Open banking with the help of DevOps

Software development in India is undergoing an overhaul lately. Corporations are laying a great deal of emphasis on the use of modern software development processes. They are not trying to eliminate the use of traditional software development processes. That would be counter-productive. Instead, the process is replaced by modern ones. Soon, the novel processes will take over.

It has been seen that although there are a large number of new software development processes in practice, only a few are given due importance. It is purely from the perspective of the convenience of the software developers. There might be processes that would help create a better software ecosystem, but these might not be easy for software developers. So, most corporations are consciously opting for software development processes that have positive outcomes and a convenient journey.

DevOps is one such process. The specialty is that it beautifully combines the software development process with the operations of the corporation. It provides the entire process of transparency. Transparency fosters confidence among the human resources who are involved in the process. Anyway, the main objectives of DevOps are different.

A few of them are as follows:

Increase cycle time of new developments
It tries to incorporate a value of redressal of issues in bits. For example, if the testing team identifies a bug in a newly developed interface, they inform the development team immediately. Further development is halted until the issue is fixed. In traditional processes, the testing team would have informed them about the bug in a consolidated report after the testing was completed. Meanwhile, the development team would have progressed along with the bug. So, it would have caused the undoing of a lot of work, increasing the cycle time. Immediate identification and redressal of errors significantly reduce the cycle time of development.
Robust quality control
It strongly encourages collaboration among teams, which creates a positive work environment in software development centres. However, the indirect benefit of this collaborative attitude is that teams listen to one another and identify areas of improvement. It ultimately increases the quality of the product. Due to the high level of collaboration, several software products have succeeded in surpassing the expectations of customers.
Fosters innovation
Another prime objective is to inculcate the value of risk-taking among software developers. It is because of this value that revolutionary innovations such as open banking technology have been developed. DevOps inhibits the management from reprimanding software developers if they come up with radical ideas, and this has hugely benefitted the software industry.

How did banking digital transformation save 2020?

Digital transformation is no longer a matter of choice for banks and financial institutions. Every bank and financial institution must transform today if they aspire to stay in a competitive position in the market. The prime objective is to streamline it in such a way that the bank customers do not face any difficulty in accessing and enjoying the desired services. Today, the customers are well informed, and they do know how to differentiate between the quality of service provided by two service providers. They do not waste much time in switching to a better service for better quality.

It is not wrong to say that the need for digital transformation has increased significantly in the year 2020. It is partly because of the ongoing pandemic and the resultant lockdowns imposed by the governments. Financial activities were hit, and customer service went online. An overwhelming number of people came online to avail banking services, which required a robust technical infrastructure to handle the increase in the number of transactions.

Enterprises that had already undergone banking digital transformation and were continuously investing in the development of the digital infrastructure managed to reap the benefit of the increased demand for digital banking services. It was observed that even old customers switched to the service of other banks in search of better digital services. The year 2020 has pointed out that the transformation of the banking process is not a fashionable upgrade. It is a necessity and is nothing less than a part of the modern lifestyle of human civilization.

It can be considered a boon that several of the major banking corporations had already incorporated open banking technology in their infrastructure during the last decade. It assisted in helping customers manage their transactions in these unprecedented times. Its enhanced usage has also prompted these banks to pump up their investments in mobile app-based banking services, which would enable bank customers to access their accounts and manage fund transfers using just their smartphones. 2020 might be a year in which most of us would not like to live again, but it has also shown us what to do and what not to do in order to make our lives more convenient.

How do core banking services help banks?

Commercial banks that have adopted core banking as their primary banking system have been able to serve their customers in a more effective way which has proven to be beneficial in both sales and operational fronts. According to several reports published by the banking federations, banks with core banking solutions have registered less operational expenses and more sales compared to the ones that are still operating on traditional banking systems.

It is no wonder that some of these banks have also started highlighting this fact in advertisements and promotional channels. Indeed, core banking is a revolutionary development in the sector of IT-enabled banking and has paved the way for faster and customer-friendly banking. The good thing is that the industry of core banking solutions has become quite confident of its capabilities and has witnessed the rise of several enterprises that provide core banking services.

