Maximizing Value from Technology Investments

Jim Marous (00:11):

Welcome to Banking Transformed, the top podcast in retail banking. I'm your host, Jim Marous. Three quarters of financial institutions report that legacy infrastructure poses significant barriers to implementing new digital solutions. This creates a complex challenge of balancing innovation with addressing budgetary constraints and maintaining operational efficiency and continuity.

Jim Marous (00:35):

In this episode, Barb Morgan, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Temenos discuss how financial institutions can navigate this technological crossroads examining strategy for optimizing tech bending, modernizing infrastructure, and leveraging emerging technologies like gen AI to enhance operational efficiency and customer experience.

Jim Marous (01:00):

We also explore the evolving role of leadership in driving technology change, including the critical balance between innovation and risk management. The conversation further addresses the industry's growing talent challenge from recruiting tech savvy professionals to upskilling existing teams.

Jim Marous (01:20):

With global banking technology spending reaching nearly $600 billion this year, institutions must make strategic decisions about their tech investments to remain competitive and meet evolving customer expectations. They must also balance the buy versus build options and evaluate the ability to scale quickly.

Jim Marous (01:43):

So, Barb, you’re a relative newcomer to Temenos at a time of unprecedented attention to digital transformation within the industry. Can you provide us a little bit of a snapshot of your career path and how your previous roles actually prepared you for your role at Temenos?

Barb Morgan (02:00):

Absolutely. So, I've been here about three months, super excited to join and Temenos was a company I was definitely familiar with from some of my previous roles, but I've spent about the past 20 years in financial services.

Barb Morgan (02:12):

I've been inside a bank when I was with Capital One, I then went into a fintech with FIS and so really was able to bring forth that understanding of what the banks really were looking for. And then most recently I was with the Lemon Stock Exchange, and that was still in the financial services but I was leading the partnership with Microsoft. So, it was a lot around gen AI, the value of having your data in a good place and how important that's going to be for banks.

Jim Marous (02:44):

So, Barb, what key factors are driving the massive investment and the change in investment over time and how can banks ensure that they're getting the optimal value from their tech spending?

Barb Morgan (02:56):

Absolutely. So, what we're seeing is the customers really want to focus on their clients. And so, in order to do that, how can they leverage partners like Temenos, how can they look at things that drive that customer expectations of fast speed, cutting edge innovation and so they're looking to balance that and there's kind of three areas that are trending right now.

Barb Morgan (03:20):

So, one is in the cloud space really ensuring that they have scalability, they have flexibility, a lower maintenance overhead because dollars are still important from an operational perspective. And so, we're really seeing banks prioritize moving that core banking up to the cloud so that they do have that always on scalability to meet any market demands.

Barb Morgan (03:44):

The second area we're seeing a lot of movement in is SaaS. So, they're looking for that easy to use, but back to that customer focus, they want someone else to manage the platform so that they can focus on their customers versus focusing on infrastructure.

Barb Morgan (04:00):

And last, we couldn't have a podcast without talking about AI. AI is something every client meeting, every CEO that I talk with, every CTO that I talk to even when we do some of our user groups, it's all about what is AI going to do? Where is AI going to play a place? And so, that's definitely one of the top areas where they're looking to both leverage the opportunities that AI can bring from a optimization, but then also how they can serve their customers better.

Jim Marous (04:35):

It's interesting, Barb, legacy infrastructure remains a significant barrier to digital transformation, and not just the legacy infrastructure, but the legacy culture and legacy leadership. What strategies have you seen used by successful financial institutions to modernize their systems while maintaining operational continuity?

Barb Morgan (05:00):

The legacy systems they're not a bad thing and they're stable, they're sound, they run a very important critical data for the banks and so what we're seeing is more focus around modularity. And so, being able to update pieces and portions of their system instead of having to update everything.

