The insurance industry has often been criticized for being too legacy burdened to take advantage of new technology, but this is proving far from true. Insurance companies have embraced the latest technological advancements in mobility and elsewhere and have made more strides in streamlining the workflow process than many other sectors. This is critically important now as insurance companies need to add value to the customer experience while charging less than their competitors. Tapping into the Microsoft Insurance Value Chain has been a key strategy for firms to reduce costs and IT complexity and enable straight-through business processes. So what waits around the next bend and what are the critical next steps for insurers facing an increasingly competitive landscape?

Bankers around the globe are under increasing pressure to drive profits and reduce costs while still investing in technology solutions that help increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. Finding this balance is difficult at best, but our panelists will provide some sage advice to retail bankers who are seeking to strike this balance. Plus, these experts will give us their views on what are the biggest challenges to meeting these goals, and discuss which technologies show the most promise for delivering short-term profits, as well as for long-term growth.

Compliance: The Right Way Drives Profitability

Compliance is set to become a key differentiator among financial services institutions. Already some forward thinking FSIs are starting to taste the profits of an integrated compliance management strategy while others are struggling with the costs of more fragmented Band-Aid approaches that result in high levels of waste and duplication. This gap will only widen as regulatory requirements increase and as the cost and complexity of compliance swells. By all counts, it is the more holistic approach that will not only enable compliance in the future but result in improved speed-to-market, decreased costs, reduced risk, an enhanced customer experience, and bottom-line benefits to the business. We ask industry experts for their POV on the challenges to achieving an enterprise-wide compliance platform and to weigh in on profitability.

The speed and volume of financial information is exceeding all forecasts. Investment institutions are facing the need to significantly invest in their trading and processing infrastructures with ever dwindling budgets. Firms will not only need to find the right speed, size, and price fit to remain financially viable, but they will need innovative solutions that add more value to each trade. We ask the experts their POV on the necessary steps for gaining that crucial competitive advantage.

Without a doubt, the online channel is the most cost-effective way for financial institutions of all sizes to deliver their services.

It also delivers a strong ROI: research from The Boston Consulting Group and other research firms has shown that online banking users are over 30% more profitable than offline users, while bill payers are nearly 100% more profitable.

These kinds of numbers show the real value of promoting and securing the online banking channel. The question is how to securely deliver services over the Internet while striking a balance between effectiveness and convenience for the online banker.

Our industry leaders provide insight into how this delicate goal can be achieved.