The dollar engine

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ADAMSON: Banking customers tend to get upset if they can’t access their funds or there is a problem when they try to transact.

"Financial information has always been sensitive, so when there was no internet banking there was still information security and it had been a primary principle of the financial industry. As technology grew up it became used more in financial transactions," he says.

"Add to that the security aspects that also came into the picture. Compared to any other industry, information security has been cultural in the financial industry. That culture had to be retained and sustained or strengthened - even with the new technology coming in - so compared to other industries the financial industry is sensitive on information security," adds Kumar.

In addition to security and having to account for 24/7 availability, Kumar explains that compliance is a major issue for the financial sector that might not be such a big factor for other industries.

According to Kumar, banks and financial institutions in the region are not yet using their systems effectively for compliance purposes, mainly because they are more focused on developing and supporting the requirements of the banking channel.

When it comes to IT requirements, the phrase that "this is particularly true in the banking and finance sector" is done to death at conferences, exhibitions, user groups and more recently in online collaborative discussion. Vendors are usually the biggest proponents of the sentence - they are also responsible for coining it - particularly when discussing an area that may see them make some coin.

According to Kumar, the difference used to be very noticeable, but the gap has reduced because sectors like retail are now capturing a much larger chunk of customer information than they ever were before.

The heat of the flame. Feeling the brunt of the financial sector's intensity are the IT vendors who operate in this space. While it may have become old-hat for the many organisations who supply the finance sector, the high expectations of CIOs still have to be met.

Kalpesh Desai, CEO of Agile Financial Technologies, believes that banking and finance end users in the Middle East have higher expectations from vendors than other sectors do.

"If they are servicing customers from a wealth or portfolio management perspective, then they need those changes to work," continues Kalpesh. "If I look at other sectors like manufacturing or retail, the service-level expectations of their customers are not as high as customers of financial institutions."

Mohammed Gaafar, business development manager at Orange Business Services, explains that the concerns of CIOs in this sector are mainly focused on reliable service, the smooth running of applications and how to simplify their overall customer experience.

"It really depends on what sector we compare them too, but banking is about services and services are about assisting the application. So it is one of the core business [elements] and I think CIOs need to be very well educated about technology in order to not affect the core business of the banks," he says.

According to Gaafar, there has been a changing of end user attitudes and understanding of technology in the last few years in the region, particularly with the maturation of the IT space in the financial sector.

"We have seen a lot of progress in terms of the applications used in terms of the infrastructure built and the requirements to enhance services to end users.

"I don't have previous experience - working inside this sector - outside of the region, but in the last few years there has definitely been a huge development," he adds.

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