Financial Industry: 10 Red Flags indicating that Your Company is Falling Behind Competitors

With the recent boost of technology during and after COVID, the level of competition within the financial industry increases daily. Companies are resorting to different channels to increase their competitiveness by improving core competencies from multiple aspects. That’s why our team compiled a list of indicators to show in a glimpse how your company is doing compared to the market. Here are 10 red flags indicating that your company is falling behind its competitors.

1. Your company size is growing slower than that of the entire market

Compare the growth trends between the whole market your company is operating in against the size of the market your company managed to capture. If the cut of pie your company gets is growing slower than the pie itself, it reflects that your company is getting a smaller proportion of the market as it develops. In other words, your competitors are growing fast and taking your slice of the pie.

2. The cost put into R&D are not realised to actual transformation

Depending on the industry, companies in the same industry typically spend a similar proportion of sales revenue on research. However, whether or not the investments are realised into actual development is a whole other story. It is a good start if your company is spending on research, but if there is no change implemented afterward, it is not an investment, but an expense with no return.

3. Your products and services are not diversifying

To put it simply, people are attracted to innovation. If you are able to provide novel products, you are catering to the ever-growing and ever-changing demand of the market. On the contrary, if you are unable to push out new services, your competitors will outrun you by doing so. They will be able to convert and retain customers with this competitive edge.

4. Customer uptake speed is not increasing

As your market grows, regardless of whether or not your company falls into Red Flag No. 1, your company should be able to accommodate for higher speed of customer acquisition. Even if your company has a growing capability to deal with a larger number of customers, if you are unable to acquire and onboard customers at a compatible rate, your resources in later procedures would be idle and a cost burden.

5. There is a need to transfer information between systems manually

Processes in financial institutions, whether it be financial spreading or customer onboarding, require data to go through several different procedures. If there is a need for a manual switch between operating systems in order for data to be further processed, your staff has to take up tedious and repetitive data manipulation tasks. This time and cost incurred could be better utilized by your competitors to improve service efficiency.

6. The change in thelevel of human error is stagnant

Under the rapid technological advancement, a growing portion of manual input, especially those repetitive and programmable in nature, is gradually replaced by automation. Given the superhuman capabilities of current technologies, it is a reasonable expectation that human error decreases even if the operation grows. If human errors are not reducing, it may mean your company is not evolving under this changing landscape.

7. Internal systems and staff are bottlenecks to operational capacity

As your company grows, a higher level of operation supports the growing service capacity and hence revenue growth. If your operational capacity is limited by your current systems and/or manual input, it could mean that your current operating systems are not scalable. The need to update or expand the system capacity is a big risk on costs and service quality, as your competitors have moved on to flexible and scalable solutions.

8. Much of your employees time is spent on data-oriented tasks

Nowadays, over 40% of financial institutions have already adopted technologies that help automate part or all of their data processing work. This can include automation of data extraction when it comes to the client onboarding process or credit analysis. Document intelligence solutions like this are increasingly being adopted in the financial services industry. If your company is still relying on the analysts for data-oriented tasks, you may want to look into potential alternatives in the near future.

9. Staff leaving your company but not the industry

This just means one thing - your staff are leaving you for your competitors. This brain drain to your competitors gives them much higher chances of taking a larger piece of the market. This phenomenon may be due to low job satisfaction. If your staff believes that they are not participating in work that adds value or reveals their true potential and skillset, it is human for them to feel detached from the job and your company.

10. High-level executives are not open to change

In the era of technology, change is inevitable and preferred in order for companies to improve. Your most trusted high-level executives are the drivers of your company. They influence both the tasks and people. Although transformation is a risk, if they are not open to and supportive of bringing digital transformation, the chances of it being successful are very slim. The most successful companies in the market are changemakers, and change has to start from the leaders.

How Superacc can help

Superacc provides businesses and financial institutes with automation strategies to facilitate data extraction processes. We have use cases spanning across eKYC automation, credit analysis, social media, and news monitoring to allow for extra capacity with your current human resources, improve data accuracy, and help your business become the pioneer of the industry.