Redefining how WORK is done
Tech companies have redefined how work is done, and now financial services organisations are testing and adopting many of the successful practices and methodologies that allowed these tech companies to serve their customers more efficiently, including deploying better and innovative products and experiences for their customers, at a faster pace and lower costs.
We now see 4 major trends impacting how work is performed:
- Cloud becomes mainstream
- Microservices Architecture is the next big thing
- Partnerships within the ecosystem drive capability uplift
- Teams become permanently cross-functional.
Cloud has not only enabled organisations to offer better products and experiences to their customers, but has also enabled organisations to make faster and better decisions. The combination of the sharp shift to digital and the proliferation of solutions and vendors with low investment models (pay per use) has been fuelling its growth. However, adoption in the industry is not homogeneous, with Leaders in the region being much bolder than their counterparts.
A variant of the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), Microservices are an architectural and organisational approach to software development where software is composed of small independent services that communicate over well-defined APIs. These services are owned by small, self-contained teams. Microservices architectures make applications easier to scale and faster to develop, enabling innovation and accelerating time-to-market for new features.
Our survey indicated that Leaders in APAC consider microservices architecture as the main lever to improve their technology capabilities in the next few years vs. only a third of the rest of the organisations. We believe the non-leading organisations have a large backlog of technology improvements (like replacing legacy systems, migrating to Cloud), which will take up change capacity over next few years.
Developing and owning all the relevant capabilities to succeed in the marketplace is not usually feasible, so more and more organisations are relying on partners to complement their capabilities. Leading organisations do not only partner more, but they also better incorporate partners’ capabilities. Incumbents and Fintechs are willing to develop more stable, dedicated and symbiotic partnerships within an “ecosystem”.
Organisations are trying new ways of working, including deploying permanent cross-functional teams, especially for self-contained products supported by technology applications that enable frequent releases. Leaders are a bit ahead on that journey, but most organisations are yet to put in place the necessary enablers for this model to succeed (new ways of working, mindset and supporting technology).
Conclusion and what’s next
Organisations that are ahead of the curve across these 4 trends are the ones most prepared to react to changes in customer expectations, increased cost pressures and new partnering opportunities.
Our next blog will explore the “distributed WORKFORCE” and four major emerging trends.
