Because of strict compliance, the financial services industry is often lagging other industries when adopting unified communication cloud solutions. Usually, the last technology to be addressed is the on-premise phone system.
The results of our survey of IT Professionals in financial services indicate that the phone system is not a priority and other IT initiatives such as cyber-security are at the top of the list.
The pandemic taught us that IT Professionals could offer their end-users better tools to do their job, regardless of the communication medium: computer, mobile app, IP Phone, and without geographic restrictions.
After consulting with and surveying more than twenty IT Professionals in the financial service industry, five key themes emerged:
1. A desire to offer the best client and member experience
Competition to find and retain customers is fierce, especially in the financial services industry. The barrier to entry now is much lower than in previous years. Customers are demanding a better experience working with Wealth Advisors and want to message, video, and chat conveniently.
2. A need to improve internal productivity and efficiency.
Your staff, who now is working remotely and with more distractions, require a better set of communication tools to do their job as efficiently as possible. Integrations with your CRM, such as Salesforce.com, and an easy video meeting solution to communicate with clients, are all critical.
3. A desire to migrate from on-premise phones to the cloud but stay compliant.
The IT Professionals we interviewed cited that they put the phone system at the bottom of the list, first because there were too many pressing IT projects ahead of it, but also a willingness to not deal with the hassle of migrating from on-premise to the cloud.
The new challenge resulting from the Pandemic was many of the on-premise solutions from Avaya, Mitel, Cisco, etc., are not flexible enough to support a remote mobile workforce. A band-aid solution forwarding calls from the PBX System to a small office will not provide the flexibility to do their job helping your clients.
4. Keep pace with the competition by unifying communication tools.
Customers will move to the financial service firm that provides sound financial advice and is convenient and easy to do business. Your clients want a hassle-free experience and also want to connect with their advisors in a way that is most convenient to them. Video meeting is an example of a way to stay in touch without having to do face to face meetings.
5. Implement a cloud communication solution so they could focus on IT initiatives that are strategic to the business.
IT Professionals will continue to be stretched to the limits trying to navigate the technology complexity resulting from the pandemic. And nobody gets promoted internally by keeping the lights on.
By moving to a cloud-based collaboration solution, IT professionals in the Financial Services Industry can migrate away from expensive, hard to manage PBX systems in favor of the Cloud. It will free you up to work on IT projects that matter to the business you serve.
Are you an IT Professional in the financial services industry considering unified communication for your firm?
Cloud Collaboration Consultants takes away the hassle to evaluate, implement, and adopt the best unified communications solution.
We have a unique process that guarantees you will choose the right Provider the first time, saving you time and money.
Our tools and methodology have helped hundreds of IT Executives who work in financial services implement this technology.
We have a free comparison chart for you that compares the top unified communications solutions on 26 critical evaluation criteria, including Salesforce.com integration, industry compliance such as FINRA. We cover Microsoft Teams, Zoom, RingCentral, and 8×8, to name a few.
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