Finance Monthly April 2020 Edition

On the other hand, those with legacy technology have been slow to respond – they have had people still coming into the office in smaller shifts to answer the phones, lowering service levels for customers and creating potential health risks among employees. Furthermore, these older operating models are more expensive for organisations to operate – historically, there hasn’t been a real priority to replace them. In this day and age, in our industry, companies must look to transition from these legacy technologies to more cloud-based digital capabilities that enable flexibility and drive tremendous efficiencies. Perhaps this crisis will provide the impetus for making these necessary investments. What about collaboration in agile? Over the past few years, companies in the financial services industry have started down the path of becoming highly collaborative and iterative across their businesses, enabling them to bring ideas and products to market in record time and with real relevance to their customers. The “agile” trend really started in the technology function but has now taken hold and is creating real value on the business side as well. This collaborative, agile work is currently harder to reimagine with digital capabilities; many companies are experimenting with tools and methods that enable teams to work without being co-located. However, the teams that are in the same room, around the same whiteboard, and working together closely are usually more productive and typically drive better solutions than ones that are collaborating remotely. In the end, there will have to be a calculated tradeoff between in-person collaboration and technology-enabled remote working to drive real value. Impact of the Digital gap on employee safety, customer service, and cost The Digital gap has become apparent in several scenarios. For example, we have seen customer service centres that are highly tech-savvy who are doing a phenomenal job of protecting their people while continuing to deliver great service, while others have limited ability to do so. The tech-enabled companies have been able to have their employees start working from home practically (and literally) at the flip of a switch. Their telephone technology is cloud- based or cloud-ready, and they use automated workforce management systems that enable them to have the flexibility they need with staff in times of crisis. Conclusion There is a spectrum of how we do work – pure knowledge (highly tech-enabled) topure collaborative (highly co-located) – this situation has shown us how we can push ourselves further down toward the collaborative side of the spectrum using technology…never fully replacing co- location, but understanding where it is critical to deliver results and where it is not. It has not only exposed opportunities to work in new and different ways in times of crises, but also in the times that follow. We need to put the days of grainy video calls behind us and focus on ensuring our tools and bandwidth can enable this new way of working without unnecessary friction. BANKING & FINANCIAL SERVICES - COVID-19 29 www.finance-monthly.com