Barb Morgan (05:20):

So, I've had a lot of conversations since coming into Temenos around, "Hey, if it's your wealth platform that you want to upgrade, let's talk about that." "Oh, I don't have to upgrade my entire platform." "No," or payments. That's an area where I feel like if I upgraded my payments, I could win more with my customers. The onboarding, the originations of clients, the faster they can get their clients onboarded, the faster that they can provide that stickiness.

Barb Morgan (05:48):

And so, that ability to modernize their core systems in pieces and parts is very attractive to our clients both from transforming their organization because as you said, it's not just the legacy technology, oftentimes it's the legacy organization and so, they need to bring them along on that transformation.

Barb Morgan (06:08):

And we're seeing it with leadership. I think the strongest leaders that I've seen out there really do focus on how much change can I ingest into the system? How can I ensure that we're bringing everyone through this transformation? How can I transform my data in the backend so that I can take advantage of AI in the future?

Barb Morgan (06:32):

And then I think we talked a little bit about Saas. I think that the interesting thing with SaaS for our mid-tier clients. So, our tier three regional banks, even in the community core space, is it's starting to level the playing field.

Barb Morgan (06:46):

So, if they can take a SaaS platform, someone else is doing the infrastructure, someone else is doing the customization, someone else is bringing them innovation faster than the larger banks can actually do because with the SaaS platform, if our clients want to, they can take advantage of the innovation as we're rolling it out.

Barb Morgan (07:06):

So, they don't have to do a full modernization that may take them a year to go through whereas the larger banks, it's actually leveling the playing fields for them and so, we're seeing a real desire for SaaS in our regional space.

Jim Marous (07:23):

That's a very interesting observation that we're seeing a lot of that, two things you mentioned that are really key. Number one, using of specialized third-party solution providers to get you there with speed and with scale as long as you can as a financial institution, get out of the way and use what's available.

Jim Marous (07:41):

I see too often financial institution executives will insert themselves or old legacy processes within a new modern technology solution, thereby hampering the full capabilities of the solution.

Jim Marous (07:54):

But as you also referenced the whole concept of, with all these third party plug and play composable solutions, it really does give the smaller and mid-size organizations the capability to be able to scale up brand new technologies, innovations at a time when it used to be, or what it used to be very difficult because of the cost and the size element of that.

Jim Marous (08:19):

Are you seeing a lot of organizations looking at that whole transformation process much more on a composable way rather than trying to rip and replace? And do you see organizations doing the sidebar, the dual rails concept of transformation very much?

Barb Morgan (08:42):

We see some of the dual rails. What we really see is when you look at the banking organizations, you're getting specialties within the organizations. And so, this year it might be the year to focus on retail or it might be the focus on loans.

Barb Morgan (08:59):

And so, then you can work side by side with that team and the rest of the organization can continue moving along, progressing at their normal pace. And then what we also find is once you go in with one portion, then they're like, "Hey, this was really great. Can you come help us in this next space?" And so, some of it's that they like to see a bit of side by side within their own organization, but they also like to see progress being made.

Barb Morgan (09:28):

And I think in the regional space, a lot of the regional banks have their own user groups and so, they spend a lot of time talking to each other. And so, they also like to see a bit of side by side between other organizations and themselves.

Jim Marous (09:46):

Well, it's interesting because one of the challenges I believe in the banking world is the complete risk adverse culture that impedes innovation, impedes investments, and impedes the stepping into the cold water as it may.

Jim Marous (10:02):

And you end up in a situation that while we talk a good game, be it in AI, be it a new technology, be it a new course, whatever it may be, the deploying is a lot more difficult than the actual talking about it. We see that a lot in the AI space. How do you help organizations at Temenos foster that culture of controlled experimentation while maintaining the whole security and compliance dynamics?

Barb Morgan (10:332):

I think a lot of it is one of the things that we pride ourselves on is bringing our banking expertise and our global banking expertise. So, we have over a thousand banks across the globe, and so we can oftentimes bring them kind of a global perspective to the conversation and also, bringing into that conversation, let's talk about what is the risk that you're afraid of and how can we mitigate that risk?

