Banks as Role Models

Let’s go on a fantastic journey today, a trip into one of the endless parallel worlds described by quantum mechanics (you’re familiar with the paradox of Schrödinger’s cat, which is simultaneously alive and dead). Many things in this world remain the same, yet many others are quite different. It could be that the sidewalks are pink and we keep squirrels as pets.

Now imagine that banks in this parallel world are the role models of customer communication. They prepare a dashboard for you. It delivers more than just information on your bank transactions. It can also display your prospects of success in investment scenarios and affordable peer-to-peer loans. If you want, you can even set up the dashboard to warn you before you make spontaneous, unnecessary purchases (like an 8K television or a handbag and matching shoes, for example).

In this parallel world, your bank provides you with recommendations such as changing your Internet provider to a more affordable competitor that offers better services for less each month. It can suggest subscribing to Netflix, for example, because you enjoy going to the movies and your bank account balance allows for it. Or it recommends adding the Hi-fi service by Spotify because you just purchased a high-quality stereo system. The bank will immediately provide an explanation of any fees or service charges that you question.

And your insurance company won’t seem stiff and formal in this parallel world. An intelligent chatbot will contact you immediately in the event of an incident and arrange for a quick payment once the details have been clear up. Gone are the days that you have to spend months chasing down your insurance payout. Your insurance company can automatically apply the brakes of the car if you’re behind the wheel and your smartwatch registers heart palpations and other disquieting values, because your insurance company fears you might pass out. It just prevented serious damage that could have cost a lot of money, and worse yet, loss to human life. It can alert the police as someone attempts to break in to your home. And if the humidity or temperature in your home rises, it can inform a repair company to check in on your home.

Banks and insurance companies are your friends and helpers in this parallel world. And everyone benefits from this relationship. You receive better services, enjoy excellent communication, and benefit from affordable rates, and the service providers cut costs, improve customer loyalty, and expand their offering.

This scenario seems quite fanciful from today’s perspective, yet the technology we have available today would enable all of these innovations. There is nothing standing in the way of banks and insurance companies becoming better service providers. We already have technologies such as artifical intelligence (AI), big data, Internet of Things (IoT), virtual reality, augmented reality, blockchain, robotics, machine learning, and many, many others and we can implement them at any time. Just as an aside, Dell uses all of these technologies and offers numerous products and solutions based on them.

Of course, we don’t need to implement everything just because we can. Providers should take careful steps to consider which data they need to use based on their business ethics. Protection of personal data has absolute priority and it is the measure of all things. Nevertheless, many banks and insurance companies are already using innovation solutions provided by Dell EMC in order to cut costs, streamline processes, automate evaluations, improve sales of products, get to know customers better, or simply become more agile, just like Credit Agricole, the Bank of Ireland UK, and China Citic Bank are doing.

Granted, transformation is not always that easy, and some companies experience fatigue along the way. It’s not only the IT that needs to implement the changes; the security, the organization, and even the culture of the institution need to change. What’s more, there are many people involved, like the CEO, CIO, the various departments, the IT team, and many internal users and external customers and partners. And there are other factors to consider, like transparency, scalability, maintenance aspects, customer orientation, and absolute flexibility in order to ensure that all bases are covered.

Transformation in our parallel world is easy; however, in the real world the banks and insurance companies need a strong partner. But don’t worry, we’re here for you.