SOA Is Fundamental for the Agile Bank of the Future

Contributor:

Paul Leadbetter
Global Chief Technology Officer
Banking and Credit Services
CSC

I’d never imagined the banking industry would be slow to adopt service-oriented architecture (SOA), which was “hot” around 2005. Most banks are challenged with providing full multichannel capabilities and product delivery to customers on a timely basis and SOA is a linchpin for these capabilities.

But I’ve learned that creating a successful business case for SOA implementations can be a challenge because such projects are perceived by the business side as a redo of existing integration. That is simply not true. SOA is the foundation for business agility. Banks are beginning to understand this — especially as the rapid rate of change in technology creates pressure for banks to refresh their channels regularly. I’m encouraged that a lot of banks are acting on SOA deployments these days.

Providing excellent banking customer service means delivering transactional capabilities and information across a broad range of products through the preferred customer touch points. Using SOA allows a bank to harmonize channels, create consistent processes and deliver a higher quality, more consistent customer experience. SOA is critical to breaking down organizational silos and improving customer satisfaction.

SOA is not just about simplifying integration. It’s a whole architecture for standardizing processes, simplifying security, creating agility, providing event notifications through channels, and monitoring and improving banks’ operational efficiency. SOA also delivers real-time decisioning and analytics.

SOA seems to be gaining momentum because the banking business is beginning to see its value. I’d like to hear your perspective. Do you agree that SOA is fundamental?  Post and share your thoughts and feedback below.