Insights & Opinion: financial services articles

A Sharper Focus on Cloud Will Help Banks Soar Ahead – Retail Banks need a robust, structured approach to moving their business and financial applications into the Cloud, argue Fujitsu’s Andy Stewart, Quentin Creed and Francesco Casi. And that needs to extend to the management of the diverse range of SaaS options available from independent software vendors. Only then will they reap the benefits of greater business agility and increased competitiveness that Cloud promises — without exposing them to undue risk.

Creating a Winning Formula for Payment Factories – A huge opportunity exists for European banks to re-engineer payments processing for efficiency – but they need to construct “payment factory” ventures judiciously.

How the Hole in the Wall became a New Window of Opportunity – The ATM is evolving into a rich, personalised point of service, as banks increasingly integrate the transaction hub with other customer interaction channels.

Overcoming Separation Anxiety: The Art of Business Divestment – Fujitsu's Graeme Wright argues business leaders must plan more effectively when engaging in divestment activity. Critically, he says, they must involve their CIOs from the very outset of discussions if they are to navigate the IT, cultural and strategic challenges of any separation successfully. He illustrates the benefits and opportunities this could bring, as well as warning of the potentially ruinous consequence of neglecting IT and people issues.

The Paybacks of Adding a Lean Dimension to Engineering Services – Fujitsu's Andy Taylor argues the merits of a flexible, lean approach to tech support often refered to as “break-fix”. He shows how proactive monitoring and predictive maintenance can drastically reduce costs and improve service levels, often through the implementation of simple, commonsense measures. But he cautions CIOs must work with service providers like Fujitsu who have a specific, proven commitment to continual service improvement.

Agility in the Retail Sector: Speeding the Time to Market – Fujitsu managing consultant Jeremy Worrell argues that if retail organisations are to thrive in future, they must improve time-to-market by rethinking their processes, governance and management. Only then can they hope to eliminate major causes of delay and successfully introduce systems that give them the necessary speed and flexibility when launching or making changes to products.

Reinventing the Retail Bank Through Greater Customer Intimacy – Jeremy Worrell, a B2C consultant in the Private Sector Division of Fujitsu UK & Ireland, argues that high-street bank branches in the UK risk becoming irrelevant if they do not quickly embrace change. In order to assure themselves of a bright future, they need to differentiate themselves from online competitors by creating a consumer-focused revival, inspired by the broader retail industry, to create greater customer intimacy.

Setting the Pace in the Mobile Banking Race – With the mobile web poised to become the channel for ecommerce, mainstream retail banks must now act now to ensure they don't get left behind. With the transition to m-banking, they won't just be competing with each other: high-tech start-ups and mobile network providers have already proved they can disintermediate banks in markets such as South Africa and Japan.

Why retail banks must learn the art of the possible – Other business sectors are maximising the new opportunities presented by the latest customer engagement technologies. Banks need to follow suit – and quickly

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