The world we live in today is vastly different from what it was even a few decades ago, with technology being the driving force behind much of this change, expressed Milind Nagnur, Chief Technology Officer, Kotak Mahindra Bank at the 7th Elets BFSI CTO Summit.
From the early days of applying to universities online to the present day, when smartphones have become ubiquitous, technology has brought immense convenience into our lives. However, despite the widespread adoption of technology, there is still a gap in the customer experience between consumer apps and banking apps.
He said, “This gap is a result of banks focusing primarily on functional features while neglecting non-functional requirements such as resiliency, performance, stability, and scalability. This has resulted in a less-than-optimal customer experience, as compared to the seamless experience offered by tech companies such as Amazon, Apple, and Uber.”
“In order to bridge this gap, banks need to focus more on non-functional requirements, rather than constantly striving to add more features. This requires a core engineering mindset, with attention paid to every aspect of the technology stack, from infrastructure to software engineering, tech ops, and DevOps. By focusing on non-functional requirements, banks can aim for availability for their key applications, which translates to no more than five minutes of downtime in any given month across planned and unplanned work”, he added.
He shared that at their organisation they follow a 4S philosophy of speed, stability, scalability, and security, and are transforming their technology workforce into a core engineering workforce.
They believe that customer experience today is nothing but technology experience, and so they are working towards providing their customers with the same level of convenience and seamless experience as offered by consumer apps.
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Concluding the session, he averred, “Technology has transformed the way we live our lives, and banks need to pay attention to non-functional requirements if they want to bridge the gap in customer experience between consumer apps and banking apps. This requires a core engineering mindset and a focus on every aspect of the technology stack. By doing so, banks can provide their customers with a seamless experience that matches that of consumer apps, and meet the expectations of today’s tech-savvy customers.”
