vanilla. vanilla. vanilla. strawberry. the new imperative in retail banking

A Custom Technology

Adoption Profile

Commissioned By HP and

Microsoft

July 2015

European Banks Leverage

Mobility Solutions To Boost

Customer Experiences And

Employee Productivity

Introduction

Retail banks need to address customer and employee mobile moments.

Banking customers and employees expect to access any information or

service from any device, in their immediate moment of need. This

consumerization of the banking sector is forcing the transformation of

traditional business processes and enabling new opportunities for both

established and new competitors — that are online-only, telco-backed, or

online giants in other sectors — to gain market share.

Successful banks will enhance their mobility capabilities to engage with their

customers more interactively and empower their staff to work collaboratively

to help differentiate themselves from their competitors. Those banks that

underestimate the opportunities provided by mobility solutions risk their

competitive advantage and may be left behind. Of course, a highly regulated

industry such as the banking sector has unique regulatory, security, and

usability requirements. This profile highlights how retail banks in Europe can

exploit mobility opportunities to empower their workforce and deliver

enhanced customer experiences.

In June 2015, HP and Microsoft commissioned Forrester Consulting to

conduct a custom study of 50 IT and business decision-makers in retail

banks. The study explored the business priorities, technology initiatives, and

mobility initiatives for their customers and employees. All respondents were

manager or director level and above. All respondents clearly understood the

mobile strategy at their organization.

1

FIGURE 1

Improving Information Security, Customer Experience, And Differentiation In The Market Are Top Business Priorities For 2015

Base: 50 IT and business decision-makers at retail banks across Europe

Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on

behalf of HP and Microsoft, June 2015

“Which of the following initiatives are likely to be your

organization’s top business priorities for 2015?”

Critical priority High priority

Improve differentiation

in the market30% 42%

Improve data/information

security across the organization22% 56%

Improve workforce

productivity22% 38%

Improve the experience of

our customers20% 54%

Retail Banking Business Priorities Focus On Delighting Customers

Today’s retail banking customers are highly demanding.

Empowered with multiple digital means of engaging with

banks, they expect to find information and purchase

products at any time and from any location. Customers want

to engage with a bank via channels of their choice —

whether that’s by logging into their accounts while on the

move via a smartphone, visiting a branch, or withdrawing

cash from an ATM. To compete on experience,

organizations must create a seamless and relevant

customer experience across all potential interactions and

touchpoints.

In order to deliver great mobile customer experiences, retail

banks must offer the correct mobility services to customers,

as well as arm employees with the right productivity and

collaboration tools they need to delight and meet customer

expectations. Not surprisingly then, IT and business

decision-makers at retail banks across Europe are

recognizing these imperatives and focusing their business

priorities to (see Figure 1):

› Improve differentiation in the market. The most critical

priority of all for retail banks is improving differentiation in

the marketplace (30%). Organizations are looking to

improve their presence in the market by designing

variations of products and services to address a client’s

need and mobile moment. This will help differentiate

banks from well-established competitors and fend off new

digital competitors.

› Improve data and information security. More business

processes are mobilized and more customer engagement

is conducted via mobile solutions. Security is and will

always be a top concern, particularly in heavily regulated

industries such as financial services. So, 78% of retail

banks surveyed said that improving data and information

security across the organization is a critical or high

business priority in 2015.

› Improve workforce productivity. Sixty percent of retail

banks are also looking to prioritize improving workforce

productivity over the next year. Giving better access to

mobile devices and applications, as well as related

customer and market information, will allow employees to

help address a client’s need more efficiently.

› Improve customer experience. Almost three-quarters

(74%) of IT and business decision-makers surveyed

identified improving the experience of their customers as

a critical or high priority for 2015. This means that retail

banks will need to take a systematic approach to the

design and delivery of external business services to

ensure that they are synced to understand, connect with,

and serve customers at their moment of need. This will

require close collaboration between IT and business

leaders to ensure the best user experience is being

delivered.

While revenue growth and cost reduction will

always remain a high priority, they are no

longer the main focus for retail banks. Only

15% of banks said revenue growth and cost

reduction were a critical priority. Retail banks

are looking for new revenue streams and

efficiencies by focusing on improving

differentiation in the market, improving data

security, enhancing workforce productivity,

and boosting the customer experience.

2

KEY TECHNOLOGY ENABLERS HELP BANKS MEET

BUSINESS PRIORITIES

Organizations have ambitious business priorities for the

coming year. To support these priorities, retail banks are

investing in new tools to empower their workforce to deliver

better customer service through (see Figure 2):

› Investment in cloud offerings. Over 80% of retail banks

agreed that, to achieve their business priorities, they must

look to create a comprehensive strategy and implement

cloud offerings. Cloud investments allow banks to open

up and improve mobile user access and the use of

applications to facilitate knowledge sharing and decision-

making responsibilities.

