IT Support for Financial Service Firms

Key challenges you may face in today’s digital environment.

The finance industry has a significant impact on everyone’s life. We rely on it immensely without even realising. This heightens the pressure to deliver services seamlessly, intelligently and compete against a long list of competitors. To enhance reputation and be recognised as leading finance experts, core internal factors such as people, processes and technology need to be prioritised.

Acora has experience in overcoming common operational, and people challenges such as evolving technologies, user experience, and data confidentiality which hinders business growth.

According to our latest CIO report, nearly half of the businesses surveyed don’t have an enterprise technology strategy to support long-term working practices. This indicates that professionals focus too much on the in the moment, day-to-day issues, instead of widening the scope and concentrating on long term strategy.

Enhancing digital capabilities

Financial services have a desire to enhance their digital capabilities and modernise the workplace, however, to manage it in house from start to finish can be daunting, especially for IT leaders.

Relying on complex, outdated finance IT systems can present challenges due to integration difficulties, causing many blockers in strategic decision making. Additionally, not only from a technical perspective, but from a human element, there are sentimental factors that come with change. We are only human, we get used to systems, we understand how they work and the thought of adapting to new technologies creates uncertainty.

Do any of the following scenarios sound familiar to you?

1. You haven’t implemented any cloud technologies or invested in infrastructure due to the significant migration costs and risks associated with change. Your current systems are outdated and complex but rely on internal support to operate due to team experience. What happens if they leave the company?

2. You are working in a newly established Financial Services Firm using modern technologies, enabling a simple go to market strategy. What happens next? IT leaders should focus on continuous improvement, growth, and innovation. Strategy does not stop once something is implemented; it is an ongoing journey.

So how do you bridge the gap between innovation and capabilities and turn that uncertainty into proactive next steps?

Take a snapshot of where you are now and what your long-term vision is. Analysis is a good place to start as challenges are often hidden and are only presented when you dive deeper into the different organisational layers. Your answers will be in the data. Be more reliant on your IT partner and less on internal capability. Let the experts provide recommendations based on your business objectives, current challenges, leaving you to focus on the staff, hand holding support and communication.

Remember, this isn’t a race to the finish line, it’s a transformation journey which requires thought leadership and strategic workshops.

Managing Security Concerns

No matter how big or small a company is, security is always an area of concern. Cyber criminals are getting more advanced, making it harder to identify threats in the workplace. Cyber security is overwhelming, our advice would be to approach security layer by layer.

It’s as clear as day that risks have significantly evolved, and hybrid working has thrown a spanner in the works with staff located all over the world. Cyber should be at the forefront of everyone’s minds. The volume of sensitive client data is VAST. Therefore, it is your responsibility to ensure that data is stored securely and confidentially. Compliance and robust policies are a massive green flag, and is an attractive attribute to a company, particularly in the screening process.

Audits are a frequent activity in the finance industry. The trick is to not just wait for them to happen. Stay ahead of the game and be prepared for them, it will make your life easier and avoid the last-minute rush of ensuring everything is in place (we have all been there!). A successful audit can result in credible international certifications, such as ISO27001 for managing information security. Customers choose their finance vendor based on reputation, trust, and brand perception.

In our latest CIO Report 2022, we asked respondents to rank their top three priorities from a list and as we expected, updating data and cyber security strategy came out top. Make it your priority to keep up to date with evolving cyber protection tools, measures, and training to best protect your people and business.

Internal actions result in external perceptions. Best practice processes and protocols should always be followed carefully and communicated internally to create a robust workforce and mitigate risks.

Sounds like a lot, right? This is just scratching the surface.

Remember you are not alone. Working in partnership with cyber experts reduces your risk of missed security vulnerabilities.

The human element

A key focus for many financial service firms in today’s digital environment is delivering an unrivalled user experience that is innovative and addresses common pain points. Since hybrid working has become the new norm, the human element in the workplace has deteriorated naturally. When staff are working from home, you lose the visibility of how the users are feeling; happy, sad or frustrated (maybe all 3!). It’s time to make a change. Don’t just follow the trends, make a difference, and stand out as the leading finance provider in your industry.

Business leaders often believe that staff are happy because the SLAs are all green, Acora has evolved this mindset and introduced the XLA. Measuring the end user experience, not just IT availability will result in real productivity gains. Find out how your users really feel about their digital environment. What changes need to be prioritised to improve the overall experience? The XLA primarily focuses on giving every user a great experience, doesn’t that sound excellent! After all, your end users DRIVE the real value in your business.

Acora recognises that financial services invest in high value users of time and essentially time is money, therefore unplanned interruptions and general day to day support issues come at a cost. Did you know that it is possible for UX experts to proactively fix underlying problems before users even notice or call service desk?

The XLA approach enables your valuable staff to have a better experience, increase productivity, and eventually, hit the bullseye and increase company ROI.

We have been on a passionate mission to improve the user experience for over 25 years. Recognised as #1 MSP in EMEA & UK, we believe we are on track to be the best-in-class experts and thought leaders in the field.

The takeaway

Get in touch to find out how Acora will support your specific industry business challenges today.