Tag: financial management software
The inevitable role of FinTech in improving your financial systems and outcomes
The COVID-19 outbreak has affected every aspect of the economy including financial technology or FinTech. Postponed events and conferences mark missed opportunities for FinTech companies, which could have been a great time to build relationships and focus on new businesses. As investors and customers retreat to more cautious positions, FinTech companies may find fundraising a challenge. Those who seek consumer investments are hit harder. Consumers may be reluctant to invest during such volatile times. Even those consumers who are relatively insulated from economic fallout may choose to invest in safer options for the present. FinTech innovations can improve the efficiency of the financial system and financial outcomes for their customers. This article will discuss how FinTech can safeguard customers’ interest in the post-pandemic world.
What is FinTech?
FinTech is a combination of Finance and Technology. It is used to describe new technology that can improve and automate the use and delivery of financial services. It also enables people to live upgraded lives through innovation. FinTech includes many sectors such as fundraising, education, retail banking, and more. It plays a major role in the development and usage of cryptocurrencies. FinTech also covers various day-to-day financial activities including money transfers, check deposits, and investment management.
Read more: FinTech Innovation: What Is In Store?
Why protect customer interest?
Customers are the primary source of growth, so they must be handled with the respect they deserve. Any product or service which is customer-centric offers the potential to attract and retain customers. Since FinTech provides advantages of speed and convenience, customers are looking at FinTech as a viable alternative. People want streamlined services with applications that are easy to adapt to. Hence, FinTech companies are outlining measures to make their services less complex and more transparent. They are focusing on creating better digital processes that their customers can personalize easily.
Customers’ convenience and requirements are paramount for FinTech start-ups. To that end, they are designing products and solutions to ensure customer satisfaction. Delivering a top-notch customer experience is the goal of FinTech companies globally.
Measures to protect customer interest
Here are some cutting-edge technologies that are protecting customer interest now and into the future:
1. IT foundation for better customer experience
FinTech startups are usually smaller in size and have a technological edge. They have a fresh canvas, allowing them to migrate easily from legacy technologies. The younger digital-first audience is attracted to their services. Larger FinTech enterprises must adopt a new IT foundation with modern technologies. Currently, FinTech customers prefer startups over established brands because they can reap the rewards in the form of better digital experiences. Though startups have a technological advantage, they must continue to focus on their capital reserves to make it through these unprecedented times.
2. Digital communication tools
The FinTech sector is based on understanding the needs of their customers. It is crucial for these companies to strategize the manner in which service providers communicate with their customers. This gets customers locked onto their services with relative ease. Communication through online media or through the content on your site can draw in new leads and build customer trust. When customer interest is protected, they will most likely return to you. In turn, they will recommend the service to their relatives and friends. These parameters are crucial if you want to keep your business afloat.
3. Embrace digital transformation
While your staff may be susceptible to coronavirus, technologies like ML and AI are immune. The financial services system must address customers’ demands swiftly and efficiently. Smart devices and the integration of artificial intelligence are a great way to achieve this. Virtual assistants and chatbots can deliver a customized experience to your customers. They perform all the activities that are usually done by customer service personnel and other executives. However, these digital solutions are faster and reflect sophistication. Digital transformation provides holistic 24/7 monitoring and automated remediation.
Read more: Artificial Intelligence In Investment Management: What To Expect
4. Digital banking
Previously, a customer’s confidence in a financial company depended mostly on physical infrastructure. However, COVID has changed that momentously! The new generation banking system is going all-digital to reach mobile-first customers. Digital-only banks do not need sophisticated infrastructure or higher human resource management. Digital banks are able to deliver cost-effective, robust services that match the high standards set by traditional banks.
5. P2P Transactions
P2P digital payment is quickly gaining popularity. Customers are adopting such technologies for daily use. P2P eliminates the middle layer and drastically reduces transaction costs. Digital transactions help FinTech enterprises expand their footprints and customer base.
6. Security and privacy
FinTech is an industry where the risk of financial crime is high. It is vital for FinTech companies to think over customer security while designing their consumer experience. Apparent security measures make customers feel comfortable. Customers expect rigid security from FinTech solutions along with reliability and FinTech is practicing stringent security measures to beat the competition. They are making visible efforts to handle customer data with care. To gain the attention of your customers you can make your privacy policies visible enough on your website or app. Remember, it can reflect on the confidence a company has in its security measures.
Read more: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: The Cyber Security Heroes Of FinTech
Changing for the better
It may be difficult to predict how the payments landscape will emerge in the next few years and what will be the long-term impacts on the FinTech industry. Nevertheless, it is likely to witness a transformation that can dwarf what has been achieved thus far. At such times, it is important to gain the confidence of your customers to retain them and enjoy their loyalty.
Thus far, FinTech has only been in the shadows as it were, but now it has found a home in the innovation economy globally. Millennials are more reliant on their smart devices to accomplish their daily tasks. They want the world and its conveniences at their fingertips anywhere and anytime. Given that, perhaps the future might see more interesting innovations in customer experience.