› Improved use of data analytics. Almost three-quarters

(74%) of European banks surveyed agreed that they must

improve the use of data analytics to deliver on their

business priorities. For example, banks are looking to

leverage data management platforms that tie the

employee and customer mobile touchpoints into CRM and

other IT systems to track mobile moments across all

channels of interaction.

› Improved network performance and quality. A further

three-quarters of banks agreed that they must improve

their network performance and quality to meet business

priorities. The internal enterprise network is the backbone

of the technology infrastructure, enabling banks to adopt

more cloud-based solutions. The network forms the basis

for closer customer engagement and closer employee

collaboration. In fact, 70% of organizations agreed that

they must improve IT support for employee collaboration.

› Expansion of mobility solutions. Seventy percent of

European banks surveyed are looking to expand and

improve their enterprise mobility strategy to meet

business priorities. It is critical for banks to enhance their

mobile strategy. Doing so will help them conduct business

with customers and enable their employees to accomplish

work tasks.

FIGURE 2

Banks Are Investing In Cloud, Analytics, Network, And Mobile To Meet Business Priorities




“How strongly do you agree or disagree with

the following statements?” To achieve our

business priorities in 2015, we must . . .

(Respondents who strongly agreed and agreed)

Create a comprehensive

strategy and implement cloud/

SaaS offerings82%

Improve use of data analytics

to improve business decisions

and outcomes

74%

Improve our network (WAN)

performance and/or quality74%

Expand and improve our

enterprise mobility strategy70%

Improve the IT support for

employee collaboration70%

Reorganize IT to better align

with business initiatives64%

3

Retail Banking Customers And Employees Are Increasingly Leveraging Mobile Solutions

Retail banking customers are becoming increasingly mobile,

with the Forrester Research Digital Banking Forecast, 2013

to 2018, showing that more and more customers are

expected to leverage mobile and tablet devices for many

different banking activities. Customers have already

leveraged different mobile devices to support their banking

activities (see Figure 3). Forrester’s European Consumer

Technographics® Financial Services Survey 2, 2014,

showed that European online adults use mobile and tablet

banking to not only check their bank balance and recent

transactions, but also to transfer money to other accounts,

look up the location of the bank branch or ATM, and pay

bills. In addition, the same survey highlighted banking

customers’ interest in more interactive technology solutions,

such as near field communication (NFC) and beacon

technology. Over a third of consumers are interested in

branch-only beacon technology that interacts with

customers’ smartphones to provide special offers and

contextually relevant experiences.

To respond to customers’ mobile needs, European workers

at financial services organizations are increasingly adopting

mobile solutions, as Forrester’s research highlights. In fact,

over half (54%) of information workers at financial services

firms in Europe agreed that their firm expects them to use

mobile-enabled services when working with clients and

customers. Forrester’s Global Business Technographics®

Telecommunications And Mobility Workforce Survey, 2015,

revealed that more than a quarter (28%) of information

workers at European financial services firms spend 3 or

more hours per day using a smartphone for work-related

activities.

The same survey also highlights the growing use of different

devices that are being used by information workers for work

purposes, including laptops (83%), smartphones (66%), and

tablets (22%). As workers use more devices and

applications to support their work activities, technology

management leaders must continue to implement

comprehensive enterprise mobility initiatives that enable

workers to fulfill all their work activities, regardless of the

device they use.

FIGURE 3

European Mobile And Tablet Banking Activities

Base: 2,863 European online adults (18+) who are mobile bankers

*Base: 1,679 European online adults (18+) who are tablet bankers

Source: Forrester’s European Technographics Financial Services Survey, 2014

“Which devices have you used to do each of these banking activities in the past three months?”

Checking my bank account balance

Viewing or checking a recent

bank transaction

Receiving a text-message (SMS) alert

(e.g., balance alerts, security alerts, etc.)

Transferring money between my own

accounts at the same bank

Looking up the location of a

bank branch or ATM

Transferring money to others (e.g., family/

friends) via their bank account

Paying bills

Getting in touch with customer service/

an account manager

81%73%

55%53%

41%8%

34%34%

31%16%

27%30%

26%34%

24%11%

Mobile banking users

Tablet banking users*

4

Mobility Initiatives Focus On Improving Customer Communication And Employee Productivity

Retail banks in Europe understand the importance of

improving their mobility strategy for customers and

employees. Sixty-four percent of European retail banks

surveyed said it was extremely or very important for them to

improve their mobility strategy to help customers conduct

business with them. A further 62% also said it was important

to improve their mobility strategy for employees, to help

them conduct work tasks. When exploring further, Forrester

found that European retailer banks were investing in

mobility solutions to boost customer communications and

improve employee productivity.

