SPONSORED CONTENT PRESENTED BY ALKAMI TECHNOLOGY
A digital banking website and mobile app was just the beginning. The march of technology waits for no one.
We are in the midst of a digitalization revolution, marked by the rise of digital-only banks (neobanks), the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and a renewed focus on safeguarding account holder data while enriching the consumer experience. This evolution demands a fresh perspective on banking—one that prioritizes digital maturity as a cornerstone for future growth.
The Alkami Digital Sales & Service Maturity Model Report, a pioneering tool and first in the financial services sector, was developed based on recently released research conducted across 215 U.S. financial institutions with at least $200 million in assets. Each bank and credit union that participated in the study was categorized into distinct segments based on their readiness and implementation of digital strategies.
The study’s key highlights include:
- The most digitally mature institutions prioritize investments to improve the account holder experience, have modern technology fully-deployed and often source outside financial services for talent. These banks and credit unions reported up to twice the annual revenue growth as the least advance.
- Digital maturity does not correlate to organization size – a quarter of financial institutions excelling digitally have less than $500 million in assets. On the flip side, more than one in seven of the least digitally mature institutions have more than $5 billion in assets.
- The majority of the most advanced institutions offer digital account opening, but only one quarter of them provide a 5-minute online account opening experience for new account holders and half are struggling to automate critical back-office processes.
Why Digital Maturity is Crucial
Grasping the concept of digital maturity is vital for any financial institution looking to navigate digital banking technologies with agility and foresight. As technological advancements continue at an unprecedented speed, a financial institution’s ability to adapt, innovate, and offer exceptional digital experiences becomes essential for staying competitive. Digital maturity is a reflection of an institution’s capacity to harness digital technologies, embrace change, execute data strategies and deliver on the evolving expectations of their account holders.
- Strategic Alignment
Understanding digital maturity aids in aligning technological investments with an institution’s overarching goals, ensuring that every digital initiative propels the infrastructure forward. - Competitive Edge
In a sector defined by swift transformations and innovation, knowing the digital maturity level can spotlight strengths and opportunities, driving separation from the competition. - Meeting Customer Expectations
Today’s account holders lean heavily toward digital-first interactions. Assessing an institution’s digital maturity ensures the intel to make strategic decisions around technology and innovations, and the need for data-driven operations in order to offer the seamless, personalized experiences that account holders demand. - Enhancing Operational Efficiency
A clear understanding of digital maturity can unveil opportunities for optimizing processes and automating tasks, leading to significant cost savings and elevated service delivery. - Risk Management
A thorough digital maturity assessment also involves recognizing the need for advanced security protocols to protect account holder data and sustain trust in an increasingly digital banking environment. - Culture & Mindset
Achieving digital maturity goes beyond technology. Financial institutions need to commit to building a culture and mindset around innovation and change to not stagnate growth.
The Digital Maturity Scale: Navigating Growth
Digital maturity transcends the simple presence of digital banking services. It involves evaluating the depth, breadth, and sophistication of these offerings and their integration into the overall account holder experience. It’s about leveraging technology effectively to meet account holder needs, streamline operations, and encourage digital transformation.
As an extension of the Alkami Digital Sales & Service Maturity Model, the Alkami Digital Sales & Service Maturity Model Assessment, also the first of its kind in the financial services industry, was built exclusively for financial institutions, enabling quick and easy assessment of their digital maturity level, and then provides tools to take action on their results. The digital maturity spectrum categorizes financial institutions into four segments: Patiently Exploring, Innovation-Ready, Digital-Forward, and Data-First, based on responses to key questions identified through comprehensive research. This segmentation offers a blueprint for growth, suggesting focused areas for enhancing business operations according to each institution’s current stage.
Patiently Exploring
Primarily smaller institutions which place emphasis on interaction rather than technology, heavily relying on third-party vendors. Their customer-first, relationship-driven mindset often sets them apart from the competition and they strongly value high-touch, in-person experiences. This segment gets the job done with limited resources and budget.
Innovation-Ready
Mostly mid-sized organizations are beginning to put significant investments into technology — prioritizing user experience over advanced functionality. Most of them strive to have a great platform user interface (UI) and usually deliver on it. Their next focus is typically the new or non-customer experience, adding more ways to shop for products and speeding up their account set-up experience.
Digital-Forward
Heavily invested in digital technology and have a better-than-average digital banking platform. Have understood the value of technology and have automated many back-end processes. Account set-up experience is among the best in the business for account holders and non-account holders alike. Striving to be a truly data-driven organization leveraging modern technologies.
Data-First
Fully embraces a data-driven mindset. Laser-focused on results and using data for nearly every decision. Considers technology a major advantage and pushes vendors forward when not building in-house. This segment tends to be larger, full-service institutions, looking beyond banking to hire the best talent. Differentiates on access to data and ability to get the most out of it.
From Assessment to Implementation
The Alkami Digital Sales & Service Maturity Model Assessment stands as a vital instrument for financial institutions to gain rapid, insightful analysis of their digital standing. It offers actionable recommendations for advancement and digital strategies aimed at augmenting banking services, personalizing account holder services through AI, harnessing data for decision-making, and bolstering digital account opening experiences.
In the digital era, the prosperity of financial institutions is intricately linked to their technology adoption and innovation, their mindset and toolset, and growth along the digital maturity continuum. Assessing digital maturity, whether a beginner or a pioneer, positions a financial institution to tackle the challenges of the digital landscape, and provide tools and a guide for them on the journey to digital excellence.
Assess Your Bank’s Digital Maturity Here!
About the source data: Drawing from the Alkami Digital Sales & Service Maturity Model, developed through research involving 215 U.S. financial institutions with assets north of $200 million, this assessment asks five key questions and based on the responses can align a financial institution with their current state of digital maturity and provide guidance for how to reach the next evolutionary stage.
