Minsait

Minsait. Optichannel banking brings digital and human together

Adriano Gerardelli, Head of Financial Services at Minsait in Italy, tells us how a Phygital Opticanality Strategy can help banks respond to new customer needs by combining digital and empathy

Digitization and humanity. These are the two needs of banks when faced with an increasingly digitized customer who, nevertheless, still seeks human contact to get advice on complex issues, such as a mortgage. For this reason, Minsait is focusing on some specific projects: "those related to opticanality and the evolution of contact center systems," says Adriano Gerardelli, Head of Financial Services at Minsait in Italy. In fact, the stated expectation of customers is to take advantage of a digital banking system that is agile and secure; and, at the same time, more human and empathetic, capable of accompanying and advising in key moments of the life cycle, such as buying a house or the birth of a child."

Opticanality phygital
Combining digital and empathy, however, requires banks to adopt a strategy based on the concept of phygital "opticanality." "The phygital revolution implies the integration of the physical and digital worlds, which, applied to the banking sector," Gerardelli points out, "requires a customer relationship proposal that integrates, in a coherent and uniform way, presential banking channels such as online.

Everything integrated in a single platform
Mobile, telephone, physical and so on contact channels must be integrated into a platform capable of providing a complete view of the customer: that is, in Cognitive Experience Centers (CECs). "CECs are intelligent centers of proactive listening and relationship with banking customers, capable of offering a distinctive and consistent experience at physical or digital touchpoints, thanks to the presence of consultants assisted by Artificial Intelligence systems," Gerardelli explains. The timing of adoption, in any case, is quite variable and usually inversely proportional to the level of digital education of customers: consequently, greater digitization leads to faster adoption times, and vice versa."

Better UX, greater automation
Essential then is being able to measure the return on these transformation projects. "In our experience, two areas can generate significant returns to banks: improved customer experience and process automation and outsourcing," Gerardelli comments. As far as customer experience is concerned, it is crucial to measure ROI through the Experience Economics methodology, which incorporates new KPIs and experience-business correlations with a cross-sectional view, which allows quantifying the impact of CX investment on the business."

The ROI of automation
Different is the return on investment offered instead by process automation, which, "through the Low Code programming model, for example, makes it possible to reduce the design and development time of cloud solutions by 48 percent, improving time to market and intervening in areas such as procedure standardization, digital onboarding and error monitoring," Gerardelli illustrates. In our experience, this translates to returns on investment of up to 502 percent, with depreciation of less than one year."

Security...
But there is more than just ROI. Banking institutions, due to disruptive digitization accelerated by the pandemic crisis, are increasingly seeking Cybersecurity and Digital Identity solutions. "New customers, more digital and informed than ever before, prefer an agile, personalized and secure service," Gerardelli stresses, "and they increasingly choose digital and mobile channels. This is why the demand from banking institutions for security solutions has increased."

... and evolved BPO
Central issues for banks also include migration to the cloud and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) "The goal is twofold: to make internal processes more efficient and to reach an increasingly connected public," Gerardelli clarifies. Financial institutions must therefore opt for an evolved BPO model, which allows them to transform process agility into differential benefits. Even in automation and process optimization, thanks to Robot Process Automation and Artificial Intelligence technologies, banks are bringing the customer to the center of the strategy, incorporating to traditional KPIs on savings and economic benefits indicators that measure customer satisfaction."

Metaverse: a sales channel for banks
Banks also have to reckon with new trends: from the metaverse to payment systems, via ESG. "In the metaverse, Italian banks can start pioneering experiments to create moments of relationship with customers," says Gerardelli. In the coming years it can become a powerful sales and service channel to offer customized products, such as loans, payment services, investment packages, etc., to new customer segments."

From BNPL to zero-issue loans
Another evolving trend is Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), a system that allows instant disbursement of small amounts of money targeted at the purchase of consumer goods to be repaid in installments. "As far as ESG parameters are concerned," Gerardelli concludes, "there are many banks that have joined the United Nations Net-Zero Banking Alliance program and are now required to achieve zero emissions by 2050 in loan and investment portfolios."