US
How Bank CIOs Should Manage their Portfolio of Technology
Illia PinchukIllia PinchukCEO
Business·Banking·

Pro tips for bank CIOs: How to manage technological portfolio?

Today, chief executives in financial companies face several challenges. One of the most essential aspects refers to tech evolution. Banks have to work hard to remain competitive in the modern market. 

For example, did you know that FinTech startups are the most popular institutions in terms of personal loans now? In 2018, they controlled 38% of the market compared to 28% related to banks, 21% of credit unions, and 13% of traditional finance groups. Yes, it’s only about loans.

But the trend looks clear – innovative small FinTech companies tend to attract more and more customers. Success stories almost always include a customer-centric strategy, omnichannel presence, mobile solutions, and new technologies.

In this case, CIOs of traditional banks would agree that their enterprises have to do something to remain competitive. For 10 years of work with customers from the finance industry, we at DICEUS have seen a lot. Today, we have a clear vision of how banks should position themselves to keep the pace set by startups. This vision is highly based on CIOs’ responsibilities.

In the article, we’re to unveil the most crucial steps a chief manager should perform to drive the bank’s success. Mostly, the concept is based on adopting new technologies and managing the existing sets. Let’s go!

Understanding CIOs and their role

Firstly, it’s important to clearly understand the role and responsibilities of CIOs in banks. Jeff Bittner from Exit Technologies thinks that a CIO is a «technology leader» who «have to understand what the technologies can do and how they … impact the business». Rod De Vos from Resolute Technology Solutions adds that a CIO is a «leader who … turn business … challenges into solutions enabled by tech».  

Within the last years, CIOs and CTOs have become more important for almost all organizations, including banks. From regular executors, they moved to core strategists responsible for growth. Today, a CIO is a board member whose voice explains and demystifies tangled tech ideas that are too complicated for other executives. Deloitte has a survey about CIOs where respondents focus on transforming operations and driving growth.

The evolution of CIOs

Pinch and spread for zoom
The evolution of CIOs

According to this study, there are two modern roles: a change instigator and a business co-creator. However, their shares are 9% and 36%, respectively, while purely operation-focused CIOs make up 55%. Needless to say that this role is likely to become obsolete. Respectively, the key responsibilities of a next-gen CIO in the bank include the following:

As you can see, there are a lot of tasks but we want to focus on one particular aspect – technology management. CIOs should remember about IT hardware purchases, the management of departments, and IT recruitment. But the most important processes now revolve around technologies. Mainly, it’s because of the ongoing evolution.

Digital transformation as a core challenge for banks

The influence of technology is undeniable. It disrupts entire industries and changes other markets beyond recognition. Another survey conducted by Cognizant in 2016, reveals that 45% of CIOs think that they lead the digital transformation in their banks. 70% of respondents consider old-fashioned organizational culture as the main hurdle.

Among major reasons of the transformation, banking information officers named the next ones: 

It’s important! To fully understand how a modern banking CIO can enable the digital growth of the company, we suggest exploring four key imperatives. They’re identified by Cognizant and carefully analyzed by our specialists.

Digital transformation parts

Pinch and spread for zoom
Digital transformation parts

If you need more comprehensive and personalized analysis for your bank, use our business intelligence offers.

Imperative #1 – Build better customer experience

New players brought new technologies and started the new customer-centric era. Using startup services, people can now enjoy seamless mobile interfaces, web apps, and branchless interaction. To remain competitive, banks have to set their own services focused on customer satisfaction. Obviously, it’s possible when a CIO pushes the right technologies.

This imperative is the most comprehensive as it includes everything, literally. From quicker processing of requests to the more beautiful design of applications, each decision that boosts your customer experience is valuable. Further, we will talk more about how banking CIOs manage technological portfolios.

Imperative #2 – Enable omnichannel interaction

A regular modern bank client wants to get access to the services 24/7 regardless of the location. Thus, equal development of online, mobile, and social media channels is required. Phone calls and branches remain important for clients. A lot of startups promote the idea of mobile-only banking. However, traditional customers require physical interaction channel.

For digital CIOs, we can suggest these ideas for omnichannel development:

Imperative #3 – Transform back-office parts

Surprisingly but even fresh innovative firms rarely go beyond front-end digitization. All the core banking functions and services like crediting, depositing, and money transfers remain the same. They’re based on traditional architecture. Among banks, only 12% of CIOs are considering comprehensive digitization that would include transformational, strategical, and tactical changes of back-office.

If you want to be the leader, consider ultimate evolution that should include the following directions:

Imperative #4 – Deliver digital tools for employees

Not only customers should be the main focus of banks today. So far as people aren’t ready to rely on self-serve and automated tools, they still need a human-based experience. Often, they require instant and personalized help. For this, a CIO should foresee reliable digital tools for bank employees who can use them to meet the customers’ demands.