Barb Morgan (10:59):

Because oftentimes it's almost when you start having those conversations and you break it down, you find that there might be one pocket that we need to dive into in solution with them, but they're holding back on the transformation as a whole because of one small portion. And so, that gets back to that modularity and being able to upgrade pieces and portions at a time.

Barb Morgan (11:20):

I also think that you're seeing more executives, you're seeing more people from industry cross from technology sectors, some of your hyperscalers into banks and so they're bringing new perspectives right around risk.

Barb Morgan (11:38):

And we're always going to have regulatory and compliance. It's top of mind for us especially in the space of AI, making sure that it's responsible, it's explainable, but a lot of it is getting to the heart of what is that that they're worried about?

Barb Morgan (11:52):

And in the regulatory and compliance space, working with the local regulations saying, "Hey, here's the problem. Here's how we're looking to solve it. Would that pass any concerns?" And then being able to go to the clients and say, "Hey, we've actually had this conversation with the regulators and they've approved of this solution." And so, it's bringing that expertise forward.

Barb Morgan (12:15):

Look, money is very important and we take that responsibility at the heart of everything that we do. And so, we are definitely empathetic to understanding what those risks are and then helping them work through it. And I think that that step-by-step work through we've seen that be very successful with our clients.

Jim Marous (12:37):

With everything happening so fast in the technology, innovation space and AI and all the back office skills, the competition for tech talent has become extraordinarily intense. What strategies are you seeing banks employ to attract, retain, and develop the necessary technical expertise that they need to move forward and how important does the collaboration with third party solution providers come to bridge this gift/talent gap?

Barb Morgan (13:09):

I think everyone has to be a technologist these days. They have to have an understanding at least, of the technologies and how it might impact their area, whether they're in operations, whether they're an agent, whether they're actually a technologist.

Barb Morgan (13:24):

And so, what I'm seeing organizations do and something that we're doing ourselves is looking at now with AI coming in, you need people who understand the systems. You need people to help train the models. So, it's not your typical technologist that you need.

Barb Morgan (13:40):

So, we can augment some of our demand for technologists what would've been historically classified as just a technology role and we can actually upskill them in how to train models, we can upskill them in some of the design work.

Barb Morgan (13:55):

And so, we've been able to kind of grow our technology footprint with the engineer plus one and so that's been really important for us. I think a lot of the banks as well … I started with my hands on the keyboard so I can speak about how important it was always to me to understand what I'm doing is actually bringing value.

Barb Morgan (14:21):

And so, as organizations have moved to more agile ways of working as a technologist, it's like, "Wow, I built something and it's going into production next week." It's not 12 months, it's not 18 months. And so, there's a bit of that quick gratification that is important for banks to retain their talent.

Barb Morgan (14:40):

Now, when it comes to leveraging third parties and we do as well. So, we partner with the hyperscalers to bring expertise along with our banking expertise as we go into our clients even to learn from my technology teams and from their technology teams.

Barb Morgan (15:00):

That's what we're seeing is our clients are asking us to come in and help train their organization, help talk to them about if we're putting a co-pilot in place, how is that actually helping them? And so, we spend a lot of time saying, one of my favorite things to talk to people about is don't think about it as artificial intelligence, that has a bit of a negative connotation.

Barb Morgan (15:22):

So, if you think about it as like, augmented intelligence or augmented information, and it's like yourself plus one, then people start to go, "Oh, wait a second. So, I don't have to do the task that used to take me 30 minutes to gather the data, compile the data that can be done in seconds, and now I can go focus on my client. This is pretty cool." And so, when they start to see it as kind of a side by side or a partner to them, it starts to change that story for sure.

Jim Marous (15:54):

Well, it also takes some of the fear out of digital transformation. I mean, I think one of the things that underlies every organization that we work with and see is that everybody who's in the job now is fearful of how their job will be impacted, usually in their mindset negatively by all the digital transformation and that the communication process doesn't get enough play in the fact that the success of this transformation is going to rest on these people buying in.

