Financial services and banking institutions have been traditionally slow to adopt new technology. But due to the widespread increase in adoption of Unified Communications & Collaboration (UC&C) driven by the onset of COVID-19, digitization has become a top priority in the highly competitive finance industry.
Investing in business communications solutions is paramount to amplifying efficiency and creating a top-quality experience for clients – which in turn is the primary driver for staying competitive and maximizing profits.
In a brand new asset produced in collaboration with premier global provider of market intelligence, IDC, we’ve collected the very latest information, trends and market insights about how UC&C is transforming the finance industry globally.
Let’s look at an overview of the effects of UC&C trends on different global regions.
Asia Pacific
One of the main drivers of change is the speed with which payments technology is developing in the APAC region. Emerging technology is seeing digital leaders competing head to head in a quest to optimize their operations and strengthen their customer experiences.
In 2020 alone, UC&C revenue in Asia Pacific regions is set to grow by 38% to over $3.8 billion. Financial organizations are focusing on customer engagement and data value strategies. Additionally, 25% of data captured is expected to be generated, consumed and processed on a real-time basis.
Across the region, regulators have adopted stringent policies for data capture, privacy, trade surveillance and security.
Smartphones and e-Wallets are influencing the payment processing landscape. Through mobile applications primarily led by key players Alipay and WeChat, Asia Pacific has seen the increasing integration of encryption, biometric, tokenization and device authentication.
The APAC financial landscape is highly indicative of an increasingly fast-moving future. Customer preference towards digital will grow, multi-channel interactions will become the norm, and experiences will become more personalised through the use of AI.
Middle East & Africa
Utilizing cloud technology for UC&C workloads is fast becoming a priority. 67% of respondent organizations within the Middle East and Africa region are looking to enable their business executives with more tech-enabled collaboration and engagement strategies. Customer related spending experiences are set to grow by over 40% - driven by customer communications and collaboration.
Due to the pandemic, the increase in digital adoption and usage calls on financial services to ensure a consistently satisfying customer experience by proactively monitoring all interactions.
To manage increasing growth, 50% of CIO respondents in the region plan to accelerate digital transformation efforts to meet changing customer and operational agility needs.
Europe
COVID-19 has signaled a major turning point for payments and the finance industry in Europe. Faced with economic disaster, it’s those companies who prioritized investment in digital and mobile UC&C technologies, who are now leading the market in the region.
Once again, customer satisfaction will be a major driver in the adoption of UC&C technologies – but more importantly, getting it right. By 2024, it’s expected that:
- 85% of customer banking will take place via remote channels.
- 75% of European customers will choose to use digital channels to open accounts.
- 55% will change where they bank if they are not satisfied with the overall digital experience.
With the pandemic rapidly accelerating shifts in consumer behavior, financial industries have been driven to adopt full digitization. In some countries, the demand for mobile payment services has doubled, and most countries have increased their contactless payment limits.
Boundaries between previously disconnected industry sectors are disappearing as the invisible payments and payment convergence gaps in the market are rapidly closing. These trends have allowed players from various industries such as banking, transportation, ticketing, insurance and commerce to co-create new value, growth and opportunities through collaboration.
America
Like the rest of the world, the US payments industry is undergoing a digital transformation, with new developments set to improve the efficiency and security of payments across the board.
UC&C collaboration application spending by US organizations is predicted to increase by 34% to over $10 billion by the end of 2020.
UCaaS, or managed communications solutions adoption is projected to increase at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 9.24% - to over $11.48 billion by 2024.
With customer satisfaction again driving change, it’s crucial that banks and financial institutions have a variety of tools in their arsenal ready for deployment. The emergence of real-time payments, new and faster payment technologies, a new layer of overlay services and updated legacy rails means the US payments space is transitioning to an entirely new payments culture.
Regulation and compliance are key considerations:
- Organizations will be required to store daily trading records of all trade activities and electronic communications for 5 years in a secure archive.
- Record retrieval and submission will be required within 72 hours of regulators’ requests.
- There will be implementation of surveillance procedures to monitor market manipulation and insider trading.
Experience management needs to be a top priority
UC&C is now a vital component in the way financial services are delivered. As financial services organizations are increasing their investments in more UC&C systems and services, the need for complete visibility and control over the landscape is critical.
It’s estimated that due to the need for detailed analytics and visibility, enterprises will spend $2.8 billion on network monitoring by 2024. However, there are UC&C challenges that still affect many organizations. It’s these challenges that must be addressed and prioritized in order to achieve better business and communications outcomes:
End-to-end visibility – To be able to see a clear picture of the UC&C environment in real time enables ease of troubleshooting and reporting across multi-vendor platforms and endpoints.
Testing – Proactive testing of UC&C environments will give comprehensive insights into performance, availability and quality.
Historical analysis – Detailed historical analysis will improve user experience and support management decision making.
Real-time assessment – Visibility in real time into each UC&C user’s experience provides actionable performance information for faster issue resolution.
UC&C is now providing the foundational pillars of the future for the banking, insurance and financial industry. The collection of data and analytics, real time monitoring, expanding intelligence - and leveraging emerging cloud technologies are at the forefront of the new normal.
For more insights and information, and an in-depth look at how UC&C is changing the world of financial services, download your copy here.
