INDUSTRY WATCH
DOWNTIME IS NO LONGER
ACCEPTABLE, ESPECIALLY
IF YOUR BRAND IS BUILT
ON BEING DIGITAL FIRST.
A
nybody still questioning how
downtime can influence a bank
should take a lesson from what is
happening at Capitec. Once the darling
of the local banking sector, sporadic
downtime experienced on its digital
banking platforms has seen the bank
lose the top spot as the best digital bank
in the country. Customer satisfaction
levels are directly linked to the availability
of services. Those financial institutions
unable to meet those demands will
become increasingly irrelevant in the
world of always-on hyper-available access
to digital banking.
Locally, the banking industry is a fast-paced
environment with new banks launching
soon. The message is clear; if your services
are not available to serve customers on the
platforms and times they want, you will
see satisfaction levels drop and customers
migrate to the newcomers.
Diversifying services
The 2018 Budget Speech highlighted the
support government is giving to expand
competitive, affordable banking services
to those who previously did not have
access to it. This is where digital banking
services delivered on mobile platforms
become vital.
Already, three banking licences were
granted last year for institutions that will
have significant digital capabilities and
bring more competition and innovation
to the sector. I am excited about these
new digital banks, their offerings, and
how they are going to present it to
potential customers such as myself.
According to PWC’s report The future
of banking: A South African perspective,
non-traditional players in the South
African market are increasingly exploring
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new opportunities, enabling them to
challenge incumbents and continually
change the state of financial services in
the country.
And this is reflected in how consumers
use banking services. Not being limited
to visiting branches, they can bank from
their mobile devices wherever they are,
irrespective of the time of day. However,
if services are disrupted (as was the case
with Capitec), the reputational damage
is significant. And while Capitec has
borne a lot of the brunt when it comes to
accessibility of digital services, the reality is
that most of the big banks in the country
have experienced system outages and
problems at one time or another.
Becoming more intelligent
The newly arriving digital banks will
soon realise that trust is earned by
being always-on and available. They
have only one time to launch and
cannot afford downtime. Imagine the
financial implications, not to mention
the loss of customer confidence and
the damage to brand integrity they will
experience if their customers are unable
to access services. Downtime is no longer
acceptable, especially if your brand is
built on being digital first.
This is where intelligent data
management becomes a fundamental
principle as a more effective way of
managing uptime. In so far as availability
has been ‘limited’ to backup, recovery
and business continuity, intelligent data
management adds a critical component
to the mix – that of data accessibility and
how it is delivered to stakeholders.
It is this approach that is driving forward-
thinking institutions to prepare themselves
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