Tech-Savvy Finance: Improving Financial Services Workflows with Automation

3 min read

April 25, 2023

The financial services landscape is changing rapidly. As more customers move their money to online-only co-ops and invest in cryptocurrency, traditional financial institutions like banks, credit unions, building societies, and investment management firms must revolutionize their services or face losing revenue to new digital disruptors.

Financial providers are realizing that providing a seamless, personalized customer experience is critical to retaining their tech-savvy customers and attracting new ones. Today’s clients expect their banking experiences to be self-service, digital-first, and reflective of their needs.

With global investments in automation growing in double digits, according to an International Data Corporation (IDC) survey and increasingly strict compliance regulations, companies worldwide are making automation a central part of their business strategies. Compliance is especially important for the financial industry. Automation can mitigate risk by automatically detecting potential fraud cases, documenting client transactions, and ensuring workflows adhere to standards.

The IDC survey discovered top priorities for automation in 2023 are:

Lower operating costs (42%)
Greater efficiency (41%)
Improving customer satisfaction (41%)

Automation technologies assist financial institutions in optimizing the customer lifecycle, helping them stand out from their competitors by streamlining onboarding, managing accounts, and ensuring quick service. Contact center features like personalization engines, chatbots, and virtual assistants enhance the customer experience by providing fast, accurate, customized support across multiple channels.

Other important operational benefits of automating key workflows, which increase organizational efficiency, compliance, and scalability in an increasingly competitive market. Financial institutions risk falling behind their more technologically advanced peers if they don't prioritize automation.

Top Benefits of Automating Financial Workflows

As financial institutions transition from manual processes and physical assets to digital procedures and online banking, they rely increasingly on automation to manage every aspect of their operations. From improving the customer experience to processing sensitive documents, organizations must center their IT strategies around automation to stay on top of the competition.

1. Efficiency

Financial services often include repetitive tasks, such as authorizing payments or monitoring fraud. Automation can manage these processes faster and with less error than humans. By automating workflows, institutions can operate more efficiently, reduce manual errors, and free up staff to focus on more complex tasks.

2. Cost Savings

IDC identified lower operating costs as the top automation priority. With workflow automation, financial service organizations can reduce costs associated with manual labor and free up resources for other important business functions.

3. Compliance

Storing and processing sensitive data in the cloud has led to heightened compliance regulations, such as the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), MiFID II, GDPR, Dodd-Frank, and PCI DSS, to improve digital risk management, security, and resilience. Automating workflows ensures compliance processes are standardized and strictly followed, reducing the risk of errors and omissions and minimizing regulatory issues and fines.

4. Scalability

Online financial providers can reach a much more diverse customer base, resulting in high volumes of transactions. Automating workflows can help financial service organizations scale their operations more efficiently by reducing the need for additional staff as the business grows.

5. Improved Customer Experience

Today’s clients expect quick, personalized banking services at their fingertips. Front-end automation, such as virtual assistants and customized portals, reduces turnaround times, increases accuracy, and gives customers real-time access to their information.

6. Automated Customer Onboarding

Traditional onboarding can be time-consuming and meticulous. By making onboarding an electronic process rather than a manual, paper-based one, financial organizations make it easy for their customers to open accounts and provide essential information from their homes. From there, they can use automation to expedite key parts of the process, so customers can use their accounts faster, further enhancing their overall experience.

See How Mitel Transforms the Banking Customer and Employee Experiences.

Automate Workflows with Modern Communications Solutions

Financial service organizations can maximize customer and employee satisfaction by automating key elements of their business processes. From personalizing and expediting customer interactions to generating custom workflows and improving employee efficiency, automation eliminates friction throughout the organization.

Innovative communications solutions give a critical edge to financial institutions looking to automate their processes. Investing in scalable, automated solutions allows organizations to move forward with confidence.

To remain competitive, financial organizations should implement communications solutions that include:

Unified Communications

Financial service organizations can streamline their communications workflows by integrating voice, video, messaging, and collaboration into a single platform. Employees can easily connect with their colleagues to close important deals or queries regardless of location.

Contact Center

Automating and optimizing customer service workflows for contact centers reduces wait times and improves satisfaction. Automated features such as interactive voice responses (IVR), chatbots, and intelligent routing empower customers to manage their own finances while reducing staffing overhead.

Collaboration Solutions

Collaboration is simple and easy with automation, improving teamwork and employee communication. Collaboration solutions like messaging, file sharing, and video conferencing remove communication barriers for enhanced employee satisfaction.

Workflow Automation

Financial institutions often have inefficiencies that automation can remedy. Organizations ensure standardization and compliance by automating routine tasks like transfers, application approvals, and alerts. Custom workflows and automated notifications free staff to focus on more complex tasks.

Integration Features

Financial service organizations rely on complex FinTech stacks for front- and back-office operations. Getting different technologies to interact is essential for maximum efficiency. UCC solutions with open API integrations unify services so they automatically update across platforms – for example, importing client information from leading finance applications such as Jack Henry and Fiserv in real-time.

Mitel is a global leader in the unified communications and collaboration solutions that financial service organizations rely on to stay competitive in a challenging market. Each Mitel communications product includes automation features to optimize the end-to-end experience for customers and employees.