digital transformation

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What Sparked the Emergence of Digital Banking

What Sparked the Emergence of Digital Banking 768 487 Exist Software Labs

As we live in the computer age, the existence of online banking appears ordinary to us. Every major bank tailors a system that is capable of online access. The absence of such is almost unimaginable, especially these days.

The evolution of digital technology presented an invaluable advantage to banks as it attempts to address the limitations that the old brick-and-mortar set up brought to sight.

These limitations sparked the emergence of digital banking.

1. Building cost.

Before the rise of digital banking, the banking sector depends on expanding its branches to reach out to a broader market. But the hefty price of building a bank branch is one of the major turning points of gradually moving online. 

More than just the amount the land and construction of the building per se, establishing a physical branch takes into account the landscape/exterior, interior design, technologies, and devices to be used, as well as the security measures to be implemented. Banking businesses, therefore, target building a facility in commercial areas. This scenario creates a boundary between the banks and the possible market from far-flung places.

2. THUS, limiting the bank’s presence in many areas.

The first limitation springs another one. Banking was less accessible to most people outside business districts. Additionally, a physical branch can only attend to as many clients as the store, and its personnel can accommodate.

As banking became more present in the digital ecosystem, the market also had more inclusion. It also fostered a better synergy. Banks can swiftly respond to concerns as fast as users can address their concerns.

3. More customers require more bank employees.

Even before the rampancy of digital banking platforms, banked individuals have always kept increasing, the implementation of digital technology in this industry only accelerated this increase significantly. A corresponding increase in bank staff always comes after the constant growth, or forecasted growth, in the number of banked individuals. The same goes for adding more physical stores.

Digitization allowed processes to speed up as most of it is being automated. This induced changes in the traditional workforce requirements of banks. With the decrease in the need for human supervision in many operations, banks can now concentrate their forces on their core competencies.

4. Incoherent customer journey.

The improvements in the customer journey that digitization presented were also promising. The customer journey begins with awareness. But where does it end? The simple answer is it never does. Continually nurturing the clients even after you have acquired them is one of the most critical steps, if not the most, in rendering a fulfilling journey.

Think of having to do every step of this journey physically. Tedious, right?

Digital banking broke this stigma. The targeting, marketing, acquiring, and now even responding to the market became a lot easier, delivering a more personalized and customer-centric experience.

5. Consumers are online, so should banks be.

The evolution of digital banking expands from the creation of ATMs to going online. Why not? The market is rapidly becoming more inclined to the internet, and they want to accomplish things faster than ever before. The screens became the window to what the world has to offer, either convenience or luxury.

One of the fundamentals of running a business is placing it to where your target segment is situated. The rationale is pretty simple: you should be where your prospects are – keep within the sight. Banks get to be where their market is, a superpower that brick-and-mortar cannot grant – OMNIPRESENCE.

Digital banking was able to hit these pain points and is anticipated to keep driving notable changes in this age, especially as the global health crisis accelerates the demand for more digital services. The current condition advanced the call for virtual collaboration, thus the innovation of the virtual platforms. It is inevitable. It is only a matter of who is going to be the pacesetter – the one at the front of the transformation race.

Exist Software Labs, Inc. is committed to extending our assistance to several banks with their Digital Onboarding requirements. We have been in the business for 18 years, and the mission to enable corporations to go on digital and have a competitive advantage in this fast-changing world is at our core.

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Remodelling Your Business to the ‘New Normal’

Remodelling Your Business to the ‘New Normal’ 768 487 Exist Software Labs

Digital contactless payment technologies, remote working, teleconferencing, and online business platforms – this is the newly embraced system for most businesses right now. Most industries reconstructed their formerly accepted company blueprints to continue operations amid COVID19.

A sudden blow struck people, and it exempted no one. We populated the streets, filled tens of stories of buildings, congested restaurants, and loaded the malls. Now, we are doing the opposite. From an individual to the biggest of businesses, we had to make a shift. An ironic time, indeed. We even express our concern by distancing ourselves from the people we value. COVID19 is a world-changer.

Yet, the change is irreversible. For corporations, adapting to survive is the new mantra.

According to Jill Schlesinger, CBS News Business Analyst, various industries are going to be impacted by the pandemic in three (3) distinct phases, which she called the ‘T3’. It stands for triage, transition, and transformation.

