Future-proof your bank by migrating to an engagement banking platform

Introduction

The banking landscape is in the midst of a seismic shift. Traditional banks face a two-pronged challenge - the rise of competition from neobanks offering seamless digital experiences and the threat of vendor lock-in of many legacy banking systems.

Neobanks have dramatically changed the competitive landscape, setting a new standard for customer experience. Their sleek, intuitive digital platforms offer personalized services and features that traditional banks often struggle to match. 

To make matters worse, vendor lock-in has also become a serious threat to many traditional banks.  Some vendors have discontinued development of legacy platforms or pulled out of markets altogether, leaving banks uncertain of the future and unable to meet customer expectations.

To stay competitive, traditional banks must evolve their digital offerings and customer service strategies, while also making difficult decisions about their tech stacks. 

But, in change, lies opportunity - if you know what to look out for.

Modernization through migration

To thrive in this competitive environment, banks must move beyond outdated, legacy systems and embrace modern digital banking platforms, with a focus on customer engagement. Here are some key challenges that modernization through migration could help your bank solve.

• Outdated tech stack
  Many front-end solutions are nearing or reached their end-of-life, leaving banks with outdated technology, an inability to scale with market demands - not to mention massive technical debt. Migrating away from these aging solutions is a matter of survival.
  
• Changing customer expectations
  Today's customers expect personalized, 24/7 access, self-service, and seamless banking experiences accessible across all their devices. Legacy systems often struggle to deliver on these expectations.
  
• Neobank competition
  Unburdened by old technology, neobanks focus relentlessly on user-friendly digital experiences and customer-centric innovation, and bring new value propositions to market fast. Banks can't afford to fall behind.
  
• Operational inefficiencies
  Modern platforms revolutionize workflows, automate tasks, provide real-time data access, and can significantly help reduce cost-to-income ratios. This translates to streamlined operations, reduced manual effort, and greater cost efficiencies.

The future of Digital Banking is Engagement Banking

Neobanks are successful because they focus on creating superior customer experiences and driving growth through customer engagement. Learning from these successes of neobanks, traditional banks can quickly future-proof their institution by working with the right partner to transition to a next-generation digital banking platform. What we at Backbase call an Engagement Banking Platform. 

Here are three key advantages of our Engagement Banking Platform:

01. Break free from vendor lock-in & tech debt

Too many traditional banks are stuck with outdated, legacy tech that’s hard to change and expensive to maintain. Now is the opportunity to migrate to a new-generation of omnichannel engagement banking model. One that allows you to adopt a customer-centric approach, orchestrate user journeys across all touchpoints, and innovate at the speed of digital.

Continuous innovation is at the heart of Backbase’s Engagement Banking Platform. Over half our staff are dedicated to R&D, actively shaping product roadmaps that span from near-term releases to strategic, 12+ month initiatives. For this commitment, Forrester Wave and the Omdia Decision Matrix have named Backbase a leader for digital banking platforms four-times in a row and two-times in a row, respectively.

Compete with neobanks at their own game, while utilizing a tried and tested front-end that allows your unique brand to shine. Our single codebase, deployed on your dedicated cloud platform, provides out-of-the-box web and mobile applications, accelerating your time to market. Using our APIs, SDKs, and Design System, you’ll still have the freedom to differentiate based on your specific needs.

02. Harness a composable platform fabric, built on open platforms

Harness the power of the Backbase Engagement Banking Platform for accelerated innovation. Our platform offers a modular platform fabric with capabilities that will allow you to quickly and securely connect to your downstream systems of record, as well as third-party fintechs.

This industrialized platform serves as a stable, future-proof foundation for seamlessly orchestrating all your customer and employee interactions across any digital channel. You’ll be empowered to focus on the things that matter most, like creating differentiating user experiences and delivering real business value.

With 400+ industrialized, composable capabilities, you’ll have the flexibility to quickly create tailored, differentiating experiences. Our single platform is built from the ground up, giving you the power to innovate on your own terms and to suit your business lines whether they be Retail Banking, Business Banking, Private Banking & Wealth Management or Credit Unions.

03. Accelerate your digital banking transformation

To get ahead in today's dynamic banking landscape, an accelerated digital transformation is critical. Our Engagement Banking Platform empowers you to achieve this rapid evolution by uniquely blending the speed of pre-built journey’s with the flexibility to create truly distinctive offerings. We provide the essential foundation so your teams can innovate rapidly, adapt customer experiences, and deploy your vision across the infrastructure of your choice.

• Buy for speed, build for differentiation
  With our out-of-the-box platform capabilities and ready-to-adopt customer journeys (what we call Model Bank), your bank can cover up to 80% of what you need to build a modern mobile or web application, right on top of your core banking infrastructure.
  
• Turbocharge your Digital Factory
  Our platform is your “construction site” for digital transformation. You can work with your own cross-functional teams to pursue change-the-business projects, right on top of the platform.
  
• Deployment Options
  Deploy our platform on your infrastructure of choice. Backbase supports different hosting options, from public cloud to private, hybrid, container, community, on-premise, and Backbase-as-a-Service (BaaS) deployments.
  

Curious to find out how a modern Engagement Banking Platform can help you ensure relevancy in a highly competitive market by ensuring you always have future-proof solutions?

Read our Engagement Banking Platform whitepaper and see how bright the future is with Backbase.