Automation in financial services is now a game changer. The industry is prepared to add around $512bn in global revenues, only attributed to the implementation of automation. It is a solution for improvements across the whole customer journey, from the very start through to the end. ROI is unquestionable when implemented properly and ROI is the main driving factor in investing in such new technologies and software. But how does automation really help?

Automation is focused on tasks that generate a lot of friction. In banking, experts suggest that employees can now concentrate and spend their valuable time on the bank’s clients rather than on checking boxes in digital or physical papers and applications. Automation is also supporting customer service agents to offer high-quality experience to customers without dealing with application logins and task ordering. Better and faster service by spending less money in the long run is what changed the game of efficiency in financial services. See for example the following tasks: sending notifications, blocking accounts, adding/closing accounts, managing transfers, and delivering security codes. Financial institutions employ people performing these tedious activities and their salaries was at a significant expense. Now, an upfront investment on automation is the key to cut on costs and employ these people on higher value-added activities that will bring more gains in the business. The goal is to improve operational efficiencies and optimize customer experience. However, many would question the following: what are the actual gains for a bank, in numbers?

Reports from large corporations have shown that financial institutions stand to generate up to $140bn in productivity gains and savings. Introducing automation can be translated into modernizing the company’s workforce technologies in such a way that the gains “outperform” all the challenges to install and maintain such automation systems. However, to be successful and take advantage of all the gains, it is important to know where to start.

How to get started with Automation  

Many banks are struggling because they do not find the starting point, i.e., from where they can initiate their automation strategy. They might realize the benefits and concentrate on achieving them, but it is critical to recognize that every corporation needs to start small, to go “big”. Concentrating on the value that can be delivered before even applying automation technologies is essential. Identifying the manual processes, which could be improved, optimized, and automated, to improve efficiencies, is the most important step in the process. Re-thinking workflows is key, because tedious tasks and activities should not be seen separately as individual actions, they are all part of large and complicated workflows. Once a corporation realizes where automation can generate significant value, then it continues with process automation around unstructured and semi-structured data.

The new post-COVID-19 bank focuses on Hyper Automation.

COVID-19 has changed quite extensively the way we see banking. Hyper-automation is the latest buzz word in banking as the post-pandemic bank will have nothing to do with the pre-pandemic traditional banking corp. It will emerge a lot different because the focus is turned into improving digitisation, especially within its core operations. Another necessity for banks is to be and remain flexible to new upcoming business models, in the post-pandemic world. Moreover, those new business models and refreshed digital strategies are now putting the customer at the core. This is because customers are now more accustomed to engagement, high-value information from their interactions with banks and instant actions coming from automated services. The newest trends lie on banking as a service (BaaS), fintech solutions and “regtech” innovations. All these trends pave the way towards the best timing for hyper-automation’s premiere in the banking sector.

Above all, humans still want to be “humans” and “co-exist” with machines. Though some people suggest it is a challenging task, experts know that it is possible to combine valuable automation activities, performed by machines, with the customization, humans can provide. Within banking, it is necessary and critical that banks keep people at the heart of their day-to-day operations. Customization still matters to provide high-quality customer service.

How can you benefit from hyper-automation?

First of all, either automation or hyper automation should be thought as a game changer regarding costs and productivity gains. Experts support that hyper automation maximizes all the simple benefits automation had in the past. Hyper automation can augment the ability of workers to perform certain activities. At the same time, it can reduce operational expenses significantly and minimize human errors. Hyper Automation entails many benefits, that are critical to help financial institutions offer excellent customer experience, minimize errors, reduce expenses, and maximize productivity. At the end of the day, it allows for greater flexibility, compliance, and integration, than we have ever seen with other new technology thus far.

Automation: Hyper or not?

After seeing and evaluating all the benefits that hyper automation entails, business managers ask what are the differences between automation and hyper automation. Firstly, automation by itself has its standalone technology which allows for simple automation capabilities. On the other side, hyper automation entails certain packages that include ML, other sophisticated software, and automation tools, all together. The goal of this “hyper automation package” is to solve larger, more complicated problems within financial services. Many corporations are starting small with one automation tool to assess automation’s benefits within a small simplistic process. Then, if the first assessment is good, they might move towards hyper automation holistic packages, that “disrupt”, change, and improve complete workflows and business processes. Secondly, while simple automation is constrained in to one platform or one single process, hyper automation works with and connects many platforms, technologies, and systems. Integration here is key. If for example, one small machine that is performing one task is broken, simple automation can fix it, while hyper automation could fix a group of machines (performing initially independent tasks) make them work together as one, in no time, less cost and greater productivity. Another point of discrepancy between the two of them is that AI is mostly incorporated into hyper automation, while for example RPA is part of a simple automation scheme. It all depends on the needs of each corporation at a given time. Data modelling and decisioning capabilities are mostly seen in hyper automation than in simple automation. Apart from all differences, both simple and hyper automation approaches have the same objective: to help business make processes far more fluid, smooth, and make them offer greater customer experience. Many businesses that are targeting agile, more scalable and fluid business processes, are working towards hyper automation.

bizXL Solutions provides sophisticated analysis and applicable and customized solutions on Lean Automation, especially for banking and financial services sectors. Combining robotic process automation and lean management, bizXL offers services that are up to date, but also provides the know-how on the way those solutions can be applied within a bank or another financial institution.