BANKS ARE LEVERAGING MOBILITY TO IMPROVE

CUSTOMER COMMUNICATION AND EXPERIENCE

Retail banks recognize that they must continue to refine and

improve their enterprise mobility strategy to ensure that they

are able to meet the growing demands of increasingly

mobile-savvy customers. To meet these expectations, IT

and business decision-makers at retail banks across Europe

are prioritizing mobility initiatives for customers that (see

Figure 4):

› Improve customer support. The top customer-facing

mobility priority for organizations centers on offering

online chat/support for online banking customers — 68%

of retail banks in Europe surveyed highlighted this as an

extremely or very important initiative.

› Provide interactive customer experiences. Sixty-two

percent of retail banks surveyed in Europe also identified

as a top priority the adoption of more visual/haptic-

focused presentation and interactive tools for customers

to engage with them while in a branch. Over half of retail

banks in Europe are also planning to leverage beacon

sensors so they can tailor the in-branch experience to

individual customers’ unique contexts.

› Offer mobile payment capabilities. As customers’ use

of mobile devices for banking activities continues to grow,

the demand to be able to leverage mobile devices for

payments will also increase. Fifty-eight percent of retail

banks surveyed believe it is very or extremely important to

build or enhance mobile payment capabilities. Mobile

payment solutions will enable bank brands to add value

beyond just faster and more convenient payment

solutions.

› Are seamless across all channels. To better serve the

customer across all touchpoints of the customer journey,

IT and business decision-makers recognize the

importance of their mobility initiatives to create a

comprehensive multichannel strategy (56%). Allowing

seamless engagement between all customer touchpoints,

whether it be the website, branch, or mobile device, is

very important to improving the customer’s experience.

This requires a holistic approach to integrating mobile into

other back-office applications. Such integration would

allow retail banking customers to access account

information and all their transactions regardless of the

channel they use.

FIGURE 4

Mobility Initiatives Focus On Improving Customer Support And Experience




“Over the next 12 months, how important will each

of the following mobility initiatives be?”

Extremely important Very important

Offer online chat/support for our

online banking customers28% 40%

Adopt more visual/haptic-focused

presentation and interactive tools14% 48%

Build, support, or enhance our

mobile payments capabilities24% 34%

Leverage proximity/beacon sensors

to tailor in-branch experiences to

individual customers

22% 36%

Create a comprehensive

multichannel strategy to better

serve our customers

14% 42%

Display more digital signage

within the branch12% 44%

5

RETAIL BANKS LOOK TO IMPROVE EMPLOYEE

PRODUCTIVITY THROUGH MOBILITY INITIATIVES

Arming workers with the right tools and services in order for

them to be able to deliver the right customer service and

experience is crucial. Mobility initiatives for employees at

retail banks focus on (see Figure 5):

› Leveraging more cloud-based services to better support mobile access. Almost three-quarters (72%) of

those surveyed plan to deploy cloud-based services to

better support mobile access. Cloud-based tools

empower employees to access business-critical

information at the customer’s moment of need, as well as

the ability to manage their own mobile applications.

› Improving security of information/data available to employees through mobile. Sixty-two percent of survey

respondents prioritize the improvement of security of

information and data on mobile devices. As more and

more business processes and customer engagements

are conducted through mobile channels, it is more

important than ever, particularly in heavily regulated

industries like banking, that firms secure applications,

content, and devices across a broad ecosystem of

operating systems and devices.

› Building more smartphone and tablet applications. Retail banks are looking to deploy additional mobile

applications, on both smartphones and tablets, for

employees. As consumer mobile applications and

services continue to develop and mature rapidly, retail

banking IT and business decision-makers must

inevitability match the same level of sophistication with

their own applications. Leveraging multiplatform

application development tools will enable banks to

develop mobile applications to boost staff productivity by

enabling closer interaction among employees and

between employees and customers and partners.

› Adopting or expanding bring-your-own (BYO) device programs. More than half of retail banks in Europe are

also looking to implement a comprehensive device

management solution that includes employee-owned

smartphones and tablets. In fact, 48% of retail banks have

implemented or are expanding BYO programs for

employees, including for PCs, smartphones, and tablets.

An additional 28% of retail banks are planning to

implement BYO programs in the next 12 months or more.

