Strategic Engagement: helping banks get the most out of Finastra software
Financial institutions that are unfamiliar with the capabilities of their banking systems risk underdelivering on their strategic plans. This can stem from a lack of awareness about how the platform can support automated processes or because users find it challenging to access help resources.
Providing excellent service and support is just as important as ensuring clients understand all of the capabilities of their system.
In our experience, organizations are split fairly evenly between those that prefer an automated self-service approach to support, and those that like to speak with human experts. This is why we focus on how we best serve our client base, ensuring we provide the right balance of automated tools and personalized human support to meet diverse needs.
The role of agentic AI
We anticipate that the self-service approach will be augmented by artificial intelligence (AI) and agentic AI in the new future, both in software operations and in support services. Agentic AI refers to artificial intelligence systems that can autonomously accomplish specific goals with limited supervision. These AI agents mimic human decision-making to solve problems in real time. This advancement will enable businesses to elevate their customers’ experience while gaining a competitive edge through faster, more intuitive interactions.
By 2029, it is predicted that agentic AI will autonomously resolve 80% of common customer service issues without human intervention, leading to a 30% reduction in operational costs*.
A fundamental principle of agentic AI is its capacity to learn from customer interactions, anticipate potential issues, and take proactive measures. This enables us to actively provide better feedback and improve overall service quality. A good example of AI in action is AI Assist, which Finastra is developing to optimize workflow management. AI Assist minimizes manual intervention through its in-product chat feature, enabling clients to access self-help via an AI agent. This ensures that clients continue to progress efficiently in data gathering and processing.
While there are concerns about the impact of AI and agentic AI on jobs, the positive aspect is that these technologies free up time for IT support staff. This allows them to effectively multi-task and address any backlogs of queries they may be handling. Rest assured, at Finastra we are here to help and support you through these advancements, ensuring you receive the best possible service.
The introduction of Strategic Engagement
Recognizing that not every bank wants to rely solely on self-service, Finastra recently launched its Strategic Engagement subscription-based service. This premium support service is operated by subject matter experts in a dedicated team.
As part of Strategic Engagement, we conduct regular meetings with our clients, ensuring they have knowledge of all aspects of the system and that they are fully optimized. This approach ensures that we consistently understand each client's strategic objectives and are proactively working towards their success. By doing so, we can collaborate effectively and recommend the necessary steps to help them achieve their goals. We foster strong partnerships with our clients and our operations teams, enabling us to gain deep insights our clients' strategic initiatives and work together effectively. By appointing a lead person, we ensure a close partnership that enhances collaboration and mutual understanding.
A crucial element of our partnership is leveraging data and insights from collaboration meetings and support calls. This enables us to identify patterns in the challenges our clients are experiencing. We proactively take steps to address these problems, which may include offering training or webinars on specific systems and processes. The intended outcome of Strategic Engagement is to help customers maximize the use of their systems and ultimately achieve their business objectives.
While our standard support model focuses on reactive troubleshooting and resolving issues as they arise, Strategic Engagement offers proactive solutions tailored to individual client needs, ensuring a seamless and customized experience.
Our Strategic Engagement model is based on four pillars:
- Personalized support: This includes a dedicated resource and access to scheduled sessions with our US-based subject matter experts
- Schedule Expert Sessions: Arrange one-on-one calls with senior-level subject matter experts (SMEs) outside of the support team for up to 5 30-minute sessions on topics of your choice, such as configuration, functionality review, or training.
- Proactive support: This provides end-to-end product optimization reviews, personalized release readiness and technical health checks for on-premise clients
- Strategic partnerships: We collaborate with clients to ensure they achieve their goals
While most organizations do not adopt a strictly binary approach to support, it is crucial for all of them to ensure that queries and issues are resolved as swiftly as possible. With Strategic Engagement, organizations not only gain certainty regarding the cost of
technical support for the upcoming year, but they also benefit from the flexibility to escalate queries from self-service to subject matter experts as needed.
This approach offers the best of both worlds, ensuring that organizations have access to the appropriate level of support at the right time. We believe this will meet expectations for positive experiences when organizations interact with our services.