  1. Triage is when companies learned how to operate in new ways as they implement work-from-home schemes. Workers experimented on different online meeting platforms such as google meet, zoom, slack, and more. ALL messages now had to pass through online channels. One online meeting platform also alarmed users as security issues came out recently, causing companies to have concerns and question the reliability of the method. Left with no choice, they just had to find a better platform.
  2. Transition is where corporations take a conservative approach that eyes on creating a reconfigured working condition that provides a safety net to their employees. Among which are coming up with alternatives for initially planned events like seminars or forums, and business travels. Most companies are at this phase. It is gradually accepting the possible stretch of the status quo. Therefore, calibrating the business to prepare it for any contingencies, assuring its continuity at the same time securing the livelihood of its employees.
  3. Transformation is the final phase wherein businesses, regardless of their size, are devoting much thought and analysis on how they will emerge and transform from the pandemic. It will try to address post-pandemic concerns such as:
  • Performing employee functions remotely permanently
  • Implementing technologies to improve deliverability even with the new measures
  • Office set-up or configuring the physical workspace to prevent direct contacts
  • What put human workers at risk
  • Use of technologies in place of formerly human-performed activities

To get back on track, industries have to make it through these three. Among these phases, transformation is the hardest to achieve, but it is no time to decline it. Enterprises have to deliver as fast or faster than before while complying with safety measures. Others have to turn their backs from their traditional systems and find another way to sell their products or services. To make up for these compromises, expect the integration of technology in every strand of any business.

Most businesses have envisioned becoming technology-driven. However, it never occurred that it will be this soon, and with much urgency.

The virus accelerated the pace of the business technology journey. Corporations have to implement digital transformation now not because they want to be the trendiest but because they have to survive.

No one knows when will this end and how the world will look like after the pandemic. But for a certain, it will permanently change the tone of every industry. 

Reshape to the new normal.

Remodel your business. For now, that is the better way.

 

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The Metallica of Master Data Management: TIBCO EBX

The Metallica of Master Data Management: TIBCO EBX 768 487 Exist Software Labs

In the world of heavy metal, Metallica is considered, arguably, as the G.O.A.T. Some may contest this claim and cite the forefathers, like Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin, but the prevailing sentiment is that the ‘Tallica boys are at the top of the heap.

One of the key achievements of this band is that they put out the highest-grossing metal album of all time. Released in 1986, Master of Puppets is Metallica’s best-selling album (surpassing every other metal band in the world in terms of raw sales).

If Master of Puppets is Metallica’s magnum opus, then Master Data Management’s masterpiece is no other than TIBCO EBX.

But first…what is Master Data Management?

Master data management (MDM) is the initiative of an enterprise that is keen on having data work for them to create a single repository of all master data, reference data, and metadata in order to minimize, if not totally eliminate, data errors and redundancy in business processes.

An MDM solution would typically be an interplay of Data Quality, Data Integration, and Data Governance practices.

What’s in it for me with Master Data Management?

The provision of a single point of reference for business-critical information eliminates the costliness of data redundancies that occur when organizations rely on multiple versions of data that reside in departmental silos.

For example, MDM can ensure that when customer information changes, the Sales & Marketing Department will not reach out to unreachable or different entities, but will consistently have a single, latest, and accurate view of the customer upon which to target their efforts.

What are the Basic Steps to Master Data Management?

  1. Discover the relevant and pertinent data sources to be mastered in your enterprise.
  2. Acquire the data (Data Integration proper, ETL, streaming, etc.).
  3. Cleanse the data (Data Quality proper).
  4. Enrich the data with data from other data sources that are external to your enterprise but are useful (e.g. social media, websites, etc.).
  5. Match the data with other data and look/flag for duplication.
  6. Merge the data and select the most up-to-date version of the data.
  7. Relate the mastered data with other relatable data in the enterprise.
  8. Secure the mastered data (masking, user roles & privileges, etc.).
  9. Deliver the mastered data to the appropriate and intended consumers and stakeholders.
  10. Govern the mastered data and ensure that master data management becomes a secure, repeatable, sustainable, and value-generating key framework in the enterprise.

Why rock with TIBCO EBX?

First, a history lesson. TIBCO EBX was the result of the acquisition of Orchestra Networks, a leader in MDM, by TIBCO Software last 2018. This assimilation proved monumental as evidenced by TIBCO EBX’s rankings in Gartner’s evaluations:

As you can see, TIBCO EBX is among the Top 2 leaders in the Leader quadrant, alongside the very expensive Informatica.

In actual MDM use cases, however, TIBCO EBX ranked highest in 5 of 6:

The latest 2020 Gartner report on the MDM space pretty much tells the same story:

tibcomdmgartner2020

Again…why rock with TIBCO EBX?

ONE PLATFORM FOR ALL YOUR DATA MANAGEMENT NEEDS

With EBX software, you only need one platform to do the job of multiple products, including MDM, reference data management, product master data management, party master data management, data governance, and hierarchy management.

SUPPORT FOR ALL TYPES OF BUSINESS FUNCTIONS

Operational and analytical processes may be different, but they have one thing in common: data powers them all. Instead of managing these assets in multiple, separate applications, the EBX platform provides a single resource to govern and manage them, providing consistency and cohesion to processes across your organization.