BYO deployments where applications are shared across

borders need a clear enterprise mobile management

(EMM) solution that brings together management of

security, mobile devices, mobile applications, application

wrapping, containerization, file synchronization, and file

sharing.

FIGURE 5

Workforce Mobility Priorities Focus On Leveraging Cloud And Improving Security




“Over the next 12 months, how important will each of

the following mobility initiatives be?”

Extremely important Very important

Leverage more cloud-based

services to better support

mobile access

20% 52%

Improve security of information/

data available to employees

through mobility solutions18% 44%

Build more mobile (smartphone

and tablet) applications

for employees14% 46%

Implement a comprehensive device

management solution that includes

employee-owned smartphones

and tablets (BYOD)

24% 34%

6

Retail Banks Are Investing In Mobile Apps To Empower Employees To Deliver Better Customer Experience

Our survey also revealed that as organizations look to

bolster their mobility solutions to foster closer collaboration

and boost employee productivity, over 50% of European

retail banks have already implemented or are

expanding/upgrading many different productivity

applications and tools for workers, empowering these banks

to deliver better customer service (see Figure 6). A further

50% have already invested in business intelligence or data

dashboard applications and are in the process of

implementing sales support tools.

Retail banks are concentrating their mobility initiatives on a

number of different roles across the business, with a

specific focus on improving the productivity of workers who

are customer facing. For instance, 50% or more of retail

banks in Europe said they are focusing their mobility

initiatives on remote or money advisors and customer

relationship managers. Retail banks are also focusing some

of their mobility investments on back-office roles, such as

compliance officers (40%) and call center agents (22%).

The primary use cases that retail banks identified for

investment in mobility solutions focus on leveraging

sophisticated data analytics to drive (see Figure 7):

› Better cross-sell and upsell opportunities. More than

half of retail banks are adopting mobility solutions to

maximize revenue though increased cross-sell/upsell

opportunities by allowing quick access to information on

related products and services.

› Faster access to market and customer data. Over half

of retail banks have invested in mobility to allow for faster

and easier access to analysis of market and investment

data, enabling advisors to make informed decisions for

their customers using the latest data available. A further

44% also offer mobility solutions to allow better access to

transactional, customer, and market data through access

to back-end systems. This allows customer-facing roles to

address a query in the moment of need, regardless of the

channel being used.

› Enhanced cross-role collaboration. Forty percent

highlighted that the primary use for mobility solutions for

employees was the real-time uploading and sharing of

information. This requires sophisticated, enterprisewide

collaboration tools, so that workers can access the latest

customer information from anywhere at any time.

All of these use cases must be underpinned by the need to

optimize applications to perform well across the additional

demands (for example, on network latency, bandwidth,

packet loss, and jitter) placed on IT infrastructure by cloud-

based mobility innovation. Retail banking workers require

real-time access to information and analytics to ensure the

best decisions are being made for their customers, which

requires a reliable enterprise network.

FIGURE 6

Retail Banks Have Already Implemented Or Are Expanding Their Investments In Productivity

Applications




“What types of tools/services does your firm make

available or plan to make available to employees?”

Expanding/upgrading/implemented

Planning to implement in the next 12 months or more

Productivity apps 52%40%

Business intelligence or

data dashboard apps50%

32%

Sales support tools and

applications50%

36%

HR or personnel apps

including training48%

34%

Web/videoconferencing

apps48%

38%

A bring-your-own-device

(PC, smartphone, tablet)

program

48%28%

Customer apps 42%44%

Collaboration/file sync

and share apps40%

32%

7

Retail Banks: Boost Your Mobility Maturity Or Get Left Behind

To assess the maturity and sophistication of mobility

solutions within retail banks surveyed, Forrester asked

respondents to assess their organization’s mobility

capabilities across four dimensions: mobility strategy,

mobility alignment, information, and application access.

Respondents were asked if their organization has a well-

defined mobility strategy, how well-aligned it is across

different business units, how well users can access back-

office applications on their mobile device, and how they

measure the effectiveness of retail banking mobility

solutions. Analyzing the results, Forrester was able to

segment respondents into five categories (see Figure 8):

› Mobility laggards. Thirty-two percent of respondents’

organizations fall into this group. These organizations fail

to meet mobility needs of both customers and employees,

as they lack proficiency in each of the four dimensions:

strategy, alignment, information access, and application

access.

› Mobility opportunists. Only 10% of respondents are

classified as mobility opportunists. They have the back-

office integration to allow strong information and

FIGURE 7

Use Cases For Employee Mobility Solutions




“What are the primary use cases for your investments

in mobility solutions for employees?”

