The current climate has highlighted the importance of financial institutions in underpinning the very fabric of our lives.  However, today's economic and health disruptions - and the hardships people are facing - have intensified an already complex problem. We are in a crisis of trust.  Now, more than ever, speed and resilience are crucial.

Widespread unemployment, a pause in business activity and uncertain markets have resulted in a vast increase in the normal volumes of services requests around financial services. This has placed a magnifying lens on firms? inefficiencies and operating gaps. It is apparent in these times that customers today expect not only consumer-grade experiences, but also reliable services and data security. 

Much of the industry's digital transformation to date has focused on innovation to engagement channels, but the last few months have highlighted that this alone is not enough. Take for example, a loan application. If a bank or lender cannot consistently provide a real-time view into its status, no matter how beautiful the site or app is they will lose customer trust and could face far-reaching damage to their reputation.

This is happening because institutions struggle with fragmentation. Siloed functions and systems are effectively glued together with spreadsheets and email, with little to no documentation of workflows or common workspaces to facilitate cross-departmental collaboration. As a result, employees are spending four times the amount of time chasing down information to fulfil service requests.  Not only are workflows disconnected, but the fragmentation extends to corporate and governance functions which are struggling to stand up a remote workforce, redeploy resources to support increased activities in new areas, adjust to new risk appetites and compliance requirements related to government relief packages, or manage the surge in load on their systems.

So, what must financial institutions do to ensure they are that trusted partner that meets the demands of not just customers, but employees and regulators too?

Financial institutions need to deliver frictionless services and ensure resilience in their operations. This is not just about streamlining business processes or replacing fragmented legacy systems and infrastructure. Leaders must take this opportunity to reshape their digital transformation agendas, focusing on connecting their operations across front to back offices and creating visibility on the elements that run their operations: the people, facilities, systems, and vendors.

If you?d like to hear more about how ServiceNow is supporting digital transformation across the financial services industry, head over to ServiceNow's Financial Services Knowledge20 Channel and watch a special session in which Simon Cox, Technology Resilience & Service Transformation Director, Director at Lloyds Banking Group speaks with ServiceNow General Manager for Financial Services, Lauren Robbins and shares how they?ve leveraged the ServiceNow Platform to create speed and resilience in their operations.