Let’s look at some opportunities for FinTech in the future:
- Companies with remote workforces are better positioned to thrive during and after this difficult period.
- FinTech gives an impetus for greater adoption of contactless money transactions.
- FinTech companies are well-positioned to find new ways to incorporate better digital solutions.
In order to capitalize on all these opportunities, you will need a technology partner to help guide you through the latest innovations. Give us a call and let’s discuss how Fingent top custom software development company, can help you guide your business and customers to success in the post-pandemic world…
Most often, one of the main reasons behind failure of businesses is the lack of a good financial management system that provides warning signs when the business runs out of cash. As the leader of an SMB, you will have better things to concentrate in, than to keep track of your company’s expenses, stress out on updating ledgers, create bills/reports, and perform other time-consuming finance affairs manually. The manual bookkeeping system (with accounting books, pens and calculator) no more works in a fast growing and busy environment like your company’s as it can bog you down with slow and complex information analyzing methods and limited accessibility.
In today’s pace of technological advancements, modern CXOs of small and medium-sized businesses should meticulously choose a financial management and accounting system that provides them clear visibility of the company’s finances, and allows them to solve current problems and future challenges easily. However, selecting the apt solution is not an easy task, particularly with the large number of options available out there. Financial management software is the backbone of any companies managing and providing insights into most critical areas of the business. As such, a wrong choice of the accounting software can be a complete disaster.The trade shows, magazines, seminars, and brochures typically tell you only the good side of what they have to offer. It’s almost impossible to foresee what can go wrong or is not possible with the software. However, over the years, almost all financial management software have gotten better and are competing with rivals to be the best. The question is how do you select the best for your business? And here’s the answer for it…
1. Budget
It would be nice to have a dedicated team of 5-6 people who can oversee the evaluation and selection process of the right financial management application. They should decide upon a budget range that can be spent on the solution and communicate it with the members actually performing the evaluation/selection of the software. The Budget should include the costs for the new software, any new hardware involved, training/implementation, product upgrades, maintenance, and support.
2. Identifying your pains
If you are moving from bookkeeping to software, you probably know what the issues are with your system. Or if you already have an accounting system, it might not be meeting all your requirements adequately. In either case, make a list of issues, shortcomings, inefficiencies or weaknesses of the current system. If you have a compelling list in the end, a new financial management tool is the way to go. However, if your issues list is not convincing enough, you may want to reconsider buying a new system and work on tweaking/upgrading/adding features to the current system, so as to make it efficient. Give a chance for your current vendor to provide a better solution to your pains. If having a new system is just an option, it is always better, cheaper, less disruptive and easier to keep your current system itself. If the issue is with your vendor, consider replacing them.
3. Involve the IT Staff
Your information technology staff will be well aware of the current and trending technologies. Before you make a move on your vendor’s suggestions, it would always be better to meet with your internal IT team to seek their advice on the different technologies and platforms that will suit the organization. The IT staff can provide insights on which technologies to look for, in your line of search. They can clearly understand whether the vendor’s recommendation for a high-end, expensive solution is essential or not.
4. Ignore current hardware and platforms
Companies are found to stress for financial management software that will work on their current systems, so that they don’t have to change their hardware equipment and systems. This is however the wrong way to do things. The best way is to find the right accounting software for your needs first and then find the hardware that runs best on this software. If the new software can run on your existing hardware, great, otherwise buy the hardware suited for the software. And this would be by far the least expensive component of the whole process.
5. Search, evaluate, shortlist, test and then Buy
Do proper research; educate yourself about the different solutions available out there. Search the internet; get people’s opinion in forums, discussions, social medias, and the like. Make a list of all products from top sellers you come across that almost meet your requirements. Elaborate the list to include all necessary features you want for your financial accounting application, providing a comparison of different products with respect to these factors. For instance, the factors to evaluate the different products can be pricing, modules, customization capabilities, platform, certified payroll, bar coding, time and billing solution and everything that is important for your business accounting software. The list can be then shared among key decision makers, who can then eliminate the obvious poor options, evaluate the remaining ones with respect to the features and relevance to business, to shortlist very few solutions. Check if they have the file system hosted or if you need to purchase it, former is the better option. Find out how much availability and bandwidth they can promise. You may even visit your vendor’s organization to have that ‘touch and feel’ impression. Request a demo to test the software’s capabilities and efficiency in your business, to the shortlisted vendors and take it from there.
6. Personalizing options to add features
By now, you are well aware of your requirements. See whether the shortlisted solution provides these, if not, ask your vendor how they can customize the app for you. However, keep these additional requirements (for instance, consolidation capabilities, e-commerce capabilities, multi-currency support, etc.)that you want to add to the solution minimal, because, if you need too much of altering/addition, you may better find a solution that already has those.
The good part of the whole process is that, you will be able to predict the apparent winner much before completing the entire steps. However, just to be on the safe side, it’s better to perform all these steps. Want to know more about implementing an integrated financial management software solution? We can help.