Design and Technology

If you were commissioned to build a new building that would be the talk of the town, you would not appoint the builder first. You would start by looking for the right architect – one who can design both a great exterior as well as an extremely habitable interior.

In the same way, building a digital bank is firstly about design – finding the right designers who can build a bank that delivers a superior experience, supported by processes that are fast and with few or no errors, and at very low cost. The architect is the equivalent of your head of design; the civil engineer is the equivalent of your head of process; and the builder is the equivalent of your head of technology.

In terms of importance, I would put design and process first, followed closely by technology. Technology can help you realise the full potential of a digital bank with a modern core platform and a customer experience that is world-class. 

It just must be done in tandem with design and process and not on its own. Good technology can also lead to better design and a better ability to evolve the initial design when changes happen, just as design will naturally influence the technology choice.

Thus, having business designers that know technology and technology designers that know business is one of the factors that differentiates the transformation programmes that succeed from those that don’t.

Design and Cost

What about the development of the end-user application? 

When you combine a well-designed bank with the latest core banking technology and make the right design choices, you should achieve a cost advantage that significantly reduces your marginal cost, as your total operating costs become more efficient.

Technology has a big impact on the operating cost per customer. One way to go about reshaping your cost structure is to set up a digital bank within the incumbent, and to learn by doing. This mitigates the risk of porting the entire bank to a new cloud solution. These learnings can then be gradually transferred to the mothership.