Winning in the Finance industry with DevOps and continuous testing

More than 80% of banking executives believe that the future of finance is financial services platforms, which consumers can access via banking applications. And as many as 65% of banking executives now say that technologies will have the most impact on banks through 2025.

As we approach the end of this year and most of the organizations prepare for the post-pandemic normal, one thing has become certain – digital is here to stay, and reign!

A large chunk of financial services customers reported at the beginning of the lockdowns that they would go back to the old ways once situation normalizes. But now they have now developed a liking for the digital and online financial services platforms. With many of the lockdown restrictions now getting relaxed, banking and financial institutions must embrace themselves to enhance their digital services capabilities.

The primary reason factoring into the financial services sector’s digitalization is the growing value of customer experience and customer perceptions. About 90% of the financial services firms reported in a recent survey that customer experience is a critical competitive advantage. This means that to survive and thrive in the fiercely competitive financial ecosystem, which is being increasingly penetrated by innovation banks, FinTechs, and non-banks like WhatsApp and Amazon, customer experience will become the differentiating component. And with customers now demanding an omnichannel experience, digitalization has become inevitable.

During the lockdowns, numerous physical branches were closed. As a result, customers turned to contact centers, mobile, and online channels for fulfilling their needs. These channels, being both super-convenient and safe in the time of a pandemic, observed a surge in their adoption by the customers.

The financial institutions are navigating through a landscape of uncertainty on various fronts of economic recovery, interest rate, and global trade. In such times, digital has come out to be one certain factor that will not only help the financial firms tackle this tide of uncertainty but emerge victorious on the other side. However, before setting out on the digital sail, it is critical that the industry proactively considers and addresses the challenges it might face during the journey.

If we talk about technologies that would support the financial institutions in their journey to digital excellence, cloud, infrastructure automation, DevOps, and Agile practices come at the top. A DevOps culture, backed by a well-planned continuous testing strategy is a recipe for success for the financial services sector. Let us understand how:

Competing with the innovators

Innovator banks, non-banks, and FinTechs have disrupted the financial services industry as we know it. By bringing in novel methods of payment transactions, they introduced customers to a whole new world of convenience that never existed before. Their innovative approach posed a major threat to the incumbents, forcing the established institutions to adapt the new ways. However, legacy infrastructure, lack of required talent, and time-consuming processes make for major roadblocks on the journey to digital transformation.

What the financial institutions needed then and now, more than ever, is not only the change in their technological processes but a cultural transformation. And, DevOps can help them realize that.

The adoption of DevOps practices will allow these financial services institutions to foster a collaborative culture that can support accelerated releases of innovative products to the end customers, while keeping a check on the quality standards.

DevOps in financial services is critical to match the pace of the constantly evolving consumer market landscape and fulfill the demand for continuous quality in the services. By having the new-age technologies and the right culture, financial institutions can compete as well as join forces with the innovative FinTechs.

Having a DevOps-driven software development practice for delivering superior digital products to the customers enables the industry to get rid of the old-school, chunky, and time-consuming architectural processes. With DevOps, financial services institutions are moving to microservices architecture for their digital applications. A microservice architecture simplifies the complexities and multiple integrations involved in a financial services application, making it more manageable, scalable, and agile.

Continuous testing and automation

With customer experience and customer perception assuming the top-most priority for the financial services industry, there is no scope for the organizations to falter in terms of quality. This makes continuous testing an imperative for the success of both DevOps-driven SDLC and a financial organization as a whole.

DevOps and automation go hand-in hand. While test automation offers speed, continuous testing led by automation brings in quality-at-speed. When continuous testing feedback loop is integrated with the automated CI/CD loop, the end product scores high on quality, speed, and value to the end customers.

Driving financial enterprise transformation with DevOps and continuous testing

Facilitating the cultural, technological, and testing transformation across an enterprise is easier said than done. Bringing this transformation from theory to practice could turn out to be a herculean task if a financial enterprise fails to address the challenges on the way.

To understand the practical implications of DevOps and continuous testing in the financial enterprise transformation, watch Gerold Rajesh, SVP and Global Head of Quality at Brown Brothers Harriman, speak in this webinar that was held on December 3rd, 2020. Watch the session here.

If you are in a fix with your digital or DevOps transformation journey, schedule a discussion with our experts who can guide you to success.