been helping financial organizations collaborate effectively and get work done for more than 20 years. Our financial customers are among the largest Fortune 100 institutions and boutique investment firms, and all are seeing the incredible value that anywhere collaboration enables from bottom-line growth to consumer satisfaction. imeet by PGi and GlobalMeet by PGi are the newest iterations of PGi s award-winning global conferencing technology. In fact, analyst firm Frost & Sullivan awarded PGi with its Product Line Strategy award for delivering industry-leading products and solutions that advance the collaboration industry into the future. The innovative imeet cloud-based interface enables up to 15 people to meet face-to-face online, screen share and even connect on mobile devices, including Apple ipad, iphone and Android smartphones. How financial services organizations use imeet: Global recruiting and human resources management; Remote collaboration between regional offices and home workers; Advisor-client relationships, wealth management, consultation and acquisition; and Help desk and customer service support for real-time, face-to-face client interactions. GlobalMeet by PGi advances the web conferencing industry with simple-to-use controls, intuitive cloud-based interface and robust integration of PGi s industry-leading audio conference technology. The service, which includes free mobile apps for desktop, ipad, iphone, BlackBerry and Android smartphone, enables secure visual collaboration alongside the traditional global conferencing capabilities. How financial services organizations use GlobalMeet: Large group meetings, like town halls, webinars, training and onboarding; Secure document collaboration using enhanced screen sharing technology; Client presentations for acquisition, account management, and customer service; Real-time remote team meetings for on-the-fly or scheduled collaboration. PGi is positioning imeet as a browser-based virtual meeting room application supporting video, which essentially brings the benefits of meeting face-to-face online to anyone and everyone, said Frost & Sullivan Principal Telecom Analyst Ronald Gruia. PGi is perfectly positioned to be the provider of choice in an already growing segment of the videoconferencing hosted services market: desktop video conferencing. Roopam Jain, Frost & Sullivan 10
NOTES 1: Deloitte Center for Financial Services (2013). 2013 Financial Services Industry Outlooks. Retrieved from http://public.deloitte.com/media/0146/us_fsi_ OutlooksConsolidatedDocument_021813.pdf 2: Pew Research Center (2012). Online Banking. Retrieved from: http://www.statisticbrain.com/online-bankingstatistic/ 3: Forrester Research (April 2012). Who Leads In Mobile Banking: Forrester Ranks 15 Banks Around The World. Retrieved from: http://blogs.forrester.com/peter_ wannemacher/13-04-25-who_leads_in_mobile_banking_ forrester_ranks_15_banks_around_the_world 4: The Financial Brand. (February 2013). Consumers Expect More From Mobile Banking Apps Than They Get. Retrieved from: http://thefinancialbrand.com/27545/consumermobile-banking-expectations/ 5: Los Angeles Times (April 2013). Bank of America rolls out ATMs with video links to real tellers. Retrieved from: http://articles.latimes.com/2013/apr/04/ business/la-fi-mo-bofa-video-tellers-20130404 6: CNN Money (April 2013). Next-generation ATMs boast video chat, exact change. Retrieved from: http://money.cnn. com/2013/04/22/pf/banks-atms/index.html To learn more, visit PGi.com. 11
TM THE MEETINGS EXPERTS PGi.com 12