EXPERT FORECAST : BANKING AND FINANCE
AS REGIONAL BANKS CHART THEIR DIGITAL JOURNEYS , SHOULD THEY BUY OR BUILD THEIR INNOVATIONS ?
The GCC has always been out in front of regional peers with the digitisation of the FSI sector . But the big debate is whether financial institutions should build their own tech stacks or buy ‘ off the shelf ’. Nick Curran , Head of Endava MENA , speaks to us about the pros and cons of building vs buying technology .
In a new study , McKinsey showed banking to be one of the Middle East ’ s most digitised industries . The means of brand interaction among banking customers was 87 % digital in the United Arab Emirates . Put plainly , this proportion of customers reported that their engagement was either fully digital or involved remote assistance . This proportion was even higher in Saudi Arabia ( 92 %), a country that anticipates that 70 % of its payment transactions will be digital by 2030 . The McKinsey study also showed Egypt ’ s banking sector to have 82 % digital interaction .
The GCC has always been out in front of regional peers with the digitisation of the FSI sector . Dubai ’ s Mashreq launched the appropriately named Neo – one of the first digital banks in the Middle East . And Kuwait Finance House developed KFH- Go , one of the region ’ s first e-branches – an unstaffed business unit capable of providing more than 30 services . Each of these innovative project teams faced a common question in their journey to ‘ pioneerhood ’: build or buy ?
Today ’ s consumers wait for nothing and no one . If you drag your feet for too long , you miss the boat . One of your competitors will have done it first . In the early years of the digital era , building was the only option , but today the region is strewn with FinTechs . Their offerings are often API-first , which makes them highly customisable . However , if we consider the strides taken in cloud technology and softwaredevelopment methodologies that make in-house rapid deployment possible , we are back to the quandary : build or buy ? Let us look at each in turn .
Buying : A no-brainer . . . with headaches
There is a comfort to be had from procuring a tool or platform that just fits . CIOs are spared nail-biting months of business analysis and user workshops . All
The decision-maker must be as fluid as the decision and consider the benefits and drawbacks of each approach . www . intelligentfin . tech
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