How can IT support your Financial Services Operations?
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Financial services and IT are vital areas for most businesses and each other. Companies in these industries tend to work well together and rely on each other for their specialities. However, many organisations still don’t understand the whole scope of how should IT support financial services operations – and still operate on a break-fix contract with their tech providers.
IT fix is the most basic service offered by managed services providers (MSPs). This article explains how you can get more value from your provider and turn your technology into a fundamental business enabler. Tech can have a significant impact on financial services operations, so mark the advice you’ll find below and chat with your provider on how you can strengthen your relationship and find more value for your business.
Read: What should you look for in an IT partner for Financial Services?
Should your MSP not have the expertise in leveraging IT and supporting financial services operations, we’ll be happy to assist. Book a call to speak to our team and learn about the tailored solutions we can offer your business.
In what ways can IT support financial services operations?
Technology can and should impact multiple activities within your financial services organisation, including but not limited to compliance, resilience and security. In this article, we’re focusing on operations, hence the question: in what ways can IT support financial services operations?
Business operations have been wildly transformed in the past two decades with the popularity of personal computers and the internet. Today, one individual can do more by himself than ever before, thanks to how tasks have been optimised and automated. This is one of the ways how IT supports financial services operations: by increasing efficiency and speed. Which, in turn, will generate better results in less time.
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Reducing costs and expenses is another highly valued pillar in financial services operations, and tech plays an essential role in that. We’ll now dive deeper into these points and detail how IT supports financial services.
Increasing Financial Services Operations Efficiency with Technology
Increasing efficiency is much easier said than done and requires an in-depth understanding of your business processes and bottlenecks. However, a quick analysis of how your team operates could provide valuable insight into this area. Tech is already playing a role in your business, and your team is probably utilising it in their daily routine for years. This means they have a good picture of what is working well and what feels like it could be improved.
Short delays across the day may not seem meaningful, but they matter a lot in the broad picture of financial services operations. Plus, they could be a sign that something is not functioning well and might cause more significant problems in the future. If your systems fail, your business will be facing several costs associated with downtime, including damage to your reputation. Hence, a specialist MSP should look to increase the speed of your transactions and service, which will directly translate to your team working faster.
Read: Is technology affecting your productivity?
Avoiding downtime is an important role that should be taken seriously by your MSP. When looking for IT support for financial services, this is undoubtedly one of the first benefits you’ll find. The provider should ensure uptime by verifying that your tech is operating satisfactorily and having an engaged Helpdesk to assist when something comes up. If incident response times are low, your staff can quickly resume working if they face any IT speed bumps.
Business continuity and resilience are also vital for financial services operations, as they’ll ensure your business remains operating in case of an unexpected event. This is also a key area when understanding how should IT support financial services operations. It involves registering and detailing your most relevant assets, analysing your main risks & vulnerabilities and defining a plan to address them and act if you can’t avoid them. This process is vital in preventing downtime, and a specialist provider will be able to assist you with it.
Read: Why are regular risk assessments non-negotiable for financial services?
If your technology infrastructure runs smoothly and allows you to work with no downtime and slowness, you’re off to a good start. But it gets better, as the right tech solutions should give you the capacity to scale. Increasing your number of staff and getting them in the loop can be done quickly, and teams can work from anywhere securely with only a few gadgets.
Scaling can also be done for your customers to reach the appropriate targets through training, updates, and service delivery. If a critical closing date for the fiscal year is coming, you can quickly notify customers and prospects. Signing contracts, procuring, and even auditing can be much facilitated by tech.
If your interactions with tech are quick and efficient, your interactions with customers will likely be too. This can create an overall better experience and satisfaction for both your teams and the people they engage with. Next, we’ll discuss how tech can be leveraged to reduce expenses in financial services operations.
Reducing Financial Services Operations Expense with Technology
Increasing efficiency is by itself a form of cost reduction since you’ll need less time and person-hours to get work done, and your team will have more time to tackle more projects. That being said, there are several less obvious ways in which technology can reduce operational costs.
In our experience, many financial services organisations are still struggling with legacy systems, which are challenging to support, implement, sync and update. Businesses are also dealing with multiple tools to handle routine work activities, some of which don’t integrate well and hinder productivity.
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An MSP that specialises in financial services operations should assist you in standardising your tech stack and setting up the most efficient tools to get the job done. By streamlining your tech, you’ll have an easier task performing most daily operations and onboarding new staff. It’ll also be easier to support and update your technology stack, which is vital for security and efficiency.
The last thing we’ll mention today about how should IT support financial services operations is by streamlining your processes. When auditing your tech infrastructure and identifying your assets and risks, you’ll have a unique opportunity to review everything in your current process that can be improved. Your tech partner then must develop solutions to act upon your issues and help your business perform as it should.
Read: Why you should conduct a technology audit for your business?
The right set of tools can help your team collaborate, communicate and achieve your business outcomes. A specialised partner with in-depth knowledge of your industry probably has several suggestions on improving your business maturity, reducing costs, and being more efficient overall.
Leveraging Tech to Support Financial Services Operations
Finding a specialist partner enables you to do more than fixing any piece of tech that might be malfunctioning. By leveraging technology to improve your daily operations, your business can reap several benefits and become more agile, versatile and resilient.
Not only can IT support financial services operations, but it can also be used to improve compliance, security and as a booster to help you reach your desired business outcomes. It’s important to remember that as your business invests more in tech, it’s vital to secure it and implement it correctly.
To do that and more, you’ll be better off hiring a specialist technology partner. One that can assist you in understanding exactly how tech can best serve your business and minimise all risks associated with it. Our team will be happy to hear you and propose a tailored solution. Book a Free Discovery Call and learn how we can assist.
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