Jim Marous (16:28):

So, on the whole concept of challenges, when you go into a financial institution and you're starting to implement a transformation, what are the things that get in the way? What are the challenges that you face that maybe tend to be at a lot of financial institutions, even though they don't realize it's going to be there or they may talk it down when you're in the sales process, but you go, “These are things that actually challenge the quick and seamless implementation of a new technology?”

Barb Morgan (16:56):

I think when you go into those transformations, oftentimes there's financial metrics that you're trying to hit, there's customer metrics, there's operational metrics and I try to spend time with my clients saying, "Let's make sure that we've created kind of this 360 story."

Barb Morgan (17:16):

So, if we're talking to a customer service group that we're implementing new products for, what does it mean to them? So, it's not about the KPIs, it's not about the operational metrics, if I'm the person answering the phone, “I want to understand how this impacts me?”

Barb Morgan (17:34):

And so, it's a bit of that helping them navigate through any transformation, making sure that you're talking to the person on what matters to them, not what matters to the broader organization, not what matters to the broader financial metrics that it's going to drive or the number of customers that are going to be onboarded, how is this going to help me?

Barb Morgan (18:00):

We're working on a co-pilot right now that actually will help the banks stitch some of their products together, come up with new plans or promotions. And so, when you go in and you start talking to them and saying, "Hey, we need your input because we need you to help us create this," they start to see, "Oh, okay, this is what it means to me. This is going to make my job easier, and I'm not going to have to repeat the same task over and over."

Barb Morgan (18:26):

But it's about talking to them about what matters to the person that's actually implementing. Because to your earlier point, if the buy-in isn't there, you'll never make it through a transformation. If you don't have people on the ship, you're just going upstream and so, making sure that everyone understands what it means to them, not to the maybe broader organization is really, really important.

Jim Marous (18:54):

Well, it's interesting because it gets down to trust. At the end of the day, you got to trust your partners and that's similar in the personal world as well as the business world, but we sometimes play that off as the soft stuff but the reality is, it's what can derail a successful transformation.

Jim Marous (19:12):

So, to pivot a bit, we're seeing significant variations in cloud adaption strategies. How should banks evaluate their readiness for cloud migration and what factors go in to guide this approach?

Barb Morgan (19:29):

I think we see kind of three buckets. So, we're seeing some clients who say, "We're not ready, this isn't for us, but we're getting pressure, we're getting questions from either their board or their executive team. So, how can I safely step into cloud?"

Barb Morgan (19:48):

And so, we'll start to look at some of the kind of surround solutions for them where they feel a little bit safer. Leaving their other components on prem but giving them the ability to start their journey into cloud and typically in a more risk adverse organization.

Barb Morgan (20:08):

Then we have organizations who already have cloud set up for either operational purposes or for other processes, and they want to manage it themselves. So, it gives them a bit more control around the security standards that they can put in place, the monitoring, the reporting and so, they want to make sure that they can take our solutions and deploy it in their own cloud seamlessly without us managing.

Barb Morgan (20:34):

And then we see kind of that third grouping who says, "Actually, I want you to do this. I want you to manage the operating or the operations around this. I want you to tell me from a reporting perspective how my systems are operating but take that off of our hands." And it's not often to your question of how do you help them assess their readiness? It's more often cultural than it is technology.

Barb Morgan (21:04):

And so, in that first bucket where you have a very risk adverse who's not comfortable putting any of their client data on the cloud, you start to show them, "Okay, well, how can we help you with your operational efficiencies? How can we help you kind of step your toe in?" But that's cultural, that that's not necessarily the system being ready.

Barb Morgan (21:25):

I often find and maybe because I started as a technologist, technology usually isn't the problem or isn't the barrier to execute something, it's getting the organization ready. And so, by offering on-prem as a solution, offering cloud as a solution, offering SaaS as a solution, it gives our clients that flexibility to really see where they're at in their journey.

Jim Marous (21:50):

That's interesting, Barb because that's what differentiates the organization that's actually able to deploy technology successfully and have it get the results expected and those don't, if you don't have that people buying in.

