6 Challenges for Digital Banks & E-Wallets in 2017 and How to Overcome Them

Banking and financial services have always been extremely formal in nature, and for good reason. They say “money makes the world go round”, and even if the line was intended to be cynical, it remains true for at least all the businesses.

Things are, however, rapidly transforming in the digital era. It is as important that the banks remain as transparent, as their customers remain authentic. The main objective behind integrating banking services with technology is, undoubtedly, convenience. Technology has now become familiar to most individuals, to an extent that it influences their lifestyle. It, then, becomes vital for businesses to distinguish themselves in the digital space with unique offerings.

Security remains part of the core services that banks can offer, and for this reason, the interfaces with simplicity work best. More customers are acclimatizing to mobile platforms, and more users are using online platforms at a much younger age. Due to these reasons, there is an undoubted power that can be leveraged through digital channels. In order to tap into the power of digitization, however, there are a number of challenges that need to be overcome.

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Here are 6 Challenges and How to Overcome Them

1. Attaining app perfection: There is an immense feeling of power and reassurance while accessing a smartphone application. Smartphones are more personal in nature, progressing to biometric verification, even for actions such as unlocking the screen. Taking this into account, developing applications related to a business becomes crucial in order to retain customers. With banking and financial applications increasingly offering the comfort and luxury of monitoring expenses at any time from any place, organizations that do not tap into this area will certainly lose out on many individuals that will deem the corporation outdated. However, most applications are often ridden with bugs and face severe performance issues. They remain difficult to navigate, at times, and frequently crash. This can be detrimental to the company’s progress as it would represent poor quality. 

The Fix: Quality Assurance professionals are trained to inspect, assess, and assure the quality of the software. They become involved in the process early on in the software lifecycle and ensure that applications are delivered with premium quality. In the case of a performance issue despite the rigorous testing, they will be able to tend immediately to the problem and fix the bugs instantly.

2. Technology Upgrades: Five years ago, smartphones wee only just becoming popular. Today, the functionality largely defines the device that is owned. Those who travel frequently on business depend on Apple and Android tablets, those who work as freelancers depend on high quality cameras and digital notebooks, while those who work the 9-to-5 routine prefer robust laptops and high-performance desktops. In addition, we have products like Amazon Echo thrown in the mix, for daily alerts and to perk up the overall lifestyle. Knowing which audience to target is only the half of it; understanding who would use what device under which circumstances is equally important. This means a serious amount of investment for banking and financial entities in digital capabilities and formulating effective digital strategies. 

The Fix: Software testing plays a key role in ensuring device compatibility with the software, and makes the entity more user-friendly. This invariably leads to more breathing room for exploring the devices that will be able to carry the company’s customized software better. This typically saves the corporation millions of dollars and organizations can, subsequently, spend their efforts on figuring out an apt digital strategy.

3. Cyber Crime: Most banking and financial applications are subject to cyber-attacks the most. The reason is obvious, what with money being the unquestionable objective. Fraudsters have been known to be innovative in their endeavors to siphon funds, either as large amounts in a gun-shot, or minuscule amounts from thousands of accounts, over a long period of time. If not money directly, there is always the threat of data being compromised.

The Fix: Security testing will sniff out the possible points of vulnerabilities that hackers may take advantage of, and offer the appropriate solution. Security testing demands a thorough understanding of the banking system and offers an in-depth knowledge of the internal architecture. Quality Assurance professionals that have expertise over the banking domain are the ones that would best tackle cyber-crime.

4. Spearheading with Innovation: Spearheading the marketplace by offering innovative services is not just desired, but also required in order to stay ahead of the curve and attract a wide customer base. Especially with a large base of young users, it becomes important to distinguish your company in the ever-growing and competitive marketplace. However, companies are often hesitant to take the leap, as they are aware that things can horribly backfire and cause instant backlash from irate customers.

The Fix: Software testing can ensure that all the major bugs are tackled as they rise, and thorough analysis is conducted in order to have preventive measures. This will give innovative companies in their respective industries a boost, so that they can continue to explore how to better delight their customer-base.

5. Sustainability: Post successful innovation and implementation, the next pressing challenge to tackle effectively is sustenance. An organization’s sustainability as a leader is possible only through synergy. Only when the users acknowledge the value of the product or service will the organizational value skyrocket to success and remain there. In this context, the power of social media is often overlooked. While consistently good reviews uplift the organization to a better status, consistently bad reviews can destroy even an entire empire.

The Fix: Understanding and leveraging the power of social media, while necessary, can be ridden with issues. Trolls, malwares, and tweets about performance issues can all wreak havoc if not effectively and immediately managed. Software testing personnel can spot real problems and immediately fix the issues, thereby containing the issue. This greatly helps sustain brand image in the long-run.

6. Delivering Quality at Speed: In the rush of wanting to deliver products and services at an accelerated speed, companies often tend to compromise on the quality. The issue with quality is that there is no such thing as a small bug; a bug is a bug. There have been several instances of organizations knowingly turning a blind-eye to defects in products and software even before the item hit the market.

The Fix: Robust software testing ensures that the product or software hits the market well in time. By closely analyzing possible software issues right from the requirements gathering stage, quality assurance experts ensure time to market.

In Conclusion:

Cigniti Technologies is a global independent software testing services organization and provides services to some of the leading companies in their respective industries. We have partnered with tools specific vendors and we have recently unveiled our software testing platform, BlueSwan, that offers a range of software testing services. We believe that the next step for businesses in the digital era must be done with equal amounts of caution and confidence.

To avail our services or know more about our experts, visit our website.