When a commercial bank decides to upgrade its banking infrastructure with the help of a core banking solution, it must chalk out some points. First of all, it should start preparing its management and employees regarding the upcoming change. The capability of core banking should not be limited due to the under-preparedness of the human resources of a banking enterprise. It results in unnecessary costs. Nowadays, several banking services offer to train key personnel of the organization. Commercial banks that are apprehensive of their preparedness can opt for such services.

Secondly, the commercial banks must generate a report of their scale of business, which would include both the volume and frequency of activities undertaken by the customers. This report will help them identify which of the popular services would be the best for them. There are certain services available in the market which cater to the needs of banks with large volumes of banking transactions. There are also small-scale services available, which take care of banks with small volumes of banking transactions. However, there are a few core banking services, such as Temenos T24, which cater to the needs of all types of banking enterprises.

These services have a unique characteristic of scalability, which can be adjusted as per needs. These banking services, including Temenos 24, are gradually taking over the market due to their superior technology and customer-oriented service. A bank that seeks the services of a core banking solution becomes prepared to handle sudden changes in operations as well.

How to improve data visualization?

When it comes to the comprehensiveness of information, there cannot be any comparison to visual representation. The human brain responds to the visual representation of any data, theory, or even abstract idea actively and instantly. This is the reason why scholars have been polishing the art of data visualization over centuries and have been successful in devising several tools to do so.

Today we have graphs, charts, maps, etc. to represent data in academics, science, business analysis, marketing, and even in our daily life. However, it would be wrong to assume that the tools which are already in use are adequate to represent all kinds and volumes of data. Sometimes, data visualizers might need to combine two or more data visualization tools to represent a particular piece of information in the right way. Sometimes, the data visualizers might need to think of a completely new tool to represent the data that would appeal to the audience the most. This compulsion to work upon new data visualization techniques is increasing day by day as the volume of relevant data has increased in almost every sphere of our lives.

Let us take the banking industry as an example. Due to the digitalization of the banking industry, the analysts responsible for assisting business decision making for the banks have started dealing with large volumes of complex data. So, to make their job easy, they take the help of innovative data visualizing techniques. Nonetheless, this technique is useful only when it has the following characteristics.

Comprehensive data capturing
The tool must be able to capture the entire range of data. If the tool misses any part of the data, the big picture might not be visible to the audience. As a result, there might be gaps in the information provided to the audience, and it might affect decision making adversely.
Accuracy of data
The tool must be able to represent accurate data. The data should not get rounded off in the process of making it visually relevant. A decision made based on inaccurate data can be especially dangerous for the concerned business.
Visual appeal
It might sound superficial, but it is important. The human brain captures visually appealing images in a better and faster way. If the image in front of us is boring, we would be disinterested in decision making as well.
Non-ambiguity
Now, in the quest to make the visualization appealing, it should not lose relevance. Sometimes, the data visualization tool might try to represent data in a comprehensive, accurate, and visually appealing way, but the result might become ambiguous or open for interpretation, which should be avoided at any cost.

2020 is the year of banking technology

Lately, the banking industry is witnessing new developments. The developments are driven by the incorporation of digital technology in banking. The good thing is that all these developments are highly customer-oriented, positioned to enhance the customer experience to a great extent in the coming years. With the help of these developments, the global banking industry is growing at a rapid rate, brought in by the enhancement of regular banking services.

The year 2020 has been a very critical period for the global economy. The world has fallen prey to one of the worst pandemics in human history. Due to this, industry-driven economic activities have come to a standstill. In these times, the responsibility of the banks increased as they needed to put extra effort to maintain the finances of nations and individuals.

In this backdrop, two main improvements have been noticed in the domain of banking technology.

AI-driven problem handling
Banks have been investing a lot of money in research to embrace artificial intelligence in their customer interaction mechanism. Artificial intelligence has the potential to solve customer problems in a faster and more accurate manner at a much lesser cost.

