iGTB releases landmark survey busting the myths surrounding SME online banking needs
London (UK) and Chennai (India), February 29, 2016: iGTB, the world’s first comprehensive global transaction banking solution from Intellect Design Arena Limited, today announced the results of its landmark survey into the online banking needs, problems and preferences of UK SMEs. With SMEs traditionally under-served by banking providers – whose solutions are often targeted at larger corporate clients – the survey sought to clear the mist around SME banking requirements and the financial viability of banks offering better service to this neglected sector.
Studying the banking practicalities and sentiment of 162 SMEs across the UK, the survey results turn common misconceptions on their head. Findings include the revelations that:
- Good customer service does not necessarily mean “the human touch”;
- SMEs are not unsophisticated nor restricted to domestic activities;
- Technology should be used to inject expertise, not just to streamline processes, and
- Banks can afford to serve this sector.
Despite representing 99% of businesses in the UK, employing 81.6% of the workforce and pinpointed as “critical” to the growth of the economy, SMEs (corporations with annual turnover of less than £50 million or fewer than 250 staff) have been disadvantaged by a combination of asymmetric information, a lack of economies of scale, the lack of a collective voice, and disproportionate costs when it comes to training, research and development, and regulatory compliance.
Undertaken with the support of Progressive Media – publishers of Economia, the magazine of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, England and Wales (ICAEW) – the survey examined the banking requirements of 162 UK SMEs to clarify their existing banking behaviour, their biggest gripes with regard to current bank offerings, and their most desired capabilities (including the ability to use automated scenario-building and generation of recommended actions).
“SMEs are the “Cinderella of the business world,” said Phil Cantor, Head of Digital Council, iGTB. “They’re vital to the country’s economy, hugely hard-working but routinely neglected by banks, who wrongly believe it’s not financially viable to serve this sector. This survey will prove invaluable to improving the lot of SMEs – by pinpointing the banking capabilities they actually need, and in turn showing how these can be met by banks, even in today’s difficult economic climate. The findings in this report should be a call to arms; a message to the whole banking industry that we can, and must, do better”.
The full survey report – produced by iGTB’s Digital subject-matter experts Phil Cantor, Mike Rayfield, Henry Gorbet and Deepa Santhanam – is available for download here.
About Intellect Design Arena Ltd:
Intellect Design Arena Ltd is a specialist in applying true Digital Technologies across Banking and Insurance technology products company, across global consumer banking (iGCB), Central Banking, Risk & Treasury Management (iRTM), Global Transaction Banking (iGTB) and Insurance (Intellect SEEC).
The holistic adoption of Digital covers Digital OUTSIDE and Digital INSIDE. Built on iDigital, the Intellect Digital OUTSIDE proposition is anchored around Same experiences at all touch points, through a powerful Channel Renovation Platform (Canvas), and the Digital INSIDE proposition is anchored around Lean Operations, through an Operational Consolidation Platform (Hubs).
The Intellect design philosophy, a key differentiator in developing solutions for the transformative agendas of CXOs, ensures a dramatic shift from disjointed digital activities to strategically aligned digital outcomes.
The FT 8012 Design Center, the world‟s first Design Center for financial technologies, is a physical manifestation of enterprise commitment to design. It powerfully connects dots between Business, Technology and Operations, and accelerates the transformation process for customers. This is where the total Digital 360 journey can be approached, allowing for adoption in a gradual outcome based manner.
Intellect generates annual revenues of over USD 100 million, with product installations in over 200 financial institutions, across 30 countries. The company’s performance is driven by over 3,000 Intellect solution architects, domain and technology experts, with a presence in major global financial hubs around the word. For further information on the organization and its solutions, please visit http://www.intellectdesign.com/
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