Award-Winning Technology & Telecoms from Finastra
The organisation brings deep expertise and unrivalled breadth and depth of pre-integrated solutions spanning retail banking, transaction banking, and capital markets.
Finastra's recent and award-winning efforts have concentrated on the implementation of new and improved B2B customer experiences. From an operational perspective, the company has launched and driven the adoption of a strategic client engagement programme. Along with the introduction of Finastra Connect, these initiatives have yielded outstanding results in the area of customer engagement and experience.
This article analyses their initiatives in detail and discusses them as they were presented at the UK Customer Experience Awards 2017, leading Finastra to win the Technology & Telecoms category.
Business Context Behind the Changes
Finastra works with over 5,000 customers around the world, all of whom are Financial Services organisations, and the company’s relationships with its clients are critical in the support Finastra provides.
As such, outstanding customer experience leads to more growth for Finastra while also enabling the building of stronger relationships with its client base.
Prior to the launch of their customer-centric initiatives, Finastra found customers wanted to know the software they purchase will be well-deployed, remain stable, and support their business objectives for growth and compliance.
Since vendors would rarely deliver an integrated customer experience, Finastra had to think of ways to involve, coordinate, and connect with hundreds of people between vendor and client.
If their product was to become truly customer-centric, it had to include an integrated approach to customer experience.
And after collecting customer feedback, Finastra found 100 areas of dissatisfaction raised by clients that could be grouped into themes and used to construct a proactive, cross-functional client engagement model.
The Outstanding Customer Experience Delivered
With a newly formed mindset to drive customer engagement through better customer experiences, Finastra launched ‘Finastra Connect', a strategic client engagement programme comprising ten complimentary initiatives.
The ‘Finastra Connect’ initiative included the following:
- Executive Communities
Clients have been given the ability to connect with executive-level peers across the industry as well as with Finastra's own executives. This has brought valuable insight thanks to the sharing of best practices to Finastra's client base, while also helping the company understand their customers better through new interactions. - Business Case Analysis
This free analytical resource gives customers better tracking of their ROI/success from their Finastra software investments. This initiative also helps Finastra understand the priorities of their clients better and tailor solution packages to best suit client requirements. - Industry Leadership
Finastra’s software provides invaluable marketing resources and media channels which are endorsed by 3rd parties and real industry coverage which transfers to their clients through Finastra’s software. - Business Communities
Customers are attending though leadership and subject matter expert discussions, to help them understand the latest industry and technology trends. These discussions provide valuable networking to Finastra’s clients while also allowing Finastra to shape their point of view in regards to their industry. - Business Consultancy Services
Business and technical analyst advice along with the implementation of best practices help clients get the most from their products while accelerating their software deployments. - Partners Ecosystem
Customers are given the ability to use Finastra’s extensive network of experienced partners who understand their products and have experience rolling them out. Partners can also provide additional support and resources if needed and customers who work with partners usually enjoy smoother deployment of Finastra’s products. - Technology Leaders Community
This initiative is helping Finastra’s clients gain a deeper understanding of their product releases while also giving them greater opportunities to network and connect with peers. - Engineering Collaboration
This helps Finestra’s clients by giving them access to new products before general release, by spending time with the product teams. Engineering collaborations also allow for customer feedback to be taken into account when new features and products are being designed. - Deployment and Upgrade Accelerators
Here clients leverage Finastra’s resources and expertise to ensure a successful launch of new projects where Finastra solutions have been deployed. This also provides Finastra with real experience from the floor, helps celebrate client’s successes, builds relationships, makes Finestra’s clients as successful as possible, and allows for feedback from their experiences. - Support Communities
These ensure a quicker and smoother deployment of software by following Finastra’s best practice. Support communities also take advantage of standard plans, migration tools, and test scripts to facilitate successful implementation.
The Change Achieved
With the launch of all these initiatives, Finastra approached customer experience from a practical and supportive model. Along with the new initiatives, they have also made customer experience their ‘go-to’ business model, which means that every team member across the business works towards creating the most integrated customer experience possible.
In addition, Finastra embarked on a cultural transformation programme to ensure that ‘customer centricity’ becomes the personal goal of every employee across the organisation.
Business Impact and Results
Finastra Connect delivered measurable success through the improvements in the Client Health Index as well as customer engagement. It has also improved satisfaction by impacting client revenues and sales pipelines positively.
The ultimate measure of success is Finastra’s bottom-line business growth. Finastra, or previously Misys and D&H, had experienced several successive quarters of growth, as well as a number of notable Enterprise License Agreements with Major Tier 1 Banks.
Given the reliance on existing customers for growth, Finastra stands confidently that its shift towards becoming a customer experience leader will continue to have a positive business impact for the future.
The UK Customer Experience Awards 2018
Is your organisation delivering great customer experience?
If your company has already put the customer at the heart of everything, then entering the UK Customer Experience Awards is a fantastic way to achieve recognition for your initiatives.
Entering the awards is a valuable opportunity to bring your team together and celebrate your success. Not only that, the finalists receive a benchmarked feedback form from our panel of independent and impartial judges, and you have the opportunity to present your entry live to them at the awards finals in front of other industry leaders.
This year we have 22 categories aimed at organisations who love their customer and want to increase their engagement, reputation, and turnover. Entries can be from individuals and/or organisations, as well as those companies who have partnered with other businesses to ensure an effective customer experience. To see which categories you could enter this year click here.