Product Rationalization

Banks have, over many decades, grown as a business and technologically, with the market. The state of technology looked vastly different then than it does now, and, constrained by which, banks attempted to address changing market needs by offering several additional products for static customer segments. Unfortunately, this only complicated already fragmented and siloed IT landscapes; this approach caused a level of product proliferation that has now become counterproductive for various reasons. The current state also increases costs and time-to-market, thereby inhibiting the banks’ ability to innovate, respond to market changes and meet the changing customer expectations effectively. A rip-and-replace to address such challenges is not viable for business continuity reasons and since these old systems contain large amounts of valuable product and customer data. Besides, the stability of these systems is critical, and any considerable changes to the core are extremely high risk and time intensive. However, banks can no longer afford to stick to the old approach given the current market conditions, characterized by the increasingly demanding customer and a whole new set of technology-led competitors. Banks are now realizing the need to quickly simplify, optimize and scale their technology stack to ensure that they continue to thrive.