Many banking organizations still aren’t approaching cloud implementation in a strategic fashion, Accenture report says.
Of all the obstacles that are standing in the way of digital transformation, perhaps one of the most common and most fundamental is ineffective use of cloud infrastructure. The business and technology experts with Accenture recently detailed this interdependence in a deep-dive report on the banking industry’s cloud maturity.
According to Accenture, banking is among a number of industries that need to bring a greater sense of urgency to cloud adoption because it’s increasingly tied to digital strategies at the business level.
“In a sense, not having a cloud strategy and comprehensive plan means not having a complete business strategy,” explained the report, stating that cloud capabilities are fundamental to how banks and other businesses can innovate and grow in the future. “Like other industries, banks are struggling to respond to disruption and build the systems they need to compete in the digital age because of the limitations of legacy IT systems.”
The report explains that the strategic use of cloud enables rapid development new applications, swift addition of online services and the means to level up customer experience.
“In a sense, not having a cloud strategy and comprehensive plan means not having a complete business strategy.”
“To drive growth, banks must provide customers with a stellar digital experience, and cloud is a core component to accomplishing this,” said Andrew Poppleton, head of the technology advisory practice within Accenture’s Financial Services operating group.
But here’s the rub—financial industries are still lagging when it comes to cloud strategies.
About two in three of those surveyed admitted that fewer than half of their lines of business are using cloud. Only about 37% of their organizations have a cloud strategy execution road map with viable key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure progress. And in fact, 23% of organizations have no cloud strategy roadmap in place whatsoever.
The good news is that the vast majority of these organizations are working on fine-tuning their cloud strategies. Approximately 94 percent of respondents have a dedicated team in charge of defining and executing on cloud strategy, or at least plan on having that team in place within the next year.