The best approach is based on mixed human and digital interaction. Banks can integrate video chats with real operators and tailored feedback system. Or they can add a smile feature of a voice call from the mobile app directly. It’s pretty simple to implement but require proper planning.

The technique of technological portfolio

Well, all the previous guides and suggestions were helpful for a general understanding. But one important question remains: how to manage the portfolio correctly? To answer, we should grasp the concept, firstly.

Portfolio management

Generally, IT portfolio management is a set of organizational activities related to various assets of the local IT department. Assets may include ideas, projects, services, and exact tools. The technique aims at efficient control and evaluation of existing and/or planned stuff, profitability boost, and overall growth of the department and the company.

The most comprehensive approach to management includes three portfolio types:

  1. Application. Analysis of integrated systems and technologies based on the direct profitability/ROI and non-tangible things like experience or familiarity.
  2. Infrastructure. Management of processes, inventory, data, human resources, etc. Infrastructure is crucial to implement innovations.
  3. Project. Research of issues related to processes of re-engineering, structural organization, acquisitions, regulatory changes, etc.

As we’re interested in technological portfolios for banking CIOs, the first two types are the most relevant. Project-oriented management can be delegated to subordinates but a CIO should perform the global control, too.

Technological portfolio for banks

Let’s accept the fact: not all the technologies are valuable. Even less of them can benefit your bank. For this, skilled CIOs should utilize the technique of technological portfolio to determine the potential attractiveness and profitability of new products/tools. Among key criteria, there are points like tech development, its dissemination, use cases in the chosen sphere, versatility, and costs.

For banking CIOs, we can suggest a simple step-by-step guide on tech portfolio analysis:

How to analyze tech portfolio

Pinch and spread for zoom
How to analyze tech portfolio

Attractiveness is the main criteria. Good technologies reduce expenses and/or improve the quality of banking services. With this idea in mind, CIOs can build large portfolios with different suggestions for different tech: invest in; research more; deny; replace; and so on.

Other ways to evolve

Remember the third imperative for banking CIOs? We talk about changing back-office parts. While startups introduce new ways of communication and personalized offers, the basics remain the same. In this case, banks can lead the digital transformation era by deploying innovations in the core systems and services. A CIO who can recognize the best technologies for back-end solutions is definitely a good CIO.

Here, we also have a few tips:

Outsourcing is one of a viable cooperation models. You can find more about this approach and our outsourcing offers in the dedicated article.

CIOs as collaborators and technology seekers

Apart from just technological aspect, CIOs and other C-grade managers should care about dozens of other things, from corporate culture to employees’ satisfaction. And it may be really difficult to handle.

Cathy Bessant, CTO and COO at Bank of America, talked to Forbes about the challenges she faces. Managing the giant team of 95,000 workers, Bessant mentioned that she had to be able to count on each employee. Moreover, she insisted on the importance of internal links between departments. In this case, IT staff can realize business nuances while entrepreneurs and managers understand how technologies work. Such an approach facilitates the global bank’s development as each part of the company knows where they’re going.

Let’s summarize by returning to the beginning. In the era when banks face numerous threats from FinTech startups based on innovations, it’s dangerous to refuse changes. CIOs are the first people who should analyze, compare, and implement new technologies or strategies. They can act as competitors to new market players. But they also can be collaborative and explore the opportunities to work together with startups. Hence, a professional CIO should constantly scan the horizon, find the best technologies, and integrate them into the bank.

Wrapping up

It all may look too complicated even for top managers. If you need dedicated technology partners to facilitate certain business process of your internal IT department, we’re here to help. We have a rich experience in the finance industry. Our team handles analysis, FinTech development, testing, re-engineering, data migration, integration, and support. Just reach us.

Software solutions bringing business values

clutch
4.9/5
46 reviews

    Contact us

    100% data privacy guarantee

    Remove file
    Thank you!
    Your request has been sent
    We will get back to you as soon as possible

    USA

    +16469803276 2810 N Church St,
    Ste 94987,
    Wilmington, Delaware
    19802-4447

    Denmark

    +4531562900 Copenhagen, 2900
    Hellerup, Tuborg
    Havnepark 7

    Poland

    +48789743438 ul. Księcia Witolda,
    nr 49, lok. 15,
    50-202 Wrocław

    Lithuania

    +4366475535405 Alytus, LT-62166,
    29 Varėnos g., 106

    Faroe Islands

    +298201515 Smærugøta 9A,
    FO-100 Tórshavn,
    Faroe Islands

    UAE

    +4366475535405 AG Tower,
    Business Bay