From laggard to leapfrog

According to research by Cornerstone Advisers, many banks still have a long way to go, for reaching their digital transformation ambitions. A recent study found that just around one quarter of banks and credit unions had launched a digital transformation strategy prior to 2019. 45% hadn’t started on the journey before 2021. This is not great news for banking customers who want to benefit from easier ways of transacting and managing their finances. But this serves as an opportunity for financial institutions that can move quickly and get ahead of the competition.

The incentive to modernize comes from the past. Banks with a long legacy may feel a greater need to jump forward and leapfrog competitors entirely. This is by overtaking them on digital process improvement. This is certainly the case at CEC Bank. CEC embarked on a major digital transformation initiative two years ago. Today it is one of the fastest growing banks in Romania. Digital is not a replacement for its branches. It is about enabling both genuine human connection and technology, together.

As a state-owned bank in a former communist country, CEC found it had catching up to do in its adoption of information and digital technology. It relied on outdated and legacy software. This made it difficult to respond quickly and efficiently to market needs and changes. Digitalisation was a priority, to embed an omnichannel customer approach with products and services. CEC realised that not all digital transformation needs to follow the same track. There were the necessary upgrades to essential banking platforms. Also, CEC needed a way of addressing pressing issues and launching new digital products to market. Its answer to this was Low-Code Application Development. This fast tracking really helped to make a quick impact.

Aurachain is one Low-Code platform CEC is working with. This is for its digital transformation programme. An integrated system for monitoring and maintenance of the bank’s ATM and POS fleet, and one for online onboarding of SME customers are the solutions that are developed. The incident management application is now helping CEC identify problems in its ATM, BNA and POS networks. Real time overviews of the entire fleet of devices, and a ticketing system for use by IT, enables CEC to take a more proactive strategy.

CEC Bank has made positive progress on its digital journey. Digitalisation through Low-Code has become an essential pillar of CEC Banks’ omnichannel strategy. While many banks are still struggling to transform digitally at pace, banks like CEC are finding that they can accelerate the process. In some cases, they leapfrog the competition through the use of Low-Code application development.