In 2020, the employment of artificial intelligence in the practical field of customer interactions became no less than a necessity. Due to the pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns introduced by the governments, banks were forced to cater to customer needs with the help of limited human resources. Artificial intelligence had to work overtime.

Now, this can be considered a blessing in disguise for machine learning. Within a period of half a year, artificial intelligence employed by the leading banks became experienced enough to detect the right patterns of customer grievances and advise accordingly. 2020 will become a pioneer year for the rise of artificial intelligence in banking solutions.
Collaboration with Fintech services
The ongoing pandemic has been discouraging real human interaction to a great extent. This situation has triggered the necessity to digitalize payments in every sector of the market. As a result of this, almost every bank in the market started collaborating with fintech services so that customers could make payments to various services in a seamless manner. Now, this is a development in banking technology that is here to remain forever.

With these developments in the banking industry, the future of banking seems bright.

Open banking and the future of banking

The relationship between commercial banks and their customers has undergone a massive change in the last few years. This change is evident when one notes the primary means of interaction between banks and banking consumers. Today, almost three-fourth of the entire banking consumer community interacts with the banks via the digital medium. Be it the banking website, or the mobile application, or the third party financial interfaces, transactions are made between accounts and across banks over the internet. Footfall at banks has decreased drastically, forcing banks to focus on their investment in the digital front.

Every commercial bank today is working extra hard to enhance and improve the digital banking experience of their customers. The banks are employing a wide range of techniques and strategies to streamline the digital interaction of customers so that online financial transactions become more simple, trustworthy, and convenient. It would not be incorrect to say that several of these strategies have been proven to be effective in making customers happy. Here are two of the most significant strategies.

Open banking:
It refers to the technology which enables third party financial applications to access your bank account details. It facilitates seamless money transfer from one account to another over a single interface. These applications allow customers to use the interface through simple tools such as phone numbers and QR codes. This form of banking has made financial transactions extremely easy and fast. You need not even log in to your banking application or website to conduct a transaction if your account details are registered in the third-party applications.

Now, commercial banks are focusing on making this experience secure. Although these third-party applications are allowed to access the bank account information of customers, transactions cannot be initiated without active input from the customer. The challenge which the commercial banks have accepted in this regard is to make this act of active input from customers more engaging and un-hackable.

Banking technology:
It refers to the statistical analysis of a customer’s bank account usage volume, value, and frequency. The analysis helps commercial banks to draw a financial persona of the customer and predict his or her spending pattern. In this way, the banks can target the customer’s area of interest and encourage him or her to use the bank account. The services offered by the banks can also be personalized based on the financial nature of the customer and advertisements of those services become more targeted and personal. From the perspective of the customers, banking technology is beneficial too. This technology allows banks to offer the most relevant services to the customers, saving their time and research efforts.

core banking services in developing the economy

Although banks don’t print currencies on their own, their importance in society for supporting any financial activity is well-known. It includes the exchange of money, acquiring capital in the form of loans or making transactions. Banks are vital and will always be an integral part of the system. The old traditional form of banking has witnessed a decline while new centralized banking solutions have started getting adopted by banks. CORE banking is something to look out for as it is secure, convenient and queue free. Let’s take a look at the role of the country’s financial institutions in shaping the economy.

Banks help save money
Accepting the capital and safekeeping the amount, besides providing loans, form a primary function of any commercial institution in the country. Banks have diverse account types so that they can cater to all their customers efficiently. To keep proper track of savings and to make them available for the customers, banking institutions are using core banking services software.

Banks helps in monetizing the non-monetized sections of the country
A significant section of the society is either unaware of the banking services or is unable to reach the banks to avail the offered services. A developed economy is a direct consequence of the rate and extent of monetization. Financial institutions can support the process of monetization and can boost the economy by opening branches in rural and undeveloped areas.