Improved cross/upsell

opportunities by making

additional products and

services available

52%

Faster and easier access

to analysis of market

and investment data

52%

Access to transactional,

customer, and market data

through access to back-end

systems in the moment of

need, across all channels

44%

Real-time uploading/

sharing of information/

customer data

40%

FIGURE 8

Retail Banks Fall Into Five Levels Of Mobility Maturity


Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of HP and Microsoft, June 2015

Informationandapplication

access

Strategy/alignment

Mobility

laggards

32%

Mobility

adopters 34%

Mobility

experts

16%

Mobility strategists

8%

Mobility opportunists

10%

8

application access on mobile devices but lack the strategy

and business alignment needed to fully benefit from this

integration.

› Mobility strategists. This group of respondents

demonstrates excellent strategy and alignment but lacks

execution in information access and app access

enablement. Eight percent of the respondents in our study

fall into this segment.

› Mobility adopters. Thirty-four percent of respondents are

classified in this category. These organizations have

begun their journey to mobility experts and demonstrate

some degree of competence across all four domains.

These organizations did not demonstrate the full mobility

capabilities required to offer industry-leading mobility

solutions for customers and employees.

› Mobility experts. Sixteen percent of European retail

banks fell into this category. These organizations

demonstrated significant competence across dimensions

to maximize business value from investments in mobility

solutions. Mobility experts are customer-obsessed and

boost productivity of workers with tools and services that

allow them to deliver excellent customer experiences.

EXPERTS HAVE FULLY EMBRACED MOBILITY

SOLUTIONS TO DELIVER SUPERIOR CUSTOMER

EXPERIENCES

Eight out of the 50 retail banks surveyed were classified as

mobility experts, as they exceled in their mobility strategy,

organizational alignment, and information and application

access for mobility services. These retail banks have fully

embraced mobility solutions to take more of the market

share and fend off new, agile, and digital-savvy competitors.

These firms demonstrated:

› A commitment to improving their customer experience initiatives. All eight of the retail banking

mobility experts highlighted that improving their customer

experience and differentiation from competitors is a high

or critical business priority.

› A focus on mobility solutions. All mobility experts

agreed that they must establish a vision of how mobility

solutions can help meet customer needs and improve

workforce productivity.

› An ability to provide joined-up multichannel experiences. All mobility experts rated their ability to

integrate and track customer data between different

customer touchpoints (e.g., branch, call center, online,

ATM, etc.) as either good or excellent.

9

Conclusions: Enhance Your Mobility Maturity

The Forrester Technology Adoption Profile survey revealed

that for retail banks to stand out from their competitors, they

must offer differentiated mobility services to enhance

customer service and engagement, as well as boost

employee productively. To do both requires banks to

enhance their mobility maturity. This requires:

› Creating cross-functional teams focused on mobility opportunities. The delivery of great customer experience

is a businesswide task that relies upon unprecedented

real-time collaboration between teams and departments.

IT and business decision-makers should take the lead

and build a cross-functional team, focusing on how to

seize the mobility opportunities within the bank and how

to improve customer and employee processes by

enhancing mobility experiences.

› Leveraging analytics to deliver seamless multichannel experiences. Most organizations are

focused on the design, features, and functions of their

mobile applications. Competitive advantage for

organizations will shift from experience design to

leveraging data smartly — for example, incorporating

analytics that tie the employee and customer mobile

touchpoints into CRM and other IT systems to track

mobile moments across all channels of interaction.

› Developing partnerships and collaborating with vendors of mobile solutions that have experience in

retail banking. To keep up with the pace of change in

mobility trends for employees and customers adds huge

pressure on the in-house resources and skills necessary

to succeed. IT and business decision-makers should

consider partnering and collaborating with vendors that

understand the global implication of country-specific

regulations and can meet needs for compliance locally. A

third of retail banks in our study also identified a lack of

skills and training to fully implement a thorough mobility

strategy. Third-party partners can help retail banks

address gaps in resources, skills, and knowledge required

to be true mobility experts.

Methodology

This Technology Adoption Profile was commissioned by HP and Microsoft. To create this profile, Forrester leveraged its

Global Business Technographics® Telecommunications And Mobility Workforce Survey, 2015 and the European Consumer

Technographics® Financial Services Survey 2, 2014. Forrester Consulting supplemented this data with custom survey

questions asked of 50 IT and business decision-makers to explore the business priorities, technology initiatives, and mobility

maturity in support of customers and employees. All respondents were manager or director level and above. All respondents

clearly understood the mobile strategy at their organization. The auxiliary custom survey was conducted in June 2015. For

more information on Forrester’s data panel and Tech Industry Consulting services, visit www.forrester.com.

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