A good portion of the banking sector has already gone through several sections of the back-office process digitization procedure. As time passed and as technology evolved, the system was expanding, so we can say that a large part of the process was transferred to the digital sphere. But can we say that now all these parts of the system communicate flawlessly with each other, that the expansion has not lost agility and that the IT department does not have a full hand? We hope so, but if not, there is the solution.

IT department is in charge of the correct and timely functioning of all existing information systems in the organization and the implementation of new ones, in order to enable internal and external users to operate smoothly and efficiently perform business activities.

We all know that if IT works perfectly, no one in the organization then even knows what IT is doing. Users see only the introduction of new functionalities, but without thinking about what is going on in the background. But we also know that if something doesn’t function properly, all users will notice it very quickly.

In addition, we should not forget that if the solutions that make up the IT environment are complex, diverse, externalized and segmented, it causes a large expenditure of financial, infrastructural and human resources to maintain, support and upgrade.

This makes the system sluggish, large and expensive, which directly affects what the IT department is initially responsible for – uninterrupted operations and efficient performance of business activities. Setting up the system in a way that is as simple as possible, with as few technologies and solutions as possible that support all the necessary business activities, is a key challenge in running the IT of any organization.

When an IT system is robust and complex, employees must put tremendous effort into maintaining and upgrading it with new functionalities. Users and IT employees themselves are more frustrated because some simple activities take a long time to realize.

A more complex system requires a much larger number of people working on it and if it comes to different technologies, employees need to have a larger number of specific knowledge, which is not easy to obtain in the current labour market.

Also, in the case of more complex solutions, when the need arises to upgrade or solve a problem, it is necessary to involve a much wider number of people (often external suppliers) who will work on such activities. This prolongs the problem-solving process, which is not good for the organization itself and maintaining business continuity.

In the case of solutions with a simpler architecture, all these problems are avoided. Response time is much shorter, the organization is more flexible, efficient and ready to respond to user requests, at a much lower cost.

While this is completely natural, unfortunately, in most organizations the IT architecture is growing organically, resulting in duplicate systems, inconsistent data, and complex integration. The business side delivers its requirements to IT, and IT looks at how to fit those requirements into as few systems as possible, in the simplest and most efficient way possible. Because any touching such a complex environment can create some new challenges with a direct impact on the business.

When we have implemented one system to support a set of business processes – such as back-office processes in the bank, the situation is generally easier to manage for all participants: IT employees, employees and bank users.

In case of a problem or upgrade, one person responsible for that system who can immediately offer answers and suggest necessary solutions, is enough. Imagine that these same processes are supported by 3 or 4 systems. Just to get to who needs what to be done and bring all the parties together, we need more time and resources than to come to a final solution in the case of a single platform. This makes the organization inefficient and in complete contradiction with what IT needs to provide, so I repeat for the third time: uninterrupted operations and efficient business activities.

In order to reduce paper circulation, speed up processes and reduce costs, the first step is certainly digitalization, and the second is the unification of technology and functionalities. But what does the path from theory to digital practice look like, how does this story work in everyday business? What is needed for the system to work, the IT department to have as little work as possible, and other employees and users to be satisfied – find out in the white paper “Digitize, optimize and automate office operations”.