Jim Marous (22:04):

It's interesting because we talk all about the investment in technology but without the focus on the people and we're hearing more and more of this on the podcast recently that yes, the technology's important, but the more advanced it is, the more important the people side of this is. So, let's take a short break here and recognize the sponsor of this podcast.

[Music Playing]

Jim Marous (22:29):

Welcome back to Banking Transformed, today, Barb Morgan, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Temenos joins me. We've been exploring the challenges, opportunities and strategy around technology investments that will help define the banks for the future. Most importantly, we're realizing that it may not be the technology that makes a difference, but the people within the organization.

Jim Marous (22:53):

So, Barb, we've talked about a little bit already, but generative AI is obviously rapidly evolving. And in between the time I wrote this script for myself today, and today we've had a lot of changes in the marketplace, in fact.

Jim Marous (23:06):

So, what specific use cases are you seeing emerging in banking and how are banks managing the associated risk while capitalizing on the opportunities? Is most of the generative AI implementation in the back office or are we starting to see some front office opportunities?

Barb Morgan (23:26):

I think you're seeing it everywhere and I would almost bucket it into, like you said, kind of that back office, how can generative AI actually help their agents? And so, that gets to seeing the AI as a side by side, as a partner for them, as a tool making their jobs easier and so that they can really focus on the portions and parts that they like.

Barb Morgan (23:54):

We're also starting to see the agentic AI or the agent AI. So, it's processing at massive amounts of speeds that people could never keep up with to identify segmentations, to identify groupings of customers and then that can feed to another agent that says, "Okay, based off of this grouping, now, here are the different offerings that you should push forward, here's the way that you should approach these customers, and then it can go to a person."

Barb Morgan (24:29):

So, it's a bit of that fast speed, that fast processing and I think people are seeing that more as an advantage in the front office side of things, so that when a customer comes in they know Barb Morgan's coming into the bank, I need to sit down and really understand her as a client, but I have 10 minutes to do that.

Barb Morgan (24:51):

How can I quickly go into my systems, understand the history of the client, understand maybe some life events that are upcoming, we've seen that they have college loans, or they have new home loans that can just really create a hyper personalized conversation in the front office space.

Barb Morgan (25:12):

And so, we're seeing the banks get really excited about that and more so when we get to actually go and work with their users in the field and do a bit of that co-creation, they want to bring that hyper-personalization to their clients.

Barb Morgan (25:27):

They want to be able to serve, instead of maybe being able to talk to eight of their customers a day and tell someone, "Hey, I can't have an appointment with you for 10 days," now, they can talk to their customers at speed, at their convenience, and really understand their customer very quickly and so, there's a lot of excitement in that space as well.

Jim Marous (25:49):

So, as we talked about before we even got on the podcast today, you have a base in the United States, you've had a base in London, and you now have a base in Dubai. From a global perspective, in your travels and in your works in these different environments, what are the biggest differences you're seeing in the way banking is being done and being delivered to the consumer in the marketplace? And is there a market that you think just as far ahead for normal or for abnormal reasons?

Jim Marous (26:21):

Sometimes we used to — you look at Africa as one of the areas that the financial service industry was so rudimentary, but now looking back we go, they kind of had an advantage because they were able to simplify the transactions in the digital world, the way the consumers want it. What do you see across the globe from the perspective of how banking is different, the way we serve customers?

Barb Morgan (26:45):

I think in the U.S., because you have … so if you took like the United States versus Australia, let's say, within Australia arguably five major banks, the amount of personalization that can happen in differentiation between the banks, if I'm living in Australia, I can kind of look at five different banks and decide what experience I want.

Barb Morgan (27:08):

In the United States, I don't even know how many banks we have today. I mean, it's in the tens of thousands, if you include like the neobanks and all of that. And so, in the U.S. we see that that focus on being different is actually important.

