Leading banks are moving to new digital business models to become more agile, resilient and customer centric. Legacy IT environments, however, can make this transition difficult. In fact, based on CGI’s 2021 Voice of Our Clients research, accelerating digital transformation and managing the demands of digital transformation on legacy infrastructure are among banking executives’ top priorities.
In the area of credit management, the pressure is on to overcome legacy constraints and implement digitally-driven systems and platforms that address changing market forces—from new customer behaviours and expectations, to tighter regulation, to business disruptions such as the pandemic. In this blog, I share three key steps for addressing the challenges of legacy IT as financial institutions pursue next-generation credit management.
Shift to a microservices platform architecture for credit management
Inefficient and outdated credit systems inhibit business performance, innovation and growth. They also pose challenges in terms of security and complexity. Moving to next-generation credit management requires investment in the right digitally-driven solutions for optimized performance.
The web application industry has changed significantly, with a global shift toward microservice-based architectures. This type of architecture enables banks to move from their monolithic legacy architectures, which often support just one centralized server application, to a modern platform architecture that supports numerous small, discrete microservices.
Transitioning to a microservices platform architecture enables agility both in delivering new services and in tailoring implementations based on customer needs. Changes in specific functions no longer affect the entire system. Microservices can be arranged and extended to quickly produce new modular services that address new market needs as they emerge—instead of years from now.
Have a vision for the future
As you pursue credit management modernization, start with a destination in mind. Without a clear vision, the outcome can become a mishmash of disjointed parts that prevent a seamless, value-driven customer and employee experience.
Evaluate each business need individually to identify the right technology solution for the need. Don’t force everything into a one-size-fits-all architecture.
In addition, start fresh with distinct integration points to legacy applications. This supports the introduction of new tools, and, in particular, tools that fit well in an agile development life cycle. From this point, you can then begin building desired microservices in smaller, manageable steps.
Meet the need for personalization
Beyond business processing, the future of credit management includes a focus on hyper personalization. There is an increasing need for personalization both in terms of approaching customers, as well as in presenting information to them.
To meet this need, plan out a modern user interface with a focus on customizable persona-based views and built-on micro front-ends. For both customer and agent-facing applications, the goal is to provide intuitive, easy-to-use pages that allow users to perform tasks quickly.
In addition, incorporate insights driven by explainable machine learning and artificial intelligence into collection processes to optimize decisions for the business and enhance customer service. Transparent machine learning models use comprehensive customer data to determine the most effective channel and the best time to reach customers. They are critical to driving more personalization.
Next steps
Financial institutions that address the challenges of legacy IT can capitalize on the promise of digital transformation—optimizing business operations, delighting customers and reaping significant financial and business benefits. Technology journeys are constantly evolving. As with any journey, businesses must continuously reflect and readjust plans, allowing for change along the way.
As a longstanding partner for leading financial institutions globally, CGI understands the challenges of navigating constant change. We have been on our own technology journey, continually investing in our credit technology platform to support open and agile systems so that our clients can become more competitive, more innovative and more efficient while also managing risks and costs in line with their strategic priorities.
To learn more about our journey and modernization approach, read our paper, Investing in next-generation credit management. In addition, feel free to contact me to continue the conversation.
About this author
Laura Elmufdi
Director, Consulting Services
With more than 20 years of IT experience, Laura Elmufdi has in-depth expertise in developing and implementing business technology solutions. She has worked across multiple business areas, including finance (e. g. , collections and loan originations) and human resources, holding a variety of roles from ...
