What Accelerated Digital Transformation Means To Credit Unions: How To Evolve Your Tech Priorities
The pandemic was, in many ways, a trial by fire for the business world. Organizations that had been hesitating to adopt new technologies (the cloud, mobile platforms, and more) were forced to change quickly in order to adapt to remote work settings.
How did your credit union fare?
If this was your most significant step in modernizing your credit union in recent years, then you should know that the post-pandemic setting will be the next. As the business world moves on from the restrictions of the pandemic, you’ll have the opportunity to further transform your credit union to better serve its members and attract new ones. The question now becomes - Do you know how?
Priorities For Your Post-Pandemic Digital Transformation
Modernizing Infrastructure: Adopting new technologies and harnessing new capabilities will do a lot for your credit union. Modern hardware and software to consider in your digital transformation strategy include:
Mobile Devices: Integrating mobile devices (both company and employee-owned devices) will make access to data, and remote work capabilities much more seamless.
Be sure to roll out a Mobile Device Management policy as well, ensuring that convenience doesn’t overtake security. You should have strict policies in place to protect company data being stored and accessed on mobile devices.The Cloud: Change is a constant, and all companies, including credit unions, must be able to adapt to change. Static, on-premise IT solutions and infrastructures can hold you back. The cloud supports flexibility in the financial industry in a number of ways:
Scalability: The cloud makes it easy to scale up or down as needed. You can scale cloud services up if you take on new members or branches.
Agility: Working in the cloud provides agility for your staff. They can easily adjust to new conditions. With traditional on-premise IT solutions, this process is slower and more complex. The cloud allows for faster application deployments, data backups, and computing power.
Mobile: Before the cloud, if you wanted to get work done, you had to go to your office and use your desktop computer. This made it impossible to retrieve your digital files if you were stuck at home or travelling. Today, if you need to view a file or work on a project, you simply go online using the device of your choice and work in the cloud.
Smart Technology: A popular new arena for technology, it’s estimated that there will be 64 billion IoT devices worldwide by 2025.
More and more users are buying smart technology for their homes and workplaces, and even devices that they carry with them, that require a connection to the Internet; and typically, that connections provided via wireless, such as WiFi or Bluetooth connection.
The ever-expanding network of smart devices offers a range of convenient benefits to consumers, and offers exciting applications in the financial sector as well.
Harness Member Data: Implementing a business intelligence initiative can drastically evolve the efficiency of your processes. You simply put the member data you have to work for you, helping to better inform your business processes.
Business intelligence is the collection and analysis of data collected such as department productivity, overall growth, sales trends, and member behaviour. Applications of this data can range from something as simple as Spreadsheets for the organization, and storage of data to Online Analytical Processing or Reporting and Querying software. Each has a specific use and offers various benefits to your credit union.
Reporting and querying software extracts, sorts, summarizes, and presents selected data. This data could range from sales reports of specific items to a measurement of the efficiency of marketing plans.
Put simply, business intelligence will help you manage your credit union more effectively. Still, many small businesses don't take advantage of the tools that they have available to them. Small business owners know that they should be analyzing their data but often fail to do so.
Potential Obstacles To Your Digital Transformation
There are two primary obstacles that commonly prevent credit unions from embracing digital transformation:
No Strategy: Unfortunately, it's not as simple as just saying you want to "digitally transform" your credit union. It takes an understanding of available technologies and how they can be applied to your work, along with a clear vision of how this can help you achieve your business goals.
Potential Risks: Many are hesitant to adopt new technologies because of what they could mean for data security. Usually, this comes down to the nature of the cloud — whether it’s smart technology, or enhanced mobile device use in the workplace, managers and owners worry about how greater access to work data will affect the security of that work data.
Don’t Forget To Manage Your Risks
It’s important to remember that as you adopt new technology and adapt the way your credit union operates, your board needs to continue to assess and manage potential risks along the way. This means ensuring your board understands both the benefits and risks offered by a given new technology, and will be able to mitigate such risks as the new solutions are implemented.
No new technology, no matter how beneficial, is worth compromising security, data integrity, or member satisfaction. Make sure to carefully consider each step in your digital transformation strategy.
Looking For Expert Assistance With Your Credit Union’s Digital Transformation?
Need help deciding how to invest time and resources into your digital banking solutions? As a trusted IT partner to credit unions and financial institutions nationwide, our IT advisory services can help assess your tech priorities and navigate a full digital transformation from start to finish.
Let us help you take full advantage of your opportunities to provide the best and safest experience for your members and your business.