Barb Morgan (27:28):

So, they need the commonality in the background from a regulatory perspective, regulatory compliance, keeping their clients' data safe. But there's a lot more differentiation happening in whether it's the digital front end, whether it's that hyper-personalized experience as they go into the bank. You have banks that just specialize in a single area and so especially in those community core spaces and some of the regional banks.

Barb Morgan (27:56):

And so, I think you see a little bit more outward facing innovation in a space where you have so much competition than you might in an area where there's not as much competition and there's kind of a known brand, but then in those spaces, like in Australia, we're seeing more innovation inside the banks.

Barb Morgan (28:18):

So, they're kind of catching up with how do they actually innovate themselves. And so, I think we're seeing innovation globally, those are just two examples of kind of two ends of the spectrum. But everyone's trying to innovate, but where they're innovating is the difference that we see.

Barb Morgan (28:39):

And so, for us, going in it's nice because whether you're wanting to expose innovation externally, whether you're wanting to expose innovation internally, a lot of it gets back to those conversations around telling the story, bringing people along the journey, bringing the right technologies, bringing that partner forward that can help them advance at speed, well they focus on their culture.

Jim Marous (29:02):

That's a great point Barb, that really the technology is an enabler and if an organization wants to actually move forward and differentiate, they've got to innovate, but they need the back office to be modernized to the ability to actually do that.

Jim Marous (29:18):

I had a great conversation with a gentleman from Accenture a couple weeks ago, and he talked about the fact that the differentiation on the mobile device now is almost non-existent. Everybody's got a great digital app, it performs the way it's supposed to, they get high ratings from a standpoint of functionality, but he goes, "If I took the colors away and the logos away, would you know which one is which?" And I go, "No."

Jim Marous (29:43):

And he goes, "The problem is we now have to get to the core of innovation, which is looking beyond just making mobile banking or digital banking easier or faster, we got to look at how you make it personalized."

Jim Marous (29:56):

We talked about agentic banking earlier and how Agentic AI will now enable us to really get down to the individual, almost like our GPS system deals with us in the car on an individualized base that we're making our travels to say, "Here's where you have to make changes to your path based on what's going on in the marketplace around you."

Jim Marous (30:15):

And I think that really is the holy grail of what's possible but it's also one of those risk adverse situations where you go, "Okay, is the consumer going to accept that without them controlling it?" It's going to be an interesting dynamic.

Jim Marous (30:30):

So, as you look, I used to say three to five years ahead, used to say 10 years ahead, now we're saying in the next year or two, what do you see as emerging technologies that will really have the most significant impact on the banking industry overall?

Barb Morgan (30:47):

I mean, not to just focus on AI, but that's going to be at the heart, that's the heart of it but in order to actually use AI, your data has to be clean. And if you look at the banks, especially in the Americas, so many banks are a conglomeration of 10 previous banks, there's just so many banks that come through acquisitions that are merged together.

Barb Morgan (31:16):

Well, in the first phase, I would almost call it first phase of transformation that people went through in the digital banking side, they focused on the front end. So, they didn't focus on necessarily bringing together all of their backend systems. So, as long as it looked pretty on the front, customers didn't know the difference, they didn't need to know the difference that maybe it was coming out of three systems.

Barb Morgan (31:38):

And so, they would use kind of an orchestration between the three systems to identify that Barb Morgan that used to bank here, plus Barb Morgan at this bank, and Barb Morgan at this bank is the same person, bring it together and then provide it seamlessly on the front end.

Barb Morgan (31:53):

So, now as banks prepare for AI and prepare for what they want to do with AI, they're having to look at their data. And so, we've been spending a lot of time with our clients talking about the health of their data, the importance of ensuring that they bring that data together seamlessly and they don't lose the history.

Barb Morgan (32:15):

From a regulatory and compliance perspective, you have to make sure that you keep the historical data intact, but how do you bring that data together so that you can actually leverage some of the future tools.

Jim Marous (32:26):

So, I'm going to put my make belief hat on and think that I'm a banking executive at a mid-sized financial institution in basically any place. It can be in the United States, London, it can be in Dubai, and I'm trying to develop a technology investment strategy for where I need to focus on today. What advice would you give banking executives with your experience looking at what's going on in the marketplace on where to start to develop what I need to invest and where I need to focus first?