SUPPORT FOR ALL LEVELS OF USERS

  • Business Users: Delivers an intuitive, self-service experience for your business teams. Users view, search, author, edit, and approve changes in a workflow-driven, collaborative interface.
  • Data Stewards: Helps data stewards easily discern the quality of their data and take action using powerful data governance, matching, profiling, cleansing, workflow monitoring, quality analytics, and audit trail capabilities.
  • Developers/Analysts: Supports building and adapting applications quickly, without long and costly development projects. Project teams have full control over data models, workflow models, business rules, UI configuration, and data services.

FLEXIBILITY AND AGILITY

Custom applications and purpose-built MDM solutions are hard to change, but EBX software is flexible and agile. It uses a unique what-you-model-is-what-you-get design approach, with fully configurable applications generated on-the-fly. Long, costly development projects are eliminated. And EBX software includes all the enterprise class capabilities you need to create data management applications including user interfaces for authoring and data stewardship, workflow, hierarchy management, and data integration tools.1

Is that all?

TIBCO EBX’s best-of-breed capabilities include:

DATA MODELING

What you model is what you get. The flexible data model supports any master domain and relationships as well as complex and simple forms of data.

COLLABORATIVE WORKFLOW

Collaborate with everyone who touches your data. Manage updates, oversee change requests, and provide approvals through a customizable workflow.

HIERARCHY MANAGEMENT

Support any type of hierarchy and create alternate hierarchies without duplication. Now it’s easy to visualize and maintain complex relationships.

VERSION CONTROL

Manage and connect every version of data—past, present, and future.

PLATFORM COMPATIBILITY

Integrate with multiple platforms on-premises or in the cloud. Works with a wide range of interfaces, application servers, databases, and infrastructures.

INSIGHT WITH DASHBOARDS AND KPIS

Track, analyze, and measure data quality and performance through EBX dashboards.2

How can I buy tickets to the next concert?

If you want to learn more about MDM and how TIBCO EBX can help your organization eliminate bad data, data silos, and poor data visibility, contact EXIST Software Labs today!

Keep rockin’!

 

 

 

Footnotes:
1 TIBCO EBX Datasheet
2 ibid.

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Digital Banking: Bridging the Social Distance

Digital Banking: Bridging the Social Distance 768 487 Exist Software Labs

The social distancing measures imposed to contain the spread of the global pandemic COVID19 pushed people to limit themselves from physical exchanges. The current scenario also puts restrictions on accessing necessities in which finances remain the lifeblood. Even so, the gradual shift into digital banking allows many banks and their clients to keep financial matters going.

The crisis and the quarantine measures implemented painted a clearer picture of how banking systems should step up their game, for instance, not limiting it to on-premise processing of transactions. We can say that such development will not be in vain even after this global concern clears up.

Digital Customer Onboarding per se is among the most cost-effective addition to any bank. The idea pushes forward the minimization of physical transactions while maximizing operations and achievement of business goals.

Major Benefits of Digital Banking

No need to visit an actual branch; faster and easier registration and onboarding process; do bank transactions anytime, anywhere

  • Traditional banking requires a client’s presence in a physical branch. The process, account application, for example, mandates them to allocate enough time to finish the initial processing. It puts going to a store, falling in line, filling out documents by hand, and submitting the documents into view. Such a scenario will take much of the applicant’s time, needless to say, effort. Through digital onboarding, a person will only need access to a device and sufficient internet connection. Case in point, Exist’s partner PBCOM in the Philippines enables its market to apply for an account online by just providing the necessary information through an application specifically designed for the said process. An application can also operate 24/7, allowing the person to apply anytime he/she feels to do so, no cut-offs, no closing time, and we have fewer people exhausted by the end of the day.

Offer the longed-for banking application; attract more unbanked individuals to register

  • Onboarding is the first opportunity to build a relationship with a client. Therefore, it should offer ease to him/her at first glance. As stated above, traditional onboarding can be tedious for most people, however. In addition to that, a single branch can only cater to applicants within the covered area. Such limitation leaves banks with less market as well. Imagine what a mobile banking application that does the job like account opening on behalf of the bank staff can do. The method will require less human supervision and is accomplished via a mobile phone, thus, leaving the one-at-a-time system behind, enabling the bank to have more applicants at once. By expanding availability through the application, banks will also keep their clients within reach, creating a more interactive platform for both parties.

Gather valid customer data through the eKYC onboarding process; upsell/cross-sell to existing clients faster

  • Paper-heavy transactions have been the long-accepted method. But with the rise of digitization, the world has been moving steadily into paperless ones. Digitally gathering the clients’ information lessens the effort of both the bank and the clients. It also creates a leeway into having a single source of truth about the client, which lowers mistakes caused by tediously transferring the data from paper to computer wherein human error can also transpire.

