The art and the science
In 2017, we set out on a 2-year journey to digitally transform of our business, by aligning our offering on one single, scalable digital platform. Here are 5 things we’ve learnt about digital transformation in the financial investment industry.
- Investors will soon be digital natives in the majority
By 2030, digital natives and millennials constitute 60% of the world’s population. Millennials will also benefit from the greatest inter-generational transfer of wealth in human history; estimated at around $15 trillion in the US, and $12 trillion in Europe.
- Regulators and customers want the same thing
Regulators want more disclosure today and this trend will carry on in the future. Increased transparency is also becoming a priority for investors because of their changing demographics. Millennials who were brought up through the big financial crisis are wearier about investing money than previous generations. For example, 66% of people aged 18 to 29 (and 65% of those 30 to 39) say that “investing in the stock market can be scary and intimidating”, compared with 58% of those aged 40 to 54 and 57% of those 55 and older, according to an Ally Financial survey.
- Focus your efforts with data at the core
If you want to be successful, make sure to concentrate on what you do best, and then leverage technology to take the right decisions at the right time. There’s so much at your disposal today: big data, robotic data processing, augmented intelligence and projection etc.
- Start with yourself
In a changing world, the option to stand still is not an option. It requires a radical change in the way things are done, and that starts with yourself. What long-standing business hasn’t thought about going digital? We did, and we’ve seen the benefits that it can bring. It hasn’t been an easy two years of transforming, it has actually been pretty tough, but we’ve made it through and for the better.
- Ask your customers.
How can you best respond to the changing regulatory landscape? Ask your customers. We’ve adopted the agile methodology by putting our clients at the heart of our process for designing and building new products, to ensure we that continue to offer real value to the industry. We have over 15 Certified Product Owners, 20 Certified Scrum Master and a growing team of Agile Coaches who support dozen of Scrum and Kanban teams. We often host public events on Agile and make sure to involve our clients and partners with frequent feedback loops. When our clients speak, we listen and act and that’s the most important lesson of all.