Financial Services Gain an Edge with Third-Party IBM Support
May 5, 2021
4 min read
May 5, 2021
4 min read
The financial services industry looks impressively different than it did just 20 years ago. Technological innovation has given rise to challengers with heavyweight potential, such as PayPal and Revolut, and has simultaneously revamped customer expectations.
Institutions that once relied on the reputation of their household name are scrambling to ensure they aren’t left behind.
One of the assets that once gave these industrial titans a lion’s share of the market is now one of the very things holding them back: their IT infrastructure.
IBM software plays a critical role in this infrastructure, with some products serving as the bedrock for the environment. Financial institutions now face the challenge of integrating new technologies with older but stable releases of their legacy IBM software – all while delivering on the demand for an increasingly virtual customer experience.
Many financial service providers are turning to Origina for assistance. Third-party IBM software support has developed into a competitive advantage for large and mid-market players due to the on-demand product expertise and high quality of service. Furthermore, the immediate fixed-cost savings on annual support fees and the value-added services turn third-party support into an unexplored source of funding for projects.
One of the reasons challengers were able to scale into a heavily established sector like financial services so quickly is the very fact they’re new.
These companies have been able to leverage many of the new technologies from the start that their long-time counterparts (read: your company) are just looking into over the past few years. Because of this, they were able to build an agile infrastructure capable of integrating new solutions seamlessly.
Mid-market institutions and international corporations don’t have this luxury. A combination of legacy software, complex license agreements and intense scrutiny from regulatory bodies turn the decision surrounding digital transformation into as challenging a task as the project itself.
The obstacles are two-fold:
Taken at face value, software asset managers, procurement leaders and IT operations teams would have their hands full with the aforementioned. However, they’re not the only bumps in the road. Influences like managing total cost of ownership, balancing new project expenses, and navigating inflexible vendor contract structures and relationships make getting your ducks in a row strenuous at best.
Ultimately, the cost of digital transformation – as anyone reading this might already understand – has a direct and indirect cost that extends into the tens of millions for any given project. Without an unlikely injection of cash into the budget, many companies will struggle to find the budget and other resources to carry out critical initiatives.
If digital transformation becomes prohibitive, financial service institutions will find it difficult to keep pace with their challengers.
Third-party IBM support from Origina is giving established players in the financial services sector a competitive advantage that their challengers can’t replicate.
Where a software vendor is inclined to lock customers into upgrade cycles and longer contracts, third-party support providers are more focused on delivering value-added services. This enables companies to draw on the product expertise and cost-savings afforded by third-party support to carry forward their IT roadmap as it relates to their legacy IBM software.
Software asset management and procurement teams get access to IBM license experts which can help them untangle their estate and gain clarity on their usage and rights. This information can lead to greater cost-savings than the average 50 percent saved on annual support costs and may influence the speed in which projects are carried out.
Learn more about how Origina helps procurement and software asset management teams here.
On the technical side, IT operations teams get greater access to product expertise and project assistance than with a vendor. Free quarterly Meet-the-Experts sessions give in-house IT teams face-to-face access with Origina’s independent Global IBM® Experts to get critical insights on digital transformation projects. These GIEs have a minimum of 15 years’ experience with their product and some are the original developers of the product itself.
Learn more about how Origina helps IT operations teams here.
Combined, financial service institutions get the monetary assistance to potentially fund projects entirely and the technical assistance to carry them out. It’s why many companies come to view Origina as an IT partner, rather than just an IT service provider.
At the top level, CIOs are buying in to the benefits of third-party support. Just 14 percent of companies are only using vendors for software support and maintenance, according to a study by Forrester Consulting. A surprising 79 percent are using a combination of the two, and 80 percent of those respondents would recommend third-party support to their peers.
It’s clear that to compete with emerging challengers, financial service institutions must rethink their legacy IBM infrastructure. Unfortunately, many of these firms find their hands tied due to a variety of reasons.
Luckily, finding a solution to these blockers isn’t the difficult part of the journey. Many financial institutions are learning that third-party support can be a strategic asset for their IBM software.
Find out how Origina can help your team reinvent the way it looks at its IBM software investments and get assistance to carry out your digital transformation projects. Contact us today for a free Feasibility Assessment to see which products we can support and how much you could save by switching.
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