IT spending has declined in 2009, but financial institutions and technology vendors can find mutually beneficial opportunities through investing in the business and IT architecture today.
As economic conditions improve, financial services institutions (FSIs) have an opportunity to leverage existing and incremental operational improvements as part of rebuilding their businesses.
As IT spending is driven by industry recovery, technology vendors have an opportunity to leverage existing and incremental improvements to products and services to reengage with FSI clients.
Vendors that pursue a strong relationship by helping FSIs better leverage their technologies will find themselves on the short list of preferred providers and will be viewed as business partners.
Operational excellence lies at the center of an FSI's ability to incorporate risk management with marketing in a real-time "intelligence suite" to keep the institution and its people on plan.
Spending even some money on improving the business and IT architecture can pay dividends in FSIs' business retention and growth and can improve risk management while sharpening operations to deliver better execution at lower cost.