by Gavin Stead, Head of Programme Services atGibbs Hybrid, talks about how projects can now be developed by external experts, as companies compete to navigate change.

Recent bank earnings showed optimism throughout the industry rises. However, the rate of change within the finance sector has never been as fast as it is today. Traditional players are increasingly competing to be more agile and responsive to changing regulations, innovative technologies and catering to changing customer expectations. The BFSI sector could add £43 billion to the UK economy by 2025 according to PwC and TheCityUK.[1]This growth, however, is dependent on navigating the ever-growing technological, demographic and global changes.

To stay competitive, banks are increasingly investing in technology to become more digital. Lloyds recently announced its intention to shut 49 branches and create 925 new roles as part of a £3bn investment to adapt to the rising number of customers opting for digital banking.[2] ‘Going digital’ can be a significant undertaking, requiring existing systems to be mapped out and understood before a suitable roadmap to digitisation can be implemented.

Banks are coming to grips with the Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2)which requires them to open their payments infrastructure and customer data assets to third parties that can then develop payments and information services for their customers. This adds an extra layer of competition into the mix, with banks now competing with more agile, innovative and consumer-centric financial technology start-ups.

To keep up with competition and embrace technological change, tasks should be approached from the grass-root level, identifying the gaps in the existing system before working to resolve them. This can involve the on-boarding of ‘ready-made’ digital teams for short periods of time. These teams can allow organisations to tap into expertise to enhance digital capabilities. Alternately, these external teams can also be useful for working alongside an existing team, who may be otherwise occupied with another venture. Taking a step back, this service may also be used to understand the changing regulations and innovations and assist in coming up with a road map for navigation. This adds a level of agility to the organisation, allowing projects to be scaled up and down as required.

Apart from providing an agile and tailored service, turning to external firms for service delivery is also very cost effective. For instance, a client looking to break into new digital territory can turn towards fully-functional external teams not only for the task at hand, but a complete governance and technology framework. In one such instance, a bank saved £568,500, 41 per cent of the total cost of the venture.

These on-demand project managers are usually specialists in the key areas the clients need and are already on-boarded to know the business and its needs intimately. This enables them to join a company for a short-term and make the transition seamless, while continuing to ramp up and ramp down their agile deployments. Their innovation and ability to produce quality work at speed can allow banks to make huge in-roads into infrastructure changes as well as saving significant sums of money in the process.

Navigating change whilst staying competitive has never been this easy. Using digital delivery services provide a flexible and manageable approach to on-board suitably skilled and qualified teams to ramp up and/or down depending on business needs. Banks and financial services can stay competitive and keep up with the digital age, utilising on-demand digital teams to cut costs, mitigate risk and accelerate change.

[1]http://uk.businessinsider.com/pwc-thecityuk-post-brexit-financial-sector-growth-2017-7

[2]https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/digital-enterprise-network/our-world-is-digital-first-and-foremost/