Bankwest CIO on the three forces dictating technology decisions
Shifting customer dynamics, workforce change, and digitisation will be the three major forces determining technology decisions in the financial services sector, according to Bankwest's chief information officer Andy Weir.
Speaking at the Technology & Innovation — the Future of Banking & Financial Services conference in Sydney, Weir said that "undoubted and dramatic" customer change should be looked upon by financial institutions as a major opportunity.
"There will be a complete shift in customer demographics, customer demands, and customer preferences, and therefore that really affords opportunities for organisations to think very seriously about how they transform to meet those changes — which will be very different from anything we have seen over the course of the last 10 to 15 years," he said.
The second challenge, or opportunity, is the presence of Generation Y, and the following generation, Generation Z, in the workforce.
"You have got a completely different type of individual or colleague entering the workforce, and they are motivated in different ways. They want to be rewarded in different ways, and they want to work in different ways from what have been traditional mindsets and methodologies around technology and change," he said.
"Organisations who do not respond and who don't create the right environment, then their new colleagues will have greater propensity to vote with their feet and go somewhere where they are motivated and engaged in a way that drives them."
Thirdly, financial institutions have to prepare for an ever-greater degree of digitisation, Weir said.
"Every single facet of life is being touched by this, and I think often, commentators and people like myself talk about the challenges of it, and the threat of new entrants, but really, our roles should be to actually embrace it and think of the fantastic opportunities that this kind of change really creates," he said.
"Changing customer dynamics, changing colleague dynamics, and digitisation demand that organisations respond and change, not just in the products and services they offer, but also their operating model. "