Easier, faster, and smarter banking: the call for leveling up the banking system is nothing new. It has been a running topic for quite some time now. The enhanced community quarantine only underlined the idea that going digital can bridge the gap between banks and their market even better. It is a race towards digital transformation, and stalling behind is not a sound choice.

Exist Software Labs, Inc. is committed to extending our assistance to several banks with their Digital Onboarding requirements. We have been in the business for 18 years, and the mission to enable corporations to go on digital and have a competitive advantage in this fast-changing world is at our core.

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Exist Provides Tech Spark For Major Renewable Energy Project

Exist Provides Tech Spark For Major Renewable Energy Project 768 487 Exist Software Labs

MANILA, Philippines  — Exist, a global consulting and enterprise IT solutions leader, is currently working on the development of the country’s landmark nationwide system to establish the country’s renewable energy market (REM).

Faced with a tight bid schedule which threatened the 2019 project timeline, the Philippine Electricity Market Corporation (PEMC), the governance arm of wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) has finally found its worthy IT partner to help design and build the platform and all accompanying technical systems to run the Philippine Renewable Energy Market System (PREMS) that seeks to promote more RE-based investment locally.

“We are honored for the trust that was given to our team, for believing in our enterprise IT skills and experience to provide solutions for the local energy sector”, reveals Mike Lim, CEO of Exist.  “Working on PREMS and previously on the WESM spot market system afforded us a unique perspective and as a result, we can say we have a better understanding of the local power sector and a bountiful supply of ideas for innovative solutions that could help market participants, as well.”

Under the joint auspices of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) called Development for Renewable Energy Applications Mainstreaming and Market Sustainability (DREAMS) Project, the development of PREMS is intended to curb local greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through commercialization of the RE markets and incentivize investments in RE-based power generation projects.

“We’ve assembled our best software minds and utilized knowledge of up and coming technologies to ensure that we deliver a complete system that is perfectly capable to carry out PREMS’ supportive policies and regulatory requirements”,  adds Mr. Lim. “As per practice, we keep close coordination with all partners concerned, working out changes to ensure that we still deliver within schedule.”

In 2008, The Philippine Renewable Energy Act was passed which aimed to elevate the use of renewable energy resources and its capacity development yet in many ways, adoption and preferential use of RE is still very much in a transition phase.

Mr. Lim further adds, “We are aware of the significance of this project, not only for its alternative power-providing component but for the focus this brings towards a cleaner environment and a sustainable future.”

We cannot afford any more delays. We understand this is also about doing our part as a nation to contribute towards the health of our planet”, concludes Mike.

You can view the official UNDP Procurement Notice for the Development of Software, Supply and Delivery of Hardware for the Implementation of the Philippine Renewable Energy Market System (PREMS) awarded to Exist here. (http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_awards.cfm)

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Exist, Ashnik and EnterpriseDB Power Digital Transformation for the Philippine Electricity and Power Sector

Exist, Ashnik and EnterpriseDB Power Digital Transformation for the Philippine Electricity and Power Sector 768 487 Exist Software Labs

At the recently concluded The Future Energy Show Philippines 2019, Exist, Ashnik and EnterpriseDB teamed up to highlight the advantages of using Postgres for a number of IT projects specifically within the electricity sector.

During the 2-day event, booth visitors and fellow sponsors personally listened to the stories about how Exist, Ashnik and EnterpriseDB were able to provide their skills and expertise for the local energy sector which began not too long ago.  

With years of experience working on enterprise systems across a diverse range of industries from banking and finance to retail and healthcare, Exist was able to get the opportunity and win the trust of the main local energy corporations PEMC and WESM for developing mission-critical systems required to bring the electricity spot market closer to achieving its goal of having a transparent, fair, competitive, and reliable market for the trading of electricity throughout the Philippines.

Working closely with Ashnik as a partner, the push for the use of EDB Postgres has always made the most sense as the choice of database with the balanced mix between cost and features that make it the most complete open source-based data platform.

One of the highlights of our participation at the event is our talk entitled “Postgres Powers Digital Transformation in Southeast Asia – Success Stories”, presented by Rekha Ramaswamy, Enterprise Sales Manager at Ashnik and Jenish of Vyas, Solutions Engineer, SE Asia and Hong Kong at EDB Postgres. In this session, they shared compelling business cases and customer success stories highlighting the value of the open source-based EDB Postgres Platform in helping enterprises confidently deliver on the promise of digital business.

“Based on the open source Postgres platform, we’ve enhanced it in such a way that it has additional application security and improved performance. [In using EDB Postgres] we are not compromising on existing features but giving added flexibility with [their] existing legacy database.”
Jenish of Vyas, Solutions Engineer, SE Asia and Hong Kong at EDB Postgres

Check out the slides and videos below: