Intel Report Core Replacement - Flipbook - Page 15
How will it impact customers?
Customers get used to a particular way of doing things. Even if they state
they like new features, post-conversion, expect them to express some growing pains while adapting to a new interface or realizing that the app they
use to connect to the bank looks different. To appease this, first make sure
that when you convert, you’re adding features that they want. If you fail
to add such features, then the customer won’t likely understand the point
of their consternation. Second, overcommunicate with them about the
upgrades, says Miela. By explaining to them that they will have new steps
to take before logging in, or now they can use new features to see all their
accounts in one place, it will give them less of a shock on the day of conversion, reducing the number of calls into the bank.
How will regular job duties get done?
From a leadership and organizational perspective, one of the more concerning aspects of a conversion is how it will occur while people continue
to perform their regular duties at the bank. For the conversion to succeed,
employees often must take on double duty, handling their regular tasks and
taking on parts of the conversion as well. This can overwhelm an organization ill-equipped to deal with the extra workload. The more detail that the
CIO and team put together, providing clear duties and deadlines for each
team member, the more likely that each employee can achieve the bank’s
goals while also ensuring the day job isn’t short-thrifted.
How can you troubleshoot?
Core providers do not worry much about losing data. Through testing of
the conversion and data mapping of the accounts and insights on the old
core, the likelihood that a huge chunk of data goes missing remains small,
in their estimation. But for bank leaders, it’s a significant concern going
into a project.
“The idea of building
a business case
based on increased
customer acquisition
or even revenue
is a difficult case
to make. A better
approach would be to
focus on mid-term,
tangible benefits
when pitching
to bank board or
executive leadership
committees—
labor savings,
new operational
efficiencies, and
reduced maintenance
costs should all be
elevated into the
business case from
the outset.”
Brett Mastalli, Partner,
West Monroe
The better that the bank plans for these potential issues, the more likely
they will recover from them, if anything goes wrong. That’s where practice
conversions become so important. A provider will typically work with the
bank to conduct one, two or more mock conversions as trial runs, and that
gives the bank an opportunity to see where there need to be changes and
what doesn’t work. It also allows them to see if the largest accounts would
have moved over correctly.
CORE REPLACEMENT: HOW BANKS ARE REPLACING THEIR CORES | 13