CIOs in the driver’s seat – Driving Digital Transformation in Banks

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CIOs in the drivers seat Driving Digital
Transformation in Banks
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CIOs in the drivers seat Driving Digital
Transformation in Banks
A long-distance car ride needs a lot of prepping
up before you even hit the road. Getting your
fuel tanks filled up, checking the tires for
tread and pressures, a look at the map from the
starting point to the destination, maybe even
identifying spots for refueling, making
reservations for a stay and checking few other
financial aspects. Once you hit the road, you
make sure there are minimal deviations to the
plan to enjoy a smooth and event-free ride.
Technology and digital transformations for
banking sector require a similar thorough
planning with an effective mix of Digital
Assurance and Software Testing. Banks undergoing
digital transformation of their core banking
systems face a huge risk of failure. There have
been situations when the project becomes a
shelfware once the initial round of funding is
successfully secured. Such programs get overrun,
years beyond the due date along with misaligned
expectations and in some cases, leading to career
failures. CIOs invest significant amount of time,
effort and money to vet their software vendors,
and system integration partners. However,
successful banking transformations require more
than just that. The maturity and sustainability
of the transformation project is contributed by
several critical factors including sustained
buy-in and sponsorship from the leadership,
understanding the skill gaps, and identifying and
mitigating program risks, internal work culture
management, persistence and perseverance, and
more. Here are a few recommendations that can
guide a CIOs journey to technology
transformation.
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CIOs in the drivers seat Driving Digital
Transformation in Banks
Relevant and calculated Software Testing and QA
strategy Incorporating a digital strategy is a
conscious decision, but ensuring that this
strategy fits into the overall organizational
game plan is absolutely business critical.
Digital Assurance and Testing enables teams to
ensure seamless interaction within the digital
ecosystem individuals, procedures, and Social
mobile, analytics and cloud (SMAC) stack. These
digital assurance practices help organizations to
deal with all kinds of internal and external
complexities occurring due to sudden strategic
decisions. As estimated in a report the Global
Digital Assurance Market accounted for USD 2.81
billion in 2017 and is projected to grow at a
CAGR of 14.1 the forecast period of 2018 to
2025. Sustained business sponsorship and
ownership Given the enormous impact it would
have on the banks customers, stakeholders,
employees and shareholders, such transformation
projects need a leader who is in charge one
with ultimate accountability and authority. This
person must be able to steer the entire project,
gain buy-in from the stakeholders, commit
resources for the effort, communicate and give
the project required visibility within the
shareholders, lest it becomes just another IT
project. The role requires one to go beyond the
usual kick off meetings and chalk out the overall
strategy structure of the program with milestones
identified clearly for the upcoming program phase
and deliverables (based on the past and current
strategies), and highlight relevant progress
based on key performance indicators.
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CIOs in the drivers seat Driving Digital
Transformation in Banks

Gathering skill sets and experience needed for
the program Large banking programs abound with
complexity and risk. When banks set out to
achieve the program goals, they may not have the
required skills, capabilities and experience much
needed to achieve the end goal. Robert Alexander,
CIO at Capital One, has been working towards
technology transformation of the 30 years old
company largely known for credit cards.
Attracting the right talent with the right tools
and technologies is a part of our cloud program,
and Capital One has worked over the last several
years to change its mix of technology talent. In
2011 the company had 2,500 people in IT and 40
of them were in engineering job families. He
added, Very few were developing software. Now
the group is made up of 9,000 professionals, and
85 are in engineering job families, according
to Alexander. The talent transformation is
probably the lynchpin. he said in an interview
to Information Week. Read Full Blog at
https//www.cigniti.com/blog/how-cios-drive-digit
al-transformation-in-banks/
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