Thursday 24 September 2015

The digitisation and future of the financial services industry

The financial services industry has been a front-runner when it comes to technology for more than 30 years now. Benefiting consumers and corporates alike, the sector has stayed ahead of the digital curve, regardless from automation and electronic user devices such as ATMs to online banking and electronic payments. More control in the hands of the corporate treasurer clearly shows the result that the world of business banking has become much more streamlined and efficient.

The development of the Internet and a dramatic reduction in the cost of technology are two key factors have influenced this shift. In today’s more cutting-edge second digital age, mobile technologies and the advancement of data science have presented unparalleled heights of connectivity between personal devices and banking applications, systems and platforms, shifting society prodigiously and subsequently the companies that power the economy.

The blend of these new technologies has had a momentous waves on company infrastructure, most particularly through fast-emerging linked solutions such as cloud computing. There are three fundamental service models that support drive: i). Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), which provides virtual computing resources including servers, storage and networking over the Internet; ii).Platform as a Service (PaaS), which allows corporates to roll out applications, tools and internal services through the cloud; and, iii).Software as a Service (SaaS), which enables companies to rent the usage of critical software solutions through the cloud.

At the moment a massive number of all software solutions are developed in the cloud, shifting the face of the financial services industry for good by offering a multitude of benefits and solutions to companies of all sizes. For an example, the onset of digital and mobile technology has many key benefits when it comes to the corporate treasury department. Documents are nowadays easily transferrable so there is no need for physical hard copies that need to be carried around, copied or faxed in its most basic form.

These days, smartphones and tablets provide much the same functionality and accessibility as the average office PC, making mobile technology exceptionally convenient and extremely connected to the workplace. This is turn diminishes the classic limitations faced by the office working environment, permitting corporate treasurers and finance executives to complete transactions on the move from anywhere at any time. This reduces time to concentrate on innovation and improving efficiencies elsewhere in the department.

And these new technological advancements continue to make the function more effective and efficient once treasury executives actually reach the office. The majority of devices and systems are now linked, empowering the finance team to generate more precise accounting reports, upgrade internal transparency, access financing solutions and mitigate risk. And the fact that data can now be divided into smaller, more digestible pieces and endure in-depth analysis really creating the corporate world increasingly knowledgeable and intelligent about their businesses.

The cash management landscape has also reshaped by the connectivity between corporate and banking systems. Today, finance department is able to negotiate deals, issue electronic invoices, make transfers, accept cashless payments and mitigate the risks associated with currency volatility in real time. In fact they can also now source cost savings across company expenditure online and utilise virtual corporate cards. Improving organisational profitability and customer service standards is also tips of their fingers as companies can also refinance their account receivables seamlessly, improving liquidity management and freeing up working capital in the process.

Truly, as a consequence of this more corporate reliance on digital technology, reasonable worries are being upstretched on cyber security, particularly with concerns to connected devices and the number of points of entry. Still, the financial services industry has been focusing on how to address these defies for some time now and security has always been a primary key objective for the world’s leading institutions. The cooperation of corporations and banks on security aspects benefited both parties and improve the alignment of their interests forms an effective defence against cyber-attacks.

The added convenience and interconnectivity between devices, systems and platforms as the world moves towards an increasingly digital age and since has empowering the finance role to an unimaginable level of sophistication never seen before. In recent years, the treasury has grown into a rheostat mecca where precise decisions and actions are taken in real time, decreasing the risk of errors and interruption, and taking all the intelligence needed for the exact decisions to be made. Therefore, it is crucial that corporate treasurers select a banking partner that delivers the tools and link that will facilitate them to fully utilize the expansions of the digital revolution.

http://www.softwareadvice.com/buyerview/deployment-preference-report-2014/

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