Automate Digital Banking Tools and Services with OpCon

The demand for intuitive digital banking experiences has never been greater. Customers and members expect their financial institutions to offer digital platforms that enable tools and services like mobile check deposit, e-statements, money and wire transfers, online bill pay, and more. While financial institutions want to deliver these types of digital banking experiences in order stay competitive in the market, many struggle to find the time and resources needed to bring them to life.

This challenge was compounded when the pandemic started. For many banks and credit unions, key branch operations were disrupted or shut down entirely, pushing innovative initiatives like digital banking development further down the priority list. Businesses had to focus on the work required to keep the lights on and deliver the basic services that their members and customers counted on, especially as everyone navigated overwhelming social and financial uncertainty.

Almost three years later, it still seems impossible for many banks and credit unions to prioritize digital banking initiatives without adding headcount. With continued IT staffing shortages, hiring more employees in the back office might not be an option. Fortunately, there’s another solution that allows businesses to prioritize digital banking innovation and essential operational work—implementing a workload automation solution like OpCon.

How automation enables digital banking innovation

With a workload automation solution like OpCon, financial institutions can get vital time back, so they can refocus their existing employees on the work needed to get key digital banking initiatives off the ground. Then, that same automation solution can be used to automate some of those digital services to save even more time internally and help businesses make those experiences more intuitive and efficient for their members and customers.

Specifically, workload automation solutions like OpCon that are tailored to the unique needs of financial institutions are designed to facilitate the manual, tedious work that takes up most of the workday for many employees. By automating those time-consuming tasks—including those that involve getting your digital and online banking applications to effectively communicate with your core and other systems—you can free up employees who currently do that work, so they can focus on developing and implementing those digital banking services that’ll enable your business to grow and scale.

The first big step is just getting a flexible, robust system established, training key people on it, and starting your automation journey. The more workflows you implement over time, the more ways you’ll find to reclaim additional time. The key is to start somewhere and allow room for continuous building and improvement.

The impact of automating digital banking tools and services with OpCon

Digital banking tools like online bill pay and mobile check deposit are major time-savers because they help members and customers manage their money without having to go into a branch, especially if the branch is closed when they need to access those services.

These tools also save valuable time for employees in the front office like tellers—many of whom now have to do multiple jobs at one time, including helping members and customers that physically come into the branch, answering phone calls, and providing support via an online chat. Since digital banking tools reduce the volume of service requests coming in through those channels, employees have more time to focus on those competing responsibilities. That means they can provide an even better experience to their members and customers in person, over the phone, and online.

Plus, once you have innovative digital banking tools in place, OpCon can help you keep those tools in sync with all of your other critical systems to ensure you’re continuing to deliver real-time or near-real-time experiences for your customers and members. For example, Baxter Credit Union uses OpCon to run a daily process that pulls a new member e-statement list from their data warehouse, so that list can be sent to their e-statement vendor, ensuring their members can sign up for e-statements directly from their mobile app whenever they want without an employee having to kick off that process.

Leverage the power of workload automation to stay competitive

It’s been predicted that half of all the banks in the US will disappear within the next 20 years, largely because banking is becoming a technology-driven business, and it’s proving challenging for medium-sized institutions to keep up as innovative initiatives like digital banking tools become table stakes.

That’s why it’s crucial that banks and credit unions leverage the power of automation to provide those real-time digital services and offerings that their members and customers want. It’s vital for staying competitive now and in the future. By finding and implementing the right automation solution, banks and credit unions can mitigate the risk of becoming obsolete and continue to offer the unique banking experience that their loyal customer and member bases prefer.