Banks helps in developing the economy by supporting its customers
Banks and various financial institutions provide the principal amount in the form of a loan, to their customers. That individual not only pays back the money but also submits it in time, with an appropriate rate of interest. Thus banks get hold of a healthy amount of money from each such individual, furthering the economic development of the nation. Banks not only help individuals in the hour of need but also promote a healthy reputation and trust in the society. As more and more individuals are opting for bank accounts, the country’s economy is getting stronger than what it was before. Banking services like money transfer, credit card policies, insurance policies and various other schemes are aimed at supporting the needs of an individual. The interest rate levied on them brings more cash to the system and boosts the economy.

The role of banking technology in setting the future of customer relationships

Now, commercial banks are focusing on making this experience secure. Although these third-party applications are allowed to access the bank account information of customers, transactions cannot be initiated without active input from the customer. The challenge which the commercial banks have accepted in this regard is to make this act of active input from customers more engaging and un-hackable.

Banking technology:
It refers to the statistical analysis of a customer’s bank account usage volume, value, and frequency. The analysis helps commercial banks to draw a financial persona of the customer and predict his or her spending pattern. In this way, the banks can target the customer’s area of interest and encourage him or her to use the bank account. The services offered by the banks can also be personalized based on the financial nature of the customer and advertisements of those services become more targeted and personal. From the perspective of the customers, banking technology is beneficial too. This technology allows banks to offer the most relevant services to the customers, saving their time and research efforts.

What changes can Banking digital transformation bring in the banking sector?

The banking industry has witnessed tremendous growth in terms of technological upgrades since the beginning of the current millennium. If you compare the quality of banking services of even a decade ago with that of present times, you will be amazed at the differences brought in by technology. It would not be an exaggeration to state that digital technology has revolutionized the way customers interact with the banking mechanism and the way bank personnel lend their services. There was a time when the simplest of banking activities demanded that the customer stood in the queue for a significant amount of time and deal with banking personnel at a personal level. Today, almost every banking activity can be done through a mobile application.

Banking applications have become so advanced that complex processes can be handled with convenience. The role of core banking technology is worth mentioning in this regard. Core banking technology has facilitated banks to consolidate all their banking operational data in a single platform. Today, a customer can perform banking activities from anywhere in the world, without feeling the need to visit his or her home branch. However, just when the banking industry had started to believe that core banking technology was the epitome of the Banking digital transformation of banking services, the year 2020 changed the outlook of the industry.

The year 2020 brought unprecedented challenges with it. The coronavirus pandemic forced people to stay home and limit interpersonal interactions to a great extent. However, banking facilities are an essential service for social sustenance, so they could not be limited during this period. Banks needed to come up with novel solutions to serve their customers. Under these circumstances, the think tanks of the banking industry aggressively started initiating the use of artificial intelligence in banking services. This very step has laid down the foundation of a new phase of digital transformation in the banking industry.

Within a short period, an increasing number of banks have successfully started employing artificial intelligence to deal with customer woes. If customer satisfaction is considered as the prime parameter to judge any business strategy, the employment of artificial intelligence can be considered to be a success. Today, artificial intelligence tools understand the needs of a customer to a great extent and offer a set of possible solutions to fulfil those needs. It will not be surprising if artificial intelligence starts offering the best and most optimum solutions to customers shortly. That will be the future of digital banking, with the Banking digital transformation having its roots in 2020.

Importance of Banking digital transformation in the banking sector

Banking applications have become so advanced that complex processes can be handled with convenience. The role of core banking technology is worth mentioning in this regard. Core banking technology has facilitated banks to consolidate all their banking operational data in a single platform. Today, a customer can perform banking activities from anywhere in the world, without feeling the need to visit his or her home branch. However, just when the banking industry had started to believe that core banking technology was the epitome of the Banking digital transformation of banking services, the year 2020 changed the outlook of the industry.

Within a short period, an increasing number of banks have successfully started employing artificial intelligence to deal with customer woes. If customer satisfaction is considered as the prime parameter to judge any business strategy, the employment of artificial intelligence can be considered to be a success. Today, artificial intelligence tools understand the needs of a customer to a great extent and offer a set of possible solutions to fulfil those needs. It will not be surprising if artificial intelligence starts offering the best and most optimum solutions to customers shortly. That will be the future of digital banking, with the Banking digital transformation having its roots in 2020.