In a recent blog post, I discussed the problems that arise for any organisation that tries to deliver a multi-vendor, ‘best of breed’ solution. I finished with asking, “So what is the recommended solution?”.
“While it is an exciting undertaking to build your own innovative digital banking solution by assembling best-of-breed components, the outcome is seldom a defining success, and often comes with more problems than it solves. So, what is the recommended solution?”
If trying to cobble together your own digital financial platform solution by cherry picking the best from the wide range of fintech providers out there isn’t the right approach, how can you deliver an innovative digital engagement platform for your customers?
The place to start is to look at getting the right partner company in place. OK, so calling them a partner is sales-speak for vendor, but what I’m referring to here is an organisation that you can work with to share your vision, strategy, goals and success criteria, and who will then be experienced, creative, collaborative and insightful enough to offer you the right solutions that work for you. Getting the right partnership with the right supplier will get you the best of both worlds: a best-of-breed solution without the headache of trying to manage it all yourself. So, who do you look for, and do these organisations even exist?
The consultancy route
You could try to talk to some of the many consultancy firms out there, some with big names and big case studies that show you that they are capable and experienced enough to take this on for you. While this may spring to mind as the best alternative to building your own, does this really mitigate the problems of going it alone? They may take away the problem of managing multiple suppliers, but that may be the only benefit you get.
Consulting firms often want to deliver the most bloated solution possible: the more complex the solution, the higher the price tag, and we know that consultancy firms make their buck out of time and materials (T&M) programmes of work. In addition, once their digital engagement platform has gone live and the T&M nature of the relationship cools down, their interest may well wane, and you’ll be left with managing the nasty ongoing headaches I outlined in my previous blog.
All you will have really done by taking this approach is outsourced the delivery, at potentially an even higher cost than trying it yourself, and be left with managing the hassle of maintenance on your own. Even if you do make an arrangement with the consultancy firm to manage this for you on an ongoing basis, you’ll end up paying full price for every software upgrade, new feature build, security patch and service cost.
Ground-breaking digital engagement platform
So is there another way? Are there any other companies out there that have already done the hard work of selecting best-of-breed fintech firms, creating a ground-breaking digital engagement platform that packages an innovative solution into a single, easy to deliver ‘bubble’ containing a vision of the future?
Well, if you can find one they’ll need to have the agility to handle rapid change, package the entire supplier ecosystem into a single service, including the complex integration work, take away the headache of ongoing service management, and keep you and your customers on an evergreen platform that continually evolves with new capabilities and stays ahead of the cyber criminals.
Do I know of such an organisation? I suggest you come and talk to us.
