Technology: the key ingredient to success
Most financial institutions today know smart staffing and effective internal processes make delightful customer experiences possible. The right technology serves as the key ingredient to turn efficiency plans into lucrative realities.
No successful banking business plan can afford to exclude technology as a core component. With the right tech strategy, banks, lenders and fintechs can streamline processes so their staff can focus more on customers and less on paperwork. To succeed, a winning bank must get its house in order first. When it does, costs fall, loyalty rises, and business thrives. That’s the aim of modernization, which can be defined as a continuous transformation of technology, operations, and business strategy in an ongoing effort to stay competitive, agile, and future-ready. A strong—and modern—tech strategy is the key ingredient to success here. Without it, even the best-trained teams and most efficient operations struggle to achieve their full potential. In other words, technology modernization isn’t just an IT upgrade; it’s a critical component of a business strategy to deliver growth, speed, and relevance in the current financial landscape.
The weight of legacy systems
Most organizations understand the need to modernize, and many are forging ahead, even as dark clouds of uncertainty build on the geopolitical and macroeconomic horizons. A recent Temenos survey conducted in conjunction with Hanover found that most banks plan to allocate more resources to technology. The poll found 73% will focus on bettering data analytics, 82% plan to improve operating efficiency, while 54% plan to increase investment in software integration. Such plans are difficult while running on legacy systems, and financial institutions are moving forward in this aspect as well, especially when considering the correlations between business and technology strategies. Those who are going this route know that legacy systems will make it difficult to support their goals.
Monolithic, hard-coded architectures slow product launches, hinder innovation, and drain resources. Introducing a simple deposit product can require extensive rework across outdated systems, delaying delivery, and increasing the risk of errors that may range from minor input mistakes to serious security gaps or compliance failures. Vendor lock-in further complicates matters. If banking systems aren’t cloud-agnostic, financial institutions may find themselves forced into specific hyperscaler ecosystems that don’t match their broader strategies. Fragmented solutions and isolated architectures limit embedded finance opportunities, slow third-party integrations, and hamper competitiveness in a digital-first world. Technology, once a foundation for growth, becomes a barrier if it’s no longer modern.
Choice, scalability, and trust
A good technology provider should act as a partner—not just a vendor—helping financial institutions make informed decisions that align with their business goals. That means offering the freedom to choose the right platform and the right solutions to support the desired product mix. Modernization should be modular and adaptable, deployed seamlessly across on-premises, cloud, or SaaS environments. This flexibility allows institutions to modernize at their own pace and without disruption. With a cloud-first, API-driven architecture and access to a broad ecosystem of partners, the right platform enables faster upgrades, continuous innovation, and greater resilience in a rapidly changing financial landscape. For these reasons, winning bank choose a trusted partner backed by decades of banking expertise and a track record of successful transformations. A proven fintech partner, built to adapt, can deliver solutions that evolve alongside your institution—so you can move forward with confidence.
Modernizing on your terms
Rather than a costly “rip and replace,” a technology partner should enable banks to renovate their systems as needed. The SaaS model shines particularly well here. By taking care of hosting, security, maintenance, and scaling, SaaS providers free banks from infrastructure burdens. Automatic updates, seamless regulatory alignment, real-time monitoring, and proactive support are all available, allowing staff to focus on delivering better customer experiences and less on low-value work like administrative overhead or manual back-office processing.
But streamlined operations are only part of the equation. To truly keep pace with change, banks also need speed and agility in how they bring new services to market. That’s where enterprise services come in, delivering pre-configured, end-to-end banking processes that launch in weeks—not months—enabling banks to adapt quickly. Partners may also support centralized management of product and relationship pricing, allowing swift adjustments to meet customer needs and market shifts. To add another layer of flexibility and empower staff with easier configuration, a low-code, extensible platform enables banks to configure new products, pricing, and journeys without heavy IT investments—accelerating innovation across regions and regulations. Integrated DevOps tools further bridges the gap between business and tech teams, speeding up development and time to market.
Smarter banking with explainable AI and GenAI
Lastly, AI has arguably become the biggest disruptor in business these days, and banking is no exception. In fact, banking is a venue where AI can shine as a tool to deliver significant improvements in both customer experience and the financial bottom line. Trusted AI is the key to both efficiency and personalized customer service. It empowers banks to make smarter decisions while providing clear, transparent explanations to both customers and regulators. For example, when assessing a mortgage application, AI can not only provide a recommendation but also explain the rationale behind its “thinking”, helping bankers offer more personalized and transparent outcomes.
Furthermore, AI can transform workflows, accelerate product creation, detect fraud patterns, and summarize complex regulatory information, turning hours of manual effort into minutes of actionable insight, making teams more efficient and boosting customer responsiveness. Research shows AI-driven process improvements can boost efficiency by up to 50%, lift customer satisfaction by 10–15 points, and reduce regulatory risks, all essential for banks looking to scale smartly and securely. Make sure your trusted technology provider is leading the sector’s adoption of this exciting new technology with real-world, explainable, and deployment-agnostic solutions.
The final piece: technology as a catalyst for growth
Modernization from the inside out means aligning people, processes, and technology into a cohesive, future-ready strategy. It’s not just about adopting new tools; it’s about enabling transformation at every level of the organization. When financial institutions embrace modernization on their own terms with trusted partners, flexible platforms, and AI, they unlock the ability to scale smarter, serve customers better, and adapt faster. In today’s competitive landscape, technology isn’t just a support function, it’s the catalyst that turns vision into value.
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