Barb Morgan (33:01):

My first thing would be to start at the data. Understand what state your data is in, understand the security that you've put around your data, especially in areas of data that maybe aren't currently exposed.

Barb Morgan (33:16):

So, you may have some historical documentation that isn't pulled on a continual basis, now you're going to need that data as part of your data repository. So, I would always start with understanding, not necessarily changing it, but understanding the health of the data.

Barb Morgan (33:34):

Because what they might then find is back to that kind of modular approach, is that parts of their systems actually aren't ready and primed for any type of transformation or innovation, but they may have other areas that are absolutely primed and ready for innovation. And so, I think if they understand their technology landscape, understand what it is that they're wanting to do to differentiate themselves in five years.

Barb Morgan (34:01):

So, if they look forward and say, "Here's where I really want to differentiate myself, I want to be known as no matter what kind of account I have, no matter if I have a hundred dollars in a bank or I have $10 million in the bank, I want to give every customer a white glove service."

Barb Morgan (34:17):

And then they can work back from that to say, "Okay, in order to do that, that actually means understanding this portion is going to be key. And this portion of my banking experience must be the first thing that I go after."

Barb Morgan (34:34):

And so, part of it is having that conversation to say, who do you want to be when you grow up? What bank do you want to be? And then we can take and help them marry that with the technology strategy. And we do a lot of that, we do a lot of conversations around technology strategies and people immediately dive into the actual tech stack.

Barb Morgan (34:57):

And instead, if we can take a step back, do more of a strategic lens to say, "What do you want to be known for? What do you want your customers to feel? What is that experience that you want people to gain when they bank with you?" Then we can work back into the tech strategy.

Jim Marous (35:15):

Barb, that is so insightful because we hear it more and more that if we don't know where we're going, we won't know if we've gotten there. And if we get into the weeds very quickly, we're going to miss the broad perspective of where we have to go and you end up investing a lot of things that take a lot of time, a lot of money that may get you towards where you're going.

Jim Marous (35:37):

But unless you've defined it, unless you defined it with all your partners, unless you shared what your decisions prior were around who you selected as partners and what you're using them for. And put this again, the broad perspective and then use the insights of your technology partner, because this is not their first rodeo.

Jim Marous (35:58):

I think it's something we forget. We like to be the smartest person in the room sometimes, and the people we partner with, that is their job. That is where they can take you to a new level if for no other reason than to give you case studies that they've had in other countries, other organizations similar to yours, different than yours and you bring these together that makes it so it's one plus one equals three, it brings the synergy together and brings that transformational change that is necessary today.

[Music Playing]

Jim Marous (36:27):

It's really been a pleasure talking to you today, Barb, because while you work for a technology company, we talked more about the people side than the technology side, and that really defines the successful deployment of that technology. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should do something and just because you can do something, it doesn't mean you actually do it.

Jim Marous (36:52):

And we've got to get out of our own ways as bankers and allow these partners to do what they do best with other organizations that they've also worked with in the past and realize that the real benefit of working with these partners is all the other relationships they've had, no matter what size you are. So, thank you so much for being on the show today, Barb.

Barb Morgan (37:13):

Thank you for having me.

Jim Marous (37:16):

Thank you for listening to Banking Transformed, the winner of three international awards for podcast excellence. If you enjoy our work, please give us a positive review on our podcast channels and also on our YouTube channel. Finally, check out my recent articles on The Financial Brand and the fantastic research we're doing for the Digital Banking Report.

Jim Marous (37:36):

This has been a production of Evergreen Podcasts. A special thank you to our senior producer, Leah Haslage, audio engineer, Chris Fafalios and video producer, Will Pritts. If you've not already done so, remember to subscribe to Banking Transformed on both your favorite podcast app and on YouTube for more thought-provoking discussions on the intersection of